VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULITY OF GRADUATE STUDIES HOÀNG THỊ THẮM A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF U.OBAMA’S ADDRESS ON CUBA DETENTE POLICY (NGHIÊN CỨU BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CỦA TỔNG THỐNG BARACK H. OBAMA VỀ CHÍNH SÁCH BÌNH THƯỜNG HÓA QUAN HỆ VỚI CUBA TỪ GÓC ĐỘ PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN) Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Course: QHF. Nguyen Hoa - Hanoi, September 2017 - TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Abstract In my thesis, I employ Fairclough‟s approach of CDA and Halliday‟s Systemic Functional Grammar to analyze a case study which is a political speech named “Obama‟s address on Cuba détente policy”. The study is to find out the relationship between language, ideologies and power hidden behind the discourse.
At the same time, linguistic strategies are also discussed to see how the ideologies are constructed and manifested in the speech. The results indicate that CDA helps reveal the relationship between language, ideologies and power in the speech. Language is a means to show ideologies and power; on the other hand, language is also to construct one‟s ideologies or his identity to some extent. By analyzing this case study, it can be seen that Obama is of great intelligence in using language as a strategic tool to display his ideologies and power.
i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On the completion of this thesis, I am indebted to many people. First and foremost, I wish to thank my supervisor, Prof. Nguyen Hoa for his valuable and prompt advice and helps, without which, this thesis could not come into being. Much gratitude also go to all my lecturers and officers from Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, who facilitated with the best possible conditions during my whole course of studying.
Last but not least, I express thanks to my family and friends, whose encouragement and assistance are of extreme importance during the course of my writing this paper. Hanoi, September, 2017 Hoang Thi Tham ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT TABLE OF CONTENT. iii PART I: INTRODUCTION. Scope of the study.
Purposes of the study. Design of the study .2 PART II: DEVELOPMENT .3 CHAPTER 1: Literature Review. The history of CDA. Elements in CDA.
Discourse as a social practice. Type of power. Fairclough‟s Three – Dimensional Approach. Halliday‟s Systemic Functional Linguistics .11 CHAPTER 3: Findings and Discussion .13 iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
The use of personal pronouns „I‟, „we‟ and „you‟. Nominalization and passivization. Modes of sentences. Interpretation of institutional context and speech act.
Interpretation of inter-textual context and presupposition .33 PART III CONCLUSION .35 1) Summary and conclusion. I Obama‟s address on Cuba détente policy. I Appendix 2 Transitivity analysis in detail. IX Appendix 3 Thematic analysis in detail.
XVII Appendix 4 Content Analysis. XXIII Appendix 5 Thematic structure.XXXI iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Regarded as a social phenomenon, the study of language in use helps discover many interests such as ideologies or power behind the language. Recently, critical discourse analysis (henceforth CDA) has become very popular among linguists because of its purposes.
That is, the study of CDA is to find out the relationship between ideologies, power and language, and in turn to reveal ideologies and power hidden behind the discourse. For that reason, I decide to apply CDA in my minor thesis. In addition, as a learner of language but having a great interest in politics, I choose one political speech named “Obama‟s address on Cuba détente policy to analyze. I make my mind up to vote for this speech because of several reasons.
First, with more than 2,000 words, it becomes a proper choice for a study of 10,000 words. Second, it is an official speech which is delivered by a high-ranking politician (President Obama). Finally, the most important reason, I want to see what Obama‟s ideologies are constructed and how they are manifested linguistically in his speech. Scope of the study In this study, I employ written aspects of the speech, but with the absence of spoken one despite my awareness of such an importance in comprehending the overall message.
Yet, with more than 20,000 words in the text, I think it is enough for a minor thesis to meet its requirements. For such a reason, I put my emphasis on basic features such as vocabulary, grammar or textual ones to reveal hidden messages behind the discourse. Purposes of the study Purposes of the study are to uncover the relationship between language, ideologies and power hidden behind the speech and to reveal how the ideologies are manifested linguistically and constructed in the discourse. In order to reach these purposes, I answer the two research questions as following: 1) What are Obama‟s themes as constructed in his speech? 2) How are the themes manifested linguistically? 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Empirical Data The empirical data used in the paper comes from the website (http://www.com/newtop100speeches. In particular, the data is a speech, which was delivered on December 17th, 2014 at Cabinet room, the White House and it is considered as a sudden, shocking and historic event. The purpose of the speech is to restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba, ending the 54 -year - deep -freeze relation between the two nations. The seeds of change were planted after Obama‟s 2012 reelection, when he huddled with advisers and asked them to „think big‟ about the second term agenda, including the possibilities of new starts with longstanding U.S foes such as Iran and Cuba.
Then the speech was the result of 18 months of hush-hush talks between the two nations, including secret meetings in Canada and the personal involvement of Pope Francis. Such a condition helps create an important pave to divulge ideologies hidden behind the speech. Design of the study This study consists of three main parts. They are: Part I: Introduction It includes the rationale, the scope of the study, the aims of the study, data collecting and sampling, and the design of the study.
Part II: Development The development comprises three chapters. Chapter 1 named “Literature Review” provides the development process of critical discourse analysis and important features of its theory as well. Chapter 2 entitled “Methodology” shows clearly the analytical framework of the study. I employ Fairclough‟s approach to analysis the speech because it is the most linguistic.
Chapter 3 labeled “Findings and Discussion” talks about Obama‟s ideologies hidden behind the speech and strategies he resorted to get his ideologies across. Part III: Conclusion This part summarizes findings; hence, being able to conclude what ideologies and power are constructed in the speech and how these ideologies are manifested linguistically. Also, some recommendations for further study are presented as well. 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: Literature Review 1.
The history of CDA CDA is a domain of critical applied linguistics. The 1970s saw the emergence of CDA. Its development was credited with prominent works including Kress and Hodge (1979), Fowler et al (1979), van Dijk (1985), Fairclough (1989) and Wodak (1989). In particular, Fowler et al.
(1979-1996) made an important contribution to ascertain the early foundations of Critical Linguistics. Then, from 1989 to 1999, Fairclough set out the social theories underpinning CDA as well as explained and elaborated on some advances in CDA, showing not only how the analytical framework for investigating language in relation to power and ideology developed, but also how CDA is useful in disclosing the discursive nature of much contemporary social and cultural change. After that, van Dijk worked in text linguistics and discourse analysis, and considered the relevance of discourse to the study of language processing. Also, he focused on developing a theoretical model that explained cognitive discourse processing mechanisms.
These famous linguists built up main assumptions, principles and procedures of what became Critical Linguistics. By 1990s, it came into existence with this particular approach to linguistic analysis, showing how CDA was, by that time, emerging as a distinctive theory of language, a radical different kind of linguistics. Noticeably, most studies of these famous linguists are drawn on Hallidayan systemic functional grammar. This indicates that an understanding of the basic claims of Halliday‟s grammar and his approach to linguistic analysis is essential for an adequate understanding of CDA.
Elements in CDA Concepts relating to „critical‟, „ideology‟, „power‟ and „discourse‟ are discussed as deeply as possible to make a proper understanding of CDA. However, before talking about these elements, we should talk about CDA definition and its goals. CDA definition 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com The notion of Critical Discourse Analysis is the principal issue for those who wish to research such an area. It stays dissimilar among different scholars such as van Dijk (1998), Rebecca Roger (2004), Gilbert Weiss and Ruth Wodak (2003), Norman Fairclough (2001) or Theo Van Leuuwen (1993).
However, I only mention some basic and famous definitions. As stated by van Dijk (1998), CDA investigates the way „social power abuse, dominance and inequality which are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context‟. Quite different from van Dijk, Norman Fairclough (2001) holds his attitude that CDA is considered as ideological analysis. For the above opinions, CDA can be seen as an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a social practice and its targets are to uncover hidden power and ideology behind discourses.
CDA goals The main purpose of CDA as cited by (Litosseliti, 2006), is to understand social issues, inequalities, and ideologies, by exposing the subtle role of discourse in maintaining them. Also, it is to develop more effective means against persecution in society (Rathzel, in Wodak, 1997). Toward deconstructing and reconstructing images of the other still represents other target of CDA (Rathzel in Wodak, 1997). (Schaffner, 1996) suggests that what CDA should act is to describe and explain, and if necessary criticize social and discursive practices, based on solid research.
Critical The notion of „critical‟ which is inherent in CDA‟s program is also understood very differently. For general understanding, as suggested by Oxford Dictionary, „critical‟ is to be understood as a way of thinking about and examining culture and literature by considering the social, historical and ideological forces. The opinion of Wodak and Meyer (2002) is relatively different that „critical‟ is something keeping distance to the data, embedding the data in the social, taking a political stance explicitly and a concentration on self-reflection as scholars doing research. With Corson (2000) (in Roger 2004), he holds his opinion about „critical‟ that it is often associated with researches in power relations.
By means of „critical‟ , linguists find it easier to uncover 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com power inequalities hidden in discourses and wider social and cultural formations. Overall, it is believed that „critical‟ is something qualitative and a sharp tool to reveal ideologies and power behind the discourse. Ideology „Ideology‟ for CDA, is seen as an important aspect of establishing and maintaining unequal power relations. Thompson (1990) holds his opinion about the study of „ideology‟ „the ways in which meaning is constructed and conveyed by symbolic forms of various kinds‟.
It also discovers the social contexts within which symbolic forms are employed and deployed. For Simpson (1993), „ideology‟ is created by a combination of cultural assumptions, political beliefs and institutional practices. According to Eagleton (1994), the study of „ideology‟ has to consider the variety of theories and theorists that have examined the relation between thought and social reality. Despite different concepts of „ideology‟, its main functions according to van Dijk are to self-represent the group or the membership and identification of its members, to organize their social practices or struggles, and to promote the interests of the group and its members with respect to other groups.