A Critical Discourse Analysis of two speeches on women by Hillary Clinton in 1995 and 2013

DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A critical discourse analysis of two speeches on women by Hillary Clinton in 1995 and 2013” is the result of my own research for t

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PHẠM THỊ TUẤN

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF TWO SPEECHES

ON WOMEN BY HILLARY CLINTON IN 1995 AND 2013 Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán hai bài phát biểu về

phụ nữ của Hillary Clinton vào các năm 1995 và 2013

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

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PHẠM THỊ TUẤN

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF TWO SPEECHES

ON WOMEN BY HILLARY CLINTON IN 1995 AND 2013

Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán hai bài phát biểu về

phụ nữ của Hillary Clinton vào các năm 1995 và 2013

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng

Hanoi, 2016

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A critical discourse analysis of two speeches on women by Hillary Clinton in 1995 and 2013” 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, 2016

Phạm Thị Tuấn

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Associate Professor Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng 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 Graduate and 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 teaching 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

This study attempts to discover the relationship between power, ideology and discourse embraced in two speeches delivered by Hillary Clinton in 1995 and

2013, using the CDA framework suggested by Norman Fairclough (2001) The analysis is carried out in three separated phases namely Description, Interpretation, and Explanation Major aspects selected for analysis include vocabulary, grammar, and macro-structures Due to the limited time, the study focuses on analysis of lexical choice, voice, pronouns, and large-scale structures The findings show that ideology and power are expressed in a number of ways, and there is not much difference between two speeches The biggest difference lies on the situational context that exerts influences on exhibiting power and ideology While 1995 speech centers on depicting the reality of harsh treatment on women, 2013 speech offers a review of achievements and remains in fights for women advancement In general, both speeches serve as Clinton’s calls for actions on women rights violations

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CDA:Critical Discourse Analysis S: Sentence

M: Macro - statement

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Frequency of pronoun “I” and “We” in 1995 and 2013 Speech 21 Table 2: Frequency of active and passive voice in 1993 and 1995 Speech 24

Figures

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

AB STRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TAB LES AND FIGURES v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi PART A: INTRODUCTION I

1 Rationale I

2 Aims of the study and Research Questions II

2.1 Aims of the study II 2.2 Research questions .II

3 Scope of the study II

4 Design of the study III

5 Significance of the study III PART B: DEVELOPMENT Error! Bookmark not defined

REVIEW Error! Bookmark not defined

1 An overview of CDA Error! Bookmark not defined

1.1 The development of CDA Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2 Definitions of CDA Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3 Some main directions in CDA Error! Bookmark not defined

1.3.1 Van Dijk’s Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.2 Wodak’s Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.3 Fairclough’s Error! Bookmark not defined

1.3.3.1 Description of the text Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.3.2 Interpretation of the text Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.3.3 Explanation of the text Error! Bookmark not defined

CHAP TER 2: METHODOLOG Y OF THE STUDYError! Bookmark not defined

1 Research questions restated Error! Bookmark not defined

2 Methods of the study Error! Bookmark not defined

3 Data of the study Error! Bookmark not defined

4 Analysis procedure of the study Error! Bookmark not defined

CHAPTER 3: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE TWO

SPEECHES ON WOMEN B Y HILLARY CLINTON IN 1995 AND 2013Error! Bookmark not defined

1 Description Error! Bookmark not defined

1.1 Description of vocabulary use Error! Bookmark not defined

1.2 Description of grammatical features Error! Bookmark not defined

1.2.1 The use of “I” and “we” pronouns Error! Bookmark not defined

1.2.2 The use of voice Error! Bookmark not defined

1.3 Description of macro-structures Error! Bookmark not defined

2 Interpretation Error! Bookmark not defined

2.1 Interpretation of situational context Error! Bookmark not defined

2.2 Interpretation of inter-textual context Error! Bookmark not defined

2.3 Interpretation of language use Error! Bookmark not defined

2.3.1 Interpretation of vocabulary use Error! Bookmark not defined

2.3.2 Interpretation of grammatical features Error! Bookmark not defined

2.3.2.1 The use of pronouns “I” and “we” Error! Bookmark not defined

2.3.2.2 The use of voice Error! Bookmark not defined

2.3.3 Interpretation of macro-structures Error! Bookmark not defined

2.3.3.1 Macrostructures in 1995 speech Error! Bookmark not defined

2.3.3.2 Macrostructures in 2013 speech Error! Bookmark not defined

3 Explanation Error! Bookmark not defined

3.1 Explanation of 1995 speech Error! Bookmark not defined

3.2 Explanation of 2013 speech Error! Bookmark not defined

PART C: CONCLUSION Error! Bookmark not defined

1 Summary of findings Error! Bookmark not defined

2 Limitations of the study and Recommendations for further study Error! Bookmark not defined

REFERENCES V APPENDIX 1 Error! Bookmark not defined

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

There has been much written about Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in recent years It is noticeably noted that not only does CDA seek to describe language but it also offers critical resources to those wishing to resist various forms of power With its success in discerning the relationship between language and power in a wide range of contexts, CDA is attracting growing interest of numerous worldwide language researchers

Language is one of the greatest inventions that human have ever made It has been long considered a communication tool that people use to express their wil ls, their feelings and their attitudes towards the world By this way, language is a social phenomenon From CDA’s perspective, language is said a part of society, social practice and a socially-conditioned process (Fairclough, 2001)

As a part of society, language is taken advantage of by different specialists from various fields, in which politics is included It is often said that politics is about power, and language serves as a useful weapon that country leaders use to achieve their political purposes From that, there is no doubt for the close relationship between language and politics; in other words, between language and power Political speeches are striking examples for the application of linguistic practice to show power Generally speaking, as a speech is given, not only are the messages delivered, but the speaker’s ideology and power are also embedded

CDA approaches the study and critique of social inequality by focusing on the role

of discourse in the production and reproduction of dominance, which is defined as the exercise of social power by elites, institutions or groups, that results in social inequality, including political, cultural, class, ethic, racial, and gender inequality (van Dijk, 1993, p 249-250) One important social issue that be examined in any given culture in terms of dominance and inequality is gender

That women rights violation is a pressing world problem leads to the delivery of numerous speeches The speaker, Hillary Clinton, also made a number of remarks

on the issue, in which 1995 speech is the most outstanding ever 2013 speech is also chosen for analysis for it is the review of 1995 one and also gains some important popularity

To my best knowledge, there have been quite a variety of researchers working on language and power connection through the analysis of political speech However, most of them tended to study a single speech, and this remains a slot for me to fill here Hence, in this thesis, I maybe have a look at the same matter, yet with the investigation of two speeches at the same time

All reasons mentioned above lead me to the choice of these two speeches on women

by Hillary Clinton as the data of the study for analysis from the viewpoint of CDA

2 Aims of the study and Research Questions

2.1 Aims of the study

The study aims to:

- Provide a critical analysis of two speeches on women by Hillary Clinton in 1995 and 2013 based on Fairclough’s framework to find out the way hidden power and ideologies are shown in two speeches

- Find out changes in the way power and ideologies are shown in two speeches

2.2 Research questions

To achieve the aims of the study, the following research questions have been posed:

1 How are ideologies and power lexically, syntactically and macro -structurally shown in two speeches on women by Hillary Clinton in 1995 and 2013 ?

2 Are there any changes in the way ideologies and power are shown in two speeches? If yes, what changes are they?

3 Scope of the study

In this critical discourse analysis, the researcher is confined to the written aspects of two speeches and some concerned situational contexts as a kind of background knowledge This thesis is a linguistic study rather than a political or social one It is actually based on political speeches to approach and to do a linguistic research for

an academic purpose

4 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts illustrated as follows:

Part A is the INTRODUCTION of the study which presents the rationale, scope,

aims, methodology, and design of the study

Part B is the DEVELOPMENT which is made up of three chapters

Chapter 1: Theoretical background and literature review

This chapter gives an overview of CDA – its history, role, concepts, and procedure

Chapter 2: Methodology of the study

This chapter provides a detailed description of the methodology, which includes research methods applied for data collection, the types of the data, and the analysis procedure of the study

Chapter 3: A critical discourse analysis of two speeches on women by Hillary

Clinton in 1995 and 2013

The CDA procedure addressed by Fairclough (2001) is applied to analyze two speeches to find out the relationship between power, ideology and language, and simultaneously explore the similarities and differences in how power and ideology are reflected in two speeches

Part C is the CONCLUSION which summarizes the major findings of the study,

draws important conclusions, and offers suggestions for further research

5 Significance of the study

Theoretically, this study provides a support to CDA theories From an objective view as linguists when approaching texts, CDA analysts can find out ideology and power hidden behind words Practically, this study is submitted in partial fulfillment

of requirements of my degree of Master in English Linguistics Moreover, with the investigation of two speeches at the same time, it may provide the researcher another approach to political speech analysis from CDA viewpoint

REFERENCES

Books and Articles

1 Chaudhry, H., and Naz, A (2011) Developing Gender Equality: An Analytical Study of Socio-Political and Economic Constraints in Women’s Empowerment in Pakhtun Society of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing, 2(1), 259-266

2 Chomsky, N (1957) Syntactic Structures The Hague: Mouton

3 Cooray, A (2012) Suffrage, Democracy and Gender Equality in Education

Oxford Development Studies, 40(1), 21-47

4 Fairclough, N (1995a) Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language London: Longman

5 Fairclough, N (1995b) Media Discourse London: Edward Arnold

6 Fairclough, N.; Wodak, R (1997) Critical Discourse Analysis In T Van Dijk

(Hg.): Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction , 2, 258-284 London:

SAGE Publications

7 Fairclough, N (2001) Critical Discourse Analysis as A Method In Social

Scientific Research In R Wodak and M Meyer (Hg.): Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis London: SAGE Publications, 121-138

8 Fikree, F F., and Pasha, O (2004) Role of gender in health disparity: the South

Asian context

9 Kress, G., and Hodge, R (1979) Language as Ideology London: Routledge

10 Lee, F L F (2004) Constructing Perfect Women: the Portrayal of Female

Officials in Hong Kong Newspapers SAGE Journals: Media, Culture and Society,

26 (2), 207 – 225

11 Rogers, R (2004) An Introduction to Critical Discourse in Education London,

Mahawah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers

12 van Dijk T A (1985) Handbook of Discourse Analysis Orlando: Academic

Press