A Comparison of Language Techniques within
Election Victory Speeches,
Introduction
The way politicians compose themselves on their victory/inauguration speech encapsulates a nation, often even more than that and is a key milestone in not only their political career, but in modern history. It’s clear that a lot of preparation and crafting goes into every syllable and hyperbole, structuring a patriotic ode to the motherland. Whether misguiding or truthful, patriotism is a theme I expect to find throughout my investigation, in the U.S, the U.K and both ends of the metaphorical wing.
My Hypothesis is that I will be able to group the speeches in two ways. Similarities in the ways both U.K Politicians relate to the audience emotionally, using patriotic themes, and respectively the same with the U.S politicians. In the alternative group I anticipate both politicians from the same wing will have similarities in the language choice they use rather than simply their policies (Bush & Cameron, Blair & Obama).
This area of language interested me primarily due to its extreme importance. It sets a landmark, a potential historic milestone which will be quoted and studied for years to come. Therefore I find the words chosen by the politician, (and possible speechwriter) and the delivery, equally fascinating. No mistakes can afford to be made, each syllable must be pronounced delicately and accurately with the exact amount of time to create suspense, rather than awkwardness. A fine line, much like a confident and cocky delivery that no politician would dare to intentionally cross. methods of
Ancient philosophers as well as new age revolutionaries have highlighted and shared the importance of discourse and rhetoric, with it widely regarded as one of the great arts. Political dialect analysts have been around since democracy itself, with universally renowned philosophers such as Isocrates, Plato and Aristotle all adding their own ideologies on the subject. The former taught civilians the art of public speaking as a means of self improvement while the latter outlined that 'rhetoric is the counterpart of dialect'.
I will base my research on Aristotelian theory of rhetoric and his three methods of persuasion, Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Each division varies in matter, Ethos is the appeal of the speakers character, Pathos relates to the listener's emotional state or the manipulation of it and Logos presents the logical appeal for example facts and statistics.
This area of language interested me primarily due to its extreme importance. It sets a landmark, a potential historic milestone which will be quoted and studied for years to come. Therefore I find the words chosen by the politician, (and possible speechwriter) and the delivery, equally fascinating. No mistakes can afford to be made, each syllable must be pronounced delicately and accurately with the exact amount of time to create suspense, rather than awkwardness. A fine line, much like a confident and cocky delivery that no politician would dare to intentionally cross. methods of
Ancient philosophers as well as new age revolutionaries have highlighted and shared the importance of discourse and rhetoric, with it widely regarded as one of the great arts. Political dialect analysts have been around since democracy itself, with universally renowned philosophers such as Isocrates, Plato and Aristotle all adding their own ideologies on the subject. The former taught civilians the art of public speaking as a means of self improvement while the latter outlined that 'rhetoric is the counterpart of dialect'.
I will base my research on Aristotelian theory of rhetoric and his three methods of persuasion, Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Each division varies in matter, Ethos is the appeal of the speakers character, Pathos relates to the listener's emotional state or the manipulation of it and Logos presents the logical appeal for example facts and statistics.
I will be looking at variety of language framework for my research. Lexis is key in political speeches, with the lexical field needing to be specific in the means of relating with the audience but also maintaining self-promotion through complex word choice. Phonology will be relevant as pronunciation is key in public speech. I will use discourse structures in comparison to the structure of the speeches, seeing how speeches are similar and different to conversation. Pragmatics will be key to my investigation. I expect 'Political code' to be present throughout and I expect similar subtler terms for complex and challenging issues to be contained in all of the speeches.
