A contrastive analysis of lexical and grammatical cohesion in inaugural speeches by the U.S President Barrack Obama and Vietnamese former President Nguyen Minh Triet

Abstract

This thesis paper presents an attempt to contrastively analyze lexical and grammatical cohesive devices in two inaugural speeches by the U.S President Barrack Obama and Vietnamese Former President Nguyen Minh Triet. The study tries to give a theoretical frame work of discourse, discourse context, contrastive analysis and lexical and grammatical cohesion. Then, the analyses on grammatical cohesive devices – reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction – and lexical cohesive devices – reiteration and collocation – of two inaugural speeches have demystified their similarities and differences in using these devices to make texts coherent, airtight and unambiguous. The result of the study can lead to some implications for teachers and learners of second language in learning writing, especially understanding and writing speeches.