CLASSIFICATION OF BASIC ELEMENTS OF COMPOSITIONAL-SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF “COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES”

Abstract

The article reveals the content of the concept “commencement speech” in the Russian and English languages and provides its own classification of the main structural and semantic components of the studied genre. The main elements of the compositional-semantic structure of the “commencement speech” are based on a tripartite division - its introduction, main part and conclusion. The introduction includes greetings, compliments, coming-thanks, apologies, jokes and parables. The main part can be biographical, historical, comparative-historical, topical, empirical and lyrical. The conclusion is an important conceptual and compositional-structural element of “commencement speech” and is represented in the forms of warnings, calls, prognoses / prophetic predictions, morality issues, congratulations, wishes and compliments. Each part of the compositional-semantic structure of the genre “commencement speech” serves its own communicative purposes: the introduction - contact-establishing and attractive functions; the main part - retrospective and evaluative functions; the conclusion - motivational, inspiring, and appealing functions.