VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULITY OF GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN THI THU KHANH A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SPEECH TO THE ARAB ISLAMIC AMERICAN SUMMIT ON MAY, 21st, 2017 (PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN BÀI NÓI CHUYỆN CỦA TỔNG THỐNG TRUMP TẠI HỘI NGHỊ THƯỢNG ĐỈNH MỸ VÀ HỒI GIÁO Ả RẬP NGÀY 21/05/2017) MINOR THESIS Field :English Linguistics Code :8220201.01 Hanoi, 2018 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULITY OF GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN THI THU KHANH A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SPEECH TO THE ARAB ISLAMIC AMERICAN SUMMIT ON MAY, 21st, 2017 (PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN BÀI NÓI CHUYỆN CỦA TỔNG THỐNG TRUMP TẠI HỘI NGHỊ THƯỢNG ĐỈNH MỸ VÀ HỒI GIÁO Ả RẬP NGÀY 21/05/2017) MINOR THESIS Field :English Linguistics Code :8220201. Nguyen Hoa Hanoi, 2018 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that the thesis entitled ― A critical discourse analysis of President Trump‘s speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit on May, 21st, 2017‖ is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It would not have been possible to complete this thesis without the kind supports and helps of many people. First and foremost, I express the greatest gratitude to my enthusiastic supervisor, Prof.
Nguyen Hoa, for his guidance and constant supervision as well as providing necessary information regarding the study in the completion of this thesis. My high appreciation also goes to all my lecturers and officers from Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, who facilitated in the most possible way during my whole course of studying. I have made efforts in this thesis. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude and sincerest thanks to all of them.
Finally, I wish to say sincerest thanks to my family and friends who have encouraged and assisted me during the process of my writing this paper. Hanoi, March, 2018 Nguyen Thi Thu Khanh i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES. vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.vii PART I: INTRODUCTION.
Rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. The significance of thesis.
Methodology of the study. Background of the data. Structure of the study. 5 PART II: DEVELOPMENT.
7 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of key terms. What is discourse?. What is CDA?.
Power in language. Language and ideology. The review of previous researches. Fairclough‘s analytical framework .15 ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and its roles in CDA .20 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. The structure of the text. Experiential value of words. The relational value of words.
The expressive value of words. The use of personal pronouns ‗I‘, ‗we‘ and ‗you‘. Passive/active Voice. Mode of sentences.
Connective value of text. Inter-textual context and presupposition .44 iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART III: CONCLUSION. 46 1) Summary and conclusion. 46 2) Limitation of the study.
48 3) Suggestions for further study. 50 President Trump‘s Speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit. 50 Appendix 2: Content Analysis. 60 Appendix 3: Transitivity Analysis in detail.
68 Appendix 4: Speech act analysis. 75 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT In my study, I employ Fairclough‘s theoretical framework and Halliday‘s Systemic Functional Grammar to analyze a case study which is a political speech named ―President Trump‘s Speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit‖. The study aims at deciphering the relationship between language, ideologies and power behind the discourse. To fulfill above mentioned purposes, the linguistic strategies are analyzed to see how the ideologies of speech are constructed.
The result after analyzing this discourse draws out the major findings that language is not only shaped by the society around it, but an effective tool to convey ideas and at the same time affects the thinking of the hearers and the society. Language constructs one‘s themes or ideologies. By analyzing this case study, it can be seen that Trump has flexibly used his linguistic strategies to get his opinions across and persuade the audience to action according to his policies. v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure1.
The Three-Dimensional view of discourse [adapted from Fairclough, Norman. Discourse and Social Change (Page 93, Figure 5-2). Cambridge: Polity Press]. 18 Table 1:The distribution of ‗I‘, ‗we‘, and ‗you‘.
32 Table 2: Distribution of modal verbs. 36 Table 3: Summary of Process types. 38 Table 4:Transitivity analysis of the speech. 38 Table 5: The distribution of speech act.
42 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CDA Critical Discourse Analysis PDA Political Discourse Analysis CL Critical linguistics SFG Systematic Functional Grammar vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Language plays an important role in our lives. We use language to communicate with each other and to express our attitudes to the world around us. In other words, language is a communicative tool through which we convey our messages and ideas with one another.
We can communicate effectively by using our words, gestures and tone of voice in a variety of situations. Therefore, language is the voice of each person and through using language, the ideas and power of speaker are revealed. The addresses of political leaders are convincing evidences for the relationship between the thoughts, language and power. Politicians usually use their own linguistic strategies to make well-prepared and persuasive speeches.
Additionally, oratorical skill is one of the most effective tools to convey messages to audiences with the aim of persuading the public to accept and support the policies mentioned in speech. The language analysts often choose talks of powerful figures as the object of their enquiry. The speeches of the presidents of the United States always receive the attention from linguistic researchers, critics and the mass media. Remarkably, there are quite a lot studies on the addresses of the President Obama.
President Donald Trump is no exception. However, Donald Trump is paid more attention to by the world press more because he has backgrounds as a billionaire and excellent businessman not a politician with a profound view and distinctive style. President Trump‘s Speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit is a convincing proof of that. The speech was made on May,21st , 2017.
It is a new step of President Donald Trump about diplomatic strategy between the United States and the world and he calls to fight extremists and terrorism at Middle East and Arab Islamic countries at the same time. Besides, this speech also marks his first foreign visit. Therefore, I am not an exception among people who pay much attention to the speech. That is the reason why I choose his speech for my thesis.
1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com To analyze the speech, I employ Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach views language as a form of social practice. Through CDA, the relationship between language, power and ideology can be revealed. Therefore, analyzing President Donald Trump‘s speech in the view of CDA can reveal the persuasive strategies he used and decipher ideological traits typical for Donald Trump in his address.
Aims of the study The inclination of CDA is usually towards public speech such as advertisement, newspaper, political, official documents, laws and regulations. The aim of employing CDA to analyze such speeches is to explore the relationships between language, ideology and power. The talks or addresses of political figures are always rich sources for linguists to exploit, due to the fact that each character has individual features in applying his or her language expressions as well as intention in speech in order to persuade the hearers. The study of presidential addresses has not only attracted the attention of linguists, but also attracted the interests of political scientists and historians.
Especially, the heads of the White House always receive the concern of world press right after inauguration. After Barack Obama, this year, President Donald Trump has caught the attention of the world again. Thus, this study aims at examining the persuasive strategies of President Donald Trump‘s public speaking. Besides, the study highlights the stylistic techniques employed by Donald Trump in formal speeches and attempts to reveal main ideologies which exist in the speech under investigation.
In short, there are three main objectives the study needs to make it clear: employing the principles of CDA to find out persuasive strategies as well as how Donald Trump convinces audiences to believe in his ideas and solutions, revealing ideologies used in the speech and the relationship between language and ideology. To serve the aim of the study as mentioned, the study necessarily targets the answers to the following questions: 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com What are Donald Trump‘s themes/ideologies in his speech? How are his themes/ideologies represented linguistically? 3. Scope of the study The analysis of Donald Trump‘s speech is limited to the verbal aspects because this study only focuses on the text of the speech. Thus, some limitations about extra linguistic factors such as facial expression, eyes contact, etc are not taken into consideration although they are quite important in the discourse analysis.
Additionally, the address mainly makes closer connection between countries, hence, there are no political arguments like debating speeches for election. Besides, this study is only confined to analyzing the chosen speech from a Critical Discourse Analysis perspective. The significance of thesis The theoretical significance The application of CDA theory to analyzing speeches of figures who have influence in political field, especially presidents as well as politicians of the United State is not a quite new direction, however, finding linguistic strategies and ideologies of each person still attracts much attention because each person has a distinctive style of language. Based on the current theory of CDA, I analyze this speech with the aim of finding out the relationship between language, ideology and power hidden in the speech.
Through that, this thesis gives suggestions for the next study orientations about analyzing addresses of famous figures in the political field in particular and addresses in other fields in general. The practical significance In CDA approach, it is hoped that this thesis finds out the mainlinguistic strategies Donald Trump used to persuade audiences and his ideology in speeches, which leads to understanding of President Trump and the difference in style of predecessors and President Trump. In addition, the results of this study also 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com contribute to the effectiveness and feasibility of analyzing political discourse applied in reality and raise awareness of how language is used to construct ideologies and power. Methodology of the study The study uses the analytical framework including three stages of CDA.
It is proposed by Fairclough. In fact, these stages are reflected in the ―three dimensional method of discourse analysis‖, introduced by Fairclough (1995), namely: 1) Description stage, which is related to the formal properties of the text. 2) Interpretation stage, which is concerned with the relationship between texts and interaction. 3) Explanation stage, which is concerned with the relationship between interaction and social context.
The study also uses Systemic Functional Grammar of Halliday which includes the ideational function, the interpersonal function and the textual function to analyze grammar as well as words in the speech, which leads to revealing the linguistic strategies employed in the address.