ClassicuseofRepetitionandParallelisminIhaveadream英语论文.docClassic use of Repetition and Parallelism in I have a dream Martin Luther King’s speech of August 28,1963 is widely regarded as one of the most powerful ever delivered in the United States. Although this address was delivered orally, it was read from a written posed with great care. It is an example of formal English with a convincing style. Here are some of the stylistic devices (which may be considered traditionally as rhetorical devices) used by Dr King to inspire and persuade. NOJRepetition: Throughout the speech, Dr. King repeats words and sentence. This is a very outstanding feature in this speech called repetition. It belongs to the stylistic device of syntactic over-regularity. The term repetition is restricted to mean the case of exact copying of a certain previous unit in a text such as a word, phrase or even a sentence (Leech, 1969),because all the over-regular features in literature are in some sense repetitious. Used in speech,repetition not only makes it easy for the audience to follow what the speaker is saying, but also gives a strong rhythmic quality to the speech and makes it more memorable. In paragraphs 8 through 16, for example, King uses the words “I have a dream” nine times. This repetition helps to achieve the function of coherence in discourse and the function of reinforcement in mood and emotion, expressing the speaker’s strong emotion of longing f
