The rhetorical structure of conference opening remarks

Abstract As a distinct genre, opening remarks serve the purpose of welcoming the audience and setting the tone for the event. This study conducted a corpus-based move analysis on opening remarks to explore their rhetorical structure and linguistic features. Seventy-four opening remarks delivered by leaders of the American Institute in Taiwan at international conferences from 2018 to 2022 were collected for analysis. Eight major move types (and 30 component steps) were identified: Set the Scene; Acknowledge Organizers, Distinguished Guests, and Attendees; Highlight the Significance of the Theme; Highlight the Organization’s Efforts and Commitments; Recognize the Host’s Efforts and Significance; Emphasize Friendship and Collaboration; Highlight Global Efforts ; and Conclude the Remarks . Although the rhetorical elements in the remarks are mainly fixed, each remark shows its unique interweaving of moves and steps, exhibiting both regularity and flexibility. Linguistic features are highlighted at the end of this paper to expand interpreter trainees’ conference English repertoire.