A critical discourse analysis of I have a dream by Martin Luther King

A critical discourse analysis of "I have a dream" by Martin Luther King 43tr.. And, one of them is discrimination in the speech ‘I have a dream’ by Martin Luther King.. I am really inte

A critical discourse analysis of "I have a

dream" by Martin Luther King

43tr

Đặng Thị Anh Thư

Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Prof Nguyễn Hòa

Năm bảo vệ: 2010

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Phân tích diễn ngôn; Ngôn ngữ học

Content:

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Language plays a very important role in our life We use language to communicate to each other, to express our attitudes and ideology to the world around us and to the social problems To analyze language, there are many methods and approaches Of all, CDA approach is interested in linking linguistic analysis and social analysis It is applied to discover the relationship between language and social problems such as dominance, power abuse, discrimination and etc Norman Fairclough is the linguist who has made a great contribution to CDA

These years CDA has become favorite approach in language analysis and it really interests me When studying on linguistics, I have paid a lot of attention on the link between language and social problems And, one of them is discrimination in the speech ‘I have a dream’ by Martin Luther King This is one of twenty four speeches of

M L King and one of the most famous speeches in the world It was delivered in front of 250,000 people gathered by the Lincoln Memorial and millions more who

watched on television Though it appeared in August 1963, it is still used in many art works about freedom and equality It also inspires people all over the world

I am really interested in linguistics, especially CDA approach in analyzing the speech

to uncover the power hidden behind Therefore, I decided to do a CDA study on ‘I have a dream’ by Martin Luther King

2 Scope of study

The study is beyond the scope of verbal aspects and social context when the speech was delivered Although paralinguistic factors such as intonation and stress, and extra-linguistic factors such as facial expressions and eye contacts, are very important in the speech, they are excluded in this study

This research is linguistic study, and my own political view and my own support are not expressed

The paper mainly focuses on Transitivity and Modality which are used in the speech with high frequency to uncover the relationship between the power, ideology and language

3 Aims of study

The aims of the study are:

- To provide a support to the theory of CDA and SFG

- To uncover the power and ideology hidden behind the speech ‘I have a dream’ by M L King in the light of CDA and SFG

- To offer some suggestions for teaching and learning language

4 Significance

- The paper reaffirms the relationship between power, ideology and language

- CDA is an effective approach to uncover the power and ideology hidden behind the text

- The research is also a contribution to language teaching and learning

5

6 Methodology

The study uses CDA approach with three stages given by Norman Fairclough (2001) such as description, interpretation and explanation Besides, SFG by Halliday with three metafunctions such as ideational function, interpersonal function, and textual function is applied in the speech’s analysis

The followings are the steps in analyzing the speech:

In the light of the theory of CDA and SFG, the relationship between power, ideology and language is uncovered First, the speech is divided into clauses Second, it is analyzed in the terms of vocabulary, grammar and textual structures, especially Transitivity, Mood, and Modality Third, the relationship between text and interaction is mentioned Then, the relationship between interaction and social context is shown to uncover the power and ideology behind the speech

7 Design of study

There are three main parts in this research paper

Part A – Introduction

In Part A, the rationale, aims; scope, methodology, significance, and design of the study are introduced

Part B – Development

Part B consists of three smaller parts

1 Literature review

In Chapter 1, the brief introduction of M L King and the context of the speech will be mentioned

Chapter 1 gives out the theoretical background of CDA and SFG including brief introduction of the history, definition and methodology

2 A CDA of ‘I have a dream’ by Martin Luther King

In Chapter 2, the theory of CDA and SFG in Chapter 1 are applied in analyzing the speech to uncover the relationship between power, ideology and language In this part, transitivity and modality of meta-functions are mainly focused

3 Some suggestions for teaching and learning language

In Chapter 3, some suggested activities used to improve teaching and learning language are mentioned

Part C: Conclusion

1 Summary of findings

In this part, principal findings are summarized

2 Suggestions for further studies

Suggestions for further research are given

REFERENCES

1 Chomsky, Noam (1957) Syntactic Structures Paris: Mouton

2 Fairclough, N (2001) Language and Power (second edition) Harlow: Longman

3 Fairclough, N., & Wodak, R (1997) Critical discourse analysis London: Sage

4 Halliday, M.A.K (1994) Introduction to Functional Grammar London: Edward Arnold

5 Halliday, M.A.K (1971) Linguistic function and literary style: an enquiry into the language of William Golding's 'The Inheritors' New York: Oxford University Press

6 Ha, N.M (2007) A Critical Analysis of President Bush’s Speech on the U.S Mission in Iraq and his Policies in the Middle East M.A Thesis Hanoi: University of Languages and

International Studies – VNU

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9 http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/norman/norman.htm

10 http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

11 http://en.wikipedia.org

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