VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES PHẠM THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG AN ANALYSIS OF RHETORICAL DEVICES IN HILLARY CLINTON'S SPEECHES FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE PHÂN TÍCH CÁC PHƯƠNG TIỆN TU TỪ TRONG DIỄN THUYẾT CỦA HILLARY CLINTON THEO QUAN ĐIỂM CHỨC NĂNG HỆ THỐNG M. THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Hà Nội - 2017 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES PHẠM THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG AN ANALYSIS OF RHETORICAL DEVICES IN HILLARY CLINTON'S SPEECHES FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE PHÂN TÍCH CÁC PHƯƠNG TIỆN TU TỪ TRONG DIỄN THUYẾT CỦA HILLARY CLINTON THEO QUAN ĐIỂM CHỨC NĂNG HỆ THỐNG M. THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Ph. NguyễnThị Minh Tâm Hà Nội - 2017 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled ―An analysis of rhetorical devices in Hillary Clinton‘s speeches from systemic functional perspective‖ submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Linguistics.
Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‘s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2017 Approved by SUPERVISOR Date: i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Ph. Nguyen Thi Minh Tam, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher.
I am greatly indebted to my lecturers in both under-graduate and post- graduate faculties at our University for their precious lectures in linguistics which help me to have the basic and necessary knowledge to carry out this study. Last but not least, a special word of thanks to my family members who gave me great encouragement, my friends and my colleagues who were willing to share my heavy workload at school so that I could invest my time to this academic work. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study analyzes the use of rhetorical devices in Hillary Clinton‘s speeches. The analytical framework of the study is adapted from So (2005) which synthesizes Tribble‘s (2002) framework with the SFL‘s notion of metafuntion of language.
The data of the research contain ten Hillary Clinton‘s speeches from 2010 to 2016. Both the quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted to analyze the data. It gives a sufficient analysis of the factual data of the phenomena and provides a logical and rational interpretation based on relevant theories. The results show that in certain contextual factors, five rhetorical devices including metonymy, repetition, irony, metaphor, and parallelism are exerted; and two last listed devices are employed the most frequently.
The use of five rhetorical devices not only contributes to creative expression of message but also boosts up persuasive effects on the audience. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. vii PART A: INTRODUCTION. Scope of the study.
Aims and objectives of the study. Methods of the study. Significance of the study. Structure of the study .6 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND.1 Rhetorical devices in Systemic Functional Linguistics Approach .1 Systemic Functional Linguistics .Rhetorical devices in Traditional vs SFL .3 Review of previous studies.
1 Data and instrument .2 Data collection procedures .2 Analytical framework of rhetorical devices in SFL.30 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.5 Data analysis procedures .30 CHAPTER 3: FINDING AND DISCUSSION .2 Realization of rhetorical devices in ten chosen speeches.3 Frequency of rhetorical devices in three periods.4 Realization of rhetorical devices in the period of secretarial term of office.5 Realization of rhetorical devices in the period of retirement .6 Realization of rhetorical devices in the period of presidential campaign.7 Realization of rhetorical devices in each speech.Answer to Question 1 .Answer to Question 2 .Summary of findings .Implications of the study .Limitations of the study .Suggestions for further studies. CXLII v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABBREVIATIONS No Words Abbreviation 1 Systemic Functional Linguistics SFL 2 The year of the speech_Speech, the ordinal 20YY_Sx number of the speech in the same year vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLES No Tables Page 1 The contextual analysis 28 2 The content analysis of rhetorical devices 29 FIGURES No Figures Page 1 Model of language 8 2 Genre, register and language 12 3 The adapted classification of rhetorical devices 17 4 The relationship between contextual analysis and content analysis 27 5 Rhetorical devices in Hillary‘s two speeches 30 6 Analysis of rhetorical devices ten speeches 37 7 Analysis of context of ten speeches 37 8 Frequency of rhetorical devices in three periods 38 9 Rhetorical devices in secretarial term of office 40 10 Analysis of context 40 11 Rhetorical devices in retirement 42 12 Analysis of context 42 13 Rhetorical devices in presidential campaign 44 14 Analysis of context 44 15 Rhetorical devices in 2010_S1 46 16 Analysis of context 46 17 Rhetorical devices in 2011_S1 47 18 Analysis of context 47 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 19 Rhetorical devices in 2012_S1 50 20 Analysis of context 50 21 Rhetorical devices in 2013_S1 52 22 Analysis of context 52 23 Rhetorical devices in 2014_S1 54 24 Analysis of context 54 25 Rhetorical devices in 2014_S2 55 26 Analysis of context 55 27 Rhetorical devices in 2015_S1 57 28 Analysis of context 57 29 Rhetorical devices in 2016_S1 59 30 Analysis of context 59 31 Rhetorical devices in 2016_S2 60 32 Analysis of context 60 33 Rhetorical devices in 2016_S3 62 34 Analysis of context 62 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale For years, the relationship between language and politics has been of great interest to many scholars and researchers. As a typical example, Chilton (2004) argues that politics depends greatly on language and there is a strong relation between language and political activity.
Likely, in Language and Politics, Joseph (2006) states that language is political from top to bottom by exemplifying the numerous ways in which politics and language interact and are ultimately dependent upon one another. Thanks to that connection, it is obvious that language is one of the most effective instruments of persuasion. Besides, an excellent speaker can often take the advantage of the ability of accurately exploiting the appropriate linguistic resources in accordance with the specific requirements of each communicative situation to achieve their personal or public purpose. In fact, by way of a subtle manipulation of language, skilful orators have traditionally been able to exert great influence on the preconceptions, beliefs, aspirations and fears of the masses, to the extent of causing people to accept false assertions as true postulates, or even to support policies contrary to their interests (Thomans&Wareing, 1999).
Language is thus too helpful for those interested in controlling people‘s ideas. Then, language inevitably forms a valuable tool in politics, as it is a crucial element not only in making politicians come closer to the public but also in gaining their support. As a result, almost all of the politicians seem to be good at eloquence. However, to interpret the statements the speakers deliver and understand the real meaning they would like to express people need to draw attention to the linguistic choices made by these and how well these choices fit in the social processes and how they involve in through their speeches.
Rhetorical devices have been willingly used by politicians for years, which is the reason why attempts have been made to study about rhetorical devices in political speeches. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Hilary Clinton, whether in the role of the First Lady of the United States, as the head of Department of State, or as a presidential candidate, has long been famous for her intelligence, strategic position, ambition, and eloquence. Moreover, according to mandatory financial disclosures, Hillary Clinton earned $21,667,000 in speaking fees after retirement from April 2013 to March 2015. Many conferences and forums invited her to speak; and whenever and wherever she came, she was always welcomed warmly.
The speeches she made have always created huge influence on the audience. Nevertheless, there has never been any analysis on the way Hilary Clinton uses rhetorical devices in her speeches. This thesis is aimed to look closely at Hilary Clinton‘s use of rhetorical devices in the light of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Undeniably, SFL incorporates many of the more socio- cultural branches developed within linguistics in the second half of the twentieth century, such as pragmatics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and etc (Manfredi 2008).
For example, Fairclough's three levels are interpreted as phases along the cline of instantiation of systemic functional theory (Halliday, 1991, Matthiessen, 1993). This enables SFL to explain both language structure and language use. In other words, SFL is not "concerned with a static or prescriptive kind of language study, but rather describes language in actual use and centres around texts and their contexts" (Manfredi, 2008). Therefore, in analyzing rhetorical devices, knowledge of context and its relation to language is needed to have a complete view of employing rhetorical devices in political speeches.
Scope of the study As the title suggests, the thesis studies rhetorical devices in Hillary Clinton‘s speeches. However, this MA thesis focuses on analyzing the use of five major rhetorical devices including metaphor, metonymy, repetition, parallelism and irony in ten speeches made by Hillary Clinton during the three big stages of her political life: the period of secretarial term of office, the period of retirement, and the 2016 presidential campaign from the perspective of SFL. Other rhetorical devices which are often said to be minor types, are not discussed here due to the constraints on the thesis word limit. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Aims and objectives of the study This study is conducted with the aim of investigating how five major rhetorical devices are employed by Hillary Clinton in her speeches. In relation to that goal, this research sets two objectives as presented below. To analyze the use of five major rhetorical devices in Hillary Clinton‘s speeches. To discuss the contribution and the effect of the rhetorical devices on the persuasiveness of the speeches.
Research questions There are two questions that the study attempts to answer: 1. How are five major rhetorical devices employed in Hilary Clinton‘s speeches? 2. How does the use of rhetorical devices contribute to conveying the message of the speaker and creating persuasive effect on the audience? 5. Methods of the study In order to accomplish the objectives mentioned above, the methods are both quantitative and qualitative.
In detail, the research is conducted according to several steps below: Firstly, data was chosen carefully on the Internet based on several criteria set in advance by the researcher. Secondly, the collected speeches were analyzed in order to discover the realization of major rhetorical devices in each one by using SFL as the theoretical framework. Finally, the number of five major rhetorical devices in analyzed speeches was examined critically to see their contribution to the persuasiveness of Hillary‘s talks. Significance of the study 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Once completed, the study will give both theoretical and practical significance.
It is expected that the results can be advantageous in the following ways: Theoretically, this research can, first, enrich the research in linguistics field, especially in SFL, which becomes a bibliographical resource to the next relevant type of research. Second, the study will provide an insight into the effects of using rhetorical devices in speeches.