VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG MAI A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF “FINEST HOUR” SPEECH BY SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL (Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán bài phát biểu “Finest hour” của Sir Winston Churchill) M.A THESIS PROGRAMME I Field : English Linguistics Code : 8220201.01 Hanoi - 2019 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG MAI A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF “FINEST HOUR” SPEECH BY SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL (Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán bài phát biểu “Finest hour” của Sir Winston Churchill) M.A THESIS PROGRAMME I Field : English Linguistics Code : 8220201. Nguyễn Hòa Hanoi - 2019 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this thesis and that no part of this thesis has been published or submitted for publication. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices. I declare that this is a true copy of my dissertations, including any final revisions, as approved by my thesis committee and the Post Graduate Studies office and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution.
Hanoi, 2019 Nguyễn Thị Phương Mai i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My achievement in completing this thesis would not have been possible without the people who were involved in this study. To the following people who donated their time and energy to this study, I am grateful and thankful: First, I would like to offer my greatest appreciation to my supervisor, Professor Nguyễn Hòa. His expertise and knowledge have guided me during the study. He offered me his support which has been especially helpful to my academic work.
I also would like to thank my classmates for their advice and assistance in keeping my progress on schedule. My great thankfulness is also given to the teachers of Post Graduate Faculty Studies for their ideas to my paper and many thanks to my family and all my friends who have encouraged and helped me during the time of analyzing data, information for the study. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Politicians and orators employ words as weapons in order to exert ideological control and make an audience believe something in an ostensive way. In this regard, this study attempted to discover the connection between language, power embraced in “Finest hour” speech by Sir Winston Churchill on June 18th, 1940, a crucial period for the outcome of the Second World War.
Based on a brief overview of critical discourse analysis provided by Norman Fairclough, the study followed a framework with three stages: Description, Interpretation, and Explanation. It focused on the analysis of language features, the relationship between situational and intertextual context, and the discourse process and social process. The results obtained support the idea that Churchill's skillful use of language is closely connected with his overall political goals of instilling courage, inspiring confidence and spark the national pride in his fellow countrymen in such difficult times for Britain as those of war against powerful Nazi Germany, and the fascism in general. Keywords: Critical discourse analysis, political discourse, speech, ideology, language.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABBREVIATIONS CDA: Critical Discourse Analysis MR: Member’s Resources iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT Declaration. Error! Bookmark not defined. iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Scope of the study.
Aims of the study. Significance of the study. Data collection and analysis. Structure of the thesis.
4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Critical discourse analysis. The virtue and limitations of CDA. Some main concepts of CDA.
Language and ideology. Main approaches to CDA. Wodak’s discourse-historical Approach. Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive Approach.
Norman Fairclough’s dialectical - relational approach. 14 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Review of previous studies. Context of the speech.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Large-scale structure (macro-structure). Intertextual context and presupposition. Limitations of the study.
Suggestions for further study.59 APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………………………i vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the rationale of the study, research objectives, research questions, research scope, research significance and research methodology which includes the analytical framework and the data collected. Rationale Since the prehistoric era of human beings, the need for communication early arose and the system of communication before anything else is language. There are numerous theories about the origin of language: the divine source, the natural sound source, the social interaction source, the physical adaption source, the tool-making source, the genetic source. Yet, the primary purpose of language still the same: communication.
As human beings continuously evolve, they utilize language in an intentional and more sophisticated way. Language not only simply holds its initial function - communication but also is meant to represent ideologies and practice power. As Fairclough (2001) stated, "exercise of power is increasingly achieved through ideology, particularly through the working of language". Concerning this issue, critical discourse analysis has emerged as a major multidisciplinary approach to "show how discourse is shaped by relations of power and ideologies, and the constructive effects discourse has upon social identities, social relations and the system of knowledge and belief" (Fairclough, 1992b).
Since CDA's important interest is "the way social and political domination are produced in text and talk", numerous speeches or rhetorical talks of professional politicians have been analyzed. CDA is asserted to be an effective tool to discover the power and ideology hidden in political discourse. Winston Churchill is one of the most influential Prime Ministers in Britain's history. Besides the skillful military tactics and effective leadership which led Britain to the victory in the Second World War, Churchill is also well-known for his professional language competence.
He was the only prime minister awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com defending exalted human values". Every speech he made is a masterpiece in rhetoric. "Finest hour" is a speech delivered by Churchill on June 18, 1940, during one of the lowest and most uncertain moments of the Second World War. The speech was made, first to the Parliament and then over the radio to the nation, become one of the most celebrated one of the war and his career.
Due to the huge linguistic, social and historical impact it brings forth, many writings discussing this speech. However, as far as I am concerned, there has not any scientific writing concerning investigating the speech from CDA perspective, which urges the author to conduct this researched entitled: A critical discourse analysis of “Finest hour” speech by Sir Winston Churchill. Scope of the study The analysis of the "Finest hour" speech of Winston Churchill is restricted to the transcript of the speech and the social context when the speech was presented. Thus, paralinguistics (intonation, speed, loudness, etc) and extra linguistics (facial expressions, eye contact, gestures, etc), despite their significant roles in delivering the speaker's message, are not taken into consideration.
Moreover, within the scope of an MA thesis, not all of the linguistic features are investigated. In other words, only salient aspects of the speech are examined. Finally, the thesis will be conducted for the academic purpose only and has no relation to any party’s support. The researcher's political view is also ignored in this study.
Objectives of the study By analyzing Churchill’s speech in the light of CDA, the study aims to discover the ideological traits in Churchill’s speech from linguistics features, uncover the way he encouraged people and persuaded them to believe in his ideas and solutions, how his language in the speech impacted listeners in the United Kingdom, which led to stronger British’ resolve and willingness to fight. To reach these aims above, two research questions are answered: - What are Churchill's ideologies constructed in the speech? - How are they manifested linguistically? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Significance of the study Theoretically, the study makes a contribution to a better understanding of the CDA approach and further strengthens the CDA theories. Practically, this study may provide the researcher with the way to analyze selected text, explore ideologies and power hidden between the lines in a spoken discourse.
Moreover, in Vietnam, plenty of speeches of American politicians or Presidential candidates are critically analyzed but the ones made by British figures are not yet widely investigated from the perspective of CDA. Thus, I humbly expect to signal more future researchers who share the same interest. Analytical framework In the discussion on the methodology of CDA, Van Dijk (1995) said: "one of CDA‘s volitional characteristics is its diversity". It means, the methodology for CDA is not similar (Wodak, 2001).
A wide range of researchers with different objectives will lead to various ways of doing CDA. Thus, basing on the characteristics of rhetoric speech and the aims of the study, Fairclough's CDA model is taken on board to analyze "Finest hour" speech of British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. The three-stage practical framework of CDA given by Norman Fairclough (2001), which includes description, interpretation, and explanation will be employed. However, it is notable that not all the questions suggested by Fairclough are covered in this study.
Only the outstanding features of the speech are focused on in order to enlighten the assertion of the speaker’s ideology. Data collection and analysis The transcript of the historical speech "Finest hour" of Sir Winston Churchill on June 18, 1940, is taken from website winstonchurchill.org After that, Fairclough's model is applied to analyze the data. It comprises three discourse analysis stages: description, interpretation, and explanation. The qualitative method is utilized to assess the effects of such linguistic features in the 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com stage of description and explore the relationship between text and interaction, then the relationship between interaction and social context to uncover the power and ideology underlined the speech.
To understand more about the background of the speech, including the speaker - Winston Churchill, a general overview will be provided in the next thesis's chapters. Structure of the thesis This research is organized into 5 chapters as briefly summarized below: Chapter 1: Introduction contains rationale, significance, scope, aims and methods of the study. Chapter 2: Literature review and Theoretical background provide an overview of discourse, critical discourse analysis, the relations among language, power, and ideology, and Fairclough‘s analytical framework and the details in three stages of discourse. Chapter 3: Methodology consists of data, the context of the speech and analytical framework Chapter 4: Findings and discussion, includes the textual description, the interpretation (situational context, intertextual context, presuppositions and speech acts) and the explanation of the speech's transcript.
Chapter 5: Conclusion summarizes the main findings, draws a conclusion, and offers suggestions for further study. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This chapter begins with a discussion of discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis (CDA) and definitions of some key terms in CDA. Wodak’s discourse- historical approach and Van Diik’s socio-cognitive approach are also presented. Then, Fairclough’s dialectical-relational approach is mentioned with a detailed explanation of his three-dimensional model and the reason why it is appropriate for the data’s analysis.
This chapter concludes with a review of previous studies to show the existing researches’ results and how my thesis distinguishes itself from them.