MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ MAI ĐAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO ATTITUDINAL RESOURCES IN INAUGURAL SPEECHES BY US PRESIDENTS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor : Assoc. Nguyễn Tất Thắng e BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYỄN THỊ MAI ĐAN NGHIÊN CỨU NGỮ LIỆU CHỈ THÁI DỘ TRONG CÁC BÀI PHÁT BIỂU NHẬM CHỨC CỦA CÁC TỔNG THỐNG MỸ Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 Người hướng dẫn: PGS.TS Nguyễn Tất Thắng e i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where reference is made in the text of the research paper, this thesis “An investigation into Attitudinal Resources in Inaugural speeches by 4 US presidents (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump)” contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in the whole, or in part from paper by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. Moreover, no one‘s work has been used without acknowledgement in the paper.
This paper has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other territory institution. Binh Dinh, June 2020 Nguyễn Thị Mai Đan e ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my thanks to many people who have given me great help during the time I managed to complete this thesis. My deepest gratitude is to my supervisor, Assoc. Nguyễn Tất Thắng, who has given me much invaluable advice and encouragement since the very beginning and has been my frequent source on many invaluable insights.
I am also grateful to him for reading my manuscript and helping me make the necessary changes. I am also grateful to lecturers who have given the foundation for this thesis and all the staff of the Post-graduate Department at Quy Nhon University for their encouragement, kindness and administrative assistance. I am particularly grateful to my family and my colleagues who have helped me overcome a lot of difficulties throughout the course and the study of this thesis. e iii ABSTRACT The study aims to examine attitudinal resources used in the Inaugural speeches by 4 US presidents (namely Bill Clinton, George W.
Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump). Appraisal Theory developed by Martin and White (2005) was employed as a framework to analyze four inaugural speeches of the presidents mentioned above. The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was applied for the data analysis. The findings showed that all the presidents employed three types of attitudinal resources.
However, the result of the data analysis revealed a fact that the presidents from the Democratic party, namely Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, used more Appreciation values than Affect and Judgement ones whereas the presidents from the Republican party, namely George Walker Bush and Donald Trump, used Judgement elements the most frequently in comparison to Affect and Appreciation. The findings also depicted that all the presidents employed more positive attitudinal resources than negative ones to rebuild the public‘s confidence. Besides, more explicit judgement items were used in all the presidents‘ speeches than implicit ones. By doing so, all the presidents wanted to make their evaluation become simpler, clearer and more understandable.
Last but not least, it can be clearly seen from the findings that with the use of the most attitudinal resources among the presidents investigated, Barack Obama made his speech become more persuasive and more effective. e iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
vi LIST OF FIGURES. viii LIST OF TABLES. vii LIST OF CHARTS. Aims and objectives.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Organization of the study. Description of data.
Reliability and Validity. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. General features of four inaugural speeches by the US presidents (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump).
ARs of affect. ARs of judgement. ARs of appreciation. Similarities and differences among the speeches of the four presidents.
Implications of the study. Suggestions for further research .