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1、 Stylistic Analysis of Gettysburg AddressAbstract: Public speech is an art. It presents the features of formal written language while exhibiting characteristics of the spoken. Abraham Lincoln, an excellent speaker, addressed this speech on November 19, 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This speech,
2、which is very convincing, is considered a classic. This paper analysis the speech from stylistic perspective in four aspects: phonological level, lexical level, syntactical level and semantic level. Through the essay, we can have a better understanding of the public speech.Key Words: Abraham Lincoln
3、, Gettysburg Address, stylistic analysis. IntroductionAs far as the definition of stylistics is concerned different scholars define the branch of study in different ways. Wales defines stylistics simply as “the study of style” (1989:437), while Leech defines stylistics as the “study of the use of la
4、nguage in literature” (1969:1) and considers stylistics a “meeting-ground of linguistics and literary study” (1969:2). Stylistic analysis is generally concerned with the uniqueness of a text; that is, what it is that is peculiar to the uses of language in a literary text for delivering the message.
5、This naturally involves comparisons of the language of the text with that used in conventional types of discourse. Thus, we may conclude that stylistic analysis is an activity that is highly comparative in nature.The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and is one of the
6、most well-known speeches in United States history. It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those
7、 of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg. Abraham Lincolns carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the
8、Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as a new birth of freedom that would bring true equality to all of its citizens, ensure that democracy would remain a viable form of government, and would also create a unified nation in which states
9、rights were no longer dominant. A Stylistic Analysis of the Speech1. At Phonological LevelMany speeches use parallelism and antithesis to make langue be with the rhythm of music. So we cant ignore the phonological features of speeches. This is a political speech with the features of rigorous logic,
10、refined langue, strength and charisma. In the beginning, “Fourscore and seven years ago” replaces eighty-seven years ago is the ingenuity of Lincoln that “fourscore” has two long vowels o: which is resounding and well known by people, and can draw audiences attention effectively. If substitute ei of
11、 eighty-seven with o: of “Fourscore”, it cant reach such an effectiveness as o:. Except this, we can also see amounts of vocabulary with resounding vowels, such as fourscore，now，that nation，any，that nation might live，cannot，tally did，nobly，great，before，God，new birth，of，by，for，perish and so on. All o
12、f the lexis enhance volume and make listeners catch the point of the speech easily. At the transition of speech, improving the intonation of “but” can not only make audiences be more conscious of the oncoming, but also the speaker more impassioned. To rhythm, the speed of speaking is usually within
13、the range of 120 to 150 words per min. A total of 275 words of this speech are finished barely in 3minutes, from which, we can know the speed is medium. It is planed deliberately by Lincoln that what he is facing is a complicated and motley community or group including statesman, military officer, j
14、ournalist and the family of martyr and other grassroots among these people are either lowbrow or highbrow. For persuading them to reach a common target, he has to make sure everyone at presence totally understand the content of his speech. Additionally, he makes use of “pause” skillfully, for instan
15、ce, the “pause” after “now” leads to a thought of current missions and conditions; the “pause” after God make people image what will happen the next moment.2. At Lexical LevelWord is the basic grammar unit. Different styles require using different words. Meanwhile the different stylistic colorings o
16、f the words also determine their different applicable scope. Here we would analyze Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address from two aspects in the lexical level.2.1 DictionIn English, we often call those words containing six or above six letters, or three or above three syllables as BIG WORD. Generally an essay could show its formality by using a certain number of big words. In Lincolns
