An analysis of President Barack Obama’s speech at President Nelson Mandela’s memorial, from critical discourse analysis perspectives

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  - NGUYỄN DIỆU HẰNG AN ANALYSIS OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH AT PRESIDENT NELSON MANDELA’S MEMORIAL, FROM CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS PERSPECTIVES PHÂN TÍCH BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CỦA TỔNG THỐNG BARACK OBAMA TẠI LỄ TƯỞNG NIỆM TỔNG THỐNG NELSON MANDELA TỪ BÌNH DIỆN PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGƠN PHÊ PHÁN MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Hanoi - 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  - NGUYỄN DIỆU HẰNG AN ANALYSIS OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH AT PRESIDENT NELSON MANDELA’S MEMORIAL, FROM CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS PERSPECTIVES PHÂN TÍCH BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CỦA TỔNG THỐNG BARACK OBAMA TẠI LỄ TƯỞNG NIỆM TỔNG THỐNG NELSON MANDELA TỪ BÌNH DIỆN PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGƠN PHÊ PHÁN MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Prof NGUYỄN HÒA Hanoi - 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep gratitude towards my supervisor, Prof Nguyễn Hòa, for his constant and invaluable assistance without which my study would be far from finished I am also greatly indebted to all my colleagues at Thuan Thanh High School who provided me with valuable materials and enthusiastic support Finally, my sincere thanks go to my beloved family for their love, encouragement, and support while I was carrying out this research Hanoi, May 2014 Nguyễn Diệu Hằng i ABSTRACT This study presents an attempt to apply a critical discourse analysis perspective to investigating a political speech addressed by President Barack Obama on the occasion of the Nelson Mandela’s memorial on December 10th, 2013 Based on a brief overview of critical discourse analysis introduced by Norman Fairclough, the study follows a framework with three parts: Description, Interpretation and Explanation It focuses on the analysis of language features (lexical ones and grammatical ones), the relationship between situational and intertextual context, and the discourse process and social process Data for the research, thanks to which the objectives are achieved, are collected from the research The findings show that the author employs linguistic features as the strategies to represent his power and ideology The ideology of freedom, democracy and tolerance does not only belong to Nelson Mandela, but to Barack Obama as well That is the way Obama hopes to exert his power and gain support from people around the world The analysis also proves that critical discourse analysis is the smartest choice for those whose concern is about political discourse, especially political speech ii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Common pronouns in the speech 19 Table 2: Summary of thematization analysis 26 Table 3: Reasons of making the speech 28 Table 4: Mandela as a liberator, a person who struggles for liberation and democracy 28 Table 5: Mandela as a person of tolerance and non-violence 29 Table 6: The on-going struggles 31 Table 7: Our actions 31 Table 8: Representatives 36 Table 9: Commissives 36 Table 10: Commissives 36 Table 11: Directives 36 Table 12: Summary of the findings 38 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF TABLES .iii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the Study Objectives of the Study Scope of the Study Method of the Study Structure of the Study CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Political Discourse and Speech 1.2 Critical Discourse Analysis 1.2.1 Definition of CDA 1.2.2 Stages of CDA 1.2.3 CDA as the main approach for this study 1.3 Ideology CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHOD 2.1 Collecting data 2.2 Analyzing data CHAPTER 3: AN ANALYSIS OF BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH AT NELSON MANDELA’S MEMORIAL 10 3.1 Context of the chosen text 10 3.2 Textual Description and Analysis 11 3.2.1 Vocabulary Analysis 11 3.2.2 Grammatical analysis 18 3.2.3 Thematization Analysis 26 3.2.4 Macro-level Analysis 27 3.3 Interpretation of the relationship between the productive and interpretative processes 32 3.3.1 Interpretation of situational context 32 3.3.2 Intertextual context and presupposition 33 3.4 Explanation of the Discourse Process and Social Practice in the Discourse 37 PART C: CONCLUSION 38 Recapitulation 38 iv Conclusion 40 Limitations 40 Recommendations and implications 40 REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX 1: VII APPENDIX 2: VII v PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the Study Along with the development of the human society, language has evolved to satisfy human needs An important move in linguistics in recent years has introduced a new model and method of analysis of language known as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), a new branch of Discourse Analysis (DA) Different from Discourse Analysis in general, CDA views language as a social practice – language is a part of society, language is a social process, and language is a socially conditioned process (Norman Fairclough, 1989) This is a linguistic approach widely applied for the analysis of political discourse In politics, CDA is often applied to explore and discover power and ideology hidden in the political discourse held by the authority This inspired me to choose Norman Faircoulgh’s as the theoretical framework for my MA thesis Furthermore, I myself find CDA really useful and interesting as it provides us an analytic tool to illustrate and clarify CDA concepts, along with uncovering the speaker’s power and ideology For those reasons, I have decided to choose CDA as the field of my study and take “An analysis of President Barack Obama’s speech at President Nelson Mandela’s memorial, from critical discourse analysis perspectives” as a text for my thesis, using Norman Fairclough’s viewpoints as a theoretical framework Objectives of the Study Basing on CDA approach and Norman Fairclough’s framework , the study aims at:  Analyzing the grammatical and lexical features, and the structures of the discourse  Analyzing Nelson Mandela's values presented in the discourse, and the purpose of the author making this speech through grammatical and lexical items, and the structures of the discourse With the above objectives, the study deals with the following research questions:  What are Nelson Mandela's values presented in the discourse?  How are these values realized in terms of lexical and grammatical features, and structure of the discourse? Scope of the Study The study takes the written text of the speech at Nelson Mandela’s memorial by the incumbent president of the USA, Barack Obama It is the speech Barrack Obama delivered in Prague on Tuesday, December 10, 2013, paying tribute to Mandela’s life, and calling on the world to remember him by continuing to fight injustice, on the occasion of Mandela’s memorial at the First National Bank Stadium (FNB Stadium), South Africa In this study, I focus only on relevant salient features Since this research is pure linguistic, I have no intention of giving an in-depth research into political science Nevertheless, social-political context is presumed to result in the realization and representation of power and ideology of the speaker Method of the Study The methodology in this paper follows the view of the most outstanding theoreticians in this approach (Fairclough1989, 1992, 1995, 2001, 2002; van Dijk1993, 1997, 1998, 1980, 2000) Methods of description and analysis are applied to investigate the realization and representation of power and ideology of the discourse Although several approaches to CDA have been chosen and analyzed, the one by Norman Fairclough is prior as it supplies most fundamental knowledge in the CDA Structure of the Study The study consists of three main parts Firstly, the Introduction part explains the rationale, aims, scopes and methods of the research The next part is Theoretical Background, which sets a theoretical and suppositional orientation for the study A detailed Analysis will follow this with a thorough look into description, interpretation and explanation stage And the two parts ending this study are Conclusion and References PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Political Discourse and Speech We may come across two interpretations of a discourse A broader one and a narrower one The former, as called by Teun A van Dijk, is a communicative event, which “involves a number of social actors in a specific setting (time, place, circumstances) and based on other context features”, and the latter is “the verbal dimension of the spoken or written communicative act of a communication event” (Teun A van Dijk, 1998: 194), basically a talk or text In Fairclough’s view, it is “the whole process of social interaction of which a text is just a part” (Fairclough, 2001: 24) So the communicative event is equally important to the product of it Teun A van Dijk defines political discourse as “the text and talk of professional politicians or political institutions, such as presidents and prime ministers and other members of government, parliament or political parties, both at the local, national and international levels”, and forms of which “have political functions and implications” (1997) Whether or not a discourse is political is decided by the context- the event in which the discourse presentation takes place Hence, the study of a discourse cannot be only dependent on the written text or talk itself, but is based on the context for investigating its inside ideological meanings as well Many linguists suggest political discourse be seen as a form of political action In his opinion, Barber supposes “political talk is not talk about the world; it is talk that makes and remakes the world.” (Barber, 1984: 177) Andrey G Kirillov, a lecturer at Samara State Teacher Training University says “As politics is action in its essence, political language or political discourse can be treated as a purposeful social communicative act in the sphere of politics “(2003).Teun A van Dijk accepts that it is a constitutive part of the political process of e.g governing, legislating, election campaigns, party propaganda, and so on.” (1997: 21) The most familiar types of political discourse involve speech Speech is a written type of political discourse which is done by one representative of a particular political party One speaker talks about a topic in front of a number of audiences Although it is a text spoken aloud by someone, it lacks the features of spoken discourse Clearly, 10 It unmarked 11 that (the essential truth of a person their private joys unmarked and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities) 12 a giant of history marked 13 Born during World War I marked 14 Madiba unmarked 15 Like Gandhi marked 16 Like Dr King marked 17 He unmarked 18 that (a brutal imprisonment) unmarked 19 Emerging from prison marked 20 it unmarked VIII 21 And Given the sweep of life marked 22 he marked 23 it’s tempting unmarked 24 I unmarked 25 But Madiba unmarked 26 Instead Madiba marked 27 “I” marked 28 Ellipsis 29 Unless Ellipsis 30 Ellipsis 31 It unmarked 32 he unmarked IX 33 he unmarked 34 we unmarked 35 He unmarked 36 he unmarked that unmarked we unmarked that unmarked we unmarked he unmarked 42 Nothing unmarked 43 In the arc of his life marked 44 a man unmarked 45 He unmarked 37 because And 38 39 And 40 41 For X 46 What 47 Mandela unmarked Madiba unmarked he unmarked we unmarked 51 he unmarked 52 he said 48 Perhaps 49 50 And 53 But like other early giants of the ANC marked 54 so men and women unmarked 55 Moreover he unmarked 56 knowing that 57 standing up to powerful interests and injustice unmarked 58 “I unmarked XI 59 I unmarked 60 all persons unmarked 61 It unmarked 62 I unmarked needs unmarked 63 But if 64 it 65 I unmarked 66 Mandela unmarked he unmarked you unmarked you unmarked 70 He unmarked 71 ideas unmarked 67 But 68 69 But also XII 72 He unmarked 73 He unmarked 74 And he unmarked 75 so that he marked 76 their own freedom unmarked 77 Mandela unmarked 78 action and ideas unmarked 79 No matter how right marked 80 He unmarked 81 On core principles marked 82 which is unmarked 83 he unmarked 84 “prisoners.” unmarked XIII 85 But as he unmarked he unmarked he unmarked 88 the Constitution unmarked 89 the Constitution unmarked 90 that (his vision of laws) unmarked Mandela unmarked 92 that (the ties) unmarked 93 There unmarked 94 that (a word) unmarked 95 we unmarked 96 that unmarked 86 87 And because 91 And XIV 97 there unmarked 98 we unmarked 99 We unmarked 100 how much of this sense unmarked 101 how much unmarked we unmarked 103 that (the gestures) unmarked 104 He unmarked 105 he unmarked 106 It unmarked 107 you unmarked they unmarked to teach that reconciliation unmarked 102 108 109 But so XV 110 He unmarked 111 but he unmarked 112 For he marked Madiba’s passing unmarked I unmarked 115 it unmarked 116 With honesty, regardless of our station or our marked 113 114 But circumstance, 117 I unmarked 118 It unmarked 119 I unmarked 120 We unmarked 121 like South Africa marked XVI 122 Ellipsis 123 it unmarked 124 Michelle and I unmarked 125 But in America, and in South Africa, and in countries all marked around the globe 126 that our work unmarked 127 The struggles unmarked 128 The struggles unmarked 129 that (those unmarked) unmarked 130 but they unmarked 131 For For around the world today marked 132 We unmarked 133 We unmarked XVII 134 135 and 136 Around the world today marked men and women marked they unmarked 137 and they unmarked 138 and who unmarked That unmarked too we unmarked too We unmarked 142 There unmarked 143 too many people unmarked 139 140 And so 141 144 but too many people unmarked 145 that modest ret unmarked There unmarked 146 XVIII 147 too many leaders unmarked 148 but too many leaders unmarked 149 And there unmarked 150 when our voices unmarked 151 we unmarked 152 these things unmarked there unmarked 154 Nelson Mandela unmarked 155 it unmarked it unmarked 157 South Africa unmarked 158 that unmarked 159 South Africa unmarked 153 156 But until XIX 160 we 161 we unmarked 162 We unmarked 163 We unmarked 164 But Ellipsis 165 you 166 Ellipsis 167 I unmarked it unmarked It unmarked it unmarked an improbable journey unmarked I unmarked 168 and 169 170 and 171 172 And while unmarked XX 173 he unmarked 174 He unmarked 175 what’s best unmarked 176 After this great liberator unmarked 177 and when we unmarked 180 And when the night unmarked 181 when injustice unmarked 182 when our best-laid plans unmarked 178 179 183 184 unmarked Madiba and the words XXI unmarked 185 “It unmarked 186 I unmarked 187 I“ unmarked 188 It marked 189 We unmarked 190 God marked 191 God marked XXII