摘 要

格雷塔·通贝里是近年来新崛起的一位政治活动家和环保主义者,这名年轻的瑞典女孩在仅仅两年间内就从学校走上世界各大政治舞台并吸引全球140万青少年参与其发起的罢课抗议活动。能在短的时间内取得如此巨大的号召效应，其独特的演说技巧功不可没,因此，研究格雷塔·通贝里演讲中的说服技巧不仅具有创新性更具有一定的现实意义。

本文以伯克新修辞学中的同一理论为指导，选取了格雷塔·通贝里两篇最广为人知的演讲为研究对象,从同一理论中的同情同一、对立统一和不准确同一这三个方面分析格雷塔·通贝里是如何在演讲中实现同一，最后又从语内和语外两个方面更深入细致地介绍了格雷塔·通贝里在演讲中所使用的劝说策略。

关键词： 格雷塔·通贝里；演讲；同一理论

Abstract

Greta Thunberg is a new political environmental activist in recent years. In just two years, this young Swedish girl has stepped from school to the world's political arena and attracted 1.4 million young people around the world to participate in her strike protest. Thunberg's unique speech skills are indispensable to achieve such a huge appeal effect in a short time. Therefore, it is not only innovative but also of practical significance to study the persuasion skills in Greta's speech.

Based on the Identification Theory of Burke's New Rhetoric Theory, this paper selects two of Thunberg's most well-known speeches as the research objects, analyzes how Thunberg achieved identity in her speeches from the three aspects : identification by sympathy, identification by antithesis and identification by inaccuracy, and concludes with a more detailed introduction to the persuasive strategies used by Thunberg in her speeches from the intralingual and extralingual perspectives.

Key Words: Greta Thunberg; Speech; Identification theory;

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Previous studies on Burke’s Identification Theory abroad 4

2.2 Previous studies on Burke’s Identification Theory at home 5

3 Greta Thunberg’s Speeches under the Identification Theory 6

3.1 Background of Thunberg and her speeches 6

3.2 Two speeches under th Identification Theory 7

4 Intralingual and Extralingual Persuasion Strategies in Thunberg’s Speeches 11

4.1 Intralingual persuasion strategies in Thunberg’s Speeches 11

4.2 Extralingual persuasion strategies in Thunberg’s Speeches 13

5 Conclusions 16

References  17

Acknowledgements 19

Persuasion Strategies in Swedish Environmental Activist Greta Thunberg’s Speeches

1 Introduction

In August 2018, Greta Thunberg began the school climate strikes and public speeches for which she has become an internationally recognized climate activist. Since the problem of global warming came into the public’s view in the 1980s, countless people have been crying out for it, including famous movie stars, famous politicians, respected scientists, but no one can set off a “hurricane” like the ordinary girl Greta Thunberg. Millions of young people from more than 150 countries responded to her call to support the “Global Climate Action Week” in the form of strikes.

One of the key elements that make Thunberg stand out among environmentalists is her excellent oratory. Nowadays, with exceptionally advanced media technology, information can be broadly and fast transmitted. Public figures can use speech skills to spread their words and deeds among the general public, and then influence their decisions.

Rhetoric has been an effective means of regulating human relations since ancient Greece and Rome. From Aristotle to Burke, the development of rhetoric is constantly enriched. Kenneth Burke, the representative figure of the new rhetoric, argued that man is an animal that uses signs and symbols, so “wherever there is persuasion, there will be rhetoric. Wherever there is meaning, there is persuasion.” (Burke, 1969）Burke believed that rhetoric was a tool for analyzing the world. At the same time, Burke believes that a language is a symbolic act, and rhetoric can help us understand the world that language shapes.

Using Burke’s rhetoric theory to analyze Thunberg’s speech, we can find that Thunberg used "identification theory" several times in her speech. This rhetorical approach makes the process of her presentation extremely compelling and persuasive. In terms of rhetorical content, Thunberg uses the sympathy, antithesis, and inaccuracy identification patterns to evoke empathy and identification between people, further stimulating the impact of the speech and the audience’s understanding. Through further study from the two levels of intralingual and extralingual, it is found that Thunberg's skillful use of metaphor, parallelism and repetition enhanced the rhythm and power of the language; the clothing, proper control of the eyes and facial expressions gives the speech a unique artistic effect and makes the output of the subject more powerful.

2 Literature Review

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, which together with grammar and logic, is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the ability of a writer or speaker to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. (Corbett, 1990) It is well known that Aristotle was the forefather of classical western rhetoric, and his rhetorical ideas had a profound impact on western culture and scholarship. In the 20th century, Burke emerged in American academia with his idiosyncratic ideas, and he was regarded as the originator and founder of the new rhetoric.

Kenneth Burke defines rhetoric as the “use of words by human agents to form attitudes or to induce actions in other human agents” And Kenneth Burke sees man as an animal that uses symbols and signs, so “wherever there is persuasion, there is rhetoric. Wherever there is meaning, there is persuasion.” (Burke,1969) Burke’s New Rhetoric is not a complete rejection of classical rhetorical thought, instead, he roots his rhetorical theory in classical rhetoric, as his theory also derives from the originator term of rhetoric, persuasion. Based on the persuasion theory in classical rhetoric, he introduced other features of rhetoric and extended the definition of rhetoric, which greatly exceeded the scope of the traditional rhetoric definition. (Ju Yumei, 2005)

Identity is the key term of Burke’s The Rhetoric of Motives and the core idea of Burke's rhetoric theory. Burke’s theory not only involves the connection and identity of ourselves but also includes the identity between the objective things, which is the identity of conscious and unconscious motives.

The basis of identity is communication. Only by expressing what is common or similar to the listener can a rhetor achieve identity. “You persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his.” (Burke,1969). Another way for the rhetorician to achieve the identity is to form a metaphysical and material sense of the same with the listener's traits. By metaphysics here, Burke means rational, moral, and emotional capacities. Material identity refers to material characteristics, goods, status, nationality, etc. Burke's Identification Theory provides a new cognitive perspective for people to re-integrate human society. (Wu Honghao, 2019) Therefore, as for the Identification Theory, there are many linguists have studied it, both at home and abroad.

2.1 Previous studies on Burke's Identification Theory abroad

There was so much research on Burke’s New Rhetoric, which are divided into three fields namely: philosophical theories of rhetoric, the application in criticism, and the theories of rhetorical. But the research on Burke's Identification Theory began in the 1920s approximately. Many foreign linguists have conducted researches on Identification Theory in many aspects, such as psychology, linguistics, sociology, and so on.

Burke's Identification Theory is consistent with Freudian individual self because it is affected by Freud's theory. Hence, there are many scholars who have studied the Identification Theory from the perspective of psychology.