乔布斯斯坦福大学毕业演讲之语体分析

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摘要：本论文将从词汇、句法和修辞三大方面对史蒂夫·乔布斯于2005年在美国斯坦福大学毕业典礼上所做的演讲进行语体分析。通过分析乔布斯的这篇演讲辞，我们能够从中学习和欣赏到乔布斯运用语言的技巧，从而提高我们的英语演讲能力。

关键词：乔布斯演讲 文体分析 词汇特征 句法特征 修辞特征

Chapter I. Introduction

Public address is delivered for a special purpose, in a special way, on a special occasion. Its purpose is to impress, convince, or move the audience to action. Buehler and Johannesen define public address as “a memorized, original, persuasive speech, dealing with worth-while subject matter of timely interests, demonstrating qualities of logic, organization, language, and delivery, and producing an effect of eloquence which is far above the ordinary” (Xue, 2003).

Commencement address is one type of public speaking that is a part of the numerous literary genres; it is a method of face-to-face education, motivation and communication. The specific stylistic features of Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford University are as follows:

Chapter II. Lexical Features

2.1 Short and homely words:

In order to be accurate and clear in meaning, successful speakers tend to choose concrete, familiar words over abstract, unfamiliar ones (Fu & Li, 2010). In this address, there are 249 words containing more than six letters, and this kind of big words constitute 11% of the total speech, which means about 90% of the words in this speech are simple and commonly used.

We can appreciate the simplicity and brevity of Jobs’ language in his speech. Most of the words are monosyllables or composed of two syllables. However, the simplicity does not decrease the power of his language; instead, it is forceful and thought-provoking enough.

2.2 Contractions:

Steve Jobs uses 32 contractions in this speech, such as “I’ve” “couldn’t” “didn’t” and so on. Why does Steve Jobs use so many contractions? Actually, it is determined by the occasion of this speech. This commencement address is delivered to those young graduate students of Stanford University, who do not expect a serious politician or a stereotyped pedant, but a friend that treats them frankly, sincerely and equally. Therefore, the less formal or even casual languages can help narrow down the distance between the speaker and the audience. Thus, Steve Jobs uses casual “I’m” “I’ve” etc. to replace formal “I am” “I have” etc.. Although the formality of this speech may be lowered, as a result, it becomes more persuasive.

Chapter III. Syntactic Features

3.1Sentence length:

Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford University consists of 27 paragraphs, 142 sentences, 2246 words. The average number of words in each paragraph is 83.1. The longest sentence in this speech contains 46 words while the shortest one contains only two words. Additionally, on average, there are 15.8 words in each sentence. Table 1 shows the length of sentences in Jobs’ speech:

In this speech, Steve Jobs adopts alternative use of short, simple sentences and long, complex sentences. Wholly speaking, medium-length sentences between 10 and 20 words take up the largest percent in Steve Jobs’ speech, and occasionally Jobs uses some shorter or longer sentences to add some variation to his speaking, which also makes his speech more arresting and thought-provoking.

3.2 Sentence types:

Except declarative sentences, Steve Jobs also uses different sentence types in order to achieve his speaking purpose.

3.2.1 Imperative sentence:

The use of imperative sentences is Jobs’ another skillful device. In this speech, Steve Jobs employs 14 imperative sentences, such as “Keep looking until you find it” and “Don’t lose faith”, etc. which take up 10% of the total sentences. Such kinds of imperative expressions are represented either by the form of “‘Do’…” or by the mode of “Do not ‘do’…” Why does Steve Jobs use imperative sentences frequently? That is because the function of imperative sentences is to give advice or instructions, or to express a request or command. As for this speech, the purpose is to inspire and motivate the young students. Thus, the frequent use of imperative sentence can be quite effective for this purpose.

3.2.2Interrogative sentence:

Several interrogative sentences are also used in Jobs’ speech. For example, “So why did I drop out?” “How can you get fired from a company you started?” and so on. In some occasions, questions are indispensable in a public speech, since questions can make the speech attractive and thought-provoking. Usually, questions can appeal the audience’s attention and lead them to think about the answers and then to react to the speaker. Once the audience hears the questions, they may have the feeling that the speaker is speaking to them instead of the speaker himself. This is a good way for the speaker to involve the audience into the speech and to interact with them.

Chapter IV. Rhetorical features

In the global context of communication, applying English rhetoric principles would bring about more fruitful outcome (Huang & Lu, 2010). The use of rhetoric devices makes a speech effective and convincing (Yang, 2001).

4.1Parallelism：

4.1.1Parallel paragraphs:

Parallel paragraphs, a common adoption of parallelism, helps build the unity of the passage and makes the structure clearer and more logical. Steve Jobs uses parallelism of paragraphs to develop his speech.

For example, wholly speaking, Steve Jobs tells three stories of his life, which begin respectively with “The first story is about …” “The second story is about…” and “The third story is about…”. Several paragraphs telling specific details of each story follows the three sentences of mark. So this parallelism is a balance of paragraphs, and the use of it makes the whole structure of this speech well organized. And it acts as a crucial clue for the listeners to appreciate this speech without missing any story.

4.1.2Parallel sentences:

Several adjacent sentences with similar structures are often parallelized together, which can enhance the power of the language and stress the expressed ideas.

For example: “Don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

In this part, three imperative sentences that are preceded with “Don’t…” are parallelized. Steve Jobs expresses the hope that the young students should stick to their own thoughts and dreams, and they should not follow others’ ideas blindly.

4.2 Metaphor：

Besides parallelism, Steve Jobs also uses metaphor, which does play an important role for the success of this speech. For example, “Stay hungry.” Actually, metaphor is applied in this sentence. Because we generally say we are hungry for food, but here in Jobs’ speech, he does not mean food, but knowledge. So he compares knowledge to food, and he just uses two words to express “You should never be satisfied, never feel fulfilled, and always feel thirsty, hungry for knowledge.” The use of metaphor makes the sentence short, but forceful and thought-provoking. The use of metaphor makes a great contribution to the popularity of “Stay hungry. Stay foolish. ”

Chapter V. Conclusion

The success of Jobs’ speech reflects his outstanding skills of using language very well. Generally speaking, as a successful speaker, Steve Jobs demonstrates qualities of logic thought, plain but forceful language in his speech. His eloquent speech, which takes the feature of being understandable and persuasive, achieves the purpose of inspiring the young students, and earns him a place among the great speakers in the world.

References:

[1]Fu, L., & Li, J. (2010). A Stylistic Analysis of Obama’s Speech in Shanghai. Language and Literature Learning, 9, 16-19.

[2]Hu, F., (2008). The Stylistic Features of Winston Churchill’s Public Speech. Read and Write Periodical, 5(8), 7-10.

[3]Xue, H.R., (2003). Introduction: Varieties of English. Xi’an Jiao Tong University Press.

[4]Yang, X. H., (2001). Stylistic Features of Englsih Public Speaking. Journal of Henan Education Institute, 20 (75), 141-143.

[5]黄滔、陆文玥，2010，演讲·语篇·修辞·效力——我国大学生英语演讲稿的若干语篇修辞倾向分析[J], 《外语艺术教育研究》第2期。

[6]金琪、高永刚，2007，从文体学角度看《我有一个梦想》[J]，《美中外语》第2期。