“I Have A Dream”

“I Have A Dream” was and still is one of the most popular speech that has been delivered by a famous an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He delivered this speech on the 28th August 1963. In this speech, he delivered a message, which was to have a freedom from discrimination from the white Americans. By using AntConc, we were assigned to analyse the speech. Teaming up with Shamirah and Nina in one group, we have worked together to find the answer.

First step: A. Word List

With the speech “I Have A Dream” , by using the “word list” function, we were able to find the 10 most frequent used words in the speech. These words may carried their own meanings that can fit the purpose of our corpus study.

These are the 10 most frequent used words in Martin Lurther King Jr’s speech:

1. Justice (8 times)
2. Dream (11 times)
3. Freedom (20 times)
4. Negro (14 times)
5. Satisfied (8 times)
6. Nation (10 times)
7. America (17 times)
8. Injustice (3 times)
9. Ring (12 times)
10. White (6 times)

Second step: B. Concordance

These are the phrases that we were given:

1. I have a dream
2. One hundred years
3. We refuse
4. satisfied
5. Now is the time
6. with this faith
7. go back
8. this will be the day
9. free at last
10. let freedom to ring

Each groups were assigned to analyse the frequency, manner and meaning of one of these phrases. Our group was assigned to do the analysis on the phrase “we refuse”.

i. Frequency

For example:

i. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

ii. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

The phrase “We refuse” are found twice by using the AntConc.

         

ii. Manner

In his speech, we can see that he used a lot of repetition on these phrases such as I have a dream, one hundred years and we refuse. Based on what our group has analysed, with the repetition of certain phrases, the speech itself has created its own effect or impact to those who hear. The repetition of the phrase emphasized or stressed on a certain value that Martin Lurther King Jr. wanted. The repetition of certain phrases is also quite catchy and will always stay in our minds for years to come.

iii. Meaning

In his speech, Martin Lurther King Jr.’s used repetition a lot of times. With the phrase “we refuse”, he showed his denial in believing that certain value such as justice is no longer available for the African-Americans. Justice is what the African-Americans want to claim from the white Americans.