Abstract: Inaugural address is one kind of the political speeches，which is strongly logical，politically inclined and persuasive words. The purpose of political speeches is to persuade the audience to take some actions, strengthen, weaken or completely change their attitude toward or belief of certain things. In order to receive the recognition and approval, speakers must build good relationships with the audiences. Based on Barack Obama’s inaugural address ,this paper aims to find out the speech features from the aspects of rhetoric, lexicology and context..
Key words: Inaugural address,；Rhetoric； Lexicology；Context
摘要：总统就职演讲是政治演讲种，具有很强的逻辑性、政治倾向性和说服性。政治演讲的目的是为了说服听众采取某种行动，加强、削弱或者彻底改变他们对某事的态度或信仰。为了获得听众的认可和支持，演讲者必须和听众建立良好的人际关系。本文以奥巴马的就职演说为语料，从修辞、词汇、语篇角度系统分析该演讲，旨在帮助英语学习者更好地体会到演讲的艺术。
关键词：就职演讲；修辞；词汇；语篇
Public speech, as one of the special passage styles, is different from daily conversation, novel, drama and poem. It takes the advantage of spoken language, and abandons the mess and loose of it. It features in the elegance in terms of writing and is vivid and moving orally, which offers people the feeling of rhythm and also is highly infectious and appealing.
Mastering the skills of speech in public is considered very important，thus English speech is becoming more and more popular. Every year there are many English speech contests held in China，such as CCTV English speech competitions，the 21st century cup English speech contest，etc. To be a good speaker， American president Obama’s speech in its Presidential election made an important contribution . Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential election on November 4, 2008，being the 56th president of US, and became the first president as an African in the American history. Many imposing and contagious words were used in his inaugural address, which is regarded as one of the classical inaugural addresses.
