VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THU HẰNG A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF HILLARY CLINTON‟S 2015 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCH SPEECH Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán bài phát biểu phát động chiến dịch tranh cử Tổng thống Mỹ năm 2015 của Hillary Clinton M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01 Hanoi, 2018 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THU HẰNG A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF HILLARY CLINTON‟S 2015 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCH SPEECH Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán bài phát biểu phát động chiến dịch tranh cử Tổng thống Mỹ năm 2015 của Hillary Clinton M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201. Nguyễn Hoà Hanoi, 2018 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A critical discourse analysis of Hillary Clinton‟s 2015 Presidential Campaign Launch Speech” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees. Hanoi, 2018 Nguyễn Thu Hằng TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Professor Dr. Nguyễn Hoà for helping me complete this study.
This paper would not have been accomplished without his expert, constant and valuable guidance and encouragement. His patience and helpful criticism helped me confidently express my ideas into this paper. I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable lectures which have helped me a great deal in gaining a lot of theoretical background as well as practical knowledge. My special thanks also go to my friends and colleagues for their enthusiastic help and support with my working schedule at school which gave me precious time to deal with my thesis.
Finally, I would also like to express my deep gratitude and love to my family who gave me time and encouragement to overcome all obstacles during the completion of this study. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT In the light of CDA framework suggested by Norman Fairclough, this study attempts to uncover underlying discursive structures in Hillary Clinton‘s presidential campaign discourse. The specific aim is to identify elements of gender references, persuasive techniques and social inclusion and exclusion. The analysis shows that gender references are marked by implicitness, and Clinton performs both stereotypical masculine and feminine genders.
As for social inclusion and exclusion, Clinton‘s use of pronouns revealed her attitude towards her supporters and opponents. According to the results, it might seem that Clinton‘s main purpose of her campaign discourses is to construct an image of herself as President of the United States of America, and additionally, she contributes to eliminating the boundaries of the historical perception of the American presidency in regards to gender. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.
vii PART A: INTRODUCTION. Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Aims and objectives of the study.
Design of the study .5 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .1 Hillary Clinton‘s background .2 An overview of CDA .1 History of CDA .2 What is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)? .3 Key concepts in CDA .4 Three principal approaches to CDA .1 The socio – cognitive approach by Teun van Dijk .2 The discourse – historical approach by Ruth Wodak .3 The dialectical - relational approach by Norman Fairclough .5 Review of previous studies .6 Five common features among the approaches .7 Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) in CDA. 19 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES .1 Research questions restated. 2 Methods of the study .3 Data of the study .4 Analysis procedure of the study. 21 CHAPTER 3: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF HILLARY CLINTON‟S SPEECH.
Functions of Hillary Clinton‘s underlying ideology in the speech. Ideology as a weapon of positive self-representation of ―us‖ and negative other representation of ―them‖ .2 Ideology as a weapon of persuasion .3 Ideology as a weapon of negotiation .4 Ideology of personality profiling. Textual description and Analysis .1 The use of personal pronouns .2 The use of voice .3 Modes of the sentence.5 Connective values of the text .3 Interpretation of the relationship between the productive and interpretative processes53 3.4 Explanation of the relationship between discourse and social processes. Summary of findings.
Limitations of the study and Recommendations for further study. 61 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.speech LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CDA Critical Discourse Analysis CL Critical Linguistics MR Members‘ Resources SFG Systemic Functional Grammar SFL Systemic Functional Linguistics TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.speech LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Overview of process type (Halliday, 1994:143) .17 Table 2: Components of a multiple theme (adapted from Halliday, 1994:54) .18 Table 3: Lexical items for ‗in – groups‘ and positive terms .32 Table 4: Lexical items for ‗out – groups‘ and negative terms .33 Table 5: Frequency of personal pronouns .35 Table 6: Summary of modes of the sentences .36 Table 7: Summary of relational modality .37 Table 8: Summary of expressive modality .38 Table 9: Summary of transitivity analysis data .43 Table 10: Summary of thematic analysis .44 Figure 1: Interpretation (Fairclough, 2001, p.12 Figure 2: Explanation (Fairclough, 2001, p.12 Figure 3: Aspects of interpersonal management.17 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.speech TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.speech PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Discourse is a form of socially important interaction and communication. The nature of a discourse is determined by the speaker, the listener and the context in which it happens.
Therefore, the knowledge of how to affect other people with a well – constructed discourse is a very powerful tool to influence people in all the fields in general and political world in particular where one‘s words are the means of communicating visions, ideologies, power relations in society and/or finally making people advocate wholeheartedly or even comply with strict orders. We all know that political speeches, especially speeches delivered by Presidents are highly well – organized discourses. Hence, in the light of the recent American presidential election, I find that it is really interesting to place political discourses in the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. Despite the fact that the current situation for women has improved enormously in comparison with the social context from several decades before, and there are a variety of laws that guarantee the well-being of every citizen, especially women and children.
It cannot be denied that the women in many situations are still considered as inferior to their male counterparts. And that is this situation has inspired the interest of many researchers who are ready to devote their time to analyzing the role of women within the traditional and modern society and how gender inequalities influence their public image. Having the same perspective with the previous researchers, the focus of my research will be centered on the story of Hillary Clinton. First and foremost, she is an active candidate who has launched her candidacy for the presidency of the United States in the present.
And another reason for choosing Hillary Clinton‘s speech comes from my own personal interest. As far as I can remember, that was my 18th birthday and it was also my first time in Hanoi. After class, I strolled along a street named Trần Quốc Hoàn where lots of old books are on sale on the TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. I came across a book called "Living History" by Hillary Clinton, and this is the first memoir I have ever read that was by the First Lady.
I read that book and I must admit that I enjoy it so much that I could not put it down. Then I decided to buy it as my own birthday present for the age of 18, an unforgettable and fantastic present. Living History is her revealing memoir of life through the White House years. It is a story of her life, with a little background on her family, and how she came to be where she is now.
She grew up with a strong Christian belief and has worked tirelessly all her life to help people. She worked hard for women and children's rights, health care, better working conditions, and the betterment of her country. Intimate, powerful, and inspiring, Living History captures the essence of one of the most remarkable women of our time and the challenging process by which she came to define herself and find her own voice—as a woman and as a formidable figure in American politics. Therefore, through critical discourse analysis, the aim of this paper is firstly to conduct an analysis on appraising Hillary Clinton‘s Campaign Launch Speech from 2015 in order to analyze how she characterizes herself as a woman, to discover hidden factors such as gender, ideology, persuasive techniques, pronouns, family models and coordinating conjunctions.
Significance of the study This research is carried out in the hope to discuss on how ideology is embedded in political discourse by means of language use, specifically focusing on the Hillary Clinton‘s Campaign Launch Speech from 2015. In a political environment, politicians also use effective and appropriate elements of language to persuade and convince the target listeners. Theoretically, this study provides support to CDA theories, though at a minimum scale. From an objective view as linguists when approaching discourses, CDA analysts can find out identity and ideology hidden behind words.
Practically, this study may provide me another approach to language teaching and learning: looking at language teaching and learning from CDA viewpoint. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.speech Moreover, with the investigation of Hillary Clinton‘s speech, the study is hoped to help English language learners as it is commonly seen that they usually find discourses difficult to fully understand. This is mainly due to their failure to interpret the authors‘ underlying assumptions. The awareness of the ideological meanings of the discourse will enable the comprehensive understanding of discourses, especially political ones.
Scope of the study The analysis of Hillary‘s speech is confined to verbal aspects of the speech and the social context in which the speech was delivered. Nevertheless, the limitations of the time and the intellectual capacity of author preclude discovering all the available features in the data. Only salient points relating to the aims of the thesis are being concerned. The study also excludes paralinguistic (intonation, speed, loudness, etc.) and extra – linguistics (body languages such as facial expressions, eye contact, etc.) factors although the author is fully aware of the fact that these ones are very influential in conveying the speaker‘s ideology and identity.
This is a pure linguistic study and for academic purpose only. I will not express my own political view. And this study is not for or against any parties or to change anyone‘s political viewpoint. Aims and objectives of the study The study aims to discover the connection between discourse and power as well as to raise the awareness of using CDA as an effective way in social studies.
Moreover, the study is also expected to contribute to the development of English language education, especially in studying CDA by giving some suggestions for the learners. In order to achieve these above aims, the objectives are specified to: - Provide a theoretical background of CDA – its concepts, its analysis procedures as well as its role in social scientific research in general and linguistics in particular. - Figure out how ideologies are expressed via linguistics elements of the speech given by Hillary Clinton. Research questions: TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.