(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama's victory speech Tuesday night compares favorably with a number of historic orations, a linguist said Thursday.
Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Chicago, Illinois, after winning the presidency Tuesday night.
"His goal was to be understood by the widest possible audience during his victory speech, and he seems to have done a great job doing it," said Paul J.J. Payack, president of the Austin, Texas-based Global Language Monitor, which analyzed the speech for content, tone and length.
"He's at his best communicating directly and forthrightly with this audience and using different types of rhetorical devices," Payack said, noting that the speech was written to a seventh- or eighth-grade level.
That's lower than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech (grade 8.8), President Reagan's 1987 "Tear Down This Wall" speech (grade 9.8) and even Obama's own 2004 Democratic Convention speech (grade 8.3), Payack said.
In the four years since then, "he has learned to speak more directly and more succinctly when he's giving a major address," the word aficionado said.
He spoke admiringly of Obama's repeated use of the phrase "Yes, we can," calling it "very effective."
"That's a very short, direct sentence," Payack said. "Almost like a drumbeat hammering into people's minds and hearts."
He added, "something like that comes across as a very effective rhetorical device."
That phrase compares with Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" and President Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country," delivered in his inaugural speech.
At about 2,000 words, the speech was short enough not to lose the audience's attention but long enough to cite specifics and cover the subject matter, Payack said.
Twelve of those words were "hope" or variations of the word, which indicates optimism about the change (used nine times) he has promised to effect.
Another 23 of the words were "will," another way of making the speech forward-looking.
Though most of Obama's verbs were in the active voice, 11 percent of the sentences were in the passive voice, a dependable method of deflecting responsibility, Payack said. He cited Obama's "There will be setbacks and false starts" as an example.
"He's spreading the responsibility around," Payack said. "He didn't say, 'I will have setbacks. I will be wrong. I will make mistakes.' He used the passive voice for those types of constructions."
But the vast majority of the hopeful references were in the active voice, he said. "It's very personal and very active. 'I promise we, as a people, will get there.' "
The speech was notable for what it omitted, too, Payack said. In this case, the absence of a reference to the September 11 terrorist attacks indicates a change in tone, he said.
In his closing phrase, Obama repeats the mantra, "Yes, we can," which serves as a call to action, an acknowledgment that the country faces hard work, Payack said.
Obama is saying, "I'm asking you to do something big, but we can do it together," Payack said. "We are the change; we are the hope."
译文:
语言学家称奥巴马胜在演讲
（CNN）——星期二，一位语言学家说，总统当选人巴拉克·奥巴马当晚发表的获胜演说可与很多史上著名演讲相比。
星期二晚赢得总统大选后，巴拉克·奥巴马在美国伊利诺斯州芝加哥的一场集会上发表讲话。
“他的获胜演讲的目标是尽可能让最多的观众理解他，而他也似乎很好地达到了这一目的。”保罗·帕亚克说到。他是“全球语言监测机构”的总裁，机构位于得克萨斯州的首府奥斯汀，专门研究分析讲话的内容，语调和长度。
“他尽了最大的努力与观众进行了坦诚直率的交流，并用了很多种修辞手法。”帕亚克说，指出这篇演讲的水平为7-8级。
不过帕亚克也提到，这篇演讲比与马丁·路德·金1963年发表的“我有一个梦”（8.8级）和里根总统1987年发表的“拆掉这堵墙吧”（9.8级），甚至是奥巴马本人在2004年民主党全国代表大会上的演讲（8.3级）都要逊色。
从那时起到今天的四年间，这个文字迷（帕亚克）承认，“他在做重要演讲的过程中学会了更直接和简洁的说话方式。”
他赞赏地提到被奥巴马反复使用的句子“是的，我们能”，称其“非常有效”。
“这句子很短，很直接，”帕亚克说，“简直就像敲进人们头脑和心里的鼓点。”
他还说：“那样的表达偶然间就变成了一种很有力的修辞方法。”
这句话足以匹敌里根的“拆掉这堵墙吧”以及肯尼迪总统在就职演说时说出的“不要问国家可以为你做些什么，而要问你们能为国家做点什么”。
帕亚克指出，全篇讲话有大约2000字，够简短而不会使观众失去耐心，又够长而足以引经据典并阐明主旨。
其中“希望”或意思一样的变体词共出现了12次，表明其对其承诺所要实现的变革（出现9次）的乐观态度。
另外他还用了23个“将（will）”，也是一种使演讲具有前瞻性的方法。
帕亚克说，虽然奥巴马使用的动词大多为主动语态，但他的句子有11%都是被动语态，这是个可靠的转移责任的方法。他引用了奥巴马的“将会有退步和错误出现”来举例说明。
“他是在分散责任，”帕亚克说到，“他没说‘我会有退步，我可能有不对，我会犯错误。’他在组织那一类句子时都用了被动语态。”
但一涉及显示希望的内容时，他绝大多数都用了主动语态，他说到。“这样说话很有个人意识也很积极。‘我承诺我们，作为一个民族，一定会成功。’”
帕亚克还说，这篇演讲中故意省掉的东西也很值得注意。这样看来，他没有提9.11恐怖袭击事件是为了调节总体气氛。
他还提到，奥巴马在他的结束语中又重复了那句咒语，“是的，我们能”，起到了号召行动的作用，同时也承认美国面临着艰巨的任务。
而帕亚克指出，其实奥巴马是要说：“我要你们做些大事，但我们可以一起承担，我们将带来变革，我们就是希望。”