A critical discourse analysis of hillary clinton’s 2015 presidential campaign launch speech

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THU HẰNG A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF HILLARY CLINTON‟S 2015 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCH SPEECH Phân tích diễn ngơn phê phán phát biểu phát động chiến dịch tranh cử Tổng thống Mỹ năm 2015 Hillary Clinton M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01 Hanoi, 2018 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THU HẰNG A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF HILLARY CLINTON‟S 2015 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCH SPEECH Phân tích diễn ngơn phê phán phát biểu phát động chiến dịch tranh cử Tổng thống Mỹ năm 2015 Hillary Clinton M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01 Supervisor: Prof Dr Nguyễn Hoà Hanoi, 2018 DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A critical discourse analysis of Hillary Clinton‟s 2015 Presidential Campaign Launch Speech” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees Hanoi, 2018 Nguyễn Thu Hằng ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Professor Dr Nguyễn Hoà for helping me complete this study This paper would not have been accomplished without his expert, constant and valuable guidance and encouragement His patience and helpful criticism helped me confidently express my ideas into this paper I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable lectures which have helped me a great deal in gaining a lot of theoretical background as well as practical knowledge My special thanks also go to my friends and colleagues for their enthusiastic help and support with my working schedule at school which gave me precious time to deal with my thesis Finally, I would also like to express my deep gratitude and love to my family who gave me time and encouragement to overcome all obstacles during the completion of this study ABSTRACT In the light of CDA framework suggested by Norman Fairclough, this study attempts to uncover underlying discursive structures in Hillary Clinton‘s presidential campaign discourse The specific aim is to identify elements of gender references, persuasive techniques and social inclusion and exclusion The analysis shows that gender references are marked by implicitness, and Clinton performs both stereotypical masculine and feminine genders As for social inclusion and exclusion, Clinton‘s use of pronouns revealed her attitude towards her supporters and opponents According to the results, it might seem that Clinton‘s main purpose of her campaign discourses is to construct an image of herself as President of the United States of America, and additionally, she contributes to eliminating the boundaries of the historical perception of the American presidency in regards to gender TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Significance of the study Scope of the study Aims and objectives of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Hillary Clinton‘s background 1.2 An overview of CDA 1.2.1 History of CDA 1.2.2 What is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)? 1.3 Key concepts in CDA 1.3.1 Ideology 1.3.2 Power 1.4 Three principal approaches to CDA 1.4.1 The socio – cognitive approach by Teun van Dijk 1.4.2 The discourse – historical approach by Ruth Wodak 1.4.3 The dialectical - relational approach by Norman Fairclough 10 1.5 Review of previous studies 13 1.6 Five common features among the approaches 14 1.7 Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) in CDA 15 1.8 Chapter summary 19 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES 20 2.1 Research questions restated 20 2 Methods of the study 20 2.3 Data of the study 21 2.4 Analysis procedure of the study 21 CHAPTER 3: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF HILLARY CLINTON‟S SPEECH 23 3.1 Functions of Hillary Clinton‘s underlying ideology in the speech 23 3.1.1 Ideology as a weapon of positive self-representation of ―us‖ and negative other representation of ―them‖ 23 3.1.2 Ideology as a weapon of persuasion 26 3.1.3 Ideology as a weapon of negotiation 28 3.1.4 Ideology of personality profiling 30 3.2 Textual description and Analysis 31 3.2.1 Vocabulary use 31 3.2.2 Grammatical features 34 3.2.2.1 The use of personal pronouns 34 3.2.2.2 The use of voice 35 3.2.2.3 Modes of the sentence 36 3.2.2.4 Modality 37 3.2.2.5 Connective values of the text 39 3.2.3 Transitivity 43 3.2.4 Thematization 44 3.3 Interpretation of the relationship between the productive and interpretative processes53 3.4 Explanation of the relationship between discourse and social processes 54 3.5 Chapter summary 55 PART C: CONCLUSION 56 Summary of findings 56 Implications 57 Limitations of the study and Recommendations for further study .58 APPENDICES 61 CDA CL MR SFG SFL LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Overview of process type (Halliday, 1994:143) 17 Table 2: Components of a multiple theme (adapted from Halliday, 1994:54) .18 Table 3: Lexical items for ‗in – groups‘ and positive terms 32 Table 4: Lexical items for ‗out – groups‘ and negative terms 33 Table 5: Frequency of personal pronouns 35 Table 6: Summary of modes of the sentences 36 Table 7: Summary of relational modality 37 Table 8: Summary of expressive modality 38 Table 9: Summary of transitivity analysis data 43 Table 10: Summary of thematic analysis 44 Figure 1: Interpretation (Fairclough, 2001, p.119) 12 Figure 2: Explanation (Fairclough, 2001, p.136) 12 Figure 3: Aspects of interpersonal management (Thompson, 1996:69) .17 371 We 373 There 374 Silicon Valley 375 Many states 376 I 377 We 380 I 381 I 382 That 382 It 386 I 387 We 387 We 387 We 387 We 389 Our American family 389 We 390 We 392 People all over the world 395 That 396 You 396 You 398 President Obama 398 I 398 We 399 That 400 We 401 We 402 We 403 We 405 We 406 We 408 I 413 It 413 We 415 I 416 I 417 You 417 I 417 I 418 All our Presidents 419 We 420 I 420 I 423 You 424 I 425 I 426 I 427 I 429 I 429 I 430 Lord 430 I 431 There 432 I 432 I 432 Leadership 433 You 435 I 435 I 435 I 437 I 438 I 438 She 439 Mom 439 She 440 I 442 She 443 The odds 443 The opposition 444 I 444 Life 444 It 446 She 446 I 447 She 448 Americans 449 She 449 Women in America 450 Congress 452 The story of America 453 It 453 New chapters 454 All 456 We 457 We 458 We 460 I 460 My mother 460 I 460 She 461 I 461 She 463 I 463 She 463 We 464 You 464 You 465 We 466 A father 466 You 467 You 468 God 468 God APPENDIX IV Thematic Analysis Line Theme It 11 President Roosevelt‘s Freedoms 13 His legacy 14 One 16 That 16 They 19 President Roosevelt 25 That 26 It 26 If 27 And 29 It 31 It 33 It 35 And 36 When 40 When 44 We 46 We 57 As 58 You 59 You 59 And 62 So 62 But 64 You 66 While 68 And 69 So 73 Prosperity 74 Democracy 75 Prosperity and democracy 76 You 79 America 80 That 81 On Roosevelt Island 82 Each American and the co 83 I 95 I 96 Our country‘s challenges 98 For decades 99 Advances in technology an rise of global trade 103 The final industry and m multi-national corporation 108 Our political system 109 And 112 Now 115 Our next President 116 And 118 At our best 118 We 119 We 120 But 122 Americans 123 Now 127 They 128 And 129 These Republicans 132 We 132 And 136 They 139 They 141 They 143 They 145 And 146 Fundamentally 147 What 149 Now 151 I 157 I 157 I 158 My mother 160 Her own parents 161 Years later 168 That 169 And 170 That 175 I 176 As a young girl 178 And later 181 My first job out of law sch 181 I 185 As a leader of the Le Services 186 And 188 In Arkansas 192 As Senator 195 It 197 There 199 Just weeks ago, 201 She 201 But 203 I 204 If 205 The first 209 The middle class 210 Growth and fairness 210 For lasting prosperity 213 I 215 But 217 We 219 There 222 There 224 There 225 We 227 In the coming weeks, 231 I 233 I 235 We 239 We 240 And 250 Now 252 We 252 Customers 256 We 258 Now 260 That 262 And 263 Research 265 In fact 266 One thing 269 Our country 271 So 278 Now 280 And 280 Parents 282 I 283 I 285 I 287 That 289 I 301 And 303 This 308 In America 309 So 311 And 315 I 316 And 318 So 320 No other country 321 No other country 324 No other country 327 As your President 331 And 334 And 337 I 337 I 340 Meeting today‘s global cha 344 There 346 I 349 And 350 That 353 We 356 We 358 If 360 I 360 That 362 I 364 What part of democracy 365 No matter how 367 Government 369 That 371 We 373 There 373 For 374 Silicon Valley 375 Many states 376 I 377 To 380 Now 380 But 382 That 387 We 387 But 389 Like 392 People all over the world 395 Now 398 But 399 That 400 With that same spirit 401 We 402 We 403 We 405 And 406 If 408 I 413 It 415 But 416 And 417 I 418 All our Presidents 418 And 420 But 422 And 423 And 424 I 425 So 426 I 427 I 429 And 429 I 430 Lord 432 And 432 But 433 You 435 I 437 Like so much else in my li 438 When 439 In her later years 440 I 442 And 444 I 446 She 449 She 450 But 452 The story of America 452 And 453 New chapters 456 Not only because 460 I 460 I 461 I 463 I 465 Where 468 God 468 And ... through critical discourse analysis, the aim of this paper is firstly to conduct an analysis on appraising Hillary Clinton‘s Campaign Launch Speech from 2015 in order to analyze how she characterizes... researcher, Junling Wang (2010) used M .A. K Halliday‘s Systemic Functional Grammar in ? ?A Critical Discourse Analysis of Barack Obama‘s Speeches‖ in terms of three meta-functions: ideational functions,... individual clause It now can be seen that both CDA and SFL approach functionally to textual analysis through studying grammar and other aspects of language form, and they are systematically orientated