Rationale
There has been much written about Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in recent years It is noticeably noted that not only does CDA seek to describe language but it also offers critical resources to those wishing to resist various forms of power With its success in discerning the relationship between language and power in a wide range of contexts, CDA is attracting growing interest of numerous worldwide language researchers
Language is one of the greatest inventions that human have ever made It has been long considered a communication tool that people use to express their wills, their feelings and their attitudes towards the world By this way, language is a social phenomenon From CDA‘s perspective, language is said a part of society, social practice and a socially-conditioned process (Fairclough, 2001)
As a part of society, language is taken advantage of by different specialists from various fields, in which politics is included It is often said that politics is about power, and language serves as a useful weapon that country leaders use to achieve their political purposes From that, there is no doubt for the close relationship between language and politics; in other words, between language and power
Political speeches are striking examples for the application of linguistic practice to show power Generally speaking, as a speech is given, not only are the messages delivered, but the speaker‘s ideology and power are also embedded
CDA approaches the study and critique of social inequality by focusing on the role of discourse in the production and reproduction of dominance, which is defined as the exercise of social power by elites, institutions or groups, that results in social inequality, including political, cultural, class, ethic, racial, and gender inequality (van Dijk, 1993, p 249-250) One important social issue that be examined in any given culture in terms of dominance and inequality is gender
That women rights violation is a pressing world problem leads to the delivery of numerous speeches The speaker, Hillary Clinton, also made a number of remarks on the issue, in which 1995 speech is the most outstanding ever 2013 speech is also chosen for analysis for it is the review of 1995 one and also gains some important popularity
To my best knowledge, there have been quite a variety of researchers working on language and power connection through the analysis of political speech However, most of them tended to study a single speech, and this remains a slot for me to fill here Hence, in this thesis, I maybe have a look at the same matter, yet with the investigation of two speeches at the same time
All reasons mentioned above lead me to the choice of these two speeches on women by Hillary Clinton as the data of the study for analysis from the viewpoint of CDA.
Aims of the study and Research Questions
Aims of the study
- Provide a critical analysis of two speeches on women by Hillary Clinton in 1995 and 2013 based on Fairclough‘s framework to find out the way hidden power and ideologies are shown in two speeches
- Find out changes in the way power and ideologies are shown in two speeches.
Research questions
To achieve the aims of the study, the following research questions have been posed:
1 How are ideologies and power lexically, syntactically and macro-structurally shown in two speeches on women by Hillary Clinton in 1995 and 2013?
2 Are there any changes in the way ideologies and power are shown in two speeches? If yes, what changes are they?
Scope of the study
In this critical discourse analysis, the researcher is confined to the written aspects of two speeches and some concerned situational contexts as a kind of background knowledge This thesis is a linguistic study rather than a political or social one It is actually based on political speeches to approach and to do a linguistic research for an academic purpose.
Design of the study
The study consists of three parts illustrated as follows:
Part A is the INTRODUCTION of the study which presents the rationale, scope, aims, methodology, and design of the study
Part B is the DEVELOPMENT which is made up of three chapters
Chapter 1: Theoretical background and literature review
This chapter gives an overview of CDA – its history, role, concepts, and procedure
Chapter 2 : Methodology of the study
This chapter provides a detailed description of the methodology, which includes research methods applied for data collection, the types of the data, and the analysis procedure of the study
Chapter 3: A critical discourse analysis of two speeches on women by Hillary
The CDA procedure addressed by Fairclough (2001) is applied to analyze two speeches to find out the relationship between power, ideology and language, and simultaneously explore the similarities and differences in how power and ideology are reflected in two speeches
Part C is the CONCLUSION which summarizes the major findings of the study, draws important conclusions, and offers suggestions for further research.
Significance of the study
Theoretically, this study provides a support to CDA theories From an objective view as linguists when approaching texts, CDA analysts can find out ideology and power hidden behind words Practically, this study is submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements of my degree of Master in English Linguistics Moreover, with the investigation of two speeches at the same time, it may provide the researcher another approach to political speech analysis from CDA viewpoint
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE
An overview of CDA
Before the 1970s, linguistic research was mostly concerned with the formal aspects of language, which are believed to theoretically be isolated from specific instances of language use (Chomsky, 1957)
The attention was shifted when the relation between language and context was considered, as in pragmatics, with a focus on speakers‘ pragmatic or socio-linguistic competence In the 1970s, text and discourse analysis, which lay the emphasis on the role of language in structuring power relations in society, has been emerged and flourished Famous linguistic researchers such as Kress and Hodge (1979), Van Dijk (1985), van Dijk (1993), Fairclough (1995a), Fairlough (1995b), Fairclough and Wodak (1997) made a great contribution to set out the main assumptions, primary principles and procedures of what then became known as Critical Linguistics (CL)
By the 1990s, the label Critical Discourse Analysis, CDA came into existence and rapidly emerged as ―a distinct theory of language, a radically different kind of linguistics‖ (Kress, 1990, quoted in Wodak& Meyer, 2001, p.5) The terms CL and CDA are sometimes interchangeably used by some linguists until nowadays
According to Leeuwen (1993), CDA concerns with the discourse as the instrument of the social reality In Rogers (2004)‘s point of view, CDA not only includes a description and interpretation of discourse in context, but it also offers an explanation of why and how the discourse works As a result, it itself distances from other discourse analysis approaches I am favor of the notion by Wodak and Fairclough (1997) that CDA regards language as a social practice Comparatively speaking, it is a discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social variables, such as power abuse, dominance, and inequality, are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by texts and talks in the social and political context
1.3 Some main directions in CDA
1.3.1 Van Dijk‘s Van Dijk (1988) does not see the discourse as an isolated textual and dialogic structure, but as a complicated communicative event embedding the social context
Therefore, discourse, in his view, is not only simply investigated at phonological, morphological, grammatical and semantic level, but deeply approached by higher level properties such as coherence, themes, topics and the whole schematic and rhetorical dimensions of the texts
He also focuses on the ideology analysis of discourse and proposes a framework of discourse analysis as follows (1988b, p.61-63):
- Examining the context of the discourse: historical, political and social background of a
- conflict and its main participants
- Analyzing the groups, power relations and conflicts involved
- Identifying positive and negative opinions about US and THEM
- Making explicit the presupposed and the implied
- Examining all formal structures: lexical choice and syntactic structure, in a way that helps to (de)emphasize polarized group opinions
Van Dijk places his emphasis on the discourse of news in the press and mainly applies his theory to authentic cases of news report at national and international level His new method of analysis is concerned with three levels of news discourse production (structure, production and comprehension processes) and their relationship with the social context within which are embedded Such relationship is described by the analysis of text at two levels: microstructure and macrostructure
The former includes the semantic relations between propositions, syntactic, lexical and other rhetoric elements that create the coherence for the text The latter involves the analysis of thematic structures, and overall schemata of news stories
As Wodak and Ludwig (1999) state, language "manifests social processes and interaction" and "constitutes" those processes as well (p.12) Viewing language this way entails three things at least
First, discourse "always involves power and ideologies No interaction exists where power relations do not prevail and where values and norms do not have a relevant role" (p.12) Second, "discourse is always historical, that is, it is connected synchronically and diachronically with other communicative events which are happening at the same time or which have happened before" (p.12) The third feature is that of interpretation One of the most striking features of this approach, as Wodak (2002) claims, is endeavor to work inter-disciplinarily and multi- methodically and on the basis of a variety of different empirical data as well as background information That is, readers and listeners, depending on their background knowledge and information and their position, might have different interpretations of the same communicative event (p.13)
The overall framework of this approach is seen in the four levels of contexts as follow (Wodak, 2002, p.68):
- The immediate language or text internal co-text;
- The inter-textual and inter-discursive relationships between utterances, texts, genres, and discourse;
- The extra-linguistic social/socio-logical variables and institutional frames of specific
- The broader socio-political and historical contexts, which the discursive practices are embedded in and related to
As previously said, CDA has been further developed and broadened over years
Among the CDA scholars, Norman Fairclough is one of the most striking authors, whose works have profoundly contributed to the development of CDA He claimed that the earliest work in CL did not adequately focus on the "interpretive practices of audiences." In other words, earliest CL, for the most part, assumed that the audiences interpret texts the same way the analysts do The other issue he suggested is that earlier contributions in CL were very thorough in their grammatical and lexical analysis while they were less attentive to the inter-textual analysis of texts:
"the linguistic analysis is very much focused upon clauses, with little attention to higher-level organization properties of whole texts" (p.28)
Despite raising some limitations of earlier CL, Fairclough (1995b) added that the achievement of critical linguistics cannot be denied as that reflects the shifts of focus and development of theory over past years CDA today is not a specific direction of research, but a shared perspective encompassing a range of approaches
Nevertheless, ―given the common perspective and the general aims of CDA, we may also find overall conceptual and theoretical frameworks that are closely related." (van Dijk, 1998a)
This study follows the steps set forth by Fairclough (2001) Language, seen as discourse and as social practice, is neither analyzed by texts nor by processes of production and interpretation, but to be analyzed by the relationship between texts, processes, and their social conditions, both the immediate conditions of the situational context and the more remote conditions of institutional and social structures With these three dimensions, he suggested a CDA procedure framework with three main stages: Description, Interpretation, and Explanation modified as follows
This stage is concerned with the formal properties of the text which can be regarded as the particular options made by each individual To unravel the hidden meanings, embedded messages, and interpret the speaker‘s ideology, a set of ten main questions, followed by sub-questions, is introduced by Fairclough (2001, p.92-93) in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and textual structures (See Appendix 3)
1 What experiential values do words have?
2 What relational values do words have?
3 What expressive values do words have?
5 What experiential values do grammatical features have?
6 What relational values do grammatical features have?
7 What expressive values do grammatical features have?
8 How are (simple) sentences linked together?
9 What interactional conventions are used?
10 What larger-scale structures does the text have?
The three terms: experiential, relational and expressive, as Fairclough (2001) claimed, refer to formal features of texts By looking at experiential values, CDA attempts to show how ‗the text producer‘s experience of the natural or social world‘ affects and is shown in a text A person‘s views of the world can be identified by assessing formal features with experiential value Relational values may identify the perceived social relationship between the producer of the text and its recipient The third dimension, expressive value, provides an insight into ‗the producer‘s evaluation (in the widest sense) of the bit of the reality it relates to Moreover, Fairclough (2001) goes on to identify another value that any formal feature may possess, connective value, as its function may be to connect together parts of a text
He also stresses that any given formal feature may simultaneously have two or three of these values
Macrostructures of discourse are distinguished from its microstructures, that is, the local structures of words, clauses, sentences or turns in conversation The presupposition behind the search for macrostructures is that, for any given well- structured discourse, there exists an overall idea that the author of the text has in mind as he produces it To the extent that the text is well-formed, that controlling idea is reproduced in the mind of the receiver as he reads or listens to the text In other words, according to Van Dijk (Wodak, R and Meyer, M., 2001), ‗semantic macrostructures‘(global meanings or topics) represent what a discourse ‗is about‘ globally speaking, embody most important information of a discourse, and explain overall coherence of text and talk They are the global meaning that language users constitute in discourse production and comprehension
The three values of formal features of texts are connected with three aspects of social practice which may be constrained by power (contents, relations and subjects) and their associated structural effects (on knowledge and beliefs, social relationships, and social identities) However, it is obvious that one cannot directly infer from the formal features of a text to structural effects upon the constitution of a society Values of textual features only become real when they are put in social interaction Therefore, in this stage, an analysis is needed to deal with the discourse processes and their dependence on background assumptions
Interpretations are generated through what is in the text and what is ―in‖ the interpreter Formal features of the text act as the ―cues‖, which activate elements of interpreter‘s MR (member‘s resources) The term MR can be understood as the background knowledge, values, beliefs, assumptions, or in Fairclough‘s viewpoint, the interpretative procedures of the text The process of interpretation is briefly summarized in the following figure:
Interpretative procedure (MR) Resources Interpreting
Phonology, grammar, Surface of utterance vocabulary
Semantics, pragmatics Meaning of utterance
METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
Research questions restated
As presented previously, the study seeks the answer to the following research questions:
1 How are ideologies and power lexically, syntactically and macro-structurally shown in two speeches on women by Hillary Clinton in 1995 and 2013?
2 Are there any changes in the way ideologies and power are shown in two speeches? If yes, what changes are they?
Methods of the study
The data in the study tend to be discussed from the viewpoint of CDA framework given by Fairclough (2001) with three stages of analysis: Description, Interpretation and Explanation
The thesis serves as a descriptive qualitative research; as a result, qualitative methods, namely referencing to publications, discussing and consulting the supervisor, document and material analysis are actually the main research techniques Also, in a descriptive research, there is no need for the researcher to do any manipulation because pertinent and precise information concerning the current status of phenomena are obtained from the condition itself
Referencing to publications is chosen as the first and foremost techniques because it provides theoretical background and empirical bases for discussions and conclusions in the study
Following this, discussing and consulting the supervisor also plays a contributing role in the completion and fulfillment of the study Fruitful and helpful suggestions and comments of the supervisor make the researcher encouraged and right-oriented
In addition, the data in the study belong to the textual type which exists in form of words collected from a speech transcript Therefore, document and material analysis is an indispensable technique.
Data of the study
The data of the study is the underlying power and ideologies embedded in two speeches on women delivered by Hillary Clinton in 1995 and 2013
On September 5 th , 1995, Hillary Clinton, the American First Lady at that time, delivered a speech called ―Women‟s rights are human rights‖ at the United Nations
4 th World Conference held in Beijing, China Over 180 countries and thousands of human rights supporters came together in Beijing China to hear the speech It was a speech that launched a movement
Actually, those lengthy powerful remarks almost could not come about unless bitter oppositions could be overcome First, Bill Clinton‘s, her husband‘s White House did not want Hillary Clinton to attend the conference in Beijing due to political and diplomatic reasons At that time, the Clinton administration was struggling to normalize relations with China, which had got severe since 1989 Tiananmen massacre They feared that the first lady would ―lecture‖ China‘s hyper-sensitive government officials in their treatment of women, upsetting the slow effort to rebuild US-China ties Moreover, they argued that in the position of the first lady, she was not supposed to call out and challenge foreign government as a guest on its soil That is not diplomatic
At the same time, the situation got worse following the arrest of American – Chinese prominent human rights activist, Harry Wu It is declared that Clinton would not deliver her speech if the Chinese government did not release Wu prior to the event Finally, all worked out and Hillary Clinton still came to Beijing, and gave the finest and most important speech of her life, marking the striking moment in international women's rights advocacy
Determination and consistence over obstacles make her presence at the conference and her speech expected and worth hearing In the speech, by arguing that the concerns of women are the concerns of humanity, she targeted governments and organizations as well as individual females to the gender equality and called for fights against women abuses The speech drew loud applause of and held strong appeal to the leaders, the citizens and the media all around the world at that time It appeared more valued as it was spoken out at a diplomatic-mission meeting, in a country hostile to these ideas, China, and with the world watching
Then, nearly 20 years later, at the 2013 Women in World Summit, New York, Clinton developed her attitudes towards the issue of women by giving a ―full and clear-eyed‖ review of the advances and progress made for worldwide women‘s equality, as well as the remaining obstacles in the run- up to the 20 th anniversary of the historic Beijing women‘s conference in 2015
Both speeches made a focus on women‘s rights and human rights violations against women The 2013 speech may, however, be considered a development of the 1995 one, as it was concerned with the empowerment, the full and equal participation of women in terms of political, economic and societal advancements as well These two speeches, or to be more exact, Clinton‘s calls for global women‘s rights, are definitely a fertile land to find ideologies and power hidden in linguistic forms, and from that, proving the relationship between language and power
This study tends to focus on the critical analysis of 1995 speech, in comparison with that 2013 speech, to uncover intentions and ideology embedded and also indentify whether there are any changes in the way the speaker exerts power and expresses ideology.
Analysis procedure of the study
The study is attached to CDA approach and is carried out following some basic stages:
The first stage taken during the whole course of the research is to conduct a literature review in order to gain and present an understanding of the issues relevant to the research topic A host of reference books, materials, studies and articles related to the field of CDA and the theme of the thesis will be collected, read, classified and interpreted
In the second stage, the two speeches on women delivered by Hillary Clinton and needed information concerning the aspects introduced will be collected The selected data are thoroughly examined by appropriate analytical tools
Last but not least, a careful analysis and a thoughtful investigation are made to unravel the underlying ideology and to cover the hidden meanings intended in two speeches More importantly, it is essential that comparisons be made to understand how similar or different these two speeches are; in other words, to examine how the speech in 2013 agrees, supports, develops, or differs from that in 1995
Negative terms – Women rights violations
The situational context that affects the choice of vocabulary
The effect of the discourse (the choice of vocabulary) at the institutional level and societal level
Personal pronouns: the use of ‗we‘ and
Voice : the use of active and passive
The situational context that affects the choice of voice and personal pronouns
The effect of discourse (the choice of voice and personal pronouns) at the institutional and societal level voice
Large - scale structure : list of macro-structure statements
The situational context that affects the use of large-scale structure
The effect of discourse (the choice of large-scale structure) at the institutional and societal level
A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE TWO
Description
As discussed previously, Fairclough suggests a CDA framework with focus on three main properties of language: Vocabulary, Grammar and Textual structures The procedure includes 10 questions and some sub-questions However, the set of questions is selective As regards the two speeches chosen for analysis in this study, it is intended to contain the description of some features which tend to be the most significant for critical analysis to the best knowledge of the researcher
Description, as given by Faiclough (2001), is the first stage in text analysis, which aims to find out linguistic features such as features of vocabulary, grammar, and the overall structure of interactions The choice of words and structures functions as a tool to express ideological and communicative presuppositions and implications
First of all, the analysis of vocabulary used in the text is of primary importance
According to Van Dijk (as cited in Wodak R and Meyer, M., 2001), lexical meanings, so-called ―local meanings‖ are the result of the combination between speakers‘ or writers‘ personal relevant understandings and socially shared beliefs
These meanings are said to influence directly the attitudes and opinions of the recipients and then can be best recalled and easily reproduced Van Dijk describes the lexical selection of the text in positive and negative terms, namely in-group and out-group, respectively In other words, it is based on the positive self – presentation and negative out – presentation to exhibit power and ideologies
Fairclough (2001) also talks about lexical selection in connection with ideology, which he sees as ideology‘s reservoir He associates vocabulary items with three types of value: experiential, relational and expressive In terms of experiential vocabulary value, he places emphasis on classification schemes, but not as in – group and out – group presentations
In the two speeches chosen for analysis, contrastive classification schemes of positive and negative terms are also drawn upon As far as I am concerned, one scheme is referred to as ―Women rights‖, which includes words whose meanings support women equal treatment, and the other is ―Women rights violations‖ scheme with vocabulary items used to show women mistreatment We can prove this strategy via detailed analysis of lexical items in two speeches The list of vocabulary use in each speech is illustrated in Appendix 4
Via the very first examination of the two speeches, some surface impressions of the speaker‘s perspectives have been emerged: She favors the way women are treated with dignity, equality and respect whereas she offers criticism over the way women rights are violated As can be seen from vocabulary classification, it is obvious that in 1995 Speech more negative terms, which belong to the scheme ―Women rights violations‖, are employed, including verbs, nouns, or adjectives Meanwhile, in
2013 Speech, the use of positive terms outweighs that of negative ones A quick glance may get us to the point that 1995 Speech is mainly concerned with the ignorance and violations of women rights; on the other hand, the 2013 one prefers what women have achieved This may be true to a large extent, the choice of words Clinton made; however, is worth more investigation and analysis
1.2.1 The use of ―I‖ and ―we‖ pronouns Not only does the choice of lexicon play an important role in delivering power and ideologies embedded but grammatical features are said to mark the same point in the discourse In the discussion of relational values, the frequency of pronouns ―I‖ and ―we‖ used in two speeches is shown in the following table:
Table 1: Frequency of pronoun ―I‖ and ―We‖ in 1995 and 2013 Speech
When taking a look at the table given, it is obvious that two pronouns ―I‖ and ―we‘ are most frequently used both speeches; however, the use of ―we‖ proves to be preferred ―I‖ absolutely refers to the speaker, Hillary Clinton; whereas, in comparison with the situational context, it can be inferred that the difference in the place each speech was given decides on the different references to which pronoun
―we‖ particularly directs A deeper investigation and interpretation will be taken to unveil the strategy of the way the speaker uses pronouns in her speech in the next parts
At the very beginning of the speech, Hillary Clinton expresses her gratitude and pride for being invited to the conference She knows she can take advantage to make her points in the public
Earlier today, I participated in … Tomorrow, I will attend… (S 17, 19 )
Over the past 25 years, I have worked persistently on … Over the past two and a half years, I've had the opportunity… (Ss 26 -27)
I want to speak up for … (S 45)
The speech was delivered in an international conference held in Beijing, China with the participants of different countries, so it addressed to audience of various backgrounds First, Hillary explicitly claims that she is a member of women community With the employment of inclusive ―we‖, she places herself among
Pronoun ―We‖ 36 55 them She talks about the way women in every corner of the world join hands and come together, or the way they share common things:
To be more, being a woman, the speaker shares that she, like others, takes the responsibility to take care of family members, but their work is not valued:
We are primary caretakers for most of the world‟s children and elderly Yet much of the work we do is not valued… (Ss 36 - 37)
We come together in fields and factories, in living markets and supermarkets, in living rooms and board rooms (S 5)
….we come together and talk about our aspirations and concern (S 6)
… and we are here to find common ground so that we may bring dignity and respect to women … (S 9)
By gathering in Beijing, we are focusing world attention on issues that matter most in our lives … (S 10)
At this very moment, as we sit here, women around the world are giving birth, raising children, … (S.38)
We need to understand … We must respect….We must recognize… (Ss.48, 49, 51)
It is time for us to say here in Beijing… to discuss women‟s rights as separate from human rights (S.60)
But we also been reminded, in V-J Day,… We have seen peace prevail in most places
… We have avoided another world war But we have not solved older and deeply- rooted problems… (Ss 84, 85, 86, 87)
If we take bold steps to better lives of the women, we will be taking bold steps t better the lives of children and families, too (S.89)
We must move beyond rhetoric We must move beyond recognition … (Ss.98, 99)
In 2013 speech, apart from five ―I‖ quoting from Malala, 14-year-old Taliban girl, Hillary mentioned in her speech, the pronoun ―I‖ refers to the speaker herself Like that in 1995 speech, she shows her pleasure and privilege to attend the annual conference of Women in the World Summit She presents her viewpoints and also shares her experience
I did see some faces and I know that … (S.4)
I have always believed that … (S 8) And when I became Secretary of State, I was determined to … (S 10)
However, Hillary is well aware that women issues are national and international problems It is not only ―the heart of her work‖ but also many others‘ concerns She knows that to make the dream of making women achieve their God-given untapped potentials and human rights is not only her duty but also the duty of many people
That is the reason why she moves from using the pronoun ―I‖ into the pronoun
―we‖, which appears throughout the speech
But I knew to do that, I couldn‟t ….We had to reach out … We had to make the case…
…we are meeting at a remarkable moment of confluence (S 31)
We clearly see that … (S 45) We‟ve seen that … (S 89)
We are the richest and most powerful country in the world (S 133)
It is said that the way a language has both active and passive voice allows for greater flexibility in sentence construction According to CDA researchers, the presence of passive form is influenced by social factors, such as gender, social status, or political bias Thus, it can be noted that passivization has a direct connection with underlying ideological meaning; in other words, it can reflect the speaker‘ or writer‘s intentions in the discourse The use of passive voice is preferred when the focus is placed on the action itself rather than the doer of the action
Sometimes, the speaker or writer opts for passive ones for the purpose of avoiding pointing out the agent because of some particular reasons
The table below shows the number and percentage of active and passive sentences used in the two speeches chosen for analysis:
Times appeared Percentage (%) Times appeared Percentage (%)
Table 2: Frequency of active and passive voice in 1993 and 1995 Speech
Interpretation
According to Fairclough‘s framework, Interpretation is the second stage in CDA of a text that involves interpretation of surface and utterance, meaning of utterance, local coherence and text structure and ‗point‘ The description of some main points of linguistics forms has been discussed in previous sections, so in this part, focus will be given to specify the relationship between formal features and interaction
As for the interpretation on context, there are two domains: situational context and inter-textual context
Since it is argued that specific communicative situations makes the discourse ideologically biased Therefore, to be able to discover the true ideologies and power hidden behind the written language, the analysis of the situational context, including who is involved, what is going on, in what relation, and the role of language, is mandatory
First, in terms of the question ―what is going on‖, it can be said that there is a similarity between the two speeches that they both act as a speech at a conference and the central topic of the activity type is women rights As a result, it entails the acts of informing, and showing political viewpoints Although there are several common ideas in the central topic, the purposes in the course of giving two speeches are quite different While the speech delivered in 1995 is best to do with the reality of the world women rights violations and to call for actions to improve the on-going situation, the 2013 speech centers on reviewing advancements and remains as well in the way women rights have been exercised for almost 20 years and at the same time trying to promote women rights respect and protection in the upcoming years In general, she wants to show that ―women rights are human rights‖ and persuade people to protect against women rights violations and speak up for women who have been still mistreated all throughout the world
Secondly, in response to the question ―who is involved?‖ as the types of situation, the place where and the time at which two speeches were delivered, are different, the set of subject positions differ, too In the case of 1995 speech, Hillary Clinton, at that time serving as American First Lady, gave remarks at the United Nations 4 th Conference on Women Plenary Session at Beijing, China with the participation of governments of China and over 180 countries worldwide, organizations, and thousands of advocates that can help to meet the goal of making women‘s rights human rights
That Clinton made her speech was unexpected by Chinese government; consequently, when she made it, they blocked it out from being heard within China
As a result, the audience of the speech seemed to restrict to those present at the conference Nevertheless, because of powerful influence, the speech was then spread to most parts of the world and became internationally publicized Therefore, it can be accepted that the target audience of is not only representative leaders, participants of the meeting, but also women and those concerning women rights all over the world
As regards the speech in 2013, which was given at Women at the World Summit in America with the broadcast throughout the country, the addresses may involve those at the conference and other American people
One more thing is to identify ―in what relation?‖ When it comes to the question of relations, we look at subject positions more dynamically, in terms of what relationships of power, social distance and so forth set up and enacted in the situation At the time Hillary Clinton made her speech in 1995, she was First Lady of America, the wife of President Bill Clinton, and when the 2013 speech was delivered, she was Former First Lady, Former State Secretary, and a Former Senator Thus, she was one of few women who achieved positions of prominence, especially political power In this case, she proves to be a credible speaker as she is a well-known person and a public image As a result, she has authority to decide on the type of discourse, the information given and the language use She knows who was listening to her speech and then makes a decision on the way to exert her power, show her ideology and deliver her messages She manages to structure for herself a subject position as a woman political leader, and also a representative of women all around the world
For the last question ―What is the role of language?‖ it is clear that language serves as a channel to convey messages Language used in 1995 speech is Clinton‘s words in place of women worldwide, doing an act against the lack of human rights and women‘s rights The speech in 2015 is not much different when language was employed to make a review of what women achieved and also point to untapped potentials they hold for economy and politics In both speeches, the speaker, via spoken words, tries to call for women equality and protection
2.2 Interpretation of inter-textual context
According to Fairclough (2001), discourses and the text which occur within them have histories, they belong to historical series, and the interpretation of inter-textual context is a matter of deciding which series a text belongs to, and therefore, what can be taken as common ground for participants, or presupposed
Presupposition is an aspect of interpretation stage, which implies the speaker‘s assumptions on what is already known to listeners, what is left unknown to them so as to decide the way to present information On giving important speeches, Hillary Clinton is expected to talk about the things that are in audience‘s range of understanding, and including presuppositions is a way to lead her intentions more accessible to listeners
Particularly, 2013 speech is the review of the speech in 1995, therefore, it, to some extent, is expected to presuppose from the former Because they are both long speeches with multiple presuppositions, I would like to choose some of them in which ideology is clearly embedded and then deeply affects the audience and their interpretation
In 1995 speech, Clinton assumes that the listeners have understanding about the reality women have been mistreated over years S stands for ―sentence‖:
The great challenge of this conference is to give voice to women everywhere whose experiences go unnoticed, whose words go unheard(S.34)
Even now, in the late 20th century, the rape of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict (S 56 )
As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace everywhere in the world, … (S 92)
Women discriminations have been discussed over ages, while the conference involves the participation of hundreds political leaders and human rights advocates
Accordingly, they are absolutely conscious of unequal rights and abuses women and girls endure These background understanding will help them absorb and interpret ideologies in the way the speaker means
She also makes assumptions about the way women deserve equal rights and opportunities She assumes that protecting and advancing women rights is of destiny that should be recognized and respected:
We need to understand there is no one formula for how women should lead our lives
That is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family Every woman deserves the chance to realize her own God-given potential But we must recognize that women will never gain full dignity until their human rights are respected and protected (Ss 48-51)
In 1995 speech, Clinton made a claim about the fact women and girls are ignored and subjected to abuses In 2013 speech, the speaker reminds the audience of harsh treatment remains on women:
Explanation
The objective of the stage of explanation is to portray a discourse as part of a social process, as a social practice, showing how it is determined by social structures, and what productive effects discourses can have on those structures, sustaining them or changing them These social determinations and effects are ‗mediated‘ by MR, which in turn shape discourse; and discourses sustain or change MR, which in turn sustain or change structures (Fairclough, 2001)
In accordance with the concerns of explanation given above, discourse of the speaker will be looked at as an element in social processes at the institutional and societal levels to show how it is ideologically determined by and ideologically determinative of power relations and power struggle at these levels
In terms of the institutional level, this discourse belongs to, are the struggles between the advocates for women rights on one side and the governments and organizations who committed violations of the women rights on the other side
The subject position and the location of the speech play an important role in the struggle Giving a speech in a confrontational situation, in a foreign giant country and on a diplomatically sensitive matter with the fear of aggravating relations between two countries, the speaker, maybe, is expected to make a speech that involves constructive and favorable comments, avoiding harsh and unpleasant facts and criticism To some extent, she did a good job on this when she began the speech with the contributions of women and expressed her endeavor to be a member of them, and that she was there to speak for them But then she made all her audience shocked and surprised when giving a detailed account of harsh treatment on women and lack of respect in women rights
A clear-cut division of two contrastive ideas is discussed On the one hand, she favors equal rights and opportunities women deserve, and on the other hand she criticizes on the reality inequalities and discriminations women endure Although Clinton comments on detailed abuses that occurred around the world – for example, rape in war-torn Bosnia and the burning of India brides whose marriage dowries were deemed too small, there is little doubt that these had particularly strong implications in China, which had been object of global criticism for gender discrimination over years The speech made Chinese government unhappy and dissatisfied, but above all, it was far from causing international breach and controversy Instead, it ultimately won admiration and respect for her among government leaders and approval from human rights activists Thus, in this case, the speaker is successful in conveying her messages and ideologies towards the audience Not only is it a message to Chinese government but a call to countries around the world to promote women‘s rights as human rights Her speech exemplifies her ability to go to a foreign capital and deliver a forthright address, to show her readiness to confront a real foreign relations crisis and exert influence
On societal level, Clinton does a good job as the representative of women community Women have long been considered distinctly inferior to men Being born female, they lack rights and opportunity in every aspect of life, including in education, employment, property, politics and even the right to decide family size
The appearance at the conference gives Clinton chances to become few of women whose words have long gone silenced and unheard to speak up Putting herself as the representative and also assimilating herself as a member of the group accounting for half of world population, Clinton not only shows her personal identity but also creates a solidarity and sense of common sharing among the public By this way, she is successful in establishing warrant and winning trust and confidence from the audience As a result, she is also successful in getting audience to agree on remarks and conclusions
Approximately 20 years after the history speech, she was back addressing the same assembly on the same issues At that time, she was a former first lady, a former senator, and former Secretary of State Since leaving the State Department in early
2013, only few months before the speech was made, she became involved with a new project: the Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, which has partnered with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to further women‘s rights She also has given several speeches about women empowerment and included women issues among her endeavors The speech in 2013 was her reaffirmation of her commitments to women rights she made in 1995 speech, but her focus moves on with political, economic and societal advancements that women have achieved
As regards institutional context, if the 1995 speech is her first attempt to officially take part in political work, the speech in 2013 is a confirmation for her ability to be a political leader The shocking influence of speech in 1995, higher power and contributions to women‘s rights advancements create more appeal, persuasiveness and credibility for her 2013 speech She spoke plainly to the crowd, including political leaders, organizations and human rights supporters, who always support her and advocate her idea of fighting for women empowerment In so far as she establishes a sense of leader ship, she strengthens her position of a woman political leader It is said that the speech adds the buzz about her political future as a potential presidential candidate
On societal context, the speech serves as a means to raise her image up among the public Once again, Clinton proves to be a powerful woman, who always stands in the supporting side of women rights She works as the representative of American women, raising their voice to demand what they deserve Not only was she an excellent political leader, but she also did a good job as a women rights activist It is the fact that American women are often offered equal rights and grants than those in many other countries However, as Clinton states, they deserve more than that they are achieving As the speaker, she urges women‘s empowerment in some other aspects such as politics, economics and societal advancement The speech helps strengthen her persuasive power for women rights and again successfully spread her message all over the world
Previous chapters have so far dealt with textual description and analysis in great details in order to uncover the speaker‘s ideologies and power hidden in the discourse, behind the words, sentences, and structures In this part, the core points will be summarized Some implications and suggestions for further studies are also discussed.
Summary of findings
The study employs the CDA framework suggested by Fairclough (2001) with three main stages: Description, Interpretation and Explanation Two speeches on women by Hillary Clinton in 1995 and 2013 have been chosen for analysis The discourse of both speeches has proven a fertile soil for Hillary Clinton to present her power and ideologies Through a thorough analysis based on the concerned theoretical background, the relationship between power, ideology and language has been revealed
It is safe to say that the speaker has taken careful preparations and considerations in the use of language that leads to her success of her speeches
To some extent, I managed to seek the answer to research questions posed previously, which will be summarized as follows:
In terms of vocabulary use, the speaker makes a good choice of words associated with two contrast terms: Women rights and women rights violations In 1995 speech, she demonstrates her strong preference as to words with negative meaning to condemn the reality of mistreatments and oppressions on women all around the world Meanwhile, in the speech in 2013, she tends to favor the use of words which specifies equal rights and opportunities women deserve She shows her pleasure and satisfaction with improvements in women empowerment and again call for strong actions to achieve women advancement The lexical choice reveals Clinton‘s advocacy for equal rights and opportunities and disapproval of women discrimination
The speaker‘ power and ideologies are also encoded by the use of grammatical features, including the use of pronouns ―I‖ and ―we‖ as well as the use of voice
With the use of pronoun ―I‖, Clinton makes it clear that she can understand the problem being discussed clearly and shows her competency and self-confidence
She also puts herself as a political leader, showing her awareness and enthusiasm to deal with women problems in her country and over the world In both speeches, great preference is granted to the use of pronoun ―we‖ By this way, she aims to involve people in his cause, creating a solidarity and support among people in the way fighting for gender equality and equal treatment for women
When it comes to the use of voice, the speaker tends to favor active forms than passive ones However, the speech in 1995 shows higher frequency of passive voice than 2013 speech does The explanation can be taken from the purpose of the speech Through the use of passive clause, while focusing on the victims of mistreatments and abuses, women, Clinton indirectly criticize Chinese government, the host of the conference, for their lack of respect and protection of women rights
It can be stated that the First Lady of America proves her skill, wisdom and tactfulness in performing diplomatic purposes
Likewise, macro-structures play an important role in exhibiting power and ideologies the speaker embedded in the discourse If 1995 speech places emphasis on raising the issue of women problems, and depicting and criticizing harsh treatment abuses women face, the 2013 speech centers on reviewing achievements and remains in fights for women rights advancement and promotion It also illustrates the role of women empowerment in economy, politics and societal development Both speeches call for actions for women rights protection and advancement
In general, there is not much difference in the way power and ideologies are shown in both speeches chosen for analysis The most significant difference seems to lie on the situational context that affects the speaker‘s exerting her influence 1995 speech was delivered in Beijing China, an authoritarian country known for gender discrimination and harsh treatment on women, with the participation of hundreds political leaders and thousands of human rights advocates throughout the globe
Before the speech, she was also disapproved to come to Beijing, even by her own country‘s government The obstacles and the location of the speech put her under considerable pressure; nevertheless, it also lent electricity to her words, making her speech the most powerful and appealing than ever Meanwhile, the 2013 speech is made in New York, her own country, and the audience is mainly American people
Speaking in front of her own citizens, along with her current position, contributions and the influence of 1995 speech, helps with strong credibility and support Though the speech did not draw loud applause like that in 1995, it can act as a means to strengthen her persuasive power for women rights and successfully beam her message all over the world: ―let it be human rights are women rights, and women rights are human rights, once and for all.‖
Limitations of the study and Recommendations for further study
The study serves as the initial exploration of the researcher in critical discourse analysis of political speeches Thus, in spite of fruitful attempt made in conducting the research, limitations of the study cannot be avoided Owing to the limited time and ability, the study focuses only on analysis of some textual features of the speech, remaining some other striking features, such modality and the use of pathos to evoke emotions from audience Moreover, the study gives comparison between the two speeches delivered by the same speaker; this leaves a gap for further study to fulfill Maybe, further study can seek analysis of two speeches on the same issue, at the same time, but made by two different speakers to find out similarities and differences in the way power and ideology are revealed
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1 Hillary Rodham Clinton: Remarks to the U.N 4th World Conference on Women
Plenary Session Retrieved from http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/hillaryclintonbeijingspeech.htm
2 Hillary Clinton: Helping women isn‟t a “nice” thing to do Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/04/05/hillary-clinton-helping- women-isn-t-just-a-nice-thing-to-do.html
Hillary Clinton’s Remarks to the U.N 4th World Conference on Women Plenary Session
(1) Thank you very much, Gertrude Mongella, for your dedicated work that has brought us to this point, distinguished delegates, and guests:
(2) I would like to thank the Secretary General for inviting me to be part of this important United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (3) This is truly a celebration, a celebration of the contributions women make in every aspect of life: in the home, on the job, in the community, as mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, learners, workers, citizens, and leaders
(4) It is also a coming together, much the way women come together every day in every country (5) We come together in fields and factories, in village markets and supermarkets, in living rooms and board rooms (6) Whether it is while playing with our children in the park, or washing clothes in a river, or taking a break at the office water cooler, we come together and talk about our aspirations and concern (7) And time and again, our talk turns to our children and our families (8) However different we may appear, there is far more that unites us than divides us (9) We share a common future, and we are here to find common ground so that we may help bring new dignity and respect to women and girls all over the world, and in so doing bring new strength and stability to families as well
(10) By gathering in Beijing, we are focusing world attention on issues that matter most in our lives the lives of women and their families: access to education, health care, jobs and credit, the chance to enjoy basic legal and human rights and to participate fully in the political life of our countries
(11) There are some who question the reason for this conference (12) Let them listen to the voices of women in their homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces (13) There are some who wonder whether the lives of women and girls matter to economic and political progress around the globe (14) Let them look at the women gathered here and at Huairou the homemakers and nurses, the teachers and lawyers, the policymakers and women who run their own businesses (15) It is conferences like this that compel governments and people everywhere to listen, look, and face the world‘s most pressing problems (16) Wasn‘t it after all after the women‘s conference in Nairobi ten years ago that the world focused for the first time on the crisis of domestic violence?
(17) Earlier today, I participated in a World Health Organization forum (18) In that forum, we talked about ways that government officials, NGOs, and individual citizens are working to address the health problems of women and girls (19) Tomorrow, I will attend a gathering of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (20) There, the discussion will focus on local and highly successful programs that give hard-working women access to credit so they can improve their own lives and the lives of their families
(21) What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish (22) If women are free from violence, their families will flourish (23) If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish (24) And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well (25) That is why every woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on this planet does have a stake in the discussion that takes place here
(26) Over the past 25 years, I have worked persistently on issues relating to women, children, and families (27) Over the past two and a half years, I've had the opportunity to learn more about the challenges facing women in my own country and around the world
(28) I have met new mothers in Indonesia, who come together regularly in their village to discuss nutrition, family planning, and baby care (29) I have met working parents in Denmark who talk about the comfort they feel in knowing that their children can be cared for in safe, and nurturing after-school centers (30) I have met women in South Africa who helped lead the struggle to end apartheid and are now helping to build a new democracy (31) I have met with the leading women of my own hemisphere who are working every day to promote literacy and better health care for children in their countries (32) I have met women in India and Bangladesh who are taking out small loans to buy milk cows, or rickshaws, or thread in order to create a livelihood for themselves and their families (33) I have met the doctors and nurses in Belarus and Ukraine who are trying to keep children alive in the aftermath of Chernobyl
(34) The great challenge of this conference is to give voice to women everywhere whose experiences go unnoticed, whose words go unheard (35) Women comprise more than half the world‘s population, 70% of the world‘s poor, and two-thirds of those who are not taught to read and write (36) We are the primary caretakers for most of the world‘s children and elderly (37) Yet much of the work we do is not valued not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders
(38) At this very moment, as we sit here, women around the world are giving birth, raising children, cooking meals, washing clothes, cleaning houses, planting crops, working on assembly lines, running companies, and running countries (39) Women also are dying from diseases that should have been prevented or treated (40) They are watching their children succumb to malnutrition caused by poverty and economic deprivation (41) They are being denied the right to go to school by their own fathers and brothers (42) They are being forced into prostitution, and they are being barred from the bank lending offices and banned from the ballot box
(43) Those of us who have the opportunity to be here have the responsibility to speak for those who could not (44) As an American, I want to speak for those women in my own country, women who are raising children on the minimum wage, women who can‘t afford health care or child care, women whose lives are threatened by violence, including violence in their own homes
(45) I want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air, and clean airwaves; for older women, some of them widows, who find that, after raising their families, their skills and life experiences are not valued in the marketplace; for women who are working all night as nurses, hotel clerks, or fast food chefs so that they can be at home during the day with their children; and for women everywhere who simply don‘t have time to do everything they are called upon to do each and every day
(46) Speaking to you today, I speak for them, just as each of us speaks for women around the world who are denied the chance to go to school, or see a doctor, or own property, or have a say about the direction of their lives, simply because they are women (47) The truth is that most women around the world work both inside and outside the home, usually by necessity