4. Semantic features

　　To make the speech an impressive one instead of a political cliché, a variety of figures of speech are used, which includes phonetic stylistic devices, lexical stylistic devices and syntactical stylistic devices.

　　4.1 phonetic stylistic devices

　　In order to make the speech sound fluent, a lot of alliterations are applied, For example, in the sentence “Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our politics for so long. “Partisanship” and “pettiness” “poisoned” and “politics” have the same consonants, which sound rhythmical and harmonious and clearly embodies the determination of the president. The frequent use of alliteration makes the narration brief but precise, which can easily draw the attention of the audience and show the speaker’s opinion powerfully.

　　4.2 Lexical stylistic devices

　　Metaphors and allusions are highlights in the speech. In the sentence “The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep,” the tenors for “the road” and “our climb” are actually the hardship that Americans will be confronted with. Then, Obama encourages American people that “American’s beacon still burns as bright,” and here he uses metaphor to convey the information that America is still very strong and will be strong enough to conquer the difficulties. By comparing the abstract content to concrete things, he adds vitality to the whole speech.

　　4.3 Syntactical stylistic devices

　　The diversity of syntactical structure makes the speech eminent. At the very beginning of the speech, he uses a paralleled sentence to claim the audience’s attention. After the opening-up, a number of parallelisms used in the speech. Besides, a lot of repetitions can also appear, such as “block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand” and the impressive slogan “Yes we can” which appears 7 times(in para 24,25,2627,28,29 and 31) and gradually pushes the speech to the crescendo of emotion. The application of repetitions and parallelism actually has similar effect: it makes the whole speech organized in order and highlight the topic, which is overwhelming and convincing.

　　Furthermore, antithesis, a rhetorical device which is favored by many president of America, plays a significant role in the speech. In paragraph 3,Obama says “It’ s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, whiten Hispanic, Asian, Native American ,gay, straight, disabled and not disabled…” Here, by addressing people from all walks of life, Obama shows his concern for every single American. It reflects the American’s belief: “all men are created equal”. By using antithesis, he emphasizes his opinions and delivers his message clearly.

　　5.Conclusion

　　From what has been discussed above, we can see that the victory speech of Obama embodies the characteristics of public speech. By covering rich content, Obama creates an inclusive sense of history; by using diversified rhetorical devices, he spruces up the whole speech and makes it infectious; by quoting former great men’s dictums, he echoes with the great spirit of America and marks himself as one of the great speakers. To sum up, the victory speech of Obama shows his distinct style and speaks out the inner voice of American in that crucial period.

　　参考文献：

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　　[2]文秉龙,李智允.Obama的演讲艺术[M].北京:机械工业出版社,2010

　　[3]王佐良,丁往道.英语文体学引论[M].北京:外语教学与研究出版社,1978

　　[4]曾亚平,黄振定.论Obama总统竞选获胜演讲的文体风格[J]湖南大学学报:社会科学版,2009,5(3)

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　　Appendix:

　　SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: (Cheers, applause.) Hello, Chicago. (Cheers, applause.)

　　If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our Founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. (Cheers, applause.)

　　It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

　　It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled -- (cheers) -- Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states; we are and always will be the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)