A text analysis of “the 2007 commencement speech by bill gates at harvard university ” and “the 2014 commencement speech by bill and melinda gates at stanford university” on the de beaugrande framework

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN LINH CHI A TEXT ANALYSIS OF “THE 2007 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH B

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN LINH CHI

A TEXT ANALYSIS OF “THE 2007 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY BILL

GATES AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY” AND “THE 2014

COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY BILL AND MELINDA GATES AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY” ON THE DE BEAUGRANDE FRAMEWORK

(Phân tích văn bản “Bài phát biểu của Bill Gates trong lễ tốt nghiệp năm 2007 tại Đại học Harvard ” và “Bài phát biểu của Bill và Melinda Gates trong lễ tốt nghiệp năm

2014 tại Đại học Stanford” bằng khung lý thuyết của De Beaugrande)

M.A Minor Program Thesis

Major: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Hanoi - 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN LINH CHI

A TEXT ANALYSIS OF “THE 2007 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY BILL

GATES AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY” AND “THE 2014

COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY BILL AND MELINDA GATES AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY” ON THE DE BEAUGRANDE FRAMEWORK

(Phân tích văn bản “Bài phát biểu của Bill Gates trong lễ tốt nghiệp năm 2007 tại Đại học Harvard ” và “Bài phát biểu của Bill và Melinda Gates trong lễ tốt nghiệp năm

2014 tại Đại học Stanford” bằng khung lý thuyết của De Beaugrande)

M.A Minor Program Thesis

Major: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng

Hanoi - 2016

the result of my own research

I confirm that when I quoted from the work of others, the source was always given and no part of this work has been published before submission

Signature:

Date:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng This thesis could have probably not completed without his patient, enthusiastic and instructive supervision and encouragement

I also would like to show my profound thanks to all of the lecturers and officials

in the Faculty of Graduate and Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for tirelessly devoting time and efforts to enrich, broaden and deepen my knowledge over the past two years

Besides, I am deeply indebted to my beloved family for their wholehearted support and encouragement I also would like to dedicate my special thanks to my classmates, who have supported, cooperated and provided me with valuable suggestions

Finally, I cannot fully express my gratitude to all the people whose direct and indirect support assisted me to accomplish my thesis in time

ABSTRACT

This study is conducted primarily to investigate whether and the two commencement speeches in 2007 and 2014 addressed by Bill Gates satisfy the standards of textuality built up by De Beaugrande For the aforementioned goals to

be achieved, the text linguistics approach, as well as descriptive and qualitative methods, is employed In addition, the De Beaugrande framework on criteria of textuality (1981) serves as the integral theory foundation of this investigation All evidence is extracted from the two texts and analyzed to illustrate the theory about those criteria After the author of this thesis has elaborately analyzed the sources,

the results of the study reveal that two speeches The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University and The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University have fulfilled properties of textuality As

examples taken from speeches corresponding to each criterion are examined and explained, readers are able to understand how five selected standards of textuality are satisfied in two specific texts, and it can be said that the research question has been adequately answered

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Research question 2

5 Design of the study 2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

1 Text 4

1.1 Definition of a text 4

1.2 Some major features of a text 6

2 Texture versus Text 6

3 Standards of textuality 7

3.1 Definition of textuality 7

3.2 Criteria of textuality 8

3.2.1.Intentionality 9

3.2.2.Acceptability 11

3.2.3.Informativity 13

3.2.4.Situationality 15

3.2.5.Intertextuality 16

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 22

1.Research approach and research methods 22

2.Data collection procedure 23

CHAPTER III: ANALYSIS OF TWO COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES BY

BILL GATES ON TEXTUALITY STANDARDS 24

1.A text analysis of “The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University” 24

1.1 Intentionality 24

1.2 Acceptability 25

1.3 Informativity 29

1.4 Situationality 30

1.5 Intertextuality 32

2.A text analysis of “The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University” 34

2.1 Intentionality 34

2.2 Acceptability 35

2.3 Informativity 38

2.4 Situationality 40

2.5 Intertextuality 40

PART C: CONCLUSION 43

1 Conclusion 43

2 Implications 43

3 Limitation of the study 44

4 Suggestions for further study 44

REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

When someone forms a text they are often concerned with their text‘s effect in practice; hence, there have been a number of theories that assist one in creating a successful text As an English linguistics researcher, the thesis writer realizes that the framework by De Beaugrande (1981) is a reliable foundation on which she is able to analyze a text, which significantly contributes to her Master‘s degree accomplishment In addition, that theory eventually helps the thesis writer improve the capability of producing and evaluate invaluable texts in her teaching career and devotes to the study of text linguistics in particular as well as English as an international language in general De Beaugrande and Dressler suggest ―Seven Standards of Textuality‖ (cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and intertextuality) and hypothesized that, if any one of them was not met, the text would not be communicative Undoubtedly, those seven criteria considerably contribute to the success of a text in general and two speeches

in particular - The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University and The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University They are considered to be the most profound, inspirational speeches at graduation ceremonies presented by Bill Gates – one of the world‘s leading individuals Accordingly, the thesis writer felt the necessity to conduct a study in respect of seven standards of textuality and employ theoretical background to shed

light on the reputation of The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University and The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University

2 Aims of the study

This study is designed to provide readers with crucial knowledge about seven essential standards of textuality suggested by De Beaugrande In addition, the research will study how a specific text fulfills seven characteristics of text

linguistics The selected text to be explored is two well-known commencement speeches by Bill Gates at Harvard University in 2007 and at Stanford in 2014 This research is expected to be useful for those who are interested in producing a powerful and interactive text and an impressive commencement speech based on seven standards of textuality

3 Research question

In order for the aforementioned aims to be achieved, the research attempts to

answer the following question: How do the two commencement speeches addressed

by Bill Gates in 2007 and 2014 fulfill the standards of textuality in the De Beaugrande framework?

4 Scope of the study

It is a common knowledge that there are numerous factors that make a speech memorable such as non-verbal language, the tone of voice, the idea, the cadence of the words and the rhythm of the sentences and so forth However, this thesis provides a very modest analysis on the success of two commencement speeches by Bill Gates in 2007 and 2014, respectively, by employing De Beaugrande framework Since cohesion and coherence, which have been priorly discussed in detail by many researchers, may require a more elaborate and extensive study, the scope of this MA thesis is narrowed down to five instead of seven standards of textuality, which are intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and intertextuality

This study is conducted with the hope that the readers will have a thorough grasp of De Beaugrande framework which is concerned with seven criteria of textuality Practically, the thesis may assist someone to a certain extent in preparing and delivering a persuasive speech to record considerable achievements in society

5 Design of the study

The thesis, which reports the different stages of the study and its results, is expected to consist of the following parts according to requirements of an M.A thesis:

Part A: Introduction

This part includes the rationale, aims of the study, research question, and scope of the study as well as the structure of the thesis

Part B: Development

Chapter I: Theoretical Background This chapter deals with the theoretical

background that inspires the thesis This chapter provides some related studies as well as the thorough literature review of five standards of textuality in which each

of those criteria will be discussed in detail

Chapter II: Methodology This chapter discusses the research approach, research

methods of the study Moreover, this chapter provides information about data collection procedure

Chapter III: The analysis of two speeches on De Beaugrande framework This

chapter analyzes the collected data then withdraws the final conclusions of the thesis Further discussion on findings will be presented as well as the personal interpretations and comments from the thesis writer

Part C: Conclusion

The last part presents the summary of the thesis by providing answers to the research questions presented Finally, the thesis writer will review the limitations of this study and make suggestions for further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

The literature review of the thesis is the compilation of written and published knowledge on the topic of De Beaugrande framework regarding some standards of textuality The review is drawn from previous studies done by famous linguists and prior linguistic scholars

1 Text

1.1 Definition of a text

As Beaugrande and Dressler (1981, p.3) stated, a text is a ―naturally occurring manifestation of language, i.e as a communicative language event in a context The surface text is the set of expressions actually used; these expressions make some knowledge explicit, while other knowledge remains implicit, though still applied during processing.‖

Werlich (1976, p.23) defined that ―a text is an extended structure of syntactic units [i.e text as super-sentence] such as words, groups, and clauses and textual units that is marked by both coherence among the elements and completion ‖ He also distinguished between ―a text‖ and ―a non-text‖ which consists of random sequences of linguistic units such as sentences, paragraphs, or sections in any temporal and/or spatial extension

Halliday and Hasan (1976, p.1-2) claimed that ―text‖ is a term ―used in linguistics to refer to any passage - spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole [….] A text is a unit of language in use It is not a grammatical unit, like a clause or a sentence; and it is not defined by its size [….] A text is best regarded as a semantic unit; a unit not of form but of meaning.‖

In another definition presented by Fowler (1991, p.59), a text is ―made up of sentences, but there exist separate principles of text-construction, beyond the rules for making sentences.‖

Text linguists generally agree that text is the natural domain of language, but they still differ in their perspectives of what constitutes a text This variance is mainly due to the different methods of observations of different linguists, and as such, the definition of text is not yet concrete

A text contains meaning which is open to interpretation and most discussions

of ―text‖ revolve around interpretation of ―texts‖, rather than a definition of the term itself However the word ―text‖ is exploited in linguistics to imply that the words, phrases, lines or sentences of which it consists have not been arranged this way by chance, but have been produced by a person and with certain kinds of intentions as stated in Halliday and Hasan (1976) A text may be prose or verse, dialogue or monologue It may be anything from a single proverb to a whole play, from a momentary cry for help to an all-day discussion on a committee That is, geographical length is not important for a text, for example:

- a single word: ―DANGER‖ on a warning sign

- a stretch of language even though not a sentence: ―NO SMOKING‖ printed on a wall

- plays or novels: Hamlet, Great Expectations, etc

A text is a unit of language in use It is not a lexico-grammatical unit like a clause or a sentence, and it is not defined by size We cannot mathematically count that a text has two or three or how many sentences A text does not consist of sentences It is realized by, or encoded in sentences

A text is best regarded as a semantic unit, a unit not of form but of meaning Thus it is related to a clause or sentences not by size but by realization, the coding

of one symbolic system in another

Nowadays, readers and critics alike use the word ―text‖ to signify any piece

of written or spoken discourse, especially when they want to avoid giving value judgments such as ―literary‖ or categorizing something, such as calling it a ―novel‖ Therefore, text is seen as a neutral term

The thesis writer is in favor of the definition by De Beaugrande & Dressler (1981, p.3) in which a text ― will be defined as a communicative occurrence which meets seven standards of textuality‖ The seven standards referred to are cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality and intertextuality

1.2 Some major features of a text

A text is a stretch of language which seems appropriately coherent in actual use That is, the text ―coheres‖ in its real-world context, semantically and pragmatically, and it is also internally or linguistically coherent Quirk et al (1985, p.1423) mentioned some features of a text in their work ―A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language‖ as the following:

- Text is defined as language in use, i.e in terms of function and situation

- Text is internally structured

- A text must display a ―cohesive harmony‖ and logics (make sense with respect to the outer world)

- The basic unit of a text: sentence

- No structural patterns as in sentences (e.g an interrogative sentence but not

an interrogative text)

- A text – unlike sentence – is not a grammatical unit but rather a semantic and even a pragmatic one

2 Texture versus Text

According to definitions of text, particularly that of Halliday and Hasan (1976), it can be inferred that there must be, beyond the intuitive level, a linguistic distinction (at least in principle) between a text and non-text, and that distinction is based upon meaning A text makes sense, whereas a non-text may be nonsensical The difference lies in the presence (or absence) of what is called ―texture‖

Texture – the quality that makes a text ―hang together‖ as a text – is a key focus of investigation in discourse analysis Halliday and Hasan (1976, p.2) say that

―texture is the property that distinguishes text from non-text Texture is what holds

clauses of a text together to give them unity.‖ According to two linguists, texture

involves the interaction of two components: coherence or the text‘s relationship to

its extra-textual context (the social and cultural context of its occurrence, and

cohesion, the way the elements within a text bind it together as a ―unified whole‖

The result of the interaction of these two dimensions is a piece of language which is using linguistic resources in a meaningful way within a situational and cultural context

The concept of texture is entirely appropriate to express the property of

―being a text‖ This characteristic of a text distinguishes it from something that is not a text The fact that a text functions as a unity with respect to its environment derives from this ―texture‖ If a passage of English containing more than one sentence is perceived as a text, there will be certain linguistic features present in the passage which can be identified as contributing to its total unity and giving it texture

For example, if we find the following instructions in the cooking book:

―Wash and core six cooking apples Put them into a fireproof dish.‖

It is clear that ―them‖ in the second sentence refers back to the ―six cooking apples‖

of if first sentence This anaphoric function of them gives cohesion to the two

sentences, so that we interpret them as a whole; the two sentences together constitute a text So it is the texture which makes these two sentences a text

3 Standards of textuality

3.1 Definition of textuality

In their Introduction to Textlinguistics (1981) de Beaugrande and Dressler

attempt to provide an answer to the issue of textuality They state that: ―‘[ ] a language is a virtual system of available options not yet in use, the text is an actual system in which options have been taken from their repertoires and utilized in a particular structure (relationship between or among elements) This utilization is carried out via procedures of actualization‖ (1981, p.35) This definition is similar to the thesis writer‘s point of view in the way that it stresses the fact

that a text is a singular realization of a particular discourse, and any text production is conditioned by its immediate nonverbal context In other words, any speaker makes his linguistic choice based on non-linguistic circumstances

De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981, p.3) also state that any text is a communicative occurrence that is supposed to meet certain standards of textuality in order to be communicative (non-communicative occurrences are treated as non-texts by them) It is not fully explicit in their discussion whether partially communicative occurrences (e.g messages directed for particular receivers, as for instance gang graffiti) could be regarded as texts They enlist seven standards of textuality: cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality and intertextuality They call them after Searle (1969, p.33) constitutive principles of textual communication, for the reason that: ―( ) [t]hey define and create the form of behaviour identifiable as textual communicating, and

if they are defied, that form of behaviour will break down‖ (De Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981, p.11) They also adopt Searle‘s notion of regulative principles (i.e the principles of efficiency, effectiveness and appropriateness) that are not so much as to define, as to control textual communication The thesis writer will briefly describe their textuality standards, or to use a more appropriate expression: ―the principles of communication‖, for even though the constitutive principles of textual communication are also called by the authors

―standards of textuality‖, their concepts evidently transcend the notion of text and it seems that at least some of them should rather be researched as contextual processes influencing text composition

3.2 Criteria of textuality

Text has been defined as a communicative occurrence or event which meets seven standards of textuality Linguists confirm that if any of these standards of textuality is not to have been satisfied, the text will not be communicative Due to the aforementioned scope of the study, in this part, the author will examine five broad characteristics of texts which combine to produce the complex property

of textuality The five features are: intentionality, acceptability, informativity,

situationality, intertextuality (De Beaugrande, Introduction to text linguistics,

1981)

3.2.1 Intentionality

A characteristic feature of textuality is called intentionality A text-producer normally seeks to achieve a purpose or goal (e.g persuasion, instruction, request, information, etc.) based on a given plan Obviously, cohesion and coherence are taken into consideration while planning and executing one's plan Speakers or writers vary in the degree of success in planning and achieving their purposes While cohesion and coherence are to a large extent text-centred, this standard of textuality in line with acceptability and informativity can be called (with informativity to a lesser degree) ―user-centered notions‖

Intentionally concerns ―the text producer‘s attitude that the set of occurrences should constitute a cohesive and coherent text instrumental in fulfilling the producer‘s intentions, e.g to distribute knowledge or attain a goal specified in a plan‖ (De Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981, p.7) To some degree, cohesion and coherence could themselves be regarded as operational goals without whose attainment other discourse goals may be blocked However, text users normally exercise tolerance towards products whose conditions of occurrence make

it hard to uphold cohesion and coherence altogether, notably in casual conversation

A hybrid structure such as this:

Well where do which part of town do you live?

did not disturb communication because it still served the superior goal of finding out someone‘s address, although the subordinate goal of maintaining cohesion did not fully succeed But if a text producer intended to defy cohesion and coherence, communication would be slowed down for negotiation and could break down altogether

Is intentionality really such a fundamental textual property that its absence would destroy the textuality of a text? Can it be said that in order for communication to occur, the intentions of the sender must always be fully understood? Such a statement would not be realistic An author‘s productive intentions should be distinguished from the indications of intentionality realized

in the patterned sequence of linguistic signs at the textual surface The writer's intentions are ephemeral, but they leave a mark or trace on the text When the writer's intentions were active, they helped to shape the text They were critical factors at the early stages of the text production process when overall plan and ideational sequence were formulated At the time of writing or speaking, the sender wanted to do something, to achieve certain results which had been projected This desire to have "effect," to achieve something with the text, shapes the profile of the text Linguistic sequences which assert, question, enjoin, insult, persuade, report, convince, or instruct are constructed in order to

do something There are many highly conventional texts where format and sense clearly indicate the underlying purpose Texts like formulaic greetings, socially sanctioned signs and announcements, and ritualized messages are examples Instruction manuals, patents, and legal contracts likewise clearly indicate their underlying intentionality At the other end of the spectrum are difficult poetic texts whose intentions are more obscure

The notion of textually realized intentionality cannot include the entire complex set of particular intentions underlying the communicative interaction Indeed, sometimes the intentionality perceived in a text is not necessarily the same as the author's intentionality Text comprehenders can only retrieve from the text what they recognize as having been put in In addition, the reader's purposeful orientation to the text is a reflection of receptive intent From the

reader's point of view, intentionality is connected with relevance, a measure of

the importance he or she attaches to the information A text in a technical journal intended for experts has a very specific intentionality Readers of the

text judge it from their own interactional perspective They attend to and care about only those elements which relate to their communicative purposes in the exchange In pragmatic texts, author intent and receiver intent are usually a close match These two types of intent diverge only when the execution of the text is faulty In these cases the text (or portions of it) does not do what it is supposed to do Intentionality and relevance are a sender-receiver pairing

3.2.2 Acceptability

Intentionality is associated with acceptability The author's original goals in writing the text cannot be achieved if the reader cannot figure out what the text is supposed to do For a text to be received as a piece of purpose-full-linguistic communication, it must be seen and accepted as a text Acceptability does not necessarily imply that the receiver believe the specific contents of the text It does require that the addressee be able to identify and extract those contents Even though listeners and readers have become accustomed to a wide variation in the form of texts, there are limits The receiver must be able to determine what kind of text the sender intended to send, and what was to be achieved by sending it There is no single norm for acceptability All texts are subject to constraints; otherwise they would not be recognizable as texts

The fourth standard of textuality – acceptability – concerns ―the text receiver‘s attitude that the set of occurrences should constitute a cohesive and coherent text having some use or relevance for the receiver, e.g to acquire knowledge or provide co-operation in a plan‖ (De Beaugrande and Dressler,

1981, p.8) This attitude is responsive to such factors as text type, social or cultural setting, and the desirability of goals Here also, we could view the maintenance of cohesion and coherence by the text receiver as a goal of its own, such that material would be supplied or disturbances tolerated as required The operation of inferencing strikingly illustrates how receivers support coherence by making their own contributions to the sense of the text

If acceptability is restricted, communication can be diverted It is accordingly taken as a signal of non-cooperation if a text receiver raises questions about acceptability when the text producer‘s intentionality is obviously in effect:

―What we require, sir, is a probe of this here.‖ ―Probate, my dear sir, probate,‖ said Pell ―Well, sir,‖ replied Mr Weller sharply, ―probe and probe it is very much the same; if you don‘t understand what I mean, sir, I daresay I can find them as does.‖ ―No offence, I hope, Mr Weller,‖ said Pell meekly

Text producers often speculate on the receivers‘ attitude of acceptability and present texts that require important contributions in order to make sense The Bell Telephone Company warns people:

(a) Call us before you dig You may not be able to afterwards

People are left to infer that digging without asking might lead to cutting off a ground cable and hence to losing the wiring needed in order to call; or even, to sustaining bodily injury and being incapacitated It is intriguing that this example

is more effective than a version would be that made everything more explicit such as:

(b) Call us before you dig There might be an underground cable If you break the cable, you won‘t have phone service, and you may get a severe electric shock Then you won‘t be able to call us

Apparently, text receivers are readily persuaded by content they must supply

on their own: it is as if they were making the assertion themselves

The receiver's attitude is that a text is cohesive and coherent The reader usually supplies information that is missing or unstated Acceptability is very much sensitive to the social activity the text is fulfilling A legal contract does not leave much room for inference It contains what, otherwise, is called redundancies Poetic language will be viewed as such because it calls on for inferences

Acceptability is very much affected by the reader's social and cultural background The joke of the priest who, on shaving his beard in the morning cut his

chin because he was thinking of the sermon he was about to give, and the advice his fellow priest gave him, "Cut your sermon and concentrate on your beard", was not very much appreciated by some students belonging to different culture

3.2.3 Informativity

A communication situation is a context where information transfer occurs A text has to contain some new information A text is informative if it transfers new information, or information that was unknown before Informativity should be seen as a gradable phenomenon Informativity concerns ―the extent

to which the occurrences of the presented text are expected vs unexpected or known vs unknown/certain‖ (De Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981, p.9) The degree of informativity varies from participant to participant in the communicative event Situationality contributes to the informativity of the text For instance, a book written in 1950 has an informativity that was high appropriate then

In sample (a), the assertion that ―you will not be able to call‖ is much more unexpected than it is in (b) The processing of highly informative occurrences is more demanding than otherwise, but correspondingly more interesting as well Caution must be exercised lest the receivers‘ processing become overloaded to the point of endangering communication

As mentioned above, every text is at least somewhat informative: no matter how predictable form and content may be, there will always be a few variable occurrences that cannot be entirely foreseen Particularly low informativity is likely to be disturbing, causing boredom or even rejection of the text The opening stretch of a science textbook runs like this:

(c) The sea is water

The fact asserted here is so well known to everyone that there seems to be no point in saying it here The stretch of text is clearly cohesive and coherent, and undoubtedly intended to be acceptable as such But it is nonetheless a marginal

text because it is so uninformative Not until the readers look at the continuation does the text‘s status seem more sound:

(d) The sea is water only in the sense that water is the dominant substance present Actually, it is a solution of gases and salts in addition to vast numbers of living organisms

The assertion of the obvious fact in (c) functions as a starting point for asserting something more informative The surface cue ―actually‖ signals that the well-known ―substance-of‖ relation is not strictly accurate The ensuing correction of

a common view is less expected, so that the informativity of the whole passage is upgraded

Beaugrande and Dressler (1981, p.9) also classify occurrences into three orders of informativity:

- The first – order is the lowest and refers to predictable information and obvious facts, which receive little attention from the receiver

- The second – order refers to probable and frequent information, i.e common facts

- The third – order, the highest, refers to less probable information, unusual and infrequent occurrences at least from the receivers‘ point of view Utterances of the third – order are more interesting than those of the other orders, but require much attention and laborious processing from the receiver, who has to be able to establish the meaning continuity of the text and the continuity between the content of utterances and his knowledge of the world

With regard to the above textuality standards one must note that they may

be transgressed The standard of intentionality can be violated by means of false starts, instances of retardation, etc., which occur in the course of narration, but the communication will not be disturbed, even though the Grice maxim of quantity is often not fulfilled De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981, p.7) say that ―users normally exercise tolerance towards products whose

conditions of occurrence make it hard to uphold cohesion and coherence altogether, notably in casual conversation‖ In other words, people simply behave verbally in this way paying no attention to Grice‘s principle of cooperation or De Beaugrande and Dressler‘s ―intentionality standard‖, which does not mean that they are not communicative It is not certain whether partially non-communicative occurrences are texts or non-texts for the authors One can deduce that they would rather see all of them fulfilled to call some linguistic occurrence a text Nevertheless, we have previously said that a text can occur regardless of its hearer, addressee or receiver (in some instances the speaker becomes the receiver/hearer of his/her texts) (see also Grice, 1975) If there is no receiver to ―acquire knowledge‖ of the developed text, it still fulfills its representative function and does constitute a text even breaking the

―acceptability standard‖ A very similar occurrence may take place when, as

De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981, p.9) say ―receivers‘ processing becomes overloaded to the point of endangering communication‖, or in other words the Grice‘s maxim of quality is broken, thus the standard would not be properly fulfilled, communication would be severely disturbed, however it does not seem that we would not be faced with a text The text would be hardly communicative, but we would not refuse to call it a text, because it still could be meaningful in certain embeddings

3.2.4 Situationality

Texts are always situated in discrete communicative and social settings

The situationality of texts is a major component of their textuality

Situationality is the location of a text in a discrete sociocultural context in a real time and place Situationality ―concerns the factors which make a text relevance to a situation of occurrence‖ (De Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981, p.10) For instance, one might treat the road sign

(e) SLOW

CHILDREN

AT PLAY

in different ways, but that the most probable intended use was obvious The ease with which people can decide such an issue is due to the influence of the situation where the text is presented In the case of sample (e), the sign is placed in a location where a certain class of receivers, namely motorists, is likely to be asked for a particular action It is far more reasonable to assume that ‗slow‘ is a request to reduce speed rather than an announcement of the children‘s mental or physical deficiencies Pedestrians can tell that the text is not relevant for themselves because their speeds would not endanger anyone In this manner, the sense and use of the text are decided via the situation

Situationality even affects the means of cohesion On the one hand, a text version such as:

(f) Motorists should proceed slowly, because children are playing in the vicinity and might run out into the street Vehicles can stop more readily

if they are moving slowly

would remove every possible doubt about sense, use, and group of intended receivers On the other hand, it would not be appropriate to a situation where receivers have only limited time and attention to devote to signs among the other occurrences of moving traffic That consideration forces the text producer toward a maximum of economy; situationality works so strongly that the minimal version (e)

is more appropriate than the clearer (f)

3.2.5 Intertextuality

The seventh standard of textuality is to be call intertextuality and ―concerns the factors which make the utilization of one text dependent upon knowledge of one or more previously encountered texts‖ (De Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981, p.11) A driver who has seen road sign (e) is likely to see another sign further down the road, such as:

(g) RESUME SPEED

One cannot ‗resume‘ something unless one was doing it at an earlier time and then stopped it for some reason The ‗speed‘ at stake here can only be the one maintained until (e) was encountered and a reduction was made Clearly, the sense and relevance of (g) depends upon knowing about (e) and applying the content to the evolving situation

Intertextuality is, in a general fashion, responsible for the evolution of text types as classes of texts with typical patterns of characteristics Within a particular type, reliance on intertextuality may be more or less prominent In types like parodies, critical reviews, rebuttals, or reports, the text producer must consult the prior text continually, and text receivers will usually need some familiarity with the latter An advertisement appeared in magazines some years ago showing a petulant young man saying to someone outside the picture:

(h) As long as you‘re up, get me a Grant‘s

A professor working on a research project cut the text out of a magazine, altered it slightly, and displayed it on his office door as:

(i) As long as you‘re up, get me a Grant

In the original setting, (h) was a request to be given a beverage of a particular brand

In the new setting, (i) seems to be pointless: research grants are awarded only after extensive preparation and certainly can‘t be gotten while casually walking across a room The discrepancy is resolvable via one‘s knowledge of the originally presented text and its intention, while the unexpectedness of the new version renders it informative and interesting This interest effect offsets the lack of immediate situational relevance and the non-serious intention of the new text presenter

In the thesis writer‘s opinion both the abovementioned surpass the notion of text Situationality seems to be more of an outside-text notion than of

a text-dependent one It is due to the situation that people create texts and not vice versa It is often the case that ―the sense and use of the text are decided via the situation‖ (De Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981, p.11) This is, however, of secondary importance, and concerns the addressees of the text, who are

supposed to understand it, or in other words, the addressee must use his own knowledge to bring textual elements into a meaningful whole ―This operation involves supplying reasonable concepts and relations, to fill in a gap or discontinuity in a textual world‖ (De Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981, p.101) But one ought to keep in mind that it is primarily the speaker/producer of the text that happens to be in a particular situation or knows of such a situation and other characteristic features of the other elements of the context, which allows him to prepare an appropriate text The text is prepared owing to the

―intertextuality standards‖: ―the ways in which the production and reception ( ) depends upon the participants‘ knowledge of other text‖ (De Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981, p.182) In other words, it depends also (among other elements) on the social stratum of his speaker and even more so on the social stratum of the hearers/addressees One must also remember that there are many social groups within social strata This issue becomes very important in situations when speakers are face to face with their addressees who are expected to react in a particular way after having heard the text The usage of particular (and appealing) texts is essential in discourses where verbal means are the only way of influencing the addressees‘ behaviour (for example during election campaigns) Norman Fairclough (1992, p.85) notes that: ―the concept

of intertextuality sees texts historically as transforming the past – existing conventions and prior texts – into the present‖ In this way it is to be seen that also intertextuality is in a way an outside-text notion, since it can be examined only with reference to other, already existing texts (known to the addresser and the addressee), whose elements have been used to create a new one Both situationality and intertextuality are considered to be very important elements

in discourse research

In order to illustrate the above principles of textual communication, even though the thesis writer does not totally adhere to all of them, she would like to use the example of three particular texts located by Polish

main roads on 350 city billboards in 21 Polish cities in August 1999 The distribution of the texts was caused by the highest death rates in Europe among young drivers and such was also the leading theme (―Young drivers‖) of the strategy of making youngsters aware of the dangers lurking for them in the streets As regards the used texts: The inscription ―your new limousine after the accident‖ is to be seen against the background of a wheelchair, the slogan

―your new (girl) friend after the accident‖ is located next to the crutches, and the slogan ―your new drinks after the accident‖ has been printed next to the hospital drip (Łuczak and Szczęsny, 1999, p.26)

The three slogans are definitely communicative units, being singular realizations of, as it seems, didactic discourse They are verbal, meaningful and recorded textual units that fulfil the characteristic functions of texts They are cohesive according to Polish grammatical standards and coherent; the texts activate cognitive processes among those who receive he messages and while juxtaposed with the situational features like, for instance: narrow Polish roads

of generally low quality, with many dangerously speeding young drivers in their second-hand cars The texts are thought to be fully informative while being just one-sentence-long each With respect to intertextuality, one can easily notice one informal word with a double meaning in each of the texts The words are as follows: bryka (a limousine/wheelchair), laska (a girl-friend/crutches), drinki (drinks), and by means of these words, very often used

by teenagers, the addresser intended not only to make them aware of the possible dangers they could encounter while driving but also send them the following information: ―If you happen to behave here and now in an unreasonable way and do not slow down you will soon call these objects respectively: your new car, friend and drinks; so drive carefully!‖ As regards the regulative principles of De Beaugrande and Dressler, it appears that the texts are appropriate to the situation and their chances of success in being obtained via single sentences shown against the particular background were

rather high Having in mind ―intentionality‖ and ―acceptability‖ one might wonder whether by distribution of the information receivers have acquired any knowledge Research should be conducted concerning the issues that aim at stating what kind of drivers paid attention to the information, and what was their reaction to the messages (did they laugh or reduce their speed, or perhaps did they accelerate to indicate that it did not concern them) Such research would undoubtedly require the use of certain elements of sociological methodology to be fully successful It is to be observed that in such a case where there are verbal texts and images accompanying them (or even being constitutive parts of the information to be communicated) the application of the discussed ―textuality standards‖ may not be sufficient because one would have

to research the entire ―semiotic act‖ (Van Leeuwen, 1993, p.214) (the verbal text and the image, both constituting the information to be communicated in a particular situation to a particular group of addressees) The thesis writer thinks that at least some of De Beaugrande and Dressler‘s ―principles of textual communication‖, like for instance ―intertextuality‖ and ―situationality‖ definitely transcend the notion of textuality and can be researched as belonging

to another compound element of discursive communication, i.e context which

is a significant nonverbal part of communication

4 Related studies

Piotr (2002) conducted a study to investigate principles of textual communication on the basis of Polish press reports after President Obama‘s 2009 Inauguration The analyzed linguistic corpus comprises the following dailies published on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009, i.e., the day after President Barack Obama‘s inauguration: Gazeta Wyborcza, Dziennik, Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wrocławska, Nasz Dziennik.In the light of the material presented one may reach the conclusion that the seven textuality standards of Robert de Beaugrande and Wolfgang Dressler (i.e., cohesion, coherence, informativity, intentionality, intertextuality, acceptability, and situationality) can be grouped into

the three following sections of: text-oriented, sender-oriented, and context-oriented standards Regarding the standards presented as basic components of a much larger textuality-research model, one can divide large texts into smaller sections and make a cross-textual comparative analysis of, for example, particular news reports It is also quite visible that the standards presented are not yet complete, and can be regarded as just a starting point for further research, and development in the study of text linguistics and journalistic discourse

In the previous study of Birdal (2010), the text, ―Baucis and Philemon‖ has been studied in detail in terms of the seven standards of textuality By means of this study, the importance of such a detailed study has been proved to be essential and necessary to understand the text by considering not only the linguistic elements as it has been done in ―Cohesion‖ part only, but more detailed one as it has been extended through other six items With ―Coherence‖ the importance of the relations between the concepts, in a text words, is comprehended; with ―Intentionality‖ the necessity of the leadership of the aim and the intention of the text attributed to it by its writer; with ―Acceptability‖ getting and accepting the message as a receiver as it

is attributed by the writer(producer) of the text, with ―Informativity‖ the vitality of getting the new message correctly and being capable of differentiating the order of the importance of these messages, with ―Situationality‖, maybe the primary one, the context of the text, and finally with ―Intertextuality‖, the importance of interrelationships of all, the importance of the participants‘(receivers, producers) knowledge of other texts in order to produce and to receive the texts correctly and effectively has come into existence while analyzing the texts

The thesis writer notices that there has not been much research conducted on text analysis, especially on the analysis of highly communicative and authentic text such as speeches, in terms of standards of textuality The thesis writer realizes the need to fulfill this gap; therefore, this studied is carried out

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

1 Research approach and research methods

The study of text linguistics is regarded as an important contribution to the study of linguistics - especially of the study of the variety of texts that are possible

in language What exactly is studied when a text linguistics approach is followed? Different approaches to the study of texts from a linguistic perspective have been put forward, e.g text grammar (Van Dijk, 1972) vs text linguistics (De Beaugrande

& Dressler, 1981) vs discourse analysis (Brown & Yule, 1983; Schiffrin, 1994), and this has given rise to the perception that it is difficult to use only one approach when studying texts In this regard it is important to distinguish between these terms

at the outset:

 A text grammar (Van Dijk, 1972) aims to establish a model with which the grammatical structures of texts can be described (quite similar to Chomsky‘s transformational approach)

 In contrast, text linguistics (De Beaugrande & Dressler, 1981; Carstens, 1997) is ― devoted to describing how texts are created and understood‖ (Donnelly, 1994, p.18) and in so doing studies the ― defining properties of texts - what constitutes their textuality or texture ‖ (Crystal, 1992, p.387)

 Discourse analysis (Renkema, 1993; Schiffrin, 1994) traditionally entails the analysis of chiefly written texts - especially the ― analysis of utterances as social inter-action‖ (Schiffrin, 1994, p.419) However, it seems that it is very difficult to define ―discourse‖ precisely – Schiffrin (1994, p.42) for example says that discourse analysis ― is one of the most vast, but also least defined, areas in linguistics‖

Generally speaking, it appears as if the approach put forward by De

Beaugrande & Dressler (in their well-known Introduction to text linguistics

(1981)) is favoured by many linguists and in this paper, the researcher will follow text linguistics approach

This research uses descriptive method because it provides factual, accurate and systematic description about the data that is studied Jefferies (1999) concluded that surveys, case studies, job analysis, documentary analysis, developmental studies and correlation studies can be categorized as ―descriptive.‖ In addition, this thesis also applies qualitative method for the reason that research data is in form of sentences This kind of data is called ―soft data‖ (Mackey and Gass, 2005, p 2), which means words or sentences The data of this research is two commencement speeches – one speech is on June 7, 2007 at Harvard University by Bill Gates and the other is on June 15, 2014 at Stanford University by Bill and Melinda Gates, both

of which are in form of transcript

2 Data collection procedure

As aforementioned, the ultimate objective of this research is to analyze the chosen commencement speeches in terms of seven standards of textuality The data collection procedure consists of two main steps

First of all, the two speeches are examined, then relevant information about two texts are also studied thoroughly

Secondly, every detail marking the presence of those seven standards in these speeches is indicated The framework by De Beaugrande (1981) could be considered the most fundamental basis of this part The analytical units of the thesis are words, phrases, clauses and sentences

Since cohesion and coherence, which have been priorly discussed in detail by many researchers, may require a more elaborate and extensive study, five instead of seven standards of textuality, which are intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and intertextuality will be investigated in this thesis

CHAPTER III: ANALYSIS OF TWO COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES BY

BILL GATES ON TEXTUALITY STANDARDS

The two selected texts “The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University” and “The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University” will be analyzed according to the five characteristics of text

linguistics given below:

[…] I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world – the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair … Humanity‘s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity – reducing inequity is the highest human achievement […] If you believe that every life has equal value, it‘s revolting to learn that some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not … I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on

what you have done with your talent and your energy I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world‘s deepest inequities …

on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity

1.2 Acceptability

The writer‘s intention is accepted by the reader by means of the stored knowledge the readers have for such a text type (speeches) A speech should contain mainly four parts, namely Salutation and Greeting, Introduction, Body and Conclusion

The Salutation and Greeting vary for different speeches It can be more casual and informal or it can be more formal It should be noted that the audience should

be addressed in the sequence of descending ―importance‖: ―President Bok, former President Rudenstine, incoming President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, parents, and especially, the graduates.‖

In the introduction, the purpose of the speech is stated and the main points are introduced briefly Often, a speech begins with a stressed sentence or a question, or both Other frequently used sentences to start a speech include ―I‘m very pleased/It

is my pleasure to have this opportunity to…‖, ―On behalf of …, I would like to…‖ etc In the text, Gates states: ―I‘ve been waiting more than 30 years to say this:

―Dad, I always told you I‘d come back and get my degree.‖ I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor I‘ll be changing my job next year … and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees […]‖

In the body, the points are addressed in details one by one The speaker is suggested not to make too many points as the audience may find it difficult to absorb all the details Examples can be quoted to make the speech more interesting and convincing Suggestions can also be made if suitable The author strongly

believes that the well-organized structure of this speech considerably contributes to the acceptability

- Talking about his departure from Harvard to found Microsoft:

I‘ve been waiting more than 30 years to say this: ―Dad, I always told you I‘d come back and get my degree.‖

I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor I‘ll be changing my job next year … and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume

I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees For my part, I‘m just happy that the Crimson has called me

―Harvard‘s most successful dropout.‖ I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class … I did the best of everyone who failed But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop out of business school I‘m a bad influence That‘s why

I was invited to speak at your graduation If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today

- Introducing the central theme of his address:

But taking a serious look back, I do have one big regret I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world – the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair

I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and politics I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences But humanity‘s greatest advances are not in its discoveries, but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity

- On the role of the market:

We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism – if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or at least earn a living, serving

people who are suffering from the great inequities We also can press governments around the world to spend taxpayer money in ways that better reflect the values of the people who pay the taxes

If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world Now, this task

is open-ended It can never be finished But a conscious effort to answer this challenge can change the world

- On the need to get people excited about addressing these problems:

I remember going to the World Economic Forum some years back and sitting on a global health panel that was discussing ways to save millions

of lives Millions! Think of the thrill if you could save just one person‘s life – then multiply that by millions Yet this was the most boring panel I‘ve ever been on ever So boring, even I couldn‘t stand it

What made that experience especially striking was that I had just come from an event where we were introducing Version 13 of some piece of software, and we had people jumping and shouting with excitement I love getting people excited about software – but why can‘t we generate even more excitement for saving lives? You can‘t get people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact

- On the role of technology:

Yes, inequity has been with us forever But the new tools we have to cut through complexity have not been with us forever They are new – they can help us make the most of our caring- and that‘s why the future can

be different from the past The defining and ongoing innovations of this age – biotechnology, the personal computer, and the Internet – give us a chance we‘ve never had before to end extreme poverty and end death from preventable disease

In the conclusion, there is usually a short and simple summary of what have been said Recommendations can be made and the speaker would thank the

audience at the end

You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time As you leave Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you if you abandon these people whose lives you could change with modest effort You have more than we had You must start sooner, and carry on longer

And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world‘s deepest inequities – on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity Good luck.‖

If there is no such frame for this text type, then it should be made clear for the reader to provide acceptability It is obviously seen that the structure of the text, which has nothing wrong with the communication, proves that the writer‘s explanations and organization is so successful that it is enough for the listeners to understand what is going on

When it comes to speculating upon the text, as far as it can be understood from the speech, they are accepted To exemplify:

If we can really see a problem, which is the first step, we come to the second step: cutting through the complexity to find a solution

Finding solutions is essential if we want to make the most of our caring

If we have clear and proven answers anytime an organization or individual asks ―How can I help?‖, then we can get action – and we can make sure that none of the caring in the world is wasted