Abstract
This research examines how speakers use language to motivate their audiences through an analysis of 15 Harvard University commencement speeches from 2007 to 2021. Motivating language theory classifies the data and interprets the result as a theoretical framework. This study modeled the language patterns employed by the speakers using Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) and compared the ENA network model based on gender and time. Results indicate that meaning-making language serves as a dominant approach to motivating audiences. Particularly, the speakers mainly employed personal anecdotes or enlightenment, knowledge related to their own experience, and suggestion language to imply specific actions or ideas. Additionally, the differences in motivational language patterns between male and female speakers and between older and more recent speeches were found. These findings could help organizational leaders, who must communicate or speak to employees, motivate them to commit and engage with their work.
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Seol, Y. (2023). Examining Motivating Language in Commencement Speeches Using Epistemic Network Analysis. In: Arastoopour Irgens, G., Knight, S. (eds) Advances in Quantitative Ethnography. ICQE 2023. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1895. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47014-1_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47014-1_12
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