Efficiency Tools In The Speeches Of Martin Luther King, Jr

This thesis represents the results of a computer-aided analysis of aspects of speeches of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Specifically, the analysis has investigated the occurrence of indicators of the efficiency function--tools facilitating the comprehension of a discourse by a hearer or reader--in four speeches of Dr. King. Contrary to the expectations of many who anticipate complex grammatical structures in the discourse of those who are speechmakers before many and diverse audiences, this study has demonstrated that the speeches of Dr. King are replete with simple structural devices-sequential clauses as opposed to embedded clauses, sentences in which there are clear linkages between clauses, and clear linkages between sentences, to name a few. The analysis of the texts of Dr. King was accomplished in part by a computer program which used as input a surface semantic description of a sentence as a basis for predicting the syntactic function of elements of the sentence. Rationales Scope, .and Methodology Nida and Taber I propose norms for determining the functions of stylistic features. They consider the occurrence of features manifesting the efficiency function--for the enhancement of comprehension on the part of the hearer/reader--and the occurrence of features manifesting the special effects function-serving to stimulate hearer/reader interest in the discourse. Both formal and lexical features might be utilized to effect either of the two functions. They further propose that no discourse is restricted to the utilization of a single funtion--either efficiency or special effects--since a speaker/writer would be concerned both that his discourse is understood and that it evokes interest. This approach to style, in terms of its effects on an audience, has been discussed by others. See, for example, Chapman 2, Helloway 3, and Ohmann~ Martin Luther King, Jr. is considered by many to have been an effective speaker of our times. Certainly, he was effective in attracting large audiences to his podium, and official statistics on the attendance and frequency of turnout at his speeches would bear this out. Consider, for example, the turnout for the March on Washington where the estimated audience was 200,000. Reston 5 of the New York Times reported: "It was King who...touched the audience... until then the pilgramage...had been a spectacle." Whether this attraction was due to his political persuasion, his philosophy of nonviolence, curiosity, or the sheer beauty of his oratory is not a point at issue here. What is at issue is that he did have a message, and he certainly must have desired his message not only to be heard and understood but to be, in addition, a catalyst to the furtherance of his point of view. One might expect, then, that the features proposed by Nida and Taber manifesting both the efficiency and special effects function would be present in the discourse of a speaker of the caliber of Dr. King. This study reflects an acceptance of these proposals as norms, and in so doing endeavors to contribute to the substantiation of them as such by measuring the extent of reliance by Dr. King on specific features manifesting the efficiency function. This is not to say that features, in general lexical, manifesting the special effects function are not present in the discourse of Dr. King, but explicit in this study is a goal of specifying a computable process (an algorithm /device) for the recognition and identification of formal features. By statistical accumulation of data evidencing the presence of certain features enhancing the efficiency function, this study will endeavor to show that there is indeed a high occurrence of formal features for the enhancement of the efficiency function in the speeches of Dr. King. Specific parameters to be addressed herein are: i) intersentence markers 2) markers of relationships between clauses 3) sentences with simple structure 4) potential terminals in a sentence 5) clauses in sequence in a sentence To accomplish the statistical accumulations, the research contained herein utilizes a sentence parser which provides semantic coding as a basis for the recognition of the specific units of interest in Dr. King's discourse. The parsing algorithm will contain tools for a) the recognition of specific kinds of intersentence