A Stylistic Analysis of Martin Luther King’sI Have a Dream

【Abstract】Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical linking within a text or a sentence that holds a text together. It is related to the broader concept of coherence. There are two types of cohesion： grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion. A cohesive text is created in many different ways.

【Key words】grammatical cohesion； lexical cohesion； reference； repetition

【作者簡介】许文博（1992.10.12-），男，汉族，福建南安人，现就读于长安大学外国语学院2016级外国语言学及应用语言学专业，硕士研究生，研究方向：翻译方向。

1. Analysis on Grammatical Cohesion

a.“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

b.“I have a dream that one day， down in Alabama， with its vicious racists， with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification， one day right there in Alabama， little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

c.“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted， every hill and mountain shall be made low， the rough places will be made plain， and the crooked places will be made straight， and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed， and all flesh shall see it together.”

The words in bold type are all reference words and the underlined words are conjunction words. Both the reference words and conjunction words used here to reflect the grammatical cohesion and display the style and aesthetic values. There are two referential devices that can create cohesion. They are anaphoric reference and cataphoric reference. Anaphoric reference happens when the writer refers back to someone or something that has been previously identified， or avoid repetition. Cataphoric reference is the opposite of anaphora： a reference forward as opposed to backward in the discourse. Something is introduced in the abstract before it is identified. All examples mentioned and listed above belong to Anaphoric reference.In example one， the adjective personal pronoun my refers back to the subject I to create cohesion. In example two， the Alabama a place has been mentioned previously so to avoid repetition and the author use its to replace the Alabama and his to refer back to governor. In example three， use it to refer back to the glory of Lord.

A conjunction sets up a relationship between two clauses. The most basic but least cohesive is conjunction that add cohesion to text. In the first example， the authors use not…but to make the text cohesive and emphasize his off-spring must be treated equally with the content of their character rather than be prejudiced by their black skins. In the second example， the author use three ands to make grammatical cohesion， which is based on the content. The author wanted to use the simple conjunction device， three ands， to play an emphasis on hardness for long been fighting for civil rights and the simple grammatical cohesion can make his speech more powerful and persuasive.

2. Analysis on Lexical Cohesion

Repetition is a kind of rhetoric device， which is used in a text to create lexical cohesion. All the examples listed above， are all repeated use I have a dream…one day to emphasize Martins sincere hope and urgent need for seeking civil rights. An antonym is a pair of words with opposite meanings. Each word in the pair is the anthesis of the other. There are four pairs of antonyms in the three examples. They are black-white， exalted-low， rough-plain and crooked-straight. All four pairs of antonyms used here are complementary antonyms， which forms an obvious contrast between the social status of the white and the black and also emphasizes the rough way to earn civil rights. Martin also used many other parallelisms in his speech patterned and in rhyme. And the use of parallelism also expressed strong feelings and strengthened the force of language. When the listeners heard the sentence begin with “I Have a Dream”， they would felt inspired and passionate.

3. Conclusion

In conclusion， the analysis above roughly touches some observable stylistic features of stimulating speech， stimulating speech shoulders the task of articulating the passing ones respectable personalities and admirable deeds. More often than not， it is delivered in a religious context and it is demanded to be brief， clear and convincing. Thus the sentence patterns are very well-organized with grammatical cohesion， lexical cohesion， and parallelisms.

References：

[1]Crystal D.and Davy.Investigating English Style[J].Longman，1979.

[2]馮翠华.英语修辞大全[M].北京：外语教学与教研出版社，2005.