luận văn thạc sỹ bằng tiếng anh EXAMPLES OF “FEMALE” LANGUAGE PRESENTATION: ASPECTS OF MALE DISCOURSE IN HILLARY CLINTON’S SPEECH ON ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………..………………..1 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND……………………………..……………...2 3. METHODOLOGY AND DATA………………………………….…….5 4. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS……………………………………5 4.1. Directiveness…………………………………………………………...5 4.2. Decisiveness............................................................................................6 4.3. Clarity.....……………………………………………………………….9 4.4. Maletopic focus…...………………………………………………….10 5. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………….11 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………..13 APPENDIX ………………………………………………………………..15 1. INTRODUCTION: People use language to help create their gender identity. Research has given us insight into some typical genderrelated differences between men and women’s speech. According to Robin Lakoff (1975), for example, typical female language is marked by the use of certain linguistic features such as hedging devices, tag questions, intensifiers and qualifiers, the socalled “trivial lexis”, “empty” adjectives and raising intonation on declaratives. By using this kind of language, women weaken or mitigate the force of an utterance, showing themselves to be indecisive, cooperative, and indirect. Unlike women’s language, it is suggested that men are competitive in conversation, dominate conversation, speak with more authority, and give more commands (Keith and J. Shuttleworth, 2000: 222). Consequently, male language is believed to be powerful and authoritative. Hillary Rodham Clinton is one of the most successful female politicians worldwide both as she supported her husband, the former US President – Bill Clinton, in his political career, and as she has been working for her own political career more recently in the role of New York Senator. Being a female politician and a longtime feminist as well as the only one female candidate in the competition with male politicians running for the White House, she has made speeches on global issues to show her targets, strategies and policies in leading American economy to a better future. One of the speeches is about energy and climate change. It will be argued in the essay that in this speech it is possible to find some aspects of male discourse: directiveness, decisiveness, clarity, and maletopic focus. This essay is aimed at discovering how effective the abovementioned male characteristics of language are as used by Hillary Rodham Clinton in her delivery of the speech on energy and climate change. It is my claim that through her use of male language in the speech she is able to show herself to be powerful and assert her leadership capacity in guiding the American country to a better future. Through her use of aspects of male discourse she hopes to be strongly supported by her fellow American citizens in the competition with Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, and then in the general election for the term of 20092013 in order to achieve her final political goal – entering the White House in the post of The US President. 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND The language of men and that of women have been perceived as being very different from each other until recently. Specifically, the use of language by men was considered the norm and women’s language was deviant from that norm; thereafter women’s language has been regarded inferior to that of men. Robbin Lakoff (1975) characterized the socalled female language as a language, which is used to weaken or mitigate the force of an utterance by women. However, O’Barr and Atkins (in Coates, 1998) have shown in their study of how men and women talk in American courts that the kind of language stated above should not be called “female language” but “powerless language” as it is characteristic of the people in powerless positions in American society (either because of their relatively low social status or because of lack in experience in the courtroom). Some scholars claim that these

EXAMPLES OF “FEMALE” LANGUAGE PRESENTATION: ASPECTS OF MALE DISCOURSE IN HILLARY CLINTON’S

SPEECH ON ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION………

……… 1

2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND………

……… 2

3 METHODOLOGY AND DATA………

…….5

4 DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS………5

4.1 Directiveness………

… 5

4.2 Decisiveness

6

4.3 Clarity

……….9

4.4 Male-topic focus…

……….10

5 CONCLUSION………

11 REFERENCES………

… 13

APPENDIX ……… 15

1 INTRODUCTION:

People use language to help create their gender identity Research has given us insight into some typical gender-related differences between men and women’s speech According to Robin Lakoff (1975), for example, typical female language is marked by the use of certain linguistic features such as hedging devices, tag questions, intensifiers and qualifiers, the so-called “trivial lexis”, “empty” adjectives and raising intonation on declaratives By using this kind of language, women weaken or mitigate the force of an utterance, showing

themselves to be indecisive, co-operative, and indirect Unlike

women’s language, it is suggested that men are competitive in

conversation, dominate conversation, speak with more authority, and give more commands (Keith and J Shuttleworth, 2000: 222)

Consequently, male language is believed to be powerful and

directiveness, decisiveness, clarity, and male-topic focus

This essay is aimed at discovering how effective the mentioned male characteristics of language are as used by Hillary Rodham Clinton in her delivery of the speech on energy and climate change It is my claim that through her use of male language in the speech she is able to show herself to be powerful and assert her

above-leadership capacity in guiding the American country to a better future Through her use of aspects of male discourse she hopes to be strongly supported by her fellow American citizens in the competition with Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, and then in the general election for the term of 2009-2013 in order to achieve her final political goal – entering the White House in the post of The US President

or mitigate the force of an utterance by women However, O’Barr and Atkins (in Coates, 1998) have shown in their study of how men and women talk in American courts that the kind of language stated above should not be called “female language” but “powerless language” as it

is characteristic of the people in powerless positions in American society (either because of their relatively low social status or because

of lack in experience in the courtroom) Some scholars claim that these

properties of women’s language stem from the fact that women are lessconfident than men and feel nervous about asserting anything too strongly Additionally, Keith and J Shuttleworth (2000:222) suggest that women talk more than men, they are indecisive and more co-operative whereas men do not talk about emotions but machines and sports Furthermore, Women’s talk is often described with the verb

gossip, nag, chatter, rabbit, yak, and natter, which all imply that

women’s talk is plentiful but rather pointless (Thomas et al, 2004: 86) Research has attempted to discover the difference in language use between men and women more generally One of the theories on whichthe subject of differences between men and women’s language

concentrates is the “dominance approach” (Lakoff 1975, Fishman 1983), which claims that the difference in language between men and women is a consequence of male dominance and female subordination

In this view, women are a just suppressed group Another theory

believed by the supporters of the “difference approach” (Coates 1986, Tannen 1990) is that men and women belong to different subcultures and that any linguistic differences can be attributed to cultural

differences Deborah Tannen’s distinction of information and feelings

is also described as report talk (of men) and rapport talk (of women) The differences can be summarized as follows: Women talk too much, speak in private contexts, build relations and overlap whereas men are quite different They get more air time, speak in public, negotiate status

or avoid failure, and speak one at a time Thus, the two theories have stated characteristics of the language of men and women from the different angles but eventually, it has been found that whatever the characteristics of the language of men and women are, the language of men is considered to be more powerful than that of women

Research has also given us an insight into the fact that men and womenare far different in topic development Specifically, women are said to talk about their personal topics such as their family, their emotions and their relationships whereas men prefer talking about impersonal topics, based on technical knowledge or factual, for example, sports, cars, home improvements (Thomas et al, 2004: 89) Hence, men tend to be more decisive, direct and clear in giving and receiving information Their language requires fewer intimate revelations but emphasizes instead the exchange information as the reason for the conversation And since men negotiate status or avoid failure as stated earlier, they seem to be directive in the way they talk Chosen aspects of male discourse such as directiveness, decisiveness, clarity and male-topic focus will be demonstrated with proper examples from the speech of energy and climate change by Hillary Clinton An analysis of the above-mentioned aspects of male discourse will reveal how effective those aspects are performed by Hillary in delivering her speech before the US Presidential election period as a means of showing the power and leadership capacity of a would-be president

3 METHODOLOGY AND DATA

Energy and climate change: Comprehensive Strategy to

Address the Climate and Energy Challenge is a speech by Hillary

Clinton collected from one of the websites about her political career, inwhich aspects of male discourse have been found in her use of

language to address the speech The analysis will be developed into four parts corresponding to four subtitles in the data analysis part of theessay: directiveness, decisiveness, clarity and male-topic focus

4.1 Directiveness:

Directiveness is defined as having power to direct, tending to direct, guide or govern, which can be easily found in men’s personality more than in that of women since authority and dominance are reflected in

men’s language as claimed by Arin and M Sifianou (2001:57)

However, in energy and climate change: Comprehensive Strategy to Address the Climate and Energy Challenge, Hillary has been found

different from women in the way she used the language, which are the characteristics of male language, to reflect her ability in directing

others She went straight to the point by saying today I want to focus

on Right from the beginning of the speech, she presented her

directiveness in the way of introducing the subject of her speech to her

audience: And today I want to focus on energy and climate change The subject for her today speech was directly referred to and major contents

of the speech should cover some issues regarding energy, for example, the use of energy, recycling or regenerating energy, impacts on the environment or climate and effective provisional as well long-term solutions for the issues.… By being directive in coming to the point at the beginning of the speech, she was able to guide her audience to

focus on the major contents of her speech when they heard I want to focus on energy and climate change, and they could have a proper guess about what would be mentioned in the speech Drawing the

audience’s attention more to the speech suggests her speech delivery

was more effective The use of the verb want instead of the phrase I would like to did not show her impoliteness but her directiveness since

it helped her to direct listeners to a clearer way in catching her main points in the speech To be a good leader, the quality of being directive

is one of the important characteristics and she got it through the way of

her language to present her directiveness as I want to focus on was

chosen for opening her speech on energy and climate change

4.2 Decisiveness:

A person who has the power or quality of deciding a question or

controversy and putting an end to contest or controversy is considered

to de decisive And the people of this type are of decisive character, and their effecting a conclusion to a contest or putting an end to

controversy is marked with promptness and decision (J Foster and Hallam, 1913)

When I am President, we will set three major goals for America… when I am President, we will set a goal of reducing electricity

demands 20% by 2020… As President, I will lead national commitment

to energy efficiency… When I become President, will have to be

carbon neutral…As President, I will put in place a market-based cap

… As President, I will invest $2 billion in research … As President, I will raise the fuel efficiency standards to 40 miles per gallon by 2020 and by 55 by 2030…As president, I will fund ten “Smart Grid

Cities”…As President, to help us reach 25% by 2025, I will make the production tax credit And when I am President, The United States Treasury will issue “Energy Independence Bonds” …And when I am President, it will be the calling of our nation…Well, come January

2009, I’m sending a different message I want to act quickly …My goal will be to secure a deal by 2010

Examples of decisiveness in Hillary’s use of language are illustrated

with the way she used repeatedly, such as, the phrases As President, when I am President, I will…with the distant time (2009, 2010, 2012,

2020, 2025, 2030) as a method of presupposing that she will be

President in the coming term or even she will be re-elected for the following terms Also, it is presupposed that her economic policy will keep valuable for the next generations and she will take action right

when she holds power It is shown through her saying-when I am president, when I become President, or as President - that she was self-

confident in the competition with Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, and then in the general election for the term of2009-2013 She says this when no one could know whether she would defeat Barack Obama in the competition for the Democratic

presidential nomination, let alone the competition in the US

Presidential general election for the term 2009-2013 The result has been left open since the competition has not been decided at the time of

writing this paper However, still she said as President and when I am President, I will… as if she is going to win the election very soon Parallel with as President and when I am President, the first pronoun subject I in combination with the modal verb will was also used

repeatedly, which could present her decisiveness in taking action

Additionally, I want to act quickly contributed to be a good evidence

for proving her quality of being decisive Normally it is supposed that the quality of being decisive can hardly be found in women in general, but that is part of the male character Hillary is an ordinary woman in her life However, she is a successful female politician and long-term feminist Therefore, more or less she has power and leadership capacity

in the field of politics It is thanks to her skillful choice of using the language to present male discourse that her capacity of leading and power of a president could be shown through goals she set for

America From the set goals and her leadership, things would change tothe better due to her new policies for reducing the impacts of using

much energy on the environment, which proves her potential in the role

of president

4.3 Clarity:

Clarity means the quality or state of being clear and exact in giving ideas or providing information Being claimed by Thomas et all (2004),the idea is that unlike men, women talk much but just little informationcan be provided Nevertheless, Hillary did not talk in a women’s way,

which is proved through the following sentences: On Wednesday, I will outline in greater detail the ways… Tomorrow, I will be in Newton outlining my energy jobs agenda The second piece of my agenda asks the national government to set the rules and lead the way Third, I will ask automakers to play a role Forth, we’ll ask the oil companies to do their part …

She used the way of men’s talk to address her speech She wanted either to focus on giving her audience information stated in her speech

or to make herself clear in giving information Her language was ratherclear and the speech became more coherent in discourse through the

use of transition words and other markers such as second, third, forth,

or the time determiners such as Wednesday, tomorrow She provided a

clear-cut action plan, through which her leadership ability and

responsibilities for the country would be performed in the role of

President, making herself more powerful through her requirements and task assignments to individuals and all functional agencies by using

direct request I will require In short, the information she intended to

bring her audience was very clearly stated through a clear-cut agenda with the specific time and concretely assigned tasks in the action plan

4.4 Male – topic focus:

Male topics are considered to be impersonal, based on technical

knowledge or factual, for example, sports, cars, home improvements

The installation of solar and cold resistant glass and other

improvements, reduce utility bill 30% …air conditioner, dishwasher, dryer, car and technology … phase out the incandescent light bulb - develop the replacements – from L.E.D.s to compact fluorescents … These are vehicles that can be filled up at the gas station and charged

up in a standards outlet A vehicle powered by electricity release third less global warming pollution, even if the electricity comes from coal These cars can offer the promise of 100 miles to the gallon And

one-if the plug-in in a flex-fuel vehicle running on E85 ethanol, it could potentially travel 500 miles for every gallon of gas consumed

Thus, based on the definition of male topic mentioned earlier, it could

be seen that the topics Hillary mentioned in her speech are male topics.She spoke about the things, which are based on the technical

knowledge, for instance, the installation of solar and cold resistant glass, incandescent light bulb, fluorescents, vehicles, car, fuel, gas, air-conditioner, dryer and dishwasher In fact, she explained and showed people the way to save power and energy by developing and using other replacements: good macro-strategic solution in dealing with the environmental issues, contributing to conserve our earth By doing so, people not only found her to be a knowledgeable woman but also a visionary president with a strategic mind of deep thoughts

Furthermore, by speaking about that kind of topic, she could show people her good knowledge of technology science and some other fields The quality of being knowledgeable is considered a strong point

to be elected a leader

5 CONCLUSION:

Some of aspects of male discourse have been found on my analysis of Hillary Clinton’s speech on energy and climate change, such as

directiveness, decisiveness, clarity, and male –topic focus Her choice

of using these aspects of male discourse in the speech on a global issue

– energy and climate change – is not explained by the supposition that she has male character, but by her need to make herself as equally powerful and professional as male politicians in the way of leading the country

The essay has provided a brief analysis of the way she used those aspects of male discourse in her speech in order to make the delivery ofher speech more effective in terms of providing information to

audience, and at the same time, to help consolidate her position and strengthen her potential of being president through her showing power and leadership capacity What could be seen is that she performed the characteristics of male language smoothly in her speech, which neither presented her imitating men in language use nor showed her intention

of leading man-oriented characteristics but did help her to show herself

to be a powerful woman, contributing to persuade her American

citizens to back and vote for her in the coming election The fact is thatfemale language with hedging, indirect requests, empty adjectives and more apology cannot be used in a political speech because it can make speakers seem less powerful, and listeners may think speakers are in some low status However, male discourse is more effectively used in the area of politics, which can make speakers more powerful and

decisive, which makes it easier for them to become leaders

O’Barr, W.M and B.K Atkins “Women’s language or Powerless language?.” Language and Gender: A reader Ed Coates J Oxford:

Blackwell, 1998 377-387

Coates J., ed Language and gender: A reader Oxford: Blackwell,

1998

Thomas et al 2004 Language, Society and Power London: Routledge.

Fishman, P “Interaction: The work women do.” Language, Gender and Society Ed Thorne, B., C Kramarae and N Henley Cambridge,

MA: Newburry House, 1983 89-101

Thorne, B., C Kramarae and N Henley Eds Language, Gender and Society Cambridge, MA: Newbury House, 1983

Coates, J 1986 Women, Men and Language New York: Longman Tannen, D 1990 You just don’t understand: Women and men in

Conversation New York: Ballantine Books.

Arin, B and M Sifianou 2001 Linguistics and Politeness Across Boundaries: The case of Greek and Turkish Amsterdam: John

Benjamins Publishing

Datasegment.Online dictionary 2003 Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48, March 08 2008

<http://onlinedictionary.datasegment.com/word/decisiveness>

Clinton, H 2007 Hillaryclinton.com ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE: Comprehensive Strategy to Address the Climate and Energy Challenge February 02, 2008.

<http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/speech/view/?id=4059>

And I'm thrilled to have so many others here with me today I want to thank County Supervisor Jim Houser I want to thank Justin Shields

from the Hawkeye Labor Council I want to thank State RepresentativeSwati Dandekar, I want to thank State Representative Todd Taylor I want to thank my dear friend Christie Vilsack who's with me and I want to especially thank Clipper Windpower because other people are talking and you're doing You're making it happen

I have been looking forward to being here because I know how

important it is that those of us who are running for President, asking the good people of Iowa for your support, that we tell you what we will

do when we're President to deal with the big problems facing America And today I want to focus on energy and climate change

Two years ago as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation, I

traveled to Barrow, Alaska That's the northern most point of the

United States And I also traveled through on my way there the Yukon Territory in Canada Traveling over those vast coniferous forests that blanket those harsh unforgiving latitudes, I looked down to see dead trees as far as the eye could reach These trees are part of an ecosystem formed to survive brutal conditions But the giant spruce trees of the Yukon, some centuries old, are no match for a relative newcomer: a tiny insect known as the bark beetle The forests, it turns out, were once protected by cold, cold winters The beetle could not survive But warmer temperatures have allowed this invasive species to travel into higher latitudes and wreak unnatural havoc In once pristine forests, there was devastation Millions of acres infested Whole swaths of land

- once green - now brown

When we arrived in Barrow, virtually everyone I spoke to had a

personal wake up call about what was happening in the climate A visit

to a boyhood watering hole revealed a dried up lakebed A native

village uprooted by erosion I met lifelong participants in dogsled raceswho told me they no longer even needed to wear gloves during those races At the top of the world, you hear stories affirmed by decades

of scientific investigation - of changing weather patterns, melting ice, retreating glaciers, unprecedented wildfires, eroding coasts, and

invasive species You can see the evidence with your own eyes There are no climate change skeptics inside the Arctic Circle

Of course, this is a story about a place thousands of miles from here, in one of the most remote regions of our planet But I share it because it isnot an isolated experience any longer It is a part of our story It is part

of Iowa's story and America's story Alarming climate changes, a stagnant economy, our health weakened, our national security

compromised because of our failure to move to a clean, efficient energy future

It is our story because the climate crisis portends drastic changes to ourway of life The last two decades of the 20th century were the hottest in

400 years The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that

11 of the past 12 years are among the warmest since 1850 Rising sea levels along the coastal United States could cost $170 billion in the coming decades Beyond our shores, you have African countries

experiencing water stress, Asian countries contending with increasing flooding

It's our story because our dependence on foreign oil threatens our economy America's national and economic security has taken a

backseat to the driver's seat Gas prices have doubled over the past six years Nationwide, diesel recently hit an all-time high You know

gasoline prices, depending upon where you shop, are around $3 a gallon

Two thirds of Americans now say that rising gas prices are a hardship for their families One in four low income families have already missed

a mortgage or a rent payment because of rising energy costs

Meanwhile, we are more dependent on foreign oil today than we were

on 9/11 And one third of our trade deficit is the petroleum we import,

as we transfer massive amounts of wealth to undemocratic

governments that use those funds to stifle opposition and finance

extremism

It's our story because the carbon economy compromises our health, the air we breathe, and the environment in which we raise our children One study found that pollution from power plants causes 24,000

premature deaths in our country each year Nearly a third of our

childhood asthma cases are caused by air pollution and environmental contamination

And finally, it's our story because the President has systematically undermined our path to a clean energy future

Instead of recognizing the irrefutable evidence, this Administration haslaunched a war on science itself Political appointees have censored studies on global warming, silenced climate experts According to a survey by the Union of Concerned Scientists, nearly three fourths of climate experts witnessed inappropriate interference in climate

research And just this past March, the Administration issued a gag order to employees of the Fish and Wildlife Service forbidding them tospeak about the plight of polar bears without prior official approval