384367

Exploring Positive Discourse Analysis in Selected Harvard Commencement Speeches: An Interactional Metadiscourse Analysis

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Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

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Abstract

Positive Discourse Analysis (PDA) shifts the focus of Critical Discourse Analysis from detecting injustices to finding and endorsing more positive alternatives. Commencement speeches are practical examples of PDA. Speakers employ metadiscourse markers in their speeches to inspire the audience in an attempt to modify their attitudes, sentiments and actions. The role of metadiscourse markes is more crucial in spoken genre as managing spoken interaction is greater in ‘real time' in front of audience. The current study has examined the metadiscourse markers in six Harvard commencement speeches that offer inspiring messages of justice, courage, resilience, empathy as identified by The Harvard Gazette. The study adapted Hyland's (2005) classification model of interpersonal metadiscourse to interactive and interactional with a focus on the interactional ones because of their role in engaging the audience and signaling a speaker's attitude. The results of the study show that the speakers have successfully achieved interpersonal relations with their audience through the use of all interactional metadiscourse resources with the attitude and engagement markers ranking the highest. Moreover, the analysis reveals that, despite the speakers' different background, gender, and specialization, they talk about similar topics. These factors did not affect the intensity of interactional metadiscourse indicators in the six speeches. This study provides insight into linguists' interested in PDA and discourses that promote the change audience wants to see. The results can also be of benefit to teachers, students, and public speakers with understandings about the structure of spoken texts and the interactional metadiscourse features that help developing the speaker-audience rapport and preserving the speaker's personage.

DOI

10.21608/opde.2024.384367

Keywords

Harvard commencement speeches, Interactional Metadiscourse, Positive Discourse Analysis

Authors

First Name

Hala Shaker

Last Name

Hammad

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Affiliation

The British University in Egypt

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Volume

87

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

50844

Issue Date

2024-07-01

Receive Date

2024-10-06

Publish Date

2024-07-01

Page Start

137

Page End

176

Print ISSN

1110-2721

Online ISSN

2735-3591

Link

https://opde.journals.ekb.eg/article_384367.html

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https://opde.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=384367

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5

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Original Article

Type Code

1,140

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education

Publication Link

https://opde.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Exploring Positive Discourse Analysis in Selected Harvard Commencement Speeches: An Interactional Metadiscourse Analysis

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Article

Created At

25 Dec 2024