本研究旨在探討美國第四十四任總統歐巴馬的演講內容，並深入探討每篇演講中的第一句話。透過建置語料庫的方式，本研究主要討論演講稿中的四個層面：第一，歐巴馬的核心字彙；第二，歐巴馬最常用的四字字串；第三，每篇演講第一句話呈現的字彙特徵；第四，歐巴馬最常使用的開場方式。
本研究選擇歐巴馬作為研討的對象乃是因為其出名的公開演說魅力與技巧。為此，研究者收集歐巴馬自二○○四年至二○一一年四月，共兩百八十五篇（總計620,110字）的公開演說逐字稿，並以二○○九年一月二十日就職日作為分界點，劃分為兩部分：就職前共五十四篇（總計131,965字）以及就職後共兩百三十一篇（總計488,145字）。另外也建構含有每篇演講中第一句話的語料庫，共計6,957字。
研究結果顯示：第一，歐巴馬最常用的三個字傳達了「國家」的概念。PEOPLE（人民，頻率2373次）、AMERICA（美國，頻率1524次）、AMERICAN（美國人，頻率1380次）。第二，以歐巴馬最常用的五十字來看，他的核心字彙與其政治理念相符。他在演講中時常強調與美國人民同在，把國家放在第一位。第三，儘管第一句話與全文的字數比例懸殊（1：89），歐巴馬常用的五十五字在兩個語料庫卻重複高達60％。第四，從第一句話與全文中計算出的常用字表裡，皆可看到含有美國及其人民的詞義串（lexical chain），顯示歐巴馬言語中不會只提個人，而是常把國家放在心上。第五，歸納歐巴馬常用的開場方式，78.2%以開門見山的方式破題，和非母語人士學習英語寫作時被指導的準則相符。
本研究意旨提供公開演說、英語閱讀學習者或訓練者一些方向來檢視教材或增進練習。研究結果除了可作為資料庫語言學領域中公開演說的教學資源，亦希望能提供相關領域一些可繼續探究的議題。

This study explores both the speeches delivered by Barack Obama and the first sentence of each speech in terms of corpus-based approaches. Four aspects are investigated, including his core vocabulary, the most frequently used 4-word lexical bundles in all speeches, the lexical characteristics, and the most frequently used patterns in the first sentence of Obama’s speeches.
The reason why Barack Obama is selected is based on the fact that he has been widely recognized for his excellent rhetorical performance in his public speeches. A corpus has been constructed to conduct the present research, based on 285 speeches (620,110 tokens in total), including 54 speeches (131,965 tokens) before his inauguration, and 231 speeches (488,145 tokens) after his inauguration (i.e., January 20, 2009). A sub-corpus has been constructed for this study as well. It is the collection of the first sentence of each speech (6,957 tokens in total). The analytical tool, WordSmith version 5 (Scott, 2008) is applied for the text analysis.
A semantic prosodic framework is employed, leading to the following major results. First, the results indicated that the top 3 content words express the concept of the nation, i.e., people (Freq.=2373), America (Freq.=1524) and American (Freq.=1380). It seems that he emphasizes how he has been with the US people, putting his country into the first place in his speech. Second, the findings of this study also imply that Obama’s core vocabulary is consistent with his political ideals. Third, the ratio of two corpora is 1 to 89; the top 55 words in both of the wordlists overlap 60%. Fourth, the same lexical chain concerning America and its people can be found in both wordlists, suggesting that Obama does not speak self-centeredly, but always bears his country in mind. The findings of this study imply that Obama tends to convey the key points directly in the very beginning of his speech, including a crucial notion of America first in the first sentence.
This study intends to provide some insightful pedagogical implications and applications in English training such as public speaking, debating, and reading.

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