MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY TRẦN NGỌC ANH TRÂM A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SPEECHES IN THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY Field: English Linguistics Code: 8. Nguyễn Văn Long BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN TRẦN NGỌC ANH TRÂM PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN TRONG CÁC BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CỦA TỔNG THỐNG TRUMP TẠI ĐẠI HỘI ĐỒNG LIÊN HIỆP QUỐC Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8.01 Người hướng dẫn: PGS. Nguyễn Văn Long i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgements in the thesis.
This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. Binh Dinh, 2020 Tran Ngoc Anh Tram ii ABSTRACT This study applied a Critical Discourse Analysis perspective to investigate three political speeches of President Trump’s in the United Nations Assembly General. The data for analysis in this thesis was taken from the official website in the US, so the quality of the data is entirely reliable and available. The study was based on the theory of Critical Discourse Analysis of Norman Fairclough with three parts: Description, Interpretation, and Explanation.
It focused on the textual description. The research employed qualitative and quantitative approaches. The results show that strategies of grammatical structure use to reflect the surrounding world like transitivity with two main processes material and relational; passive/ active structures, positive/ negative sentences, and nominalization was used in political speeches. The findings show that politicians employ linguistic features and persuasive strategies to represent their power and ideology.
Besides, this thesis can be used as a reference for teachers, learners, or those who are interested in political speeches and can provide them with a better understanding of the different perspectives of critical discourse analysis. Hopefully, the results of this thesis may be useful for those who are interested in critical discourse analysis. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iii LIST OF TABLES. vi LIST OF FIGURES. Scope of the Study. Significance of the Study.
Organization of the study. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. The concept of Discourse analysis. Critical Discourse Analysis.
Fairclough’s Analytical framework. Systemic Functional Grammar’ role in CDA. Reliability and validity. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Experiential values of grammatical features. Frequency of occurrence of process in the speeches of President Trump in the UNGA. The use of voice. Active/Passive sentences.
Positive/Negative sentences. The use of nominalizations. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION. Suggestions for further research.
64 APPENDIX vi LIST OF TABLES Table 3. President Trump’s speeches in the United Nation General Assembly. Material process in three President Trump’s political speeches. Mental process in three President Trump’s political speeches.
Mental process in three President Trump’s political speeches. Mental process in three President Trump’s political speeches. Verbal process in three President Trump’s political speeches. Transitivity in three President Trump’s political speeches.
Distribution of Active/Passive sentences in three President Trump’s political speeches. Distribution of Positive/Negative sentences in three President Trump’s political speeches. 55 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. Discourse as text, interaction and context (Fairclough, 1989).
Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework for the analysis of discourse. Transitivity in English political speeches. Distribution of Active/Passive sentences in three President Trump’s political speeches. Distribution of Positive/Negative sentences in three President Trump’s political speeches.
Rationale Nowadays, the world is changing rapidly day by day with the development and enhancement of everything. Therefore, the interest in the language field has been more and more increase, mastering a language helps people approach with a lots of world news such as politics, society, business, etc. The explosion of the mass media, information technology has created conditions and opportunities for people to communicate, link and share. Language plays an important role in all aspects of our lives.
It can be used to verbal or non-verbal communication such as gestures, body language and tone of voice effectively. Moreover, language is also said to be a means to convey inner thoughts and emotions and influence other's minds through ideology and power embedded in language use. We can discover the relationship between them when linguists investigate in the immense field of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). During the process of exploring new aspects in the language, we have to confront with lots of obstacles in interpreting language which is not only at such levels as phonology, syntax, lexical but also at the level of discourse.
CDA was developed by Roger Fowler and Gunther Kress in the late 1970s and the early 1980s. It is considered as an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse in the perspective that language is viewed as a form of social practice. According to Fairclough (2001), CDA studies and analyses any type of discourse (written text, speech, gesture, symbols, signs posters, electronic and printed advertisement and any type of communication) that systematically communicates with us. CDA significantly expresses the 2 ideology of the writer and the speaker and enables linguistic researchers to analyze different kinds of discourse.
Political discourse is one of the most important and popular targets of CDA. It describes the dialectical relationship between the use of language and the power to emphasize the theoretical value and practical value. Theoretically, it provides a new approach to political analysis to the text. The analysis of grammar and vocabulary in the examples of the political speeches demonstrates a part of the analysis from the CDA perspective.
Moreover, the lexical analysis in a sentence can be carried out in many aspects, such as relational value, expressive value of metaphors. Using the values of vocabulary aims to enhance the interaction between writers and readers. Meanwhile, the values of grammar (the experiential, relational, and expressive value of grammar), as well as textual structure, were analyzed in the same way. CDA has been used to study many different aspects of linguistics by a number of researchers and scholars studying.
For example, Hanh (2016) did a research “A critical discourse analysis of online game advertisements in English”. Nhu (2016) studied the thesis about CDA abstract of education journal articles in English and Vietnamese. In 2018, Duong researched about CDA of the speeches of Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May. In fact, many researchers have focused on certain linguistic features of the politicians' speeches; however, it is interesting to explore the language the current president of the United States Donald Trump.
Besides, critical thinking is seen as an integral element of education development. CDA is very necessary for language teaching and learning. Thus, with the recognition of the importance of CDA, I decide to carry out the study entitled “A Critical Discourse Analysis of President Trump’s Speeches in The United Nations General Assembly". In this study, I 3 attempt to investigate and analyze CDA in President Trump’s speeches in the United Nations General Assembly with the hope that the result of the study will provide some useful knowledge of CDA in politics field for language learners.
Moreover, I strongly hope to help language teachers and learners find it is useful for them to understand and apply CDA in their teaching and learning English. Aims This research aims to discover the textual description in terms of grammar analysis within the framework of CDA in the speeches of President Donald Trump. It also aims at clarifying his speeches in the grammar analysis of the language of CDA. It provides learners of English with practical information and to raise their awareness of critical discourse analysis in political speeches in English.
Moreover, this thesis is to investigate the significant contribution of the experiential values of grammatical features have in Trump’ speeches. It also identified the nominalization, active/ passive sentences, and positive/ negative sentences were used in the speeches of President Donald Trump’s in United Nations General Assembly. Objectives To achieve the aims of the study, the following objectives are intended to: - Investigate the textual description in terms of grammar analysis in political speeches by America‘s 45th President in United Nations General Assembly. - Highlight the significant contribution of the experiential values employed in Trump’s speeches.
- Identify the nominalizations, active/ passive sentences, and positive/ 4 negative sentences were used in Trump’s speeches. Research Questions The following questions are posed, based on the aims and objectives mentioned above, to guide the research process: 1. What are the discourse features of President Trump’s speeches in United Nations General Assembly in terms of grammar analysis in CDA? 2. What are the nominalizations, active/ passive sentences, and positive/ negative sentences that were used in President Trump’s speeches in United Nations General Assembly? 1.
Scope of the Study In this thesis, the scope of study is limited to the CDA in three President Trump’s speeches in United Nations General Assembly and their respective functions. It focuses on the textual description in terms of grammar analysis of political speeches basing on CDA. This study followed the description stage according to Fairclough‘s framework. It investigates the process of the experiential values of grammatical features have in Trump’ speeches.
This study also identifies the nominalization, active/ passive sentences, and positive/ negative sentences were used in the speeches of President Donald Trump in United Nations General Assembly. The interpretation and explanation stages will not be included because the substance of “analysis” changes from stage to stage. In the description, analysis is generally seen as a matter of identifying and 'labelling' formal features of a text in terms of the categories of a descriptive framework. In the interpretation, it is the cognitive process of participants, and in the explanation, it is relationships in transitory social events (interactions).
Significance of the Study Political discourse is regarded as one of the most primary targets in the field of CDA’s research. This study will be useful and meaningful to the discourse analysis study. Besides, it can be a foundation for further studies on speech’s analysis in light of CDA. The findings of this study will firstly contribute to the benefit of English learners in the teaching and learning in general and in political speeches in particular.
This study also discovered how effective language is used to transfer ideas, affect people’s perception about things in education in particular and affect society in general. Furthermore, it will not only help them get special styles but also provide them with some necessary strategies and techniques in using words in speeches. Organization of the study The study was organized in five chapters as follow: Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter covers the rationale, aims, and objectives, research questions, the significance of the study, the scope of the study and the organization of the study. Chapter 2: Literature Review and Theoretical Background This chapter is subdivided into two parts: Literature review and Theoretical background.
Literature review will review some relevant research related to the topic of this study. Theoretical background will present the necessary theoretical concepts for the main contents of the study, covering concepts of Critical Discourse Analysis with specific features. Besides, previous studies related to the research area were also summarized to indicate a gap for the study. 6 Chapter 3: Methodology and Procedure This chapter consists of research methods, the procedure of the study, a description of samples, data analysis.
Chapter 4: Finding and Discussion This chapter demonstrates the results of analyzing data to find out of critical element used in President Trump’s speeches in United Nations Assembly. Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implications This chapter summarized the major findings, points out the limitations as well as provides implications for teaching and learning, and puts forward suggestions for future research.