VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN LINH CHI A TEXT ANALYSIS OF “THE 2007 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY BILL GATES AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY” AND “THE 2014 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY BILL AND MELINDA GATES AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY” ON THE DE BEAUGRANDE FRAMEWORK (Phân tích văn bản “Bài phát biểu của Bill Gates trong lễ tốt nghiệp năm 2007 tại Đại học Harvard ” và “Bài phát biểu của Bill và Melinda Gates trong lễ tốt nghiệp năm 2014 tại Đại học Stanford” bằng khung lý thuyết của De Beaugrande) M. Minor Program Thesis Major: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Hanoi - 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN LINH CHI A TEXT ANALYSIS OF “THE 2007 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY BILL GATES AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY” AND “THE 2014 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY BILL AND MELINDA GATES AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY” ON THE DE BEAUGRANDE FRAMEWORK (Phân tích văn bản “Bài phát biểu của Bill Gates trong lễ tốt nghiệp năm 2007 tại Đại học Harvard ” và “Bài phát biểu của Bill và Melinda Gates trong lễ tốt nghiệp năm 2014 tại Đại học Stanford” bằng khung lý thuyết của De Beaugrande) M. Minor Program Thesis Major: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Assoc. Ngô Hữu Hoàng Hanoi - 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I declare that this thesis, entitled A text analysis of “The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University” and “The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University” on the De Beaugrande framework and the work presented in it is my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own research.
I confirm that when I quoted from the work of others, the source was always given and no part of this work has been published before submission. Signature: Date: i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Ngô Hữu Hoàng. This thesis could have probably not completed without his patient, enthusiastic and instructive supervision and encouragement.
I also would like to show my profound thanks to all of the lecturers and officials in the Faculty of Graduate and Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for tirelessly devoting time and efforts to enrich, broaden and deepen my knowledge over the past two years. Besides, I am deeply indebted to my beloved family for their wholehearted support and encouragement. I also would like to dedicate my special thanks to my classmates, who have supported, cooperated and provided me with valuable suggestions. Finally, I cannot fully express my gratitude to all the people whose direct and indirect support assisted me to accomplish my thesis in time.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study is conducted primarily to investigate whether and the two commencement speeches in 2007 and 2014 addressed by Bill Gates satisfy the standards of textuality built up by De Beaugrande. For the aforementioned goals to be achieved, the text linguistics approach, as well as descriptive and qualitative methods, is employed. In addition, the De Beaugrande framework on criteria of textuality (1981) serves as the integral theory foundation of this investigation. All evidence is extracted from the two texts and analyzed to illustrate the theory about those criteria.
After the author of this thesis has elaborately analyzed the sources, the results of the study reveal that two speeches The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University and The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University have fulfilled properties of textuality. As examples taken from speeches corresponding to each criterion are examined and explained, readers are able to understand how five selected standards of textuality are satisfied in two specific texts, and it can be said that the research question has been adequately answered. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iv PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Design of the study .4 CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND.
Definition of a text. Some major features of a text. Texture versus Text. Standards of textuality.
Definition of textuality. Criteria of textuality .16 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY .Research approach and research methods .Data collection procedure .23 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER III: ANALYSIS OF TWO COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES BY BILL GATES ON TEXTUALITY STANDARDS .A text analysis of “The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University”.A text analysis of “The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University”. Limitation of the study. Suggestions for further study.
I v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study When someone forms a text they are often concerned with their text‘s effect in practice; hence, there have been a number of theories that assist one in creating a successful text. As an English linguistics researcher, the thesis writer realizes that the framework by De Beaugrande (1981) is a reliable foundation on which she is able to analyze a text, which significantly contributes to her Master‘s degree accomplishment. In addition, that theory eventually helps the thesis writer improve the capability of producing and evaluate invaluable texts in her teaching career and devotes to the study of text linguistics in particular as well as English as an international language in general.
De Beaugrande and Dressler suggest ―Seven Standards of Textuality‖ (cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and intertextuality) and hypothesized that, if any one of them was not met, the text would not be communicative. Undoubtedly, those seven criteria considerably contribute to the success of a text in general and two speeches in particular - The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University and The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University. They are considered to be the most profound, inspirational speeches at graduation ceremonies presented by Bill Gates – one of the world‘s leading individuals. Accordingly, the thesis writer felt the necessity to conduct a study in respect of seven standards of textuality and employ theoretical background to shed light on the reputation of The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University and The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University.
Aims of the study This study is designed to provide readers with crucial knowledge about seven essential standards of textuality suggested by De Beaugrande. In addition, the research will study how a specific text fulfills seven characteristics of text 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The selected text to be explored is two well-known commencement speeches by Bill Gates at Harvard University in 2007 and at Stanford in 2014. This research is expected to be useful for those who are interested in producing a powerful and interactive text and an impressive commencement speech based on seven standards of textuality.
Research question In order for the aforementioned aims to be achieved, the research attempts to answer the following question: How do the two commencement speeches addressed by Bill Gates in 2007 and 2014 fulfill the standards of textuality in the De Beaugrande framework? 4. Scope of the study It is a common knowledge that there are numerous factors that make a speech memorable such as non-verbal language, the tone of voice, the idea, the cadence of the words and the rhythm of the sentences and so forth. However, this thesis provides a very modest analysis on the success of two commencement speeches by Bill Gates in 2007 and 2014, respectively, by employing De Beaugrande framework. Since cohesion and coherence, which have been priorly discussed in detail by many researchers, may require a more elaborate and extensive study, the scope of this MA thesis is narrowed down to five instead of seven standards of textuality, which are intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and intertextuality.
This study is conducted with the hope that the readers will have a thorough grasp of De Beaugrande framework which is concerned with seven criteria of textuality. Practically, the thesis may assist someone to a certain extent in preparing and delivering a persuasive speech to record considerable achievements in society. Design of the study The thesis, which reports the different stages of the study and its results, is expected to consist of the following parts according to requirements of an M. thesis: 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Part A: Introduction This part includes the rationale, aims of the study, research question, and scope of the study as well as the structure of the thesis.
Part B: Development Chapter I: Theoretical Background. This chapter deals with the theoretical background that inspires the thesis. This chapter provides some related studies as well as the thorough literature review of five standards of textuality in which each of those criteria will be discussed in detail. Chapter II: Methodology.
This chapter discusses the research approach, research methods of the study. Moreover, this chapter provides information about data collection procedure. Chapter III: The analysis of two speeches on De Beaugrande framework. This chapter analyzes the collected data then withdraws the final conclusions of the thesis.
Further discussion on findings will be presented as well as the personal interpretations and comments from the thesis writer. Part C: Conclusion The last part presents the summary of the thesis by providing answers to the research questions presented. Finally, the thesis writer will review the limitations of this study and make suggestions for further research. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND The literature review of the thesis is the compilation of written and published knowledge on the topic of De Beaugrande framework regarding some standards of textuality.
The review is drawn from previous studies done by famous linguists and prior linguistic scholars. Definition of a text As Beaugrande and Dressler (1981, p.3) stated, a text is a ―naturally occurring manifestation of language, i. as a communicative language event in a context. The surface text is the set of expressions actually used; these expressions make some knowledge explicit, while other knowledge remains implicit, though still applied during processing.23) defined that ―a text is an extended structure of syntactic units [i.
text as super-sentence] such as words, groups, and clauses and textual units that is marked by both coherence among the elements and completion .‖ He also distinguished between ―a text‖ and ―a non-text‖ which consists of random sequences of linguistic units such as sentences, paragraphs, or sections in any temporal and/or spatial extension. Halliday and Hasan (1976, p.1-2) claimed that ―text‖ is a term ―used in linguistics to refer to any passage - spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole [….] A text is a unit of language in use. It is not a grammatical unit, like a clause or a sentence; and it is not defined by its size [….] A text is best regarded as a semantic unit; a unit not of form but of meaning.‖ In another definition presented by Fowler (1991, p.59), a text is ―made up of sentences, but there exist separate principles of text-construction, beyond the rules for making sentences.‖ 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Text linguists generally agree that text is the natural domain of language, but they still differ in their perspectives of what constitutes a text. This variance is mainly due to the different methods of observations of different linguists, and as such, the definition of text is not yet concrete.