Genre analysis of American presidential Inaugural speech

Abstract

English public speaking is an important social-cultural phenomenon of the west; as a specific form of discourse sharing the characteristics of both oral and written discourse. American Presidential Inaugural Address (APIA) has always been arousing scholars' great concern in the field of applied linguistics. It is delivered to the people at home and abroad when the newly elected presidents take office to make his government policy known to the public and persuade the public to accept and support his policy with worldwide influence and long-lasting significance. However, most studies on APS are mainly made from the perspective of translation, stylistics, rhetoric, and so on. Seldom effort is made within genre analysis which focuses both on the linguistic realization of a text and the communicative functions the text serves. With the moves as the possible generic structure for this particular genre, the communicative purposes of the genre are revealed. © 2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.