STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF LINGUISTIC FEATURES IN AN EXCERPT FROM MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.’S “I HAVE A DREAM” SPEECH

Abstract

This study examines the linguistic choices in Martin Luther King
Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech excerpt through the lens of Leech and
Short’s (2007) stylistic framework. The analysis focuses on sentence
structure, cohesion, and punctuation use, investigating how these
elements contribute to the speech’s rhetorical impact. The findings
reveal the following: the excerpt consists of 529 words, 23 sentences,
and 35 lines; punctuation usage includes 27 commas and 21
periods, among other marks; and 364 open-class words contribute
to its expressive richness. The speech employs 10 loose sentences
and 10 periodic sentences, with repetition and parallelism playing a
central role— “I have a dream” appears 9 times, “Let freedom ring”
10 times, and “With this faith” 3 times. Additionally, cohesion is
achieved through pronouns, with "I" appearing 13 times, "we" 6
times, and "our" 2 times, while conjunctions such as "and" (7 times),
"so" (2 times), and "but" (2 times) enhance fluency. This study
enhances our understanding of how language shapes persuasive
communication, thus providing insights for public speakers,
educators, and speechwriters.