Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS an analysis of president barack obama’s speech at president nelson mandela’s memorial, from critical discourse analysis perspectives002

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

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FALCULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TỪ BÌNH DIỆN PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN 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

TỪ BÌNH DIỆN PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN 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 3 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

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

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

LIST OF TABLES iii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the Study 1

2 Objectives of the Study 1

3 Scope of the Study 2

4 Method of the Study 2

5 Structure of the Study 2

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 3

1.1 Political Discourse and Speech 3

1.2 Critical Discourse Analysis 5

1.2.1 Definition of CDA 5

1.2.2 Stages of CDA 5

1.2.3 CDA as the main approach for this study 5

1.3 Ideology 6

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHOD 8

2.1 Collecting data 8

2.2 Analyzing data 8

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

1 Recapitulation 38

2 Conclusion 40

3 Limitations 40

4 Recommendations and implications 40

REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX 1: VII APPENDIX 2: VII

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 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

2 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?

3 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

4 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

5 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

(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,

speech is characterized by formal monolog form and there is no oral communicative interaction between the speaker and the audience The speaker expresses his/her ideas, opinions and attitudes with no hope to receive response from the audience, particularly then The speaker plays the role as the speaker only, and the audience plays the role as the hearers, not the listener- the fundamental characteristics of spoken language In political speeches, there is no direct interaction between the sender and the receiver of the information

Most of the speeches, with specifically chosen lexicology and syntactic structures as well, have the main characteristics of being formal, impersonal and polite (Jana Langrová, 2010: 11) For the first one, speeches are one type of formal documents such as official reports or academic writing Their linguistic features to be detected are complex sentences, explicit clause and sentence linkers, subordination, non-finite and verbless clauses, subjunctive mood, impersonal constructions, uncontracted forms, generic pronoun one, polysyllabic, classical vocabulary (Dontcheva-Navratilova 52-53, cited by Jana Langrová ) The second one can be exemplified by the fact that almost all speeches avoid too personal reference, which is signaled by the lack of first person singular Instead, the use of formal subjects, collective nouns, abstract noun subjects and passive voice are promoted (Dontcheva-Navratilova 63, cited by Jana Langrová) The last one may be detected by the form of address, the social communication formulae, the use of indirect speech acts, the formula please, and the use of slang This is not easy to do, since whether a used language is polite or not depends on the knowledge of both linguistic and socio-cultural aspects

The general purposes of speeches are to orientate the audience towards the future and persuade them to believe in and act as the speaker’s will According to Dedaić, the purpose of political speeches is “primarily persuasion rather than information or

entertainment” (Dedaić 2006: 700, cited by Lotte Skjøttgaard Sørensen in Obama‟s New Best Speech in Tucson”) Moreover, a speech should not only get people to

listen to and accept what is said, but as described by Joe Garecht, should have “an ability to stir a crowd’s emotions through the spoken word.” as well

1.2 Critical Discourse Analysis 1.2.1 Definition of CDA

Norman Fairclough in his book Critical Discourse Analysis (1997) prefers discourse

analysis to be considered as a research tactics rather than a model of analysis CDA,

in his view points, is an approach that tends to investigate the relationships between discursive practices and the social structures It is also interpretative and explanatory that oftentimes is historical in the form of social action

1.2.2 Stages of CDA When referring to CDA, three stages are taken into consideration Firstly, the descriptive stage examines the basic formal properties of the discourse The following stage, interpretation views the discourse as a result of process of production and also

as a resource in the act of interpretation And lastly, the explanation stage, mostly crucial, attempts to find the relationships between interaction and social context In

Fairclough’s Language and Power (1989), a peculiar approach to CDA is stated,

focusing on the –What of the description toward the –How and – Why of the interpretation and explanation

1.2.3 CDA as the main approach for this study There are several reasons why Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is often chosen as the main approach to political discourse Firstly, the central objective of discourse analysis is “to perceive language use as social practice “as Juraj Horváth asserts

Social, cultural and psychological frameworks are reflected in language, and language cannot be separated from them Horvath says that CDA” studies the connections among textual structures and takes social context into account and explores the links between textual structures and their function in interaction within the society” Secondly, there is a close and dependent connection between the interpretation and the listener/the reader The interpretation emerges from the listener/reader‘s understanding of the text which is affected by listener’s experience

of the world

My analysis is dependent on Norman Fairclough's assumptions in CDA, claiming that "ideologies reside in texts" and that "texts are open to diverse interpretations"

(Fairclough, 1995)

1.3 Ideology 1.3.1 Concept of ideology There are a variety of definitions of ideology by a number of linguists It is stated in Fairclough (2001: 77) that ideology is any social policy which is in part or whole derived from social theory in a conscious way” and refers to the ““ideas which arise from a given set of material interests”

In Van Dijk’s viewpoint (2000: 87), there is “the basis of the social representations”

shared by members of a group which gives “a mental framework of beliefs about society and the cognitive and social functions of such a framework for groups”

(1998: 9) Ideology as a system of beliefs can be expressed in “symbols, rituals, discourse and other social and cultural practices” (1998: 26)

Although ideology can be expressed both in the form and content of discourse, ideological meaning can only be reproduced through the interpretation and explanation of text

1.3.2 Role of ideology When individuals or groups in society truly believe that their ideology can give the right answer to challenges and problems, they take for granted that it enables them to achieve their goals Since they have access to various types of discourse, they can control the creation and content of discourse, so as to persuade and control public opinion to their beliefs Language, therefore, proves to be very important in persuading and manipulating and one of the most important means of domination and control

Van Dijk (1998: 244) defines persuasion as a process in which listeners change their opinions under the influence of some discourse Once the listeners’

opinions have changed, the speaker can influence their subsequent activities and participation in society (2003: 355)

1.4 Concept of values According to American Journal of Sociology, "values may be seen as absolutes, as

inherent in objects, as present within man, and as identical with his behavior" (Vol

62, No 3) In sociology, values are culturally defined standards to judge desirability,

are defined by all of the things human do More broadly, they serve as guidelines

for social living as well as public policies

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHOD 2.1 Collecting data

The data are firstly collected from the speech by President Barack Obama at President Nelson Mandela’s memorial by counting and classifying words, phrases, clauses and sentences into categories Then they are taken from other references as well, such as other previous speeches and statements by different authors I have tried

to find the answers to the following questions:

What are the grammatical and lexical items used in the text?

Is the vocabulary formal or informal?

What is special about vocabulary usage?

How many clauses/ sentences are there in the text?

What are the types of the clauses/ sentences?

What type of mode/ Is active or passive voice is prominent?

Which pronouns/nouns are commonly used?

When data have been collected and classified, they are put into the next step

2.2 Analyzing data Norman Fairclough framework is applied with three stages:

In the first stage, description, the formal properties of the text (vocabulary, grammar and value of the discourse) are analyzed in order to illustrate political views of the US President about President Mandela, thanks to which the main stream America is revealed For lexical features, experiential, relational, expressive values are thoroughly investigated via analyzing vocabulary As a result, the image and values

of President Nelson Mandela are illustrated What is more, through studying the repeated words and phrases, the audiences and participants of the speech are examined so as to clarify the objectives of the author giving this speech And I also take formal vocabulary and classification schemes into account so that the powerfulness and persuasiveness of the speech is proved For grammatical features, the study analyzes the applied pronouns, active and passive voice, mode of the sentences and modality These help to reveal the speaker’s attitude, opinion and

the connective values which provide the text with cohesion and coherence In addition, transitivity and thematic structures are examined so that the power and ideology of the speaker are clarified macro-structurally

In the interpretation stage, context is considered as the main factor for interpretation

Field, mode, and tenor - three aspects of the context, also the determining factors for the linguistic features of the text are discussed as well Besides, the discourse is interpreted with regard to situational context and intertextual context so as to realize the relationship between text and interaction – with seeing the text as a product of a process of production, and as a resource in the process of interpretation

In the last stage, explanation, the Discourse Process and Social Practice in the Discourse are taken as the main explanations for study The aim of this stage is to analyze the relationship between interaction and social context – with the social determination of the processes of production and interpretation, and their social effects’ (Fairclough, 2001) in order to discover how they are determined by social structures and what productive effects discourse can have on those structures

CHAPTER 3: AN ANALYSIS OF BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH AT

NELSON MANDELA’S MEMORIAL 3.1 Context of the chosen text

3.1.1 Nelson Mandela, life and death The speech was given on December 10th, 2014 at the Memorial of Nelson Mandela

Mandela’s real name is Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) His father died when Nelson was nine and he was the first person in his family

to attend school Mandela began his political career early in his young adulthood

In 1962, Mandela was arrested, and after 27 years of being imprisoned, he was released in 1989 In 1992, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work

to end apartheid Two years later, he was elected president of South Africa

When his administration ends in 1999, Nelson Mandela was dedicated to ending global poverty and helping to resolve wars and conflicts throughout Africa

In June 2004, at the age of 85, Mandela announced that he was "retiring from retirement" and began to suffer from illness He died at his home in Johannesburg on

5 December 2013 Despite his failing health, Mandela still participated in some international affairs

After suffering from a prolonged respiratory infection, Mandela died on 5 December

2013 at the age of 95, A national mourning period of ten days was announced on 6 December 2013, with the memorial, the main event held at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on 10 December 2013 A state funeral was held on 15 December 2013

in Qunu, South Africa President Barack Obama is one ofapproximately 90 representatives of foreign states travelling to South Africa to attend the memorial event

3.1.2 Nelson Mandela’s ideology

His leading life is rehearsed in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom Even the

name of the autobiography expresses his purpose life: freedom His ideas are also

pointed out clearly in Obama’s speech: “I’ve cherished the ideal of a democratic and

free society in which all persons live together in harmony and [with] equal opportunities It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve But if needs be, it

In his life, Mandela was known as a great South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist and served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999 He was South Africa's first black chief executive, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election The focus of his government is

on destroying the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalized racism, poverty and inequality, and fostering racial reconciliation and his life hope is to bring down the present oppressive government in his country and rebuild the country based

on democracy, freedom, and above all, equality His life provides an inspiration to all who are oppressed and deprived as well as to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation

3.2 Textual Description and Analysis The analysis of text is a necessary process in discourse analysis in general and critical discourse analysis in general According to Fairclough (1989), there are three stages of CDA, in which description is the first one The aim of this stage is to investigate lexical and grammatical features such as vocabulary, verb tenses, sentence modes, mood, modality, transitivity process etc., basing on which some power relations and ideologies are conveyed In this part, qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis are employed, with the collection of data from the chosen speech and other CDA books and documents

3.2.1 Vocabulary Analysis

Fairclough, in his book Language and Power (2001) claimed that formal features of

texts have experiential, relational, expressive or connective value, or some combination of these I will take the vocabulary into consideration to encode these values The first one deals with contents and knowledge and beliefs The second one focuses on relations and social relationships enacted via the text The third one aims

to concern subjects and social identities And since connective value is related to some grammatical aspects, this last one will be discussed in one sub-part of Grammatical Analysis

Experiential and expressive values are expressed in the vocabulary features of the text

The Image and Values of Nelson Mandela

With chosen vocabulary, the image of Nelson Mandela is built up with an attitude of respect and admiration throughout the speech Never in his administration has Barack Obama represented any person so appreciatively

In the first place, Nelson Mandela is described as a great liberator of the 20thcentury At the very beginning of the speech, related words are employed to describe the values of Nelson Mandela

His struggle (line 6) His triumph (line 6) your dignity (line 7) your freedom (line 7) your democracy (line 8)

It is shown that Nelson Mandela is a great person of freedom, a person who has spent all his life fighting for the freedom and democracy, who has left influences on not only his nation, but also billions around the world

Also, in the rest of the speech, these types of relating and repetitive words including

freedom, democracy,justice and phrases are assigned strategically

(line 18, 19) he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed and

the moral necessity of racial justice

(line 23, 24) preserve freedom for future generations

The speaker also quotes several of Mandela’s sayings, which clearly represent Mandela’s viewpoints and ideas, persuade his listeners and readers about the truth of his ideas about Mandela, and make the speech more convincing:

(line 44, 45) “a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people”

(line 51-53) “I’ve cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which

all persons live together in harmony and (with) equal opportunities”

In the second place, the image of Nelson Mandela is drawn out as a person of tolerance A person of self-acceptance:

(line 32) He could be not only admit to imperfection (line 29, 30) By sharing with us his doubts and his fears

and in his private life, he was not strong and outstanding as the way he is regarded a figure of the century,

(line 34, 35) He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood- a son and a husband, a father and a friend

He learned from those he didn’t agree with, as well as learned the language and the customs of his oppressor (line 63)

Mandela taught us the power of action, but he also taught us the power of ideas, the importance of reason and arguments; the need to study not only those who you agree with, but also those who you don’t agree with (line 57, 58)

After he succeeded in bring about peace to his nation, Mandela believed that

reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth(line 89, 90), and he decided to free not just

the prisoner, but also the jailer

Then, throughout the speech, the prominent value of Mandela that is represented in the strategic language by Obama is non-violence By calling Mandela a liberator and using the word “ struggle” much more than “ fight”, Obama means that everything which is done in the great life of Mandela is for liberation, not war

(line 45, 46) He shared with millions of black and colored South Africans (line 77, 78) his recognition that we are all bound together

(line 79, 80) we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and

caring for those around us

To sum up, with a not very long speech, President Obama can summarizes and reset the life and career of Nelson Mandela, basing on which his ideas about the deceased

are expressed Also, this is an effective way to represent the ideas and characteristic attitude of American people, often called mainstream America; that is towards freedom, democracy, justice and equality

Audiences and Participants The speaker of the speech is President Barack Obama His full name is Barack Hussein Obama II, born on August 4, 1961, who won two elections and became the 44th and current President of the United States He is also the first African-American

to hold this position The identity of the speaker is mentioned several times in the speech:

(line 126-130) Over 30 years ago, while still a student, I learned of Nelson

Mandela and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land, and it stirred something in me It woke me up to my responsibilities to others and to myself, and it set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example, he makes me want to be a better man

The speech was given at the memorial on 10 December 2013 of President Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa and one of the greatest leaders of our time So, the target hearers are, first, the people of South Africa, then people all over the world There seems to be something in common between the two persons Both of them are black and their objective for life is to fight for democracy

At the very beginning of the speech, the audience that Obama would like to address

is Mandela’s family The next audiences are the current president of South Africa, the members of government, the distinguished guests, and the people of South Africa

Calling Mandela’s wife with her real name, as well as employing a nickname Mandiba for Mandela later through the text, Obama creates an intimate and warm atmosphere for the speech

(line 1,2,3) To Graça Machel and the Mandela family; to President Zuma and members of the government; to heads of states and government, past and present;

distinguished guests it is a singular honor to be with you today, to celebrate a life like no other

Then in the text, the scope of audience is bigger and bigger There are not only the

audience at the memorial and the people of South Africa, but “those he inspired around the globe” as well; and then “let me say to the young people of Africa and the young people around the world”

In the text, the name Madiba is repetitively used 11 times This results in the warm feeling that the reader and hearers may have when reading or listening to the speech

Whenever the intimate name is called, there seems to be a close relationship between two friends, the speaker and the deceased person It seems not to be a formal speech that a head of a nation gives out to memorize and eulogize another

century

(line 28, 29) But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait

Instead, Madiba insisted on sharing with us his doubts and his fears

(line 46, 47) Madiba disciplined his anger and channeled his desire to

fight into organization (line 87) It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but

the jailer as well

(line 110, 111) There are too many people who happily embrace Madiba’s

legacy of racial reconciliation (line 112, 113) There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with

Madiba’s struggle for freedom ( like 129, 130) And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example

comfort within the four walls of his cell Besides, while the first pronoun plural we is widely used, making the

audiences more involved and connected as discussed in the next part of

this study the first pronoun singular I appears sometimes in the text For

examples:

(line 126, 128) Over 30 years ago, while still a student, I learned of Nelson

Mandela and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land, and it stirred something in me

want to be a better man

(line 98, 99) Michelle and I are beneficiaries of that struggle

I is the subject used for a person only Obama would like to talk about his personal

experiences as well as his responsibilities as an ordinary human, or a president He would also like to emphasize that it is he who must follow Mandela’s example, to

contribute to build a better world On contrary, the addressing we, with a sense of

sharing and solidarity, involves all people into one union with the aspirations of democracy and peace

Formal Vocabulary Formal language in academic writing and in political documents and speeches is used with the aim of avoiding the use of slang and colloquial language.The formality

of the social relations in a formal situation, which expresses relational value, is indicated effectively thanks to the choice of vocabulary in the speech A variety of formal words and phrases are used instead of informal ones as seen in the following examples:

(line 19) endure (line 23) erect a constitutional order

When these words are used occasionally in the text, they demonstrate the speaker’s concern about the classes of audience and the solemnity of the memorial With the use of formal language, the speech has the necessary appropriate politeness of an important meeting and the proper manner of the speaker Thanks to the formality, the importance of the speech is emphasized and as a result, the attraction to the speech is enhanced

to represent the values of the deceased person and express the speaker’s attitude toward President Nelson Mandela:

(line 26, 27) the scope of his accomplishments, the adoration that he so rightly

earned (line 28, 29) himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait

(line 37, 38) through struggle and shrewdness, and persistence and faith

(line 91, 92) Madiba’s passing is rightly a time of mourning (line 132) this great liberator is laid to rest

By using such positive words and phrases, the speaker expressed his admiration and adoration to the deceased person He also emphasizes that Mandela’s life is one like

no other, a great life from which we can learn so much The influence that Mandela has to the world is not only his tireless struggle or his outstanding triumph, but also his heart and everlasting spirit For the first time to make a speech, Obama concludes

what he speaks with an emotional and touching remark “we will miss him deeply” as

his sympathy for his audience With this sentence, the politician succeeded in drawing the audience into his emotional currents and the meaningfulness of his speech, from which the consensus and support from the audience may be gained

3.2.2 Grammatical analysis First plural and third singular pronoun

According to Fairclough (2002), the use of pronouns “we, I and they” helps make up

the relational value of grammatical features In the text, the pronouns “we, us, he” are

of frequent occurrence

Table 1: Common pronouns in the speech

This form of address to the audience can be perceived as more inclusive, including all nationalities and ethnicities, applying a more democracy-centered attitude In the first part of the speech, President Obama addresses to a variety of audiences who are present at the memorial, including Graca Machel and Mandela family, the first beloved person in Mandela’s life, then to President Zuma and members of the government, to both past and present heads of states and government, and to distinguished guests This is an appropriate chosen order of addressing when talking about a positive person The speaker emphasizes that the memorial of President Nelson Mandela is to celebrate a life like no other, which expresses that he appreciates and admires the great liberator of the 20th century Besides, the addressing also is to the people of South Africa, Mandela’s beloved hometown and country The speaker honorably thanks the people of South Africa, people of every race and walk of life, most of whom are black and despised for thousands of year, for sharing Nelson Mandela with the world

The pronoun with the second most frequent occurrence is he, as seen as in some

examples:

He is the third singular subject which refers to President Nelson Mandela, the focus

of the speech The pronoun is frequently employed in the text so as to emphasize the position and role of the character in the liberation and democracy evolution of particularly the people of America and generally people all over the world The addressing shows the admiration that President Obama, on behalf of American people, has to President Mandela The repetition of this simple word in the above sentences reveals what Mandela has suffered and the most prominent positive changes Mandela has achieved in his leading career, as well as his spiritual influence

Passive and active voice The choice of passive voice and active voice helps express what the speaker implies and this results in indicating expressive values of the text There are 191 clauses in the text and most of all are in active form

When talking about Mandela, the author mostly use active voice to give focus on the deceased great president In contrast, to emphasize that it is humans who still have to encounter and endure the struggle and challenges, passive voice is occasionally applied

(line 106, 107) men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs

However, this is also an effective way to focus on the events instead of the agents:

(line 119, 120) until it is done

Even though there are no clear agents in these clauses, the reader and hearer may, basing on their co text and knowledge of society, infer the agents of these actions

There are passive forms in addition to passive clauses These are reduced clauses as follows:

With the use of voices, the experiential values are therefore expressed clearly

Mode of sentences Fairclough (1997, p404) suggests that there are three major modes including declarative, grammatical question and imperative As can be seen in the text, most of the sentences are declarative, two of them are imperative ones and one of them is

grammatical question (How well have I applied his lessons in my own life?)

In general, declarative mode involves confirmation or giving information In the text, almost every declarative sentence is employed to help to remind people about life and accomplishments of President Mandela, his lively life, talents and strong power, spiritual and emotional effects that he had on billions of people They also

clearly states the struggles that people in South Africa, America and all over the world face with at present The relational values are implied with such high frequency

of the declarative mode, which concerns the part of the information receivers

Besides, with the low percentage of imperative mood in the text, the speaker likes to request other people to do some actions The imperative mood is shown in the following clauses:

(line 124, 125) let me say to the young people of Africa, and young people

around the world

(line 133, 134) let us search then for his strength for his largeness of spirit

somewhere inside ourselves The first two clauses begin with let: let me and let us Using the former, the speaker would like to refer to himself as a president, on behalf of his nation, say to the young people of Africa, and young people around the world The latter focuses not only on me-the speaker, but you- the audience as well, by using the first pronoun plural us

This means President Obama, as well as every people in the world, can follow Mandela’s strength and spirit to step on the way to justice, liberation, democracy and peace

Modality Modality plays an important role in creating relational values and expressive ones in grammar As defined in The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, modality is “the expression of the speaker's opinions about present likelihood or about obligation:

(a) (narrowly) by means of a modal auxiliary verb; (b) (more widely) using any of the linguistic means available” In the text, modality is clearly and commonly expressed in the form of modal auxiliaries as analyzed below:

Modal auxiliaries Would: evaluation of the truth

(line 15, 16) Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th

century

(line 16) Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement (line 18, 19) Like King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the

oppressed, and the moral necessity of racial justice

Kennedy and Khrushchev (line 21, 22) he would like Lincoln hold his country together when it

threatened to break apart Like America's founding fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations

In the statements containing would, the speaker would like to give a certain

evaluation of the events happening in Mandela’s life, what challenges he got through

and a confirmation about his position “ Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century” This modal auxiliary plays a part in providing the text

with a sense of formality

Could: possibility

In the first three statements, the speaker would like to make a positive deduction

about Mandela’s personality from what he said and what he did And the last could

represent the probability of the results that may happen

Can: possibility

(line 120) South Africa shows we can change

but by our common hopes

(line 122, 123) We can choose a world defined not by conflict, but by peace

and justice and opportunity

By employing the modal auxiliary can, the speaker emphasizes the possibility of

what we will do in the future, and the direction that we will follow The repetition of

“we can” may be considered as an affirmation of the ability to learn from Mandela to

make the world better

Must: duty, necessity

(line 88) you must trust others so that they may trust you (line 94,95) we must ask: how well have I applied

(line 109) We, too, must act on behalf of justice

(line 109) We, too, must act on behalf of peace

Again, the repetitive use of must bring about a sense of duty and/or necessity

Instead of saying “We, too, must act on behalf of justice and peace”, Obama divided justice and peace and put them into two sentences with the emphatic words “we, too, must act on” This results in a stronger and more persuasive voice in the above

sentences

Will: determination

Another modal auxiliary, will, in the following sentences gives a sense of

determination about what happens in the future

(line 124) We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again

(line 140) We will miss him deeply

Connective values of the text

Reiteration:

In the text, the repetition is normally employed Words or whole phrases, usually a range of expressions corresponding to the type of political speech are repeated in the discourse, especially the pronouns

Examples:

Connectors:

There are a number of connectors used in the text, such as but, instead, and, for, moreover, because, and finally, and so, too, but the most common ones are but and and The former appears 11 times as the connectors, while the latter accounts for 13

times “But”, which is often used to show a contradiction, is applied here to contrast the different characteristic aspects and evaluation of President Mandela

This is proved in the following examples:

(line 28, 29, 30) it’s tempting I think to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait

(line 59, 60) Mandela taught us the power of action, but he also taught us the power of ideas; the importance of reason and arguments

The second common connector in the text, 'and', is used as a conjunction when the words or phrases are of equal importance and both conditions exist In many

examples, the speaker makes use of the simple word to talk about parallel actions or events and list what Mandela did in his leading life

(line 65- 68) He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement And he learned the language and the customs of his oppressor so that one day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depends upon his

(line 81) And finally, Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit

3.2.3 Thematization Analysis

A detailed analysis of themes of the speech in can be viewed in Appendix 2 In the following table, a summary of thematic analysis is given:

Table 2: Summary of thematization analysis

As can be seen from the summary above, the topical theme is predominant in the

text, of which there are 21 marked ones and 126 are unmarked ones The number of

marked theme includes adverbs of time (today, one day, over 30 years ago, finally),

and other adverb phrases and adverbial clauses as below:

Born during World War I Emerging from prison Given the sweep of his life

In the arc of his life like other early giants of the ANC

No matter how right

On core principles With honesty, regardless of our station or our circumstance

in America, and in South Africa, and in countries all around the globe

The adverbs of time are mainly used in order to express the chorological order of

events mentioned in the speech The others are adverb phrases of place (in America,

and in South Africa, and in countries all around the globe, for around the world today,

In the arc of his life), manner (like Gandhi, like Dr King, like America’s Founding Father, like other early giants of the ANC, like South Africa, with honesty, regardless

of our station or our circumstance, on core principles) and reduced adverbial clauses(Born during World War I, Emerging from prison, Given the sweep of his life,

No matter how right) Especially, the word like is repeated 4 times in order to make

comparison between President Nelson Mandela with other admirable contemporary leaders of democracy movements

The main unmarked topical themes are proper nouns (Madiba, Mandela, the Constitution, South Africa) and animate nouns (most of them are he and we) indicating

that the main character to be mentioned in the speech is President Mandela and the participants are the speaker and the audience Whereas, a large number of the

inanimate nouns (his struggle, his triumph, your dignity, your hope, your freedom, your democracy, etc.) are abstract words applied in order to emphasize the success of

Mandela’s life as well as persuasively pull the audience in the contents of Obama’s

speech and his own ideology

For textual themes, they are represented via conjunctions like and, but, so, so that, etc and creates connective values to the whole text which have been discussed in the previous part

3.2.4 Macro-level Analysis There are two types of structures in a normal text, firstly the microstructure which conveys the local relations among subsequent clauses, the surface of a text, which has been explored in the previous part with lexical and grammatical analysis and secondly the macrostructure, the overall structure, which conveys the meaning that the speaker implies As Van Dijk (1980) claims, ‘macrostructures’ represent the various notions of global meaning” of a discourse, embody its important information, and explain overall coherence of the discourse Also, according to Van Dijk, there are four procedures for separating the macrostructure from a given discourse (1977: 144-

146) Firstly, attributive deletion is a procedure in which attributes and other less important parts of the text are irrecoverably deleted This is followed by predictive deletion, in which deleted information is inductively recoverable The next procedure

is simple generalization, in which a more generic term will be used to replace

information In the last one, integration, a more general term entailing all of the

processes will be the result of the combination of descriptions of processes On investigating the speech, I found out the macrostructure statements as below And in this part, I would like to analyze the macrostructure points more clearly

1 Reasons for the speech

2 The values of Nelson Mandela: a liberator, a person of non-violence and tolerance

3 The on-going struggles

To celebratea life like no other 4

To eulogize, to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities

10-11

The next macrostructure points spreads from line 14 to line 24 in the form of the list, in which the figure of President Nelson Mandela as a liberator is clearly demonstrated

Table 4: Mandela as a liberator, a person who struggles for liberation and democracy

Mandela as a liberator, a person who struggles for liberation and

democracy

Line number

A boy raised herding cattle and tutored by the elders of his Thembu tribe 14-15

Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century 15-16

He would lead a resistance movement 16-17

He would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed and the moral 18-19

necessity of racial justice

He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War

19-20

He would hold his country together when it threatened to break apart 21-22

He would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations

23-24

In this part, the author draws out a summary of Mandela’s career as a liberator through his life By using several simple short sentences, the most prominent roles and successes that Mandela had are revealed shortly and specifically

Along with the image of Mandela as a liberator who struggles for liberation and democracy, the speaker also draws out his characteristics and skills as an ordinary human, of which the most vial one is tolerance This is illustrated from line 29 to line

90

Table 5: Mandela as a person of tolerance and non-violence

Mandela as a person of tolerance and non-violence Line

number Madiba insisted on sharing with us his doubts and his fears; his

miscalculations along with his victories

29-30

He could admit to imperfection because he could be so full of good humor, even mischief, despite the heavy burdens he carried

32-33

He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood 34

He earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness, and persistence and faith

37-38

He tells us what is possible not just in the pages of history books, but

in our own lives as well