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Chapter One Introduction 

1.1 Research Background 
Rhetoric  is  one  of  the  western  world’s  oldest  disciplines.  From  ancient  Greece and  Rome  to  the  modern  era,  the  art  of  persuasion  has  been  used,  discussed,  and debated for many years. In recent times, scholars in such areas as philosophy, literary theory,  and  communications  have  renewed  their  attention  to  rhetoric  as  a  way  of understanding the cultural and social life in many areas. A  rhetorical  situation  is  the  foundation  of  a  rhetorical  act.  It  is  one  of  the  core concepts  in  western  rhetoric.  The  famous  rhetorician,  Lloyd  Bitzer  first  put  forward the  Rhetorical  Situation  in  The  Rhetorical  Situation  in  1968.  In  his  Rhetorical Situation,  there  are  three  constituents  in  any  rhetorical  situation.  They  are  the exigence, the audience and the constraints. In 1973, Kenneth Burke indirectly denied Bitzer’s  Rhetorical  Situation.  He  thinks  Bitzer’s  theory  is  limited  and  considers  the concept  of  rhetoric  in  the  human  environment.  For  political  rhetoric,  a  rhetorical situation  refers  to  a  specific  environment  which  the  political  subject  depends  on.  A political rhetorical situation may continue to change. The rhetorical situation plays a very important role in the success of communication. The speaker must know clearly his/her  rhetorical  situation  in  order  to  complete  a  successful  and  influential  speech. The Rhetorical Situation can provide a feasible and powerful tool to evaluate various rhetorical events for the rhetor. Political speeches are important parts of the political life. Political discourses can be useful for the maintenance of the leaders’ power. In the specific political culture, considering the “speaker-audience” situation, the speaker regards the audience as the center,  sets  the  topic,  chooses  the  word  and  plans  the  overall  discourse  so  as  to  win the recognition of the target audience. Presidential speeches in the United States have a  higher  value  in  rhetorical  researches.  In  order  to  realize  his/her  goals,  the  speaker must do a lot of related work, such as the topic background, the history, the degree of importance, the audience and so on. 
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1.2 Research Significance 
This paper tries to analyze Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Address based on  the  Bitzer-Burke’s  Rhetorical  Situation  model,  which  combines  Bitzer’s Rhetorical  Situation  and  Burke’s  Identification  together.  First,  i本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。