(Luận văn thạc sĩ) rhetorical devices in president donald trump’s speeches

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY PHẠM THỊ DIỆU QUYÊN h RHETORICAL DEVICES IN PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S SPEECHES Field: English Linguistics Code: 22 02 01 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN PHẠM THỊ DIỆU QUYÊN h BIỆN PHÁP TU TỪ TRONG CÁC BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CỦA TỔNG THỐNG DONALD TRUMP Chuyên ngành: Mã số: Ngôn ngữ Anh 22 02 01 Người hướng dẫn: PGS.TS Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that this thesis “Rhetorical devices in President Donald Trump’s speeches” is my own work Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Binh Dinh, 2019 PHẠM THỊ DIỆU QUYÊN due h ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this study is the result of not only my efforts but also other assistance of individuals to whom I would like to express my special gratitude First and foremost, I would like to offer my deepest gratitude and sincere appreciation to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền, who has supported me with her endless patience, thoughtful guidance and comprehensive advices during the whole period of the study Without her instructions, this thesis would have been impossible to be completed Secondly, I am deeply grateful to the Dean of Quy Nhon University, Assoc Prof Dr Đỗ Ngọc Mỹ for giving me time permission and financial h support to follow this course of M.A degree in English Linguistics Thirdly, I am also thankful to all the lecturers of the courses for their valuable lectures and experiences, which provide essential knowledge for this thesis Fourthly, my gratitude is devoted to my colleagues and close friends for their kind support and warm encouragements, without which I could not have overcome all the trouble during the fulfillment of this study Last but not least, I am indebted to my beloved parents for their support and endless love which encourage me to finish this thesis I am grateful to my husband for taking care of our two little children so that I could spend more time on my thesis and especially I also owe a deep debt to my children, who have not had the time of playing with their mother as much as the others iii ABSTRACT This study deals with investigating into rhetorical devices (RDs) in President Donald Trump (PDT)’s speeches The analytical framework of the study is adapted from the theory of RDs by McGuigan (2007) who classified RDs into categories Both qualitative and quantitative methods are mainly used to analyze the data The aim of the study is to work out the frequency of occurrence of RDs in five PDT’s speeches in the first two years of presidency from 2017 to 2019 and then to discuss the underlying usage patterns of these RDs The findings show that there are 16 RDs in all four groups being employed in PDT’s speeches Regarding RDs helping with Strategy, Trump frequently used metaphor, hyperbole, antithesis, simile, and rhetorical question With regard to RDs helping with Organization, Trump utilized h anadiplosis/conduplicatio, enumeration, parallelism, and antanagoge Considering RDs helping with Style, Trump tended to apply epithet, synecdoche/metonymy, polysyndeton, and hyperbaton In terms of RDs helping with Analysis of Reading, Trump was more likely to employ anaphora/epistrophe/symploce, personification, and parataxis Another interesting finding found in the study is that in comparison with the other three groups of devices, Trump had a strong tendency towards Style RDs which preferred with the predominance of epithet Therefore, the close analysis unfolds the pedagogical practicality of these devices, which can be a significant contribution towards teaching and learning English in Vietnam iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS vii LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aim and Objectives of the study 1.2.1 Aim h 1.2.2 Objectives 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Scope of the Study 1.5 Significance of the Study 1.6 The organization of the Study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Political discourse 2.2 Rhetorical devices 2.2.1 Rhetoric 2.2.2 RDs and Functions of RDs 2.2.3 Classification of RDs 2.2.3.1 RDs helping with Strategy 11 2.2.3.2 RDs helping with Organization 18 v 2.2.3.3 RDs helping with Style 23 2.2.3.4 RDs helping with Analysis of Reading 26 2.3 Review of the previous relevant studies 28 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 34 3.1 Research Methods 34 3.2 Data Collection 34 3.3 Data Analysis 36 3.4 Research Procedures 37 3.5 Reliability and Validity 37 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 39 4.1 An overview of the RDs in PDT’s speeches 39 4.2 The RDs helping with Style in PDT’s speeches 42 4.2.1 Epithet 43 h 4.2.2 Synecdoche/Metonymy 48 4.2.2.1 Synecdoche 49 4.2.2.2 Metonymy 51 4.2.3 Polysyndeton 53 4.2.4 Hyperbaton 55 4.3 The RDs helping with Organization in PDT’s speeches 57 4.3.1 Anadiplosis/Conduplicatio 57 4.3.1.1 Anadiplosis 58 4.3.1.2 Conduplicatio 60 4.3.2 Enumeratio 61 4.3.3 Parallelism 64 4.3.4 Antanagoge 66 4.4 The RDs helping with Analysis of Reading in PDT’s speeches 67 4.4.1 Anaphora/Epistrophe/Symploce 68 vi 4.4.1.1 Anaphora 69 4.4.1.2 Epistrophe 72 4.4.1.3 Symploce 73 4.4.2 Personification 75 4.4.3 Parataxis 78 4.5 The RDs helping with Strategy in PDT’s speeches 79 4.5.1 Metaphor 80 4.5.2 Hyperbole 84 4.5.3 Antithesis 86 4.5.4 Simile 89 4.5.5 Rhetorical question 91 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 93 5.1 Conclusions 93 h 5.2 Implications 96 5.3 Limitations of the study 97 5.4 Suggestions for further research 97 REFERENCES 98 APPENDIX 101 vii ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS (a) Abbreviations PDT President Donald Trump RDs Rhetorical devices In sample analyses: Anadiplosis Anap Anaphora Anta Antanagoge Anti Antithesis Cond Conduplicatio Enum Enumeratio Epis Epistrophe Epit Epithet Hyperba Hyperbaton Hyper Hyperbole Meta Metaphor Meto Metonymy Paral Parallelism Person Personification Polys Polysyndeton R Que Rhetorical Question Simi Simile Synec Synecdoche Symp Symploce Parat Parataxis h Anadi viii (b) Conventions - [T1.S1-Sn]: Trump’s speech (Inaugural address on January 20th, 2017 in Washington D.C.), sentence coded from to n - [T2.S1-Sn]: Trump’s speech (Remarks by President Trump to the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 19 th, 2017), sentence coded from to n - [T3.S1-Sn]: Trump’s speech (Remarks by President Trump in State of the Union Address on January 30th, 2018), sentence coded from to n - [T4.S1-Sn]: Trump’s speech (Remarks by President Trump to the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 25 th, 2018), sentence coded from to n - [T5.S1-Sn]: Trump’s speech (Remarks by President Trump in State of the h Union Address on February 6th, 2019), sentence coded from to n - Italic words are used for examples, and emphasis - Underlined words are used to mark the use of what is being demonstrated