肯尼迪就职演讲修辞分析

Rhetorical Analysis of Kennedy’s Inaugural Address [Taking the oath of Office] 1.Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, reverend clergy, fellow citizens: 2.We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom -- symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning -- signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago. 修辞:运用了Antithesis 的修辞手法,前后结构一致,语义相反,容易吸引观众的注意,达到演讲词开篇引人入胜的目的。这里“a victory of party”和“a celebration of freedom”,“an end”和“a beginning”等等分别构成对照,强调这不是一个政党的胜利,而是自由的胜利,是结束也是开端,是更新也是变革。 3.The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish①all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe -- the belief that the rights of man come ②not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God. 修辞分析:该段子划线部分都运用了Repetition的修辞手法。这里重复的使用主要是为了分清层次,加强演讲词的节奏感和音律美,使读起来朗朗上口。 4.We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, -- ①born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, ②proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights ③to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. 修辞分析:该段落划线部分运用了Parallelism 的修辞手法。总共包括三组排比句,如段中所示,第一组是过去分词引起的短语,第二组是形容词引起的短语,第三组是定语从句。 排比句结构平衡,音韵和谐,语义紧凑,高潮迭起,极富感召力与鼓动性。排比的大量使用既能起到突出演讲主的作用,又能令句子流畅,读起来朗朗上口,极富音乐般的节奏和感染力。 - 1 - 5.Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty. 修辞分析:这句话运用了Repetition和Alliteration双重的修辞手法。首先是头韵法,如段中阴影部分,“p ay price”“b ear burden”“s urvival s uccess”“f riend f oe”等这些头韵法的合理使用不仅使演说朗朗上口,富于乐感,从而抓住听众的注意力,而且通过在词首重复使用相同的辅音,使得音韵悠扬,节奏明快,增强了现力,给人以深刻的印象,为演说增添了光彩。其二段中“any”的重复使用使演讲者观点紧凑,重点突出,有能很有效的调动听众的情感,从而达到演讲的目的。 6.This much we pledge -- and more. 7.To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do -- for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder. 修辞分析:段中划线部分运用了Antithesis的修辞手法。这里主要是“united”和“divided”的对照,一方面使得两句话对称整齐,音律和谐,读起来脍炙人口。另一方面强调了语义的对立,突出了“如果团结一致,我们就能在许多合作事业中无往而不胜,如果分歧对立,我们便会一事无成”这个主要观点。 8.To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, ①we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom -- and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by ②riding the back of the tiger ended up inside. 修辞分析:该段划线部分①运用了Repetition的修辞手法,“shall”的重复使用使句式结构紧凑,重点突出,同时调动听众的情感,引起共鸣,很好得表达了美国政府的决心和信念。 ②运用了Metaphor的修辞手法。用比喻来阐述道理,使听众于生动的形象中得到启发,受 到感染,折服于演说家。这一句既表明演说家的态度,同时也是对本段上文的形象化总结,这远比讲美国今后不会对加入自由国家行列的其他国家进行奴役之类的承诺有说服力得多。 9.To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the ①bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required -- not because the Communists may be doing it, ②not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. ③If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. 修辞分析:该段落划线部分中①运用了Metaphor的修辞手法。该短语将“mass misery”对世界各地人民的折磨隐喻为“bonds”,即枷锁,形象生动地将抽象的事物变得简单易懂,使听众易于接受和理解,并使能够引起听众的共鸣,达到演讲的效果。 ②运用了Repetition的修辞手法。该句中“because”的重复使用一方面产生了音律美,使句 式整齐匀称,另一方面突出了演讲者所要表达的观点,调动了听众的情绪。 ③运用了Antithesis的修辞手法。该句中句式非常对称整齐,读起来朗朗上口,简洁明了, 音律和谐。同时通过语义上的对立突出强调了“如果不能帮助处在贫困中的人们,美国也就不能拯救少数的富人”这一观点。 10.T o our ①sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge: to convert our good words into good deeds, in a new alliance for progress, to assist free men and free governments in casting off ②the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. ③Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house. 修辞分析:该段落划线部分中①和②运用了Metaphor的修辞手法。①句中将其他国家比作“sister”,即兄弟姐妹,形象生动地将美国和南美国家的外交关系化抽象为具体,使听众对这 种关系有了一种更为直接的认识。同时表明了美国愿与南美国家之间保持友好、平等外交关系的立场。②中将贫穷隐喻为枷锁,锁链,突出了贫穷给人们带来的苦难,同时也隐隐说明了美国的老大的地位,想要领导全世界。 ③运用了Parallelism的修辞手法。划线部分都运用了“let..know that”的句式,使得演讲词非 常的对称,读起来能够产生一种音律美和节奏感。 11.To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support -- to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective, to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak, and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run. 修辞分析:该段落划线部分运用了Parallelism的修辞手法。段中“to...”引出了三个排比句,排比的使用使得句子结构非常的整齐匀称,增强了气势,加强了演讲者对观点的表达和传输。 12.Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer ①not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the ②dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction. 修辞分析:该演讲辞中从第七段到第十二段开头粗体字部分运用了Parallelism的修辞手法。 又用了结构相似或相同的句子形成了排比。排比和反复的重叠使用使语意层层递进,增强了演讲的气势,突出了强调的,同时使演讲词读来韵律节奏分明,铿锵有力。 ①运用了Antithesis的修辞手法。使得句式结构整齐匀称,节奏感强,同时强调了美国提出 的是一项要求而不是请求。 ②运用了Metaphor的修辞手法。这里将“nuclear weapons”隐喻成了“dark power”,生动形 象地说明了原子武器的威力和危害性,也从侧面突出了我们应该响应美国的号召追求和平,杜绝原子武器的危害。 13.We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed. 修辞分析:段中划线部分运用了Repetition的修辞手法。“Beyond doubt”的重复,有效地强化了语意,更富节奏感,使演讲更有气势,同时加深了听众的印象。 14.But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course -- both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war. 修辞分析:段中粗体字部分运用了Anaphora的修辞手法。首语重复的使用加强了演讲词的节奏感,营造了一种音律美。同时结构上都是“both...”开头的句子,句式非常整齐匀称,在一定程度上也有利于吸引听众的兴趣。 15.So let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. 修辞分析:段中划线部分交错运用了Chiasmus和Antithesis的修辞手法。首先句中使用了交错配列法,“negotiate”和“fear”在句中交错出现,传递了一种非常精炼,深层次的思考,使句子呈现出一种庄严和严肃的气氛,同时引导听众进行独立的思考。其二也用了对照,这里主要体现在语义上的对照,即不要因为恐惧而去谈判,而应不惧于去谈判。 16.Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us. 修辞分析:段中划线部分运用了Antithesis的修辞手法。该句子是“explore what problems” 和“belabor those problems which divide us”的对照,这一方面让句子结构比较整齐匀称,读来有种莫名的节奏感和音律美,另一方面强调了语义上的对立,突出了演讲者的思想, 即美国希望各国能够一起探讨使各国团结起来的问题,而不是操心让各国分崩离析的问题,其实也是强调各国应该团结一致。 17.Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms, and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations. 18.Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce. 修辞分析:段中划线部分运用了Parallelism和Anticlimax的修辞手法。首先这个句子中多个动词短语构成了一个排比句,句式非常简洁明了,结构也非常对称,节奏感也比较强,有利于演讲者调动听众的情绪。其二渐降法,句子中“stars”“deserts”“disease”按事物的从大到小,从重到轻排列下来。 19.Let both sides unite to heed, in all corners of the earth, the command of Isaiah -- to "undo the heavy burdens, and [to] let the oppressed go free."1 修辞分析:演讲词从十六到十九段开头部分的“Let both sides”运用了Anaphora的修辞手法。 首语重复的使用突出了演讲者的重点,创造了节奏感,表达了讲演者的感受和情感态度。 段落十九中运用了Metaphor的修辞手法。这里把世界各国人民收到的压迫隐喻为了“heavy burdens”,化抽象为具体,生动形象的写出了人民受到的欺压。 20.And, ①if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor -- ②not a new balance of power, but a new world of law -- where③ the strong are just, and the weak secure, and the peace preserved. 修辞分析:该段划线部分中①运用了Personification的修辞手法。句中“push back”即推动 的意思,是人才能具有的动作属性,演讲者将beachhead拟人化,使的整个句子非常的生动活泼,仿佛跃然纸上,听来倍感亲切,易受感染。 ②运用了Antithesis的修辞手法。对照在句中的使用使得句式整齐匀称,又使观点对立,突 出了这份努力不是为了全球势力的均衡,而是为了建立一个法制新世界。 ③运用了Parallelism的修辞手法。 21.All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days; nor in the life of this Administration; nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. 修辞分析:该段划线部分中运用了Anaphora和Climax的修辞手法。一方面首语重复(anaphora)的使用使得句式显得整齐匀称,音律和谐,强调了要完成这些任务的艰难性。 另一方面层进(climax)使得排列句子成分时,根据由浅入深,从小到大,从轻到重原则,依次排列“one hundred days”“one thousand days”“in our lifetime”,使语义层层递增,起到加强语义的作用,突出了要完成这一切的任务和理想不是一天两天的事情,说明了任务的艰巨。 22.In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe. 修辞分析:句中划线部分运用了Hyperbole的修辞手法。这里“the graves surround the globe”,即坟墓包围了整个地球,显然是夸张的用法。而运用夸张的手法来强调为响应美国政府号召而献身的美国公民非常之多,一方面肯定了这些美国人的贡献,另一方面通过渲染气氛,引起听众内心的公民,从而呼吁更多的人响应美国政府的号召为之奋斗。 23.Now the trumpet summons us again --①not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are -- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation," a struggle against the common enemies of man: ②tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. 修辞分析:这段采用了排比parallelism的修辞,而且将排比与重复(repetition)融合使用,既强调了文章,又使句子显得整齐而不雷同,匀称而不呆板。讲说出来,既节奏鲜明、铿锵动听,同时又跌宕有致,富于变化。 ②句中运用了Anticlimax和Parallelism的修辞手法。句中“tyranny”“poverty”“disease”“war” 在融合使用排比之余还使用渐降法按重要性的大小从大到小排列下来,最后又回到“war”上面。 24.Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort? 修辞分析:该段划线部分运用了Rhetorical question的修辞手法。该段中修辞疑问句的使用一方面强调突出了美国和其他国家能够在全世界范围内建立起一个抗击敌人的联盟,同时表达演讲者的强烈情感和使得听众更好的参与进来以及激发他们的兴趣。另一方面,这个修辞的使用在某种程度上又充当了该演讲词中的Transitional device(过渡)的作用,引导听众往下听,接下来便是演讲者给出的解释和。 25.In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. ①The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will ②light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from that fire can truly light the world. 修辞分析:该段划线部分①运用了Parallelism修辞手法。“the energy”“the faith”“the devotion” 为三个单词的排比,使得演讲词重点突出,同时又具备了音律美。 ②运用了Metaphor的修辞手法。这里将“the energy,the faith,the devotion”比喻成为了“fire”。 使这些非常抽象,晦涩难懂的词语变得生动易懂,从而能够清楚地表达演讲者想要表达的意思。 26.And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. 27.My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. 修辞分析:27和26段中划线部分都运用了Antithesis的修辞手法。这三句话结构对称整齐,意义相反,加强了语气,而后两句还同时使用了“ask not”倒装结构,对仗工整、立意深刻,极富有感染力。 28.Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own. 英语四班金平 学号:1105020097