Abstract
The study of narrative structure is a field that has never been ignored through time. A discourse of narration can be found in a fairy tale, an oral story, a long fiction or an episode of a film. The narrations put in different kinds of genre have different characteristics. So does the narrative structure in the American commencement addresses. However, little has been done on the analysis of such sort of narration. Therefore, it is worth doing some research on this topic. The thesis aims to figure out the characteristics of the narrative structures in the graduation speeches at universities and colleges in the United States by comparing the results with Labov’s analysis model , whose theory proposes that a narrative structure consists of six parts: abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, result or resolution and coda. Besides, the study also attempts to analyze the generic structure potential of these structure patterns according to Hasan’s theory. It is to find out the obligatory elements, the optional parts, and in which sequence these elements may occur. The study is believed to have some significance to EFL learning, such as narration writing and public speaking.
Totally, 80 narrative discourses from 50 speeches are collected for analysis. According to the results, five major types of structural patterns are concluded. Each of them has their own features. And they are different from Labov’s original model of narrative structure. Actually, only one narrative discourse in this study follows this kind of pattern exactly. The five types of structure are composed of different elements and the same element occurs in different sequence in one pattern and another. The obligatory parts of all the narrative structures include two elements—complicating action and result or resolution, while the other parts are optional. Some of these six parts are rather irregular in terms of their sequence in the text, while others remain quite stable.
Key Words: narrative structure American commencement address
摘要
一直以来人们都很热衷于研究叙事结构。在一则童话或一个口头故事里，在一部长篇小说或是一节电影片段当中，都可以发现叙事结构的存在。不同体裁中的叙事语篇有着不同的特点。当然，美国高校毕业典礼演讲中的叙事结构也绝不例外。然而，很少有研究与这种叙事语篇相关。因此，就有必要对此问题进行全新的探索分析。本研究的目的是把美国高校毕业典礼演讲中的叙事结构类型与拉波夫的叙事结构分析模板进行对比，从而找出其特征。拉波夫的分析模板是指：一个叙事结构应由六个部分组成（点题，指向，进展，评议，结果或结局，回应）。此外，本文还旨在分析此类语篇的语类结构潜势。这是基于哈桑的理论所做出的研究。目的是找出结构中的哪些成分是必备的、哪些成分是非必要的、所有成分以什么样的顺序出现。值得肯定的是本论文所得出的结论将有助于人们学习英语这门外语，例如：叙事类文章的写作以及公共演讲等。
此研究从50篇演讲当中一共收集了80个叙事语篇作为语料进行分析。最后总结归纳出了五类叙事结构。他们每一类都有各自的特点，并且与最初作为模版的拉波夫的分析模式有所不同。事实上，整个研究中仅有一个演讲语篇完全符合拉波夫所提出的叙事结构。每一个类型的组成成分都有所不同，相同的成分在不同的类型结构中又以不同的顺序出现。进展与结果或结局是唯一两个所有此类语篇中都包含的成分，而其它部分则是非必要的。六大部分中的一些成分在文中出现的顺序很不规律，而另一些成分却相对稳定。
关键词：叙事结构 美国高校毕业典礼演讲 语类结构潜势
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