VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN LINH CHI A TEXT ANALYSIS OF “THE 2007 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY BILL GATES AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY” AND “THE 2014 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY BILL AND MELINDA GATES AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY” ON THE DE BEAUGRANDE FRAMEWORK (Phân tích văn “Bài phát biểu Bill Gates lễ tốt nghiệp năm 2007 Đại học Harvard ” “Bài phát biểu Bill Melinda Gates lễ tốt nghiệp năm 2014 Đại học Stanford” khung lý thuyết De Beaugrande) M.A Minor Program Thesis Major: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Hanoi - 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN LINH CHI A TEXT ANALYSIS OF “THE 2007 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY BILL GATES AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY” AND “THE 2014 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY BILL AND MELINDA GATES AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY” ON THE DE BEAUGRANDE FRAMEWORK (Phân tích văn “Bài phát biểu Bill Gates lễ tốt nghiệp năm 2007 Đại học Harvard ” “Bài phát biểu Bill Melinda Gates lễ tốt nghiệp năm 2014 Đại học Stanford” khung lý thuyết De Beaugrande) M.A Minor Program Thesis Major: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng Hanoi - 2016 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis, entitled A text analysis of “The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University” and “The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University” on the De Beaugrande framework and the work presented in it is my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own research I confirm that when I quoted from the work of others, the source was always given and no part of this work has been published before submission Signature: Date: i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng This thesis could have probably not completed without his patient, enthusiastic and instructive supervision and encouragement I also would like to show my profound thanks to all of the lecturers and officials in the Faculty of Graduate and Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for tirelessly devoting time and efforts to enrich, broaden and deepen my knowledge over the past two years Besides, I am deeply indebted to my beloved family for their wholehearted support and encouragement I also would like to dedicate my special thanks to my classmates, who have supported, cooperated and provided me with valuable suggestions Finally, I cannot fully express my gratitude to all the people whose direct and indirect support assisted me to accomplish my thesis in time ii ABSTRACT This study is conducted primarily to investigate whether and the two commencement speeches in 2007 and 2014 addressed by Bill Gates satisfy the standards of textuality built up by De Beaugrande For the aforementioned goals to be achieved, the text linguistics approach, as well as descriptive and qualitative methods, is employed In addition, the De Beaugrande framework on criteria of textuality (1981) serves as the integral theory foundation of this investigation All evidence is extracted from the two texts and analyzed to illustrate the theory about those criteria After the author of this thesis has elaborately analyzed the sources, the results of the study reveal that two speeches The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University and The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University have fulfilled properties of textuality As examples taken from speeches corresponding to each criterion are examined and explained, readers are able to understand how five selected standards of textuality are satisfied in two specific texts, and it can be said that the research question has been adequately answered iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study Research question Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Text 1.1 Definition of a text 1.2 Some major features of a text .6 Texture versus Text .6 Standards of textuality 3.1 Definition of textuality 3.2 Criteria of textuality 3.2.1.Intentionality 3.2.2.Acceptability 11 3.2.3.Informativity .13 3.2.4.Situationality .15 3.2.5.Intertextuality 16 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 22 1.Research approach and research methods .22 2.Data collection procedure 23 iv CHAPTER III: ANALYSIS OF TWO COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES BY BILL GATES ON TEXTUALITY STANDARDS .24 1.A text analysis of “The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University” 24 1.1 Intentionality 24 1.2 Acceptability 25 1.3 Informativity 29 1.4 Situationality 30 1.5 Intertextuality .32 2.A text analysis of “The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University” .34 2.1 Intentionality 34 2.2 Acceptability 35 2.3 Informativity 38 2.4 Situationality 40 2.5 Intertextuality .40 PART C: CONCLUSION .43 Conclusion 43 Implications 43 Limitation of the study 44 Suggestions for further study 44 REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX I v PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study When someone forms a text they are often concerned with their text‘s effect in practice; hence, there have been a number of theories that assist one in creating a successful text As an English linguistics researcher, the thesis writer realizes that the framework by De Beaugrande (1981) is a reliable foundation on which she is able to analyze a text, which significantly contributes to her Master‘s degree accomplishment In addition, that theory eventually helps the thesis writer improve the capability of producing and evaluate invaluable texts in her teaching career and devotes to the study of text linguistics in particular as well as English as an international language in general De Beaugrande and Dressler suggest ―Seven Standards of Textuality‖ (cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and intertextuality) and hypothesized that, if any one of them was not met, the text would not be communicative Undoubtedly, those seven criteria considerably contribute to the success of a text in general and two speeches in particular - The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University and The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University They are considered to be the most profound, inspirational speeches at graduation ceremonies presented by Bill Gates – one of the world‘s leading individuals Accordingly, the thesis writer felt the necessity to conduct a study in respect of seven standards of textuality and employ theoretical background to shed light on the reputation of The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University and The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University Aims of the study This study is designed to provide readers with crucial knowledge about seven essential standards of textuality suggested by De Beaugrande In addition, the research will study how a specific text fulfills seven characteristics of text linguistics The selected text to be explored is two well-known commencement speeches by Bill Gates at Harvard University in 2007 and at Stanford in 2014 This research is expected to be useful for those who are interested in producing a powerful and interactive text and an impressive commencement speech based on seven standards of textuality Research question In order for the aforementioned aims to be achieved, the research attempts to answer the following question: How the two commencement speeches addressed by Bill Gates in 2007 and 2014 fulfill the standards of textuality in the De Beaugrande framework? Scope of the study It is a common knowledge that there are numerous factors that make a speech memorable such as non-verbal language, the tone of voice, the idea, the cadence of the words and the rhythm of the sentences and so forth However, this thesis provides a very modest analysis on the success of two commencement speeches by Bill Gates in 2007 and 2014, respectively, by employing De Beaugrande framework Since cohesion and coherence, which have been priorly discussed in detail by many researchers, may require a more elaborate and extensive study, the scope of this MA thesis is narrowed down to five instead of seven standards of textuality, which are intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and intertextuality This study is conducted with the hope that the readers will have a thorough grasp of De Beaugrande framework which is concerned with seven criteria of textuality Practically, the thesis may assist someone to a certain extent in preparing and delivering a persuasive speech to record considerable achievements in society Design of the study The thesis, which reports the different stages of the study and its results, is expected to consist of the following parts according to requirements of an M.A thesis: Part A: Introduction This part includes the rationale, aims of the study, research question, and scope of the study as well as the structure of the thesis Part B: Development Chapter I: Theoretical Background This chapter deals with the theoretical background that inspires the thesis This chapter provides some related studies as well as the thorough literature review of five standards of textuality in which each of those criteria will be discussed in detail Chapter II: Methodology This chapter discusses the research approach, research methods of the study Moreover, this chapter provides information about data collection procedure Chapter III: The analysis of two speeches on De Beaugrande framework This chapter analyzes the collected data then withdraws the final conclusions of the thesis Further discussion on findings will be presented as well as the personal interpretations and comments from the thesis writer Part C: Conclusion The last part presents the summary of the thesis by providing answers to the research questions presented Finally, the thesis writer will review the limitations of this study and make suggestions for further research You graduates came to Harvard at a different time You know more about the world‘s inequities than the classes that came before In your years here, I hope you‘ve had a chance to think about how – in this age of accelerating technology – we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them Imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a few dollars a month to donate to a cause – and you wanted to spend that time and money where it would have the greatest impact in saving and improving lives Where would you spend it? For Melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we the most good for the greatest number with the resources we have During our discussions on this question, Melinda and I read an article about the millions of children who were dying every year in poor countries from diseases that we had long ago made harmless in this country: measles, malaria, pneumonia, hepatitis B, yellow fever One disease I had never even heard of, rotavirus, was killing half a million kids each year – none of them in the United States We were shocked We had just assumed that if millions of children were dying and they could be saved, the world would make it a priority to discover and deliver the medicines to save them But it did not For under a dollar, there were interventions that could save lives that just weren‘t being delivered If you believe that every life has equal value, it‘s revolting to learn that some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not We said to ourselves: ―This can‘t be true But if it is true, it deserves to be the priority of our giving.‖ So we began our work in the same way anyone here would begin it We asked: ―How could the world let these children die?‖ The answer is simple, and harsh The market did not reward saving the lives of these children, and governments did not subsidize it So the children died because their mothers and their fathers had no power in the market and no voice in the system But you and I have both III We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism – if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering from the worst inequities We also can press governments around the world to spend taxpayer money in ways that better reflect the values of the people who pay the taxes If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world This task is open-ended It can never be finished But a conscious effort to answer this challenge will change the world I am optimistic that we can this, but I talk to skeptics who claim there is no hope They say: ―Inequity has been with us since the beginning, and will be with us till the end – because people just … don‘t … care.‖ I completely disagree I believe we have more caring than we know what to with All of us here in this Yard, at one time or another, have seen human tragedies that broke our hearts, and yet we did nothing – not because we didn‘t care, but because we didn‘t know what to If we had known how to help, we would have acted The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact But complexity blocks all three steps Even with the advent of the Internet and 24-hour news, it is still a complex enterprise to get people to truly see the problems When an airplane crashes, officials immediately call a press conference They promise to investigate, determine the cause, and prevent similar crashes in the future But if the officials were brutally honest, they would say: ―Of all the people in the world who died today from preventable causes, one half of one percent of them were on this plane We‘re determined to everything possible to solve the problem that took the lives of the one half of one percent.‖ IV The bigger problem is not the plane crash, but the millions of preventable deaths We don‘t read much about these deaths The media covers what‘s new – and millions of people dying is nothing new So it stays in the background, where it‘s easier to ignore But even when we see it or read about it, it‘s difficult to keep our eyes on the problem It‘s hard to look at suffering if the situation is so complex that we don‘t know how to help And so we look away If we can really see a problem, which is the first step, we come to the second step: cutting through the complexity to find a solution Finding solutions is essential if we want to make the most of our caring If we have clear and proven answers anytime an organization or individual asks ―How can I help?,‖ then we can get action – and we can make sure that none of the caring in the world is wasted But complexity makes it hard to mark a path of action for everyone who cares — and that makes it hard for their caring to matter Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages: determine a goal, find the highest-leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that approach, and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology that you already have — whether it‘s something sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet The AIDS epidemic offers an example The broad goal, of course, is to end the disease The highest-leverage approach is prevention The ideal technology would be a vaccine that gives lifetime immunity with a single dose So governments, drug companies, and foundations fund vaccine research But their work is likely to take more than a decade, so in the meantime, we have to work with what we have in hand – and the best prevention approach we have now is getting people to avoid risky behavior Pursuing that goal starts the four-step cycle again This is the pattern The crucial thing is to never stop thinking and working – and never what we did with malaria and tuberculosis in the 20th century – which is to surrender to complexity and quit V The final step – after seeing the problem and finding an approach – is to measure the impact of your work and share your successes and failures so that others learn from your efforts You have to have the statistics, of course You have to be able to show that a program is vaccinating millions more children You have to be able to show a decline in the number of children dying from these diseases This is essential not just to improve the program, but also to help draw more investment from business and government But if you want to inspire people to participate, you have to show more than numbers; you have to convey the human impact of the work – so people can feel what saving a life means to the families affected I remember going to Davos some years back and sitting on a global health panel that was discussing ways to save millions of lives Millions! Think of the thrill of saving just one person‘s life – then multiply that by millions … Yet this was the most boring panel I‘ve ever been on – ever So boring even I couldn‘t bear it What made that experience especially striking was that I had just come from an event where we were introducing version 13 of some piece of software, and we had people jumping and shouting with excitement I love getting people excited about software – but why can‘t we generate even more excitement for saving lives? You can‘t get people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact And how you that – is a complex question Still, I‘m optimistic Yes, inequity has been with us forever, but the new tools we have to cut through complexity have not been with us forever They are new – they can help us make the most of our caring – and that‘s why the future can be different from the past The defining and ongoing innovations of this age – biotechnology, the computer, the Internet – give us a chance we‘ve never had before to end extreme poverty and end death from preventable disease Sixty years ago, George Marshall came to this commencement and announced a plan to assist the nations of post-war Europe He said: ―I think one difficulty is that VI the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation It is virtually impossible at this distance to grasp at all the real significance of the situation.‖ Thirty years after Marshall made his address, as my class graduated without me, technology was emerging that would make the world smaller, more open, more visible, less distant The emergence of low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful network that has transformed opportunities for learning and communicating The magical thing about this network is not just that it collapses distance and makes everyone your neighbor It also dramatically increases the number of brilliant minds we can have working together on the same problem – and that scales up the rate of innovation to a staggering degree At the same time, for every person in the world who has access to this technology, five people don‘t That means many creative minds are left out of this discussion — smart people with practical intelligence and relevant experience who don‘t have the technology to hone their talents or contribute their ideas to the world We need as many people as possible to have access to this technology, because these advances are triggering a revolution in what human beings can for one another They are making it possible not just for national governments, but for universities, corporations, smaller organizations, and even individuals to see problems, see approaches, and measure the impact of their efforts to address the hunger, poverty, and desperation George Marshall spoke of 60 years ago Members of the Harvard Family: Here in the Yard is one of the great collections of intellectual talent in the world What for? There is no question that the faculty, the alumni, the students, and the benefactors of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives of people here and around the world But can we more? Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear its name? VII Let me make a request of the deans and the professors – the intellectual leaders here at Harvard: As you hire new faculty, award tenure, review curriculum, and determine degree requirements, please ask yourselves: Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems? Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world‘s worst inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty … the prevalence of world hunger … the scarcity of clean water …the girls kept out of school … the children who die from diseases we can cure? Should the world‘s most privileged people learn about the lives of the world‘s least privileged? These are not rhetorical questions – you will answer with your policies My mother, who was filled with pride the day I was admitted here – never stopped pressing me to more for others A few days before my wedding, she hosted a bridal event, at which she read aloud a letter about marriage that she had written to Melinda My mother was very ill with cancer at the time, but she saw one more opportunity to deliver her message, and at the close of the letter she said: ―From those to whom much is given, much is expected.‖ When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given – in talent, privilege, and opportunity – there is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from us In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue – a complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it If you make it the focus of your career, that would be phenomenal But you don‘t have to that to make an impact For a few hours every week, you can use the growing power of the Internet to get informed, find others with the same interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them Don‘t let complexity stop you Be activists Take on the big inequities It will be one of the great experiences of your lives VIII You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time As you leave Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you if you abandon these people whose lives you could change with very little effort You have more than we had; you must start sooner, and carry on longer Knowing what you know, how could you not? And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world‘s deepest inequities … on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity Good luck IX The Commencement address at Stanford University by Bill and Melinda Gates on June 15, 2014 (Text as prepared for delivery) Following is the text of the address by Bill and Melinda Gates, philanthropists and co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as prepared for delivery at Stanford University's 123rd Commencement on June 15, 2014 Bill Gates: Congratulations, Class of 2014! Melinda and I are excited to be here It would be a thrill for anyone to be invited to speak at a Stanford Commencement – but it's especially gratifying for us Stanford is rapidly becoming the favorite university for members of our family And it's long been a favorite university for Microsoft and our foundation Our formula has been to get the smartest, most creative people working on the most important problems It turns out that a disproportionate number of those people are at Stanford Right now, we have more than 30 foundation research projects underway with Stanford When we want to learn more about the immune system to help cure the worst diseases, we work with Stanford When we want to understand the changing landscape of higher education in the United States so that more low-income students get college degrees, we work with Stanford This is where genius lives There is a flexibility of mind here – an openness to change, an eagerness for what's new This is where people come to discover the future and have fun doing it Melinda Gates: Some people call you nerds – and you claim the label with pride Bill: Well, so we There are so many remarkable things going on here at this campus But if Melinda and I had to put into one word what we love most about Stanford, it's the optimism There's an infectious feeling here that innovation can solve almost every problem That's the belief that drove me, in 1975, to leave a college in the suburbs of Boston and go on an endless leave of absence I believed that the magic of computers and software would empower people everywhere and make the world much, much better X It's been almost 40 years since then, and 20 years since Melinda and I were married We are both more optimistic now than ever But on our journey together, our optimism evolved We'd like to tell you what we learned – and talk to you today about how your optimism and ours can more – for more people When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft, we wanted to bring the power of computers and software to the people – and that was the kind of rhetoric we used One of the pioneering books in the field had a raised fist on the cover, and it was called Computer Lib At that time, only big businesses could buy computers We wanted to offer the same power to regular people – and democratize computing By the 1990s, we saw how profoundly personal computers could empower people But that success created a new dilemma: If rich kids got computers and poor kids didn't, then technology would make inequality worse That ran counter to our core belief: Technology should benefit everybody So we worked to close the digital divide I made it a priority at Microsoft, and Melinda and I made it an early priority at our foundation – donating personal computers to public libraries to make sure everyone had access The digital divide was a focus of mine in 1997 when I took my first trip to South Africa I went there on business, so I spent most of my time in meetings in downtown Johannesburg I stayed in the home of one of the richest families in South Africa It had only been three years since the election of Nelson Mandela marked the end of apartheid When I sat down for dinner with my hosts, they used a bell to call the butler After dinner, the men and women separated, and the men smoked cigars I thought, "Good thing I read Jane Austen, or I wouldn't have known what was going on." The next day I went to Soweto – the poor township southwest of Johannesburg that had been a center of the anti-apartheid movement It was a short distance from the city into the township, but the entry was sudden, jarring, and harsh I passed into a world completely unlike the one I came from My visit to Soweto became an early lesson in how naive I was Microsoft was donating computers and software to a community center there – the kind of thing we did in the United States But it became clear to me very quickly that this was not the United States I had seen statistics on poverty, but I had never really seen poverty The people there lived in corrugated tin shacks with no electricity, no water, no toilets Most people didn't wear shoes; they walked barefoot along the streets Except there were no streets – just ruts in the mud XI The community center had no consistent source of power, so they had rigged up an extension cord that ran about 200 feet from the center to a diesel generator outside Looking at the setup, I knew the minute the reporters and I left, the generator would get moved to a more urgent task, and the people who used the community center would go back to worrying about challenges that couldn't be solved by a PC When I gave my prepared remarks to the press, I said: "Soweto is a milestone There are major decisions ahead about whether technology will leave the developing world behind This is to close the gap." As I was reading those words, I knew they were irrelevant What I didn't say was: "By the way, we're not focused on the fact that half a million people on this continent are dying every year from malaria But we're sure as hell going to bring you computers." Before I went to Soweto, I thought I understood the world's problems, but I was blind to the most important ones I was so taken aback by what I saw that I had to ask myself, "Do I still believe that innovation can solve the world's toughest problems?" I promised myself that before I came back to Africa, I would find out more about what keeps people poor Over the years, Melinda and I did learn more about the most pressing needs of the poor On a later trip to South Africa, I paid a visit to a hospital for patients with MDR-TB, or multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, a disease with a cure rate of under 50 percent I remember that hospital as a place of despair It was a giant open ward with a sea of patients shuffling around in pajamas, wearing masks There was one floor just for children, including some babies lying in bed They had a little school for the kids who were well enough to learn, but many of the children couldn't make it, and the hospital didn't seem to know whether it was worth it to keep the school open I talked to a patient there in her early thirties She had been a worker at a TB hospital when she came down with a cough She went to a doctor, and he told her she had drug-resistant TB She was later diagnosed with AIDS She wasn't going to live much longer, but there were plenty of MDR patients waiting to take her bed when she vacated it This was hell with a waiting list XII But seeing hell didn't reduce my optimism; it channeled it I got in the car and told the doctor who was working with us: "Yeah, I know MDR-TB is hard to cure But we should be able to something for these people." This year, we're entering phase three with a new TB drug regime For patients who respond, instead of a 50 percent cure rate after 18 months for $2,000, we could get an 80-90 percent cure rate after six months for under $100 That's better by a factor of a hundred Optimism is often dismissed as false hope But there is also false hopelessness That's the attitude that says we can't defeat poverty and disease We absolutely can Melinda: Bill called me after he visited the TB hospital Ordinarily, if we're calling from a trip, we just go through the agenda of the day: "Here's what I did; here's where I went; here's who I met." But this call was different He said: "Melinda, I've gone somewhere I've never been before" and then he choked up and couldn't talk Finally he just said: "I'll tell you when I get home." I knew what he was going through When you see people with so little hope, it breaks your heart But if you want to the most, you have to see the worst That's what Bill was doing that day I've had days like that, too Ten years ago, I traveled to India with friends On the last day there, I spent some time meeting with prostitutes I expected to talk to them about the risk of AIDS, but they wanted to talk about stigma Most of these women had been abandoned by their husbands, and that's why they'd gone into prostitution They were trying to make enough money to feed their kids They were so low in the eyes of society that they could be raped and robbed and beaten by anybody – even by police – and nobody cared Talking to them about their lives was so moving to me But what I remember most is how much they wanted to touch me and be touched It was as if physical contact somehow proved their worth As I was leaving, we took a photo of all of us with our arms linked together Later that day, I spent some time in a home for the dying I walked into a large hall and saw rows and rows of cots Every cot was attended except for one far off in the corner that no one was going near, so I walked over there The patient was a woman who seemed to be in her thirties I remember her eyes She had these huge, brown, sorrowful eyes She was emaciated, on the verge of death Her intestines XIII weren't holding anything – so they had put her on a cot with a hole cut out in the bottom, and everything just poured through into a pan below I could tell she had AIDS, both from the way she looked, and the fact that she was off in the corner alone The stigma of AIDS is vicious – especially for women – and the punishment is abandonment When I arrived at her cot, I suddenly felt totally helpless I had absolutely nothing I could offer her I knew I couldn't save her, but I didn't want her to be alone So I knelt down next to her and reached out to touch her – and as soon as she felt my hand, she grabbed it and wouldn't let go We sat there holding hands, and even though I knew she couldn't understand me, I just started saying: "It's okay It's okay It's not your fault It's not your fault." We had been there together for a while when she pointed upward with her finger It took me some time to figure out that she wanted to go up to the roof and sit outside while it was still light out I asked one of the workers if that would be okay, but she was overwhelmed by all the patients she had to care for She said: "She's in the last stages of dying, and I have to pass out medicine." Then I asked another, and got the same answer It was getting late and the sun was going down, and I had to leave, and no one seemed willing to take her upstairs So finally I just scooped her up – she was just skin over a skeleton, just a sack of bones – and I carried her up the stairs On the roof, there were a few of those plastic chairs that will blow over in a strong breeze, and I set her down on one of those, and I helped prop her feet up on another, and I placed a blanket over her legs And she sat there with her face to the west, watching the sunset I made sure the workers knew that she was up there so they would come get her after the sun went down Then I had to leave her But she never left me I felt completely and totally inadequate in the face of this woman's death But sometimes it's the people you can't help who inspire you the most I knew that the sex workers I linked arms with in the morning could become the woman I carried upstairs in the evening – unless they found a way to defy the stigma that over their lives Over the past 10 years, our foundation has helped sex workers build support groups so they could empower each other to speak out for safe sex and demand that their clients use condoms Their brave efforts helped keep HIV prevalence XIV low among sex workers, and a lot of studies show that is a big reason why the AIDS epidemic in India hasn't exploded When these sex workers gathered together to help stop AIDS transmission, something unexpected and wonderful happened The community they formed became a platform for everything They were able to set up speed-dial networks to respond to violent attacks Police and others who raped and robbed them couldn't get away with it anymore The women set up systems to encourage savings They used financial services that helped some of them start businesses and get out of sex work This was all done by people society considered the lowliest of the low Optimism for me isn't a passive expectation that things will get better; it's a conviction that we can make things better – that whatever suffering we see, no matter how bad it is, we can help people if we don't lose hope and we don't look away Bill: Melinda and I have described some devastating scenes But we want to make the strongest case we can for the power of optimism Even in dire situations, optimism can fuel innovation and lead to new tools to eliminate suffering But if you never really see the people who are suffering, your optimism can't help them You will never change their world And that brings me to what I see as a paradox The world of science and technology is driving phenomenal innovations – and Stanford stands at the center of that, creating new companies, prize-winning professors, ingenious software, miracle drugs, and amazing graduates We're on the verge of mind-blowing breakthroughs in what human beings can for each other And people here are really excited about the future At the same time, if you ask people across the United States, "Is the future going to be better than the past?" most people will say: "No My kids will be worse off than I am." They think innovation won't make the world better for them or for their children So who's right? The people who say innovation will create new possibilities and make the world better? …or… The people who see a trend toward inequality and a decline in opportunity and don't think innovation will change that? XV The pessimists are wrong in my view, but they're not crazy If technology is purely market-driven and we don't focus innovation on the big inequities, then we could have amazing inventions that leave the world even more divided We won't improve public schools We won't cure malaria We won't end poverty We won't develop the innovations poor farmers need to grow food in a changing climate If our optimism doesn't address the problems that affect so many of our fellow human beings, then our optimism needs more empathy If empathy channeled our optimism, we would see the poverty and the disease and the poor schools, we would answer with our innovations, and we would surprise the pessimists Over the next generation, you Stanford graduates will lead a new wave of innovation and apply it to your world Which problems will you decide to solve? If your world is wide, you can create the future we all want If your world is narrow, you may create the future the pessimists fear I started learning in Soweto that if we're going to make our optimism matter to everyone and empower people everywhere, we have to see the lives of those most in need If we have optimism, but we don't have empathy – then it doesn't matter how much we master the secrets of science, we're not really solving problems; we're just working on puzzles I think most of you have a broader worldview than I had at your age You can better at this than I did If you put your hearts and minds to it, you can surprise the pessimists We can't wait to see it Melinda: Let your heart break It will change what you with your optimism On a trip to South Asia, I met a desperately poor mother who brought me her two small children and implored me: "Please take them home with you." When I begged her forgiveness and said I could not, she said: "Then please take one." On another trip, to South Los Angeles, I was talking to a group of high school students from a tough neighborhood when one young woman said to me: "Do you ever feel like we are just somebody else's kids whose parents shirked their responsibilities, that we're all just leftovers?" These women made my heart break – and still And the empathy intensifies if I admit to myself: "That could be me." When I talk with the mothers I meet during my travels, I see that there is no difference at all in what we want for our children The only difference is our ability to give it to them XVI What accounts for that difference? Bill and I talk about this with our kids at the dinner table Bill worked incredibly hard and took risks and made sacrifices for success But there is another essential ingredient of success, and that ingredient is luck – absolute and total luck When were you born? Who were your parents? Where did you grow up? None of us earned these things They were given to us When we strip away our luck and privilege and consider where we'd be without them, it becomes easier to see someone who's poor and sick and say "that could be me." This is empathy; it tears down barriers and opens up new frontiers for optimism So here is our appeal to you: As you leave Stanford, take your genius and your optimism and your empathy and go change the world in ways that will make millions of others optimistic as well You don't have to rush You have careers to launch, debts to pay, spouses to meet and marry That's enough for now But in the course of your lives, without any plan on your part, you'll come to see suffering that will break your heart When it happens, and it will, don't turn away from it; turn toward it That is the moment when change is born Congratulations and good luck XVII [...]... Situationality Texts are always situated in discrete communicative and social settings The situationality of texts is a major component of their textuality Situationality is the location of a text in a discrete sociocultural context in a real time and place Situationality ―concerns the factors which make a text relevance to a situation of occurrence‖ (De Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981, p.10) For instance,... 23 CHAPTER III: ANALYSIS OF TWO COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES BY BILL GATES ON TEXTUALITY STANDARDS The two selected texts The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University and The 2014 commencement speech by Bill and Melinda Gates at Stanford University will be analyzed according to the five characteristics of text linguistics given below: - Intentionality - Acceptibility - Informativity... of an outside -text notion than of a text- dependent one It is due to the situation that people create texts and not vice versa It is often the case that the sense and use of the text are decided via the situation‖ (De Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981, p.11) This is, however, of secondary importance, and concerns the addressees of the text, who are 17 supposed to understand it, or in other words, the addressee... time and attention to devote to signs among the other occurrences of moving traffic That consideration forces the text producer toward a maximum of economy; situationality works so strongly that the minimal version (e) is more appropriate than the clearer (f) 3.2.5 Intertextuality The seventh standard of textuality is to be call intertextuality and ―concerns the factors which make the utilization of one... which means words or sentences The data of this research is two commencement speeches – one speech is on June 7, 2007 at Harvard University by Bill Gates and the other is on June 15, 2014 at Stanford University by Bill and Melinda Gates, both of which are in form of transcript 2 Data collection procedure As aforementioned, the ultimate objective of this research is to analyze the chosen commencement speeches... Situationality - Intertextuality 1 A text analysis of The 2007 commencement speech by Bill Gates at Harvard University 1.1 Intentionality In his 2007 commencement address at Harvard University, Bill Gates main intention is to urge graduates to work to find solutions to the world's most pressing problems, to discover and help solve the health and social inequalities that the world faces His intention... systematic description about the data that is studied Jefferies (1999) concluded that surveys, case studies, job analysis, documentary analysis, developmental studies and correlation studies can be categorized as ―descriptive.‖ In addition, this thesis also applies qualitative method for the reason that research data is in form of sentences This kind of data is called ―soft data‖ (Mackey and Gass, 2005, p... briefly describe their textuality standards, or to use a more appropriate expression: the principles of communication‖, for even though the constitutive principles of textual communication are also called by the authors ―standards of textuality‖, their concepts evidently transcend the notion of text and it seems that at least some of them should rather be researched as contextual processes influencing text. ..PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND The literature review of the thesis is the compilation of written and published knowledge on the topic of De Beaugrande framework regarding some standards of textuality The review is drawn from previous studies done by famous linguists and prior linguistic scholars 1 Text 1.1 Definition of a text As Beaugrande and Dressler (1981, p.3) stated, a text. .. addressees) The thesis writer thinks that at least some of De Beaugrande and Dressler‘s ―principles of textual communication‖, like for instance ―intertextuality‖ and ―situationality‖ definitely transcend the notion of textuality and can be researched as belonging to another compound element of discursive communication, i.e context which is a significant nonverbal part of communication 4 Related studies