High-context and low-context elements in two inaugural speeches of 2009 and 2013 by American President Barack Hussein Obama

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *********************** NGÔ QUỲNH TRANG HIGH-CONTEXT AND LOW-CONTEX

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

***********************

NGÔ QUỲNH TRANG

HIGH-CONTEXT AND LOW-CONTEXT ELEMENTS

IN TWO INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF 2009 AND 2013

BY AMERICAN PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA

(Phân tích yếu tố bối cảnh cao và bối cảnh thấp xuất hiện trong hai bài diễn văn nhậm chức vào năm 2009 và 2013 của Tổng thống Mỹ

Barack Hussein Obama)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Linguistics Code : 60.22.02.01

HANOI, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

***********************

NGÔ QUỲNH TRANG

HIGH-CONTEXT AND LOW-CONTEXT ELEMENTS

IN TWO INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF 2009 AND 2013

BY AMERICAN PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA

(Phân tích yếu tố bối cảnh cao và bối cảnh thấp xuất hiện trong hai bài diễn văn nhậm chức vào năm 2009 và 2013 của Tổng thống Mỹ

Barack Hussein Obama)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Linguistics Code : 60.22.02.01

Supervisor : Prof Nguyễn Hoà

HANOI, 2014

DECLARATION

I certify that this work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by other

persons, except where due to references has been made in the text

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Nguyễn Hòa, who guided me throughout the accomplishment of this research If it had not been for his kind guidance, insightful comments and valuable support, my

thesis would not have been completed

I also owe my gratitude to my family, who have always been very supportive with

my study and during my doing thesis Without their love and thoughtful understanding, I could not have accomplished this project

My thanks also go to my friends who always encouraged me to finish this thesis and

showed me plenty of help whenever I needed

ABSTRACT

There is a concept that will help us pull together a lot of the material we have read

so far about culture It is called "high context" and "low context" and was created by the same anthropologist who developed the concepts of polychronic and monochronic time They complement each other and provide a broad framework for looking at culture

This study attempts to analyze and compare the differences of using high and low context elements in two inaugural speeches by American President Barach Hussein Obama in his two terms of office Under analytic, synthetic, comparative and deductive methods, the source texts have been examined in the light of high and low context concepts Besides, deduction and comparison were often made between two speeches to expose the different ways of expressing the same matters but using different ways of speaking Moreover, coming along with the outlook on politics, I will also try to explain the reasons why Obama preferred to use high instead of low context elements or vice versa Thence, there will be comments and judgments to clarify the meaning between the lines to prove the high frequency of using high or low context elements in those inaugurals

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I INTRODUCTION 1

I Rationale of the study 1

II Scope and objectives of the study 2

III Research questions 2

PART II DEVELOPMENT 3

CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 3

I.1 Context theory 3

I.2 High and low context theory 5

I.2.1 Views on high and low context culture 5

I.2.1.1 Dr Sangeeta R Gupta 5

I.2.2 Concept of high and low context culture by Edward T Hall (1976, p105) 9

I.2.2.1 Context 9

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 13

II.1 Applications of E T Hall`s Theories of the Context 13

II.1.1 Website Design in High and Low Context Cultures 13

II.2 Researches on high and low context elements in two inaugural speeches of 2009 and 2013 by American President Barack H Obama 16

II.2.2 Second inaugural speech, 2013 18

IV.2.2 Contents 26

IV.2.2.1 High context elements in two inaugurals 26

IV.2.2.1.3 Multiple cross-cutting ties and intersections with others 28

IV.2.2.2 Low context elements in two inaugurals 32

IV.2.2.2.1 Rule oriented, people play by external rules 32

PART III CONCLUSION 40

I Recapitulation of main ideas 40

II Limitations of the study 42

III Recommendations for further research 42

REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES I

PART I INTRODUCTION

I Rationale of the study

It is high and low contexts which make communications between countries so different and diversified It is often said that: ―A high-context joke from a high-context culture will not translate well to someone of a different culture, even another high-context culture,‖ which means ―When you are in Rome, you have to

do as the Romans do‖ If an individual wishes to understand what other people say,

of course, he/she has to know what context he/she is in and whether there are any other meanings lying between the lines in those circumstances

Vietnam is considered to possess a high context culture while the US belongs to low context group But things are not always the same This study attempts to prove that there are a large number of cases when Americans use high context elements to express their ideas Among those Americans, this study chooses to anylize American President Obama's inaugural speeches in order to expose the appearance

of high and low context elements

There are absolutely some reasons why these two inaugurals of American President are chosen to be analyzed in this thesis An inaugural address, or inaugural -for short-, is a speech given during the inauguration ceremony which informs the people of the new president‘s intentions as a leader, informs the duties of the president during his/her years of presidency In other words, an inaugural is not only

a list of promises between the president and his/her people, but also an occasion for the President to express his/her personality and enthusiasm By examining the inaugurals, it is possible for the author to catch the information of American status

at this moment as well as Obama‘s attempt and intention toward his nation Moreover, by giving out a lot of evidences, it can be proved that a man living in a low context culture can also use high context elements and how he uses it To make this research more objective, persuasive and convincing, the author studies on

Obama‘s both two inaugurals, thence withdrawes some rules or habits of when or where he uses high context elements instead of low context elements, which cannot

be done if only one of his inaugurals is investigated at random

II Scope and objectives of the study

Under the constraints of time and size, the study only focuses on the high and low context elements presented in two inaugurals of the first and second terms (2009 and 2013) by American President Barack Hussein Obama In this study, the investigated documents are analyzed in the light of Edward T Hall‘s high and context culture theory (1976) in order to reach the objectives of (1) discovering the usage of low and high context elements when Obama discusses the same topics but

at different times, (2) assessing Obama‘s frequency of using high context elements regardless of the fact that America is obviously among the group of low context culture, (3) analyzing the meaning below the words in some specific cases

Furthermore, compared to other pieces of work, which are rather ill-written, lengthy, complicated and difficult to be broken down into smaller parts, Hall‘s high and context culture theory appears to be of higher clarity, simplicity, connectivity and comprehensibility It is not only succinct but also classified into sub-categories such as high context, low context and high context versus low context

III Research questions

In order to fulfill its objectives stated above, this paper needs to answer the following research questions:

1 In what circumstances does Obama employ high context elements to express

his ideas instead of using low context elements?

2 What are the meanings between the lines in those circumstances?

3 To what extend does Obama use high context elements to express the same

content in both of his inaugural speech?

PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 Context theory

I.1.1 Definition of context

According to Phil McNulty (2012), context is the surroundings, circumstances, environment, background or settings that determine, specify, or clarify the meaning

of an event or other occurrence (E.g In what context did your attack on him

happen? - We had a pretty tense relationship at the time, and when he insulted me I snapped.) In linguistics, context is the text in which a word or passage appears and

which helps ascertain its meaning

Context, in language use, is the relevant constraints of the communicative situation that influence language use, language variation, and discourse summary Context is

a notion used in the language sciences (linguistics, sociolinguistics, systemic functional linguistics, discourse analysis, pragmatics, semiotics, etc.) in two different ways, namely as verbal and social context

 Verbal context refers to surrounding text or talk of an expression (word, sentence, conversational turn, speech act, etc.) The idea is that verbal context influences the way we understand the expression Hence the norm, not to cite people out of context Since much contemporary linguistics take texts, discourses or conversations as object of analysis; the modern study of verbal context takes place in terms of the analysis of discourse structures and their mutual relationships, for instance the coherence relation between sentences

 Social context, traditionally in sociolinguistics, were defined in terms of objective social variables, such as those of class, gender, age or race More recently, social contexts tend to be defined in terms of the social identity being construed and displayed in text and talk by language users

I.1.2 Influences of context to communication, language and learning

I.1.2.1 Ron Burnett and Emily Carr

According to Ron Burnett and Emily Carr in their paper Context, Communication

and Learning – The Meaning of Learning Project (October 25-28, 2000), the

experience of learning is dependent upon the context in which it takes place When talking about context, we are talking about the many complex factors that we have

to work with in order to accomplish a variety of tasks and respond to a vast number

of demands and expectations

Context is of course a very fluid concept We can speak of many different approaches to context, many different ways of understanding the role and influence

of a variety of factors on individuals and on society

Learning is largely based on the complex circumstances and context of classroom and school culture Context is about stories and in most instances, the stories that surround and underlie learning are rather more ephemeral than we would want to believe

I.1.2.2 Bellon ML and Rees RJ

Bellon ML and Rees RJ, in their study The effect of context on communication: a

study of the language and communication skills of adults with acquired brain injury (2006), aims to examine the effects of changing contexts on language and

communication skills of adults with acquired brain injury They do their research on four adults with brain injury who are observed in four contexts with pragmatic language and communication behaviors, all the contexts are recorded Contexts include baseline, two intervention phases (a 3-day camp and post-camp period) and 2-month follow-up The results they collect are that participants demonstrate improvements in constructive language production during intervention phases Results indicate structure, cueing, positive experiences and create language which is

observed to overcome the influence of organic damage However, at follow-up, the language and communication levels return to baseline levels

The paper brings them to the conclusion: Clinically, these results have implications for the development of sustained interventions for language and communication skills in community-based rehabilitation programs Creating supporting contexts may serve as an effective means of improving language and communication behaviors, while also facilitating optimum community inclusion

I.2 High and low context theory

I.2.1 Views on high and low context culture

I.2.1.1 Dr Sangeeta R Gupta

Dr Sangeeta Gupta, in his book A Quick Guide to Cultural Competency (Paperback, October 1, 2007), states ―It is important to remember when talking

about communication styles for various groups, we are generalizing and there are

variations within each group.‖

People from high context cultures tend to be indirect and formal communicators People from low context cultures tend to be direct and informal communicators Groups that have high context communication styles combine verbal and nonverbal messages to convey the entire meaning A listener must read between the lines and add nonverbal nuances to fully understand the message It is important to have excellent listening and observational skills when interacting with individuals from a

high context culture

If someone appears to be listening to what you are saying but their body language

is closed, what are they actually saying? For example, someone appears to be listening attentively; however, they have their arms folded in front of them and a frown on their face So, while they appear to be listening, their body language can

best be described as closed to your message Examples of high context cultures are

most countries in: Asia; the Middle East; Africa; and South America

Low context cultures, on the other hand, rely on the literal and precise meaning of the words they use They prefer explicit conversations where words convey the bulk

of if not the entire message Groups with this preference prefer written communication as they do not need to include the subtleness of nonverbal communication Examples of countries with low context cultures are: the United States; Germany; Switzerland; and the Scandinavian countries

I.2.1.2 Brett Rutledge, World Champion of Public Speaking and Executive Communication Specialist writes about communication (August 21, 2011)

In an increasingly connected and interdependent world, effective communication not only becomes more important but also much more difficult Ironically, it is often not dissimilar languages that cause the greatest problems but rather much more mundane and harder to detect cultural differences One such difference is that of a

high context culture versus a low context culture

A low context culture is one in which things are fully (though concisely) spelled out Things are made explicit, and there is considerable dependence on what is actually said or written A high context culture is one in which the communicators assume a great deal of commonality of knowledge and views, so that less is spelled out explicitly and much more is implicit or communicated in indirect ways In a low context culture, more responsibility is placed on the listener to keep up their

knowledge base and remain plugged into informal networks

Low context cultures include Anglos, Germanics and Scandinavians High context cultures include Japanese, Arabs and French The implications are obvious

Interactions between high and low context peoples can be problematic For example:

 Japanese can find Westerners to be offensively blunt Westerners can find Japanese to be secretive, devious and bafflingly unforthcoming with information

 French can feel that Germans insult their intelligence by explaining the obvious, while Germans can feel that French managers provide no direction

High context cultures are vulnerable to communication breakdowns when they assume more shared understanding than there really is They are strongly inclined to indirect methods of communication This is especially true in an age of diversity Low context cultures, on the other hand, are not known for their ability to tolerate or understand diversity, and tend to be more insular The explicitness with which they communicate can often cause offence and resentment The point, of course, is that

in an age of diversity these cultural differences are just as likely to appear across a desk as they are across borders Don't assume a common geographic location guarantees a common heritage

I.2.1.3 Pearson Education (1995-2012)

In high-context cultures, ceremony and tradition often suggest the specific roles individuals play To outsiders, high-context cultures may seem overly formal and rigid At the same time, low-context cultures can, to outsiders, seem haphazard and rude, with participants not paying appropriate respect to tradition and courtesy

When it comes to writing, high-context and low-context cultures differ in how much contextual detail they spell out in a text: high-context cultures spell out little context and low-context cultures go into much greater detail In the same way that twins and close-knit groups have a clipped language that leaves out words and events, high-

context cultures assume that everyone knows much of what is being stated, and thus writers will leave out explanations and redundancies that help the uninitiated understand the document By contrast, low-context cultures do not have the expectation that everyone knows the formal rituals, and they tend to ―spell out‖ many details and explain thoroughly This means that in writing, these lower context cultures aim to make the message as explicit as possible, with the goal of separating the message from its context: making it stand alone across time and culture Conversely, the higher context cultures assume the context which is known and essential, so they tend to leave out explicit contextual details

People in the United States, for example, are usually low-context: business meetings between two organizations may involve brief introductions and handshakes, but, in general, they tend to be relatively free-form, with participants not always adhering

to strict rules about who speaks and when In Japan, on the other hand, participants

in business meetings tend to follow much stricter procedures in greetings, exchanges of business cards, and structures for introducing topics

Note that even within each culture, the degree of high- and low-context will vary from one specific place to another For example, there are numerous places in U.S culture that are relatively high-context: weddings, court proceedings, funerals, and even sporting events sometimes rigorously structure how people act, even if we don't realize it In one sense, the distinction between ―high‖ and ―low‖ involves a culture's self-representation as well as its actual actions: low-context cultures frequently pride themselves on being low-context (and often downplay the degree to which context actually does structure behavior) Here are some additional aspects involved in high-context versus low-context:

Homogeneous (inside/outside clearly

(adapted from Ting-Toomey, 71-86, qtd in Andrews, 9)

I.2.2 Concept of high and low context culture by Edward T Hall (1976, p105)

I.2.2.1 Context

The context gives additional information, which is necessary to encode the whole situation / background of given information

I.2.2.2 High Context

An example for High Context Communication is the question, where my (the editor‘s) black pepper is High context information is: above my micro-wave Those people, who know me, my apartment and my kitchen, can immediately find the pepper Their context is to know who I am, where I live, where my kitchen is and where micro-wave Without the context (additional information) there is not enough information to encrypt the proper meaning

In high context communication, [a piece of] information can have different

meanings according It needs additional information to encode (understand)

Speaking in examples is also high context information

High Context Communication is also common in many Western countries ―The table sheds light on just how difficult it can be for a foreigner to understand what the British really mean when they‘re speaking – especially for those who take every word at face value Phrases that prove the trickiest to decipher include ‗you must come for dinner‘, which foreigners tend to take as a direct invitation, but is actually said out of politeness by many Britons and often does not result in an invite The table also reveals that when a person from Britain begins a sentence ―with the greatest respect …‖, they actually mean ‗I think you are an idiot‘

I hear what you say I disagree and do not want

to discuss it further

He accepts my point of view

With the greatest

proposal

Quite good A bit disappointing Quite good

I would suggest Do it or be prepared to

justify yourself

Think about the idea, but

do what you like

Oh, incidentally/ by the

way

The primary purpose of our discussion is

That is not very important

I was a bit disappointed

that

I am annoyed that It doesn‘t really matter

Very interesting That is clearly nonsense They are impressed

I‘ll bear it in mind I‘ve forgotten it already They will probably do it I‘m sure it‘s my fault It‘s your fault Why do they think it was

I will get an invitation soon

I almost agree I don‘t agree at all He‘s not far from

some other options

I don‘t like your idea They have not yet decided

(adapted from 'Translation table explaining the truth behind British politeness

becomes internet hit' by Alice Philipson, the Telegraph, 02 Sep 2013)

I.2.2.3 Low Context

A good manual is an example of low context communication / information No other information is necessary to understand it In low context communication,

information has only one single meaning No additional information is necessary to

encode (understand) the meaning

I.2.2.4 High Context vs Low Context

Take a look how members of high and low contextual cultures see themselves and their opposites:

High Context Communication

Low context culture

(adapted from 'Notes on Intercultural Communication', The Journalist v1.9 Theme, Word Press, 18 July 2009)

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW II.1 Applications of E T Hall`s Theories of the Context

Hall‘s theory, for its plausibility, can be found in a number of studies of the influences of high and low context elements A brief summary of such works is as follows

II.1.1 Website Design in High and Low Context Cultures

Parameter Tendency in

High Context Cultures

Tendency in Low Context Cultures Animation High use of animation,

especially in connection with images of moving people

Lower use of animation, mainly reserved for highlighting effects e.g., of text

Promotion of Images promote values Images promote values

values characteristic of

collectivist societies

characteristic of individualistic societies

Images portray lifestyles of individuals, with or without a direct emphasis on the use of products or merchandise

Level of

transparency

Links promote an exploratory approach to navigation on the

Few sidebars and menus, constant opening in same browser window

(adapted from 'Notes on Intercultural Communication', The Journalist v1.9 Theme,

Word Press, 18 July 2009)

II.1.2 Studies on influences of high and low context

The influence of high/low-context culture and power distance on choice of communication media: Students’ media choice to communicate with Professors in Japan and America, by Rieko Maruta Richardson and Sandi W., is the study which

focuses on two widely used cultural constructs: high context/ low-context culture and power distance (PD), and investigates their influences on media choice behavior The propositions that Japan is a higher context and PD culture than the United States are tested The study also explores the association between individual cultural values and choice of communication media

Having done a lot of researches on high and low context cultures, William B Gudykunstfinally gives birth to the study Uncertainty reduction and predictability

of behavior in low and high context cultures: An exploratory study (2009) This

paper presents an exploratory comparison of two aspects of initial interactions in low and high context cultures—the types of questions used to reduce uncertainty and the degree of attributional confidence based upon background information Results of the study indicate that people in high context culture are more cautious in initial interactions and have a greater tendency to make assumptions based upon a stranger's cultural background than do people in low context culture People in high context culture also ask more questions about a stranger's background, however, this information does not provide a greater degree of predictive certainty with respect to a stranger's future behavior These results are discussed in terms of their implications for uncertainty reduction theory and Hall's conceptualization of high and low context cultures

Doing further research, with new partner Elizabeth G Chua, William B Gudykunst

again dedicates another study Conflict resolution styles in low and high context

cultures This work examines how culture influences styles of interpersonal conflict

resolution among 355 international undergraduates in the US Students complete an organizational communication conflict instrument measuring five conflict styles Data are found to be consistent with R Ting-Toomey's (1985) theoretical predictions using E T Hall's (1976) definitions of low versus high context communication schema Low context messages have most of the information in the explicit code, whereas high context messages have more information in the physical context It is found that members of low context culture use solution orientations more than members of high context culture, whereas members of high context culture use non-confrontation more than members of low context culture

Also being inspired by Hall‘s concepts of culture, in 2005, the article Intercultural

Communication on Web sites: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Web sites from High Context Culture and Low Context Culture of Elizabeth Würtz is written and

established on the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication The aim of this

study is to explore and identify the strategies used by high context culture in utilizing the Internet - a largely low context medium - for communication and marketing purposes It is hypothesized that individuals in high context culture are more likely to adopt the visual effects offered by the Internet to convey their messages efficiently than their low context counterparts How might high context culture make the most of the potentials offered by the Internet generation of today? Assuming that visual communication is a high priority in the design of high context Web sites, how do the visual methods used on Web sites vary according to the communication styles in different cultures? Using Hall‘s high and low context dimensions as the main parameters, an exploratory analysis of McDonald‘s Web sites identifies five different strategies by which visual communication is used to support high context communication traits

II.2 Researches on high and low context elements in two inaugural speeches of

2009 and 2013 by American President Barack H Obama

II.2.1 First inaugural speech, 2009

Junling Wang, student of School of Foreign Languages, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China, claims that the Critical Discourse Analysis is often applied to analyze political discourse including the public speech, in which the

speaker wins favorite response from the audience His paper A Critical Discourse

Analysis of Barack Obama’s Speeches bases on Critical Discourse Analysis theory

and Systematic Functional Linguistics, analyzes Barack Obama‘s presidential speeches mainly from the point of transitivity and modality, in which we can learn the language how to serve the ideology and power Moreover, we can have a better understanding of the political purpose of these speeches

Another study Critical discourse analysis of President Barack Obama’s

Inauguration Speech is conveyed by Fadipe Modupeoluwa Ebunoluwa This

research work examines the persuasive strategies of President Obama's public speaking as enshrined in his inaugural address The analysis is grounded on Norman Fairclough's assumptions in Critical Discourse Analysis, claiming that ideologies reside in texts that it is not possible to remove or ignore ideologies from texts and that texts are open to diverse interpretations The selected corpus' ideological and persuasive components are assessed The analytical part of this research work analyzes the possible interrelatedness of textual properties and power relations, which is also underpinned in Fairclough‘s conceptual work, thus revealing Obama's persuasive strategies showing the relationship between language, ideology and reality This work investigates the ability to empower the people with a new political power by bringing into view the real knowledge of the inauguration speech of President Barrack Obama

John Gary Stobbs has another way to critically analyze Obama‘s Inaugural through

his paper Critical Discourse Analysis of Barack Obama’s 1st Inaugural Speech

(May 26, 2012) This study investigates the methods and lexis used by Barack Obama to foster a sense of inclusion of the American public in his inaugural speech

It will analyze the frequency and use of pronouns in his speech to ascertain how these pronouns can be seen to include the public in the process of government By comparing this analysis to a similar analysis of speeches given by other recent presidents, it will attempt to discover if Barack Obama is significantly more linguistically inclusive than previous presidents The research studies the syntactic choices and how these help to give flow and emotion to Obama's speech It also analyzes some of the phrases and sentence structures used to synthesize a narrative

of his persona as well as his presidency Finally, it discusses the various narratives

in his speech as they relates to the overall narrative and how they can be seen as part

of his persona A political discourse can be defined as ―the formal exchange of reasoned views as to which of several alternative courses of action should be taken

to solve a societal problem‖ This article analyzes how Barack Obama presents his

reasoned views for the actions he takes to solve a variety of social problems It investigates the lexical and syntactical choices to create a consensus of opinion for those actions The ideology of a politician is sometimes stated clearly, but often a deeper ideology is hidden beneath the rhetoric By analyzing the text, the author tries to determine the deeper ideologies and intentions This study determines whether Barack Obama uses more or less inclusive language than previous presidents

II.2.2 Second inaugural speech, 2013

William A Galston has a very sharp perception into Obama‘s second inaugural

through his critique Reaction and Analysis to President Obama's 2013 State of the

Union He states that President Obama‘s victory in the 2012 election leaves

Republicans in control of the House of Representatives That leaves the administration with a fundamental strategic choice: to reach out to the opposition, or

to use the lever of public opinion to move House Republicans in their direction The negotiations over the fiscal cliff suggest that the White House chooses the latter course The president‘s 2013 State of the Union address - his single best opportunity

to set the agenda for his second term - offers further evidence of that choice, on

which he is betting the future of his presidency

On January 23, 2013, Portland Political Buzz Examine - Allan Erickson - expresses his thought ‗We Americans want to trust and respect our leaders We prefer looking

up to them It is difficult to do so, even impossible, when they take us for fools.‘ He proves his criticism and gives out a lot of analysis on Obama‘s second inaugural

and Obama‘s idea in his article An analysis of the inaugural address 2013 Sharing the same opinion, Sam Leith states in his article Barack Obama inauguration

speech: a greatest hits of rhetorical tricks that Barack Obama's second inaugural, as

far as rhetoric goes, is the equivalent of a greatest hits album knocked out in time

for Christmas All his favourite oratorical devices are on display, and all at once, as

if someone knocks a candle into the firework box

With quite the same view, there is David Lightman‘s Analysis: Obama’s inaugural

speech a call to a new liberal era Analyzed in this paper, President Obama‘s

second inaugural address is an exceptionally coherent and deeply revealing speech Its cogency is impressive: Recent inaugurals, and especially those of reelected presidents, inclines toward the laundry list far more than this speech does Obama makes an argument, and one that holds together and advances a discernible worldview It is in that sense a very successful speech, and while it may not be memorable in the sense of containing lines so eloquent or striking that they are always associated with this moment and this president, it is a speech that will repay future re-reading because it lays out an important strand of American political thought rather clearly But because it does so, it is also revealing of the shallowness, confusion, and error of that strand of American political thought — that is, of the progressive worldview in our politics

In conclusion, as presented above, previous researches have been done a lot of work

to analyze, criticize and clearly examine Obama‘s two inaugurals in both aspects: discourse and politics However, during the process of literature review, the writer

of this paper recognizes that all previous authors just focus on political contents or discourse analysis of the addresses in general, none of which are methodologically evaluated in terms of high and low context elements; as a result, this study is conducted to fill the gap

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY III.1 Research methodology

Qualitative method: This research is a qualitative evaluation; hence, the source of data is document, not number or statistics; and information is gathered by an analysis of documents, not from questionnaire or survey This method is especially effective in obtaining culturally specific information about the values, opinions, behaviors, and social contexts of particular populations Data are categorized into patterns as the primary basis for organizing and reporting results Qualitative method allows the researcher to study individual text closely It also enables multiple analytic strategies

Synthetic and analytic methods: The analysis of the texts is also approached from the combination of analytic and synthetic methods Analytic perspective is used to identify, isolate certain aspects to concentrate on, and synthetic perspective is used

to investigate the interdependence of these constituents – how they work together as

a whole The two inaugural speeches are objectively analyzed basing on high and low elements; then meanings between the lines can be clarified and exposed In the end, conclusions of where and when these high and low elements are used would be synthesized

Descriptive and comparative methods: In order to provide in-depth and detailed descriptions of meaning and evaluation, the study is descriptive and comparative in nature To make the result and explanation more convincing and providing, two inaugurals are chosen to be studied instead of one Therefore, in this paper, description and comparison between these two texts are logically explored as much

as possible On the other hand, descriptive research method is also used because the researcher wants to describe specific behavior as it occurs in the environment There are a variety of descriptive research methods available of which observation is the most dominant category to be focus

This thesis combines all of the methods above to study the two inaugural speeches First, the paper lists all characteristics of high and low context elements in two separated parts, high context elements and low context elements These characteristíc are taken from Hall's high and low context theory (1976), as below:

High context elements

 Less verbally explicit communication, less written/formal information

 More internalized understandings of what is communicated

 Multiple cross-cutting ties and intersections with others

 Long term relationships

 Strong boundaries- who is accepted as belonging vs who is considered an

―outsider‖

 Knowledge is situational, relational

 Decisions and activities focus around personal face-to-face relationships, often around a central person who has authority

Low context elements

 Rule oriented, people play by external rules

 More knowledge is codified public, external, and accessible

 Sequencing, separation–of time, of space, of activities, of relationships

 More interpersonal connections of shorter duration

 Knowledge is more often transferable

 Task-centered Decisions and activities focus around what needs to be done, division of responsibilities

(adapted from 'Communicating Across Cultures' by Jennifer E Beer, 1997-2003)

Secondly, each character mentioned is illustrated and described with some lines taken from the two speeches in order to prove that Obama actually uses high and low context elements in his two talks Then the paper analyzes the reason why those

examples are chosen, what are the meanings between those lines, and whether they really represent high or low context elements During the analyzing process, the information of both inaugurals is given out in a parallel way so that the author can compare the appearance of high and low context elements in both documents to

answer the question "Does Obama use high context elements to express the same

content in both of his inaugural speech?" Finally the paper synthesizes all the

circumstances in which Obama uses high and low contexts in both of his speeches and gives out the general comments of the author

III.2 Data Analytic Procedure

This data analysis schedule is based on these steps below:

1 Reading and doing an analysis to get the contents and formats of both texts (Analytic method)

2 Giving an overview of both texts according to the purposes, presentation approaches, ideologies (Synthetic method)

3 Comparing two scripts to produce the same and differences between their formats and between their contents Examining the appearance of high and low context elements in both speeches to express the same idea (Comparative method)

4 Providing an assessment of the influences of high and low context elements on changing the idea of the speakers or the way to understand of the audiences (Descriptive method)

Findings and Discussion: This subsection is aimed at presenting the results of the application/implementation of the above-mentioned steps and providing an assessment of the influences of high and low context elements on contents of both inaugurals

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION IV.1 Brief introduction of the inaugural addresses

IV.1.1 Speaker

Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States, and the first African American to hold the office Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law

School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review He began his

presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009 Nine months after his election, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Obama was re-elected president in November 2012, defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and was sworn in for a second term on

January 20, 2013

IV.1.2 Overviews of Obama’s two inaugural addresses

IV.1.2.1 First inaugural 2009

On January 20, 2009, President Obama delivered his Inaugural Address, calling for

a "new era of responsibility." The official theme for the 2009 inauguration was

―A New Birth of Freedom‖ "A New Birth of Freedom", a phrase from the

Gettysburg Address, served as the inaugural theme to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth year of Abraham Lincoln In his speeches to the crowds, Obama referred to ideals expressed by Lincoln about renewal, continuity and national unity Obama mentioned these ideals in his speech to stress the need for shared sacrifice and a new sense of responsibility to answer America's challenges at home and abroad

IV.1.2.2 Second inaugural 2013

The president vows to ―give meaning to our freedom" in his 2nd Inaugural address The second Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama was held in Washington DC

on Monday, January 21, 2013 A week of festivities included the Presidential Swearing-in Ceremony, Inaugural Address, Inaugural Parade and numerous inaugural balls and galas honoring the elected President of the United States The

official theme for the 2013 inauguration was “Faith in America’s Future”,

commemorating the United States‘ perseverance and unity, marking the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the placement of the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol Dome in 1863

IV.2 Findings and discussion: Analysis and comparison the use of high and low context elements in two inaugural speeches

IV.2.1 Format and process

Obama‘s inaugural addresses are the times for him to give a formal speech as a president and also an optimal time to show himself a qualified president As a result, to fulfill the aim of convincing the American people and the whole world that he and his team are capable of leadership, with vigor and with vision, he must illustrate the planned policies, both domestic and foreign, in a formal, convincing and forceful way

1 Salutation

2 The expression of gratitude and

honor

3 A review of the American history

and achievement in the past

4 An analysis of the contemporary

situation, at home and in the world

5 A displaying and explanation of

1 Salutation

2 Introduction of inauguration ceremony

3 A review of American history of war

to gain independence and ideology

4 A detailed review of the theory of the situation at the moment

5 A call for action toward every citizen

domestic policies and/or foreign

policies of the new government

6 Hopes for the beautiful and

prosperous future of the country

7 Resort to God for help and blessing

6 Promises given by the new President

to lead and cooperate with the people

to build and keep their property

7 A repeated call for action

8 Resort to God for help and blessing

The process and format of two inaugural are quite different, especially at the middle and the end While the first inaugural has a very logical and reasonable process from the beginning with salutation, expression of gratitude, review, analysis the situation, conclusion with expression of hopes and prayers to God; the second speech seems to be more lengthy and prolix with more complicated format After the salutation, instead of saying thanks, he starts to open his speech by giving the reason why they have this inauguration and how important their Constitution and their Republic are Then comes the review of American history and situation but there is no analysis like the first speech All of the reviews presented in the second are absolute theories and beliefs without any analysis of factual actions The lack of factual details in the second address can be understood with high context elements

In the first term, the situations are given specifically and straightly because those situations have not been created by Obama himself By exposing those problems in front of the people, he indirectly not only exposes the serious circumstance of America at that moment but also gives the people a basic view to compare with the future he would bring to them Unfortunately, after four-year-term, it seems that he not only can not improve but also worsens the situation In the first inaugural, Barack skillfully integrates the analysis and explanation of country background with the call for help and action toward the people However in the second inaugural, he skips the analysis and focuses on the summons He ignores to analyze the social background just because he doesn‘t want to confess in front of his people how pathetic he is, that he fails at the first time, that he doesn't help much to improve the

nation, that he is the one to be blamed most for that failure, for that promises broken

People in America, one of low context culture nations, often talk and do things directly; they often look straight at the problems and find the way to solve them This is very different from people in Eastern countries who are used to going around the troubles and avoiding talking directly about them However, in contrast

to the first inaugural, the second one by American President tends to use more context elements, avoids discussing the sensitive and serious matters, which makes the audiences temporally vague and confused

high-IV.2.2 Contents

IV.2.2.1 High context elements in two inaugurals

IV.2.2.1.1 Less verbally explicit communication, less written/formal information

 Inaugural speech 2009

―So it has been; so it must be with this generation of Americans‖

Keywords are underlined to prove that Obama encourages without too many words

In this circumstance, Obama uses ellipsis to make his sentence not only shorter but also stronger and more succint Obama feels no need to use too many words in this situation, but every word he uses weighs more than ever, raises the patriotism and enthusiasm among his people He originally means to say 'The duty of this century can be done and only be done by him and the generation standing in front of him right at that moment Nobody can help them instead of themselves Nobody can replace them and nobody can be successful as they will be Everybody, stand up and follow him to rebuild the country richer, stronger and more powerful.'

 Inaugural speech 2013

“They are the words of citizens, and they represent our greatest hope

“You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country's course.”