A Critical Discourse Analysis of George Bush’s speech on September 11 attacks

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VI THỊ BẢO THOA A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF GEORGE BUSH’S SPE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

VI THỊ BẢO THOA

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF

GEORGE BUSH’S SPEECH ON SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS

(PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CỦA

TỔNG THỐNG MỸ GEORGE BUSH VỀ SỰ KIỆN NGÀY 11 THÁNG 9)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

VI THỊ BẢO THOA

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF

GEORGE BUSH’S SPEECH ON SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS

(PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CỦA

TỔNG THỐNG MỸ GEORGE BUSH VỀ SỰ KIỆN NGÀY 11 THÁNG 9)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn

Hanoi, 2015

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify my authority of the study project report submitted entitled

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF

GEORGE BUSH’S SPEECH ON SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

Hanoi 2015

Vi Thi Bao Thoa

My most sincere thanks would also be sent to many lecturers and my classmates at the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, for their constant concerns, assistance and encouragement

Lastly, I am greatly indebted to my family members who have provided me with continual spiritual support and care during my completion of the thesis

ABSTRACT This study attempts to discover the relationship between power, ideology and discourse embraced in the speech delivered by President G.W Bush on the September 11, 2001, using the CDA framework suggested by Norman Fairclough The analysis is carried out in three separated phases namely description, interpretation, and explanation Major aspects selected for analysis include vocabulary, grammar, and macro-structure An analytical framework is also built up

in order to specify goals and analytical units in each stage Following this framework, in-group and out-group lexicalization, voice, pronouns, large-scale structure and emotion techniques are investigated The findings show that ideology and power are expressed throughout the address in a number of ways Arousing the nation pride and heroism with tactful choices of vocabulary to construct two contrastive sides, exerting power and affirming utmost leader position with flexible uses of pronouns and voices, asserting ideology with shifts of focuses well-combined with emotion techniques, Bush actually makes the speech his powerful weapon in political battles

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

PART A - INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Significance of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Aims and objectives of the study 4

5 Methodology 4

6 Design of the study 5

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1 Definition of CDA 6

2 Three principal approaches to CDA 7

2.1 The discourse – historical approach by Ruth Wodak 7

2.2 The socio-cognitive approach by Van Dijk 8

2.3 The Systemic Functional Grammar approach by Norman Fairclough 9

3 Fairclough’s framework of CDA 10

4 Overview of previous studies 13

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 14

1 Research questions 14

2 Research approach 14

3 Research method 15

4 Description of the data 16

5 Analytical framework 16

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 19

1 Description 19

1.1 Description of vocabulary use 19

1.2 Description of grammatical features 20

1.2.1 The use of voice 20

1.2.2 The use of personal pronouns 21

1.3 Description of macro-structure 22

1.3.1 Large-scale structure 22

1.3.2 Emotion techniques 23

2 Interpretation 24

2.2 Interpretation of grammatical features 26

2.2.1 The use of voice 26

2.2.2 The use of personal pronouns 28

3.3 Interpretation of macro-structure 28

3.3.1 Large-scale structure 28

3.3.2 Emotion techniques 30

3 Explanation 31

3.1 Explanation of vocabulary use 31

3.2 Explanation of grammatical features 33

3.2.1 The use of voice 33

3.2.2 The use of personal pronouns 33

3 Explanation of macro-structure 34

3.3.1 Large-scale structure 34

3.3.2 Emotion techniques 35

PART C: CONCLUSION 36

1 Summary of the main findings 36

2 Implications 38

3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 39

REFERENCES 40

APPENDIX 1: LIST OF QUESTIONS AND SUB-QUESTIONS SUGGESTED BY NORMAN FAIRCLOUGH IN DOING CDA I APPENDIX 2: GEORE BUSH’S SPEECH ON THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS

(ADDRESS TO THE NATION ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001) III APPENDIX 3: LIST OF QUESTIONS FOLOWING ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK VI APPENDIX 4: LIST OF LEXICAL ITEMS FOR IN-GROUP VII AND OUT-GROUP VII APPENDIX 5: LIST OF PRONOUNS OCCURENCES IX

PART A - INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Since its naisance, language has been used as an effective tool of communication, serving mankind in communicating to one another and reflecting both physical outside, and mental inside worlds Language, by this way, is also addressed as a social phenomenon It reflects the world, and expresses the way we apprehend and perceive the world Therefore, any study of language should be the study of language in use Only by this way can the exact nature of the intended messages be revealed This understanding has paved the way for my choice of investigating the selected speech under the perspective of CDA

As a part of society, language can be regarded as a social, and a socially conditioned process (Fairclough, 1989) According to Wareing (2004), the affective function of language is concerned with who is allowed to say what

to whom, and which is ‘deeply tied up with power and social status’ (Wareing, 2004, p.9) In other words, how individuals choose and use different language systems varies according to who the speakers are, how they perceive themselves and what identity they want to project Language use also varies according to whether the situation is public or private, formal or informal, who is being addressed and who might be able to overhear Likewise, Meyerhoff (2006) points out that we draw very powerful inferences about people from the way they talk

Among various fields, politics appears to be leading the way in employing this advantage of language, with numerous applications in linguistic practice of world most famous leaders throughout the history In the hands of tactful politicians, language is sharpened as a powerful weapon in order to best serve political purposes One example of this is political speeches The function of these formal pieces of language is not barely the delivering of the information, but also carrying

straightforwardly, but tactically hidden behind the choice of words and expressions Therefore, recognizing and understanding these hidden messages require in-depth analysis and consideration

CDA, as Fairclough (1996, p.287) claims, is ‘a perspective which is concerned with showing up often opaque connections between language and other aspects of society and culture’ In addition, Van Dijk (1993) suggests examining the style, rhetoric or meaning of texts for strategies that aim at the concealment of social power relations and the exercise of power In order to obtain certain ideologies that the group with power wants to construct, the circumstances of text construction such as who, when, where, and how, and a deep analysis of the texts themselves cannot be ignored, as CDA suggests (Van Dijk, 1993)

It can be inferred from above implications that doing discourse analysis involves not merely analyzing texts, processes of production and interpretation, but also analyzing the relationship between texts, processes, and their social conditions, or

in other terms, the relationship between texts, interactions, and contexts CDA is critical in the sense that it shows connections and causes which are hidden such as the connection between language, power and ideology, the problems of inequality and racism, through discourse analysis To clarify it clearly, CDA is critical when

it explicitly addresses social problems and seeks to solve social problems through the analysis of accompanying social and political actions The intention of analysts

in this view of ‘critical’ is explicitly oriented toward locating social problems and analyzing how discourse operates to construct and historically constructed by such issues They must work from the analysis of texts to the social and political context

in which the texts emerge CDA, thus, can be considered a very practical form of discourse analysis It seeks not only to describe language but also to offer critical resources to those wishing to resist various forms of power

2 Significance of the study

In Vietnam, CDA has received increasing attention within the last decade although,

generally speaking, it is still a quite new research area Among official publications, the book written by Professor Nguyen Hoa in 2006 on CDA has contributed greatly to the popularization of CDA in Vietnam Nevertheless, the number of studies on CDA among Vietnamese researcher remains restricted Therefore, this study is intended to, though at the minimum scale, enhance the consciousness of how power and ideology are embedded in language in particular, and the relation between language and society in general Through the study, furthermore, the researcher hopes to raise a voice in approval of applying and advancing CDA in doing linguistic research

This study is also expected to make certain contribution to English language education It is a popular challenge for Vietnamese learners to fully comprehend authentic discourses due to their failure to interpret the author’s underlying assumptions, which can be overcome once the learners are aware of the ideology driving the discourse

3 Scope of the study

The analysis of Bush’s speech after the September 11 attacks is confined to verbal aspects of the speech and the social context when the speech was delivered Nevertheless, the limitations of time and the author’s capacity preclude it from discovering all the features available in the data Instead, only salient features relevant to the aims of the thesis are given focus on The paper also excludes paralinguistic (intonation, speed, loudness, etc.) and extra-linguistic (facial expression, eye contact, etc.) factors although the author is fully aware that they are important in conveying the speaker’s ideology

This is a pure linguistic study and for academic purposes only The author does not express her own political view; nor is this study for or against any parties or to change any one’s political viewpoint

4 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims to discover the connection between discourse and power as well as

to raise the awareness of using CDA as an effective tool in practical social studies Furthermore, as previously mentioned, this study also looks forward to playing a role, though minimal, to the development of English language education by giving suggestions to investigate into authentic discourses which are, currently, challenges for most learners

In order to achieve these aims, objectives are specified to find out how power and ideology are expressed via linguistic elements of the speech given by G.W Bush after September 11 attacks First, focus is pointed at demystifying how Bush employs linguistically devices to meet the public expectations Secondly, effort is also given to discover the way the socio- political context influences Bush’s strategic representation of ideology in the speech

Phase 1: A general textual description of the speech is made in terms of lexis

and syntax to uncover power and ideology hidden behind the text

Phase 2: The speech is analyzed under a broader perspective The focus is on

the relationship between the productive and interpretative process

Phase 3: The speech is placed in its social context to see how it is

determined by social structures and what productive effects it has on those structures vice versa

6 Design of the study

Part A: Introduction: This part presents the rationale, significance, scope, aims and objectives, methodology, and design of the study

Part B: Development: This is the main part and it consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical background and literature review: This chapter gives an

overview of CDA – definition, its principal approaches and an over view of previous related studies

Chapter 2: Methodology: This chapter describes research questions, research approach, research method, analytical framework, and data description

Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion: this chapter presents the analysis of the address in three stages: description, interpretation, and explanation

Part C: Conclusion: This part summarizes the main findings of the study, draws important conclusion and implications It also offers suggestions for further research

References

Appendices

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Definition of CDA

There is not a unique definition of CDA since each linguist holds a different standpoint Faiclough (1995) sees CDA as a type of ideological analysis According to him, CDA is discourse analysis whose purpose is to systematically discover hidden ‘relationships of causality, and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations, and processes’ (Fairclough, 1995, p.132) This investigation,

as Fairclough explains, is to find out how the linguistic practices arise out and are

‘ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power; and to explore how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society

is itself a factor securing power and hegemony’ (Fairclough, 1995, p.132) Meanwhile, Wodak and Meyer (2001, p 2) depict the concept in the following manner:

CDA may be defined as fundamentally concerned with analyzing opaque as well as transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in language In other words, CDA aims to investigate critically social inequality as it is expressed, signaled, constituted, and legitimized, and so on by language use or in discourse

Sharing opinion on the issue, another linguist, Scollon (2001, p 140), defines CDA

as ‘a program of social analysis that critically analyses discourse - that is to say, language in use - as a means of addressing social changes’

Even though each definition originates from a different viewpoint, generally speaking, these definitions meet at one point: the goal of CDA CDA aims at making transparent the connections between discourse practices, social practices, and social structures, connections that might be opaque This approach intends to address social problems from linguistic points of view It seeks to describe

language, and at the same time provides critical linguistic resources to untangle its hidden power and ideologies CDA delves into the relationship of language and discourse in the construction and representation of the social world, describing, interpreting, and explaining such relationship

CDA as an approach holds an important role in social scientific research Researchers who are interested in the relationship between language and society use CDA to describe, interpret and explain such relationship CDA is different from other discourse analysis methods because it includes not only a description and interpretation of discourse in context, but also offers an explanation of why and how discourses work

More specifically, CDA addresses social problems and seeks to solve social problems through the analysis and accompanying social and political actions The intention of the critical discourse analysts is to locate social problems and analyze how discourse operates to construct and is historically constructed by such issues Under this perspective, analysts believe that analyzing texts for power is not enough to disrupt such discursive power Instead, the analysis must work from the analysis of texts to the social and political contexts in which the texts emerge

2 Three principal approaches to CDA

One characteristic of CDA is that CDA has never tried to establish one single or specific theory, which explains for the co-existence of different approaches in doing CDA research In this sector, three most outstanding approaches to CDA will be briefly introduced

2.1 The discourse – historical approach by Ruth Wodak

This approach involves the social critique which consists at least three aspects namely text or discourse immanent (internal structural) critique, socio-diagnostic (contextual and interactional) critique, and prognostic (toward the transformation

and improvement of communication) critique One of the most striking features of this approach, as Wodak (2002) claims, is its endeavor to work inter-disciplinarily and multi-methodically and on the basis of a variety of different empirical data as well as background information

The overall framework of this approach is seen in the four levels of contexts as follow (Wodak, 2002, p.68):

1 The immediate language or text internal co-text;

2 The inter-textual and inter-discursive relationships between utterances, texts, genres, and discourse;

3 The extra-linguistic social/socio-logical variables and institutional frames of specific ‘context of situation’;

4 The broader socio-political and historical contexts, which the discursive

practices are embedded in and related to

2.2 The socio-cognitive approach by Van Dijk

Wodak, in review of Van Dijk’s definition, describes social cognition as the system of mental structure and operation that is required, used or changed in social contexts by social and shared by members of social groups, organizations and culture (Wodak, 2003) Van Dijk (1998) introduces basic concepts such as

‘macro’, ‘micro’, ‘power’, based on which his theoretical framework is devised It

is this framework that brings discourse, cognition, and society together in a critical way With the combination of the two traditional approaches, interpretative (text based) and social (context based) to form one analytical framework, Van Dijk has contributed greatly in creating an effective tool for analyzing media discourses One notable thing in his ideological structure analysis is the in-groups and out-groups polarization, which, if applied, affects both forms and meanings They are pronouns, possessives and demonstratives, and other strategies in ideological discourse like positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation On that basis, Van Dijk (1998b, pp.61-63) suggests a procedure in making CDA including five main steps

1 Examining the context of the discourse: historical, political or social background

of a conflict and its main participants;

2 Analyzing groups, power relations and conflicts involved;

3 Identifying positive and negative opinions about Us versus Them;

4 Making explicit the presupposed and the implied;

5 Examining all formal structure: lexical choice and syntactic structure, in a way that helps to (de)emphasize polarized group opinions

2.3 The Systemic Functional Grammar approach by Norman Fairclough With Systemic Functional Grammar approach, Fairclough provides a new view to the language as socially constitutive and socially formed As a result, language use composes social identities, social relations and system of knowledge and beliefs The linguistic theory that Fairclough resorts to as the basic foundation for his framework is the Systemic Functional Linguistics by Michael Halliday in 1978 This is for the analysis of texture, the structure and organization of texts In fact, he sees inter-textual analysis as a crucial way of linking texts and contexts, rather than Halliday’s origin theory of social semiotic

The framework proposed by Fairclough (1995) is often called ‘three dimensional’ framework, which consists of three separate analyses of language text, analysis of discourse practices, and analysis of discursive events as instances of socio-structural practices This three-fold framework, to a large extent, equals to that developed by Van Dijk The difference lies in the second dimension While Van Dijk sees social cognition as mediating between discourse and the social, Fairclough attributes the mediation role to discourse practice He goes further in classifying the analysis into three stages: description, interpretation, and explanation

Of all three approaches mentioned above, the framework suggested by Fairclough

is considered appropriate with the objectives of the study While frameworks proposed by Wodak and Vandijk open up to many ideas in doing the investigation,

but remain broad and vague, especially to novice researchers, with step-by-step analysis and numerous of suggested questions, the framework proposed by Fairclough makes it possible to make sense of the data from different perspectives Furthermore, since this approach incorporates analysis of the relationship between texts, processed and their social conditions, the social aspects such as power exertion and ideology are taken into consideration In the next part, a more detailed description of his framework will be presented

3 Fairclough’s framework of CDA

Norman Fairclough, in his book Language and Power (2001), provides a more

detailed and clearer method In his opinion, the systemic-functional theory of language is particularly helpful in textual analysis both because its approach to grammar and other aspects of language form is a functional one, and because it is systematically orientated to the study of relations between the texture of texts and their social contexts Systemic-functional linguistics also has a view of texts which

is a potentially powerful basis not only for analysis of what is in texts, but also for analysis of what is absent or omitted from texts (Fairclough, 1992) As a result, Fairclough suggests first of all structural analysis of the context, and secondly interactional analysis, which focuses on linguistic features such as: agents, time, tense, modality, and syntax More concretely, he sets out three stages of CDA

Description is the initial stage which concerns with the formal properties of the text Interpretation is concerned with the relationship between text and interaction

The text is seen as a product of a process of production, and as a resource in the

process of interpretation And explanation is concerned with the relationship

between interaction and social context, with the social determination of the processes of production and interpretation, and their social effects

In the first stage, ten main questions and a number of sub-questions introduced by Fairclough could be useful when analyzing a text in terms of formal features This

is not intended as an exhaustive or all-encompassing list, but is a suggested list of possible directions or areas that could be investigated The ten questions are divided into three main groups including vocabulary, grammar, and textual structures, followed by sub-questions (See Appendix 1)

Values of textual features only become real when they are put in social interactions In other words, texts are produced and interpreted against the background of common-sense assumptions (part of members’ resources - MR)

Here, the second stage interpretation is needed to deal with these discourse

processes and their dependence on background assumptions A summary of interpretative procedures are shown in Figure 1

Explanation is the third stage in CDA According to Fairclough (2001), the

objective of this stage is to portray a discourse as part of a social process, as a social practice It tries to show how discourses are determined by social structures, and what reproductive effects discourses can have on those structures, sustaining them or changing them These social determinations and effects are mediated by

MR, that is, social structures shape MR while MR in turn shapes discourses; and discourses sustain or change MR, which in turn sustain or change structures These processes can be summarized in Figure 2

Figure 1: Interpretation (Fairclough, 2001, p 119)

Figure 2: Explanation (Fairclough, 2001, p 136)

4 Overview of previous studies

Political speeches made by US president George Bush have received great attention of both political and linguistic analysts Bush’s expression of ideology and use of pronouns in the two inaugural speeches are analyzed in depth by Viberg (2011) from a post-colonial perspective He also places them in comparison with Obama inaugural speech As its results indicate, Bush stands out as the more direct

in his discourse but also the one with least self-criticism Reyes-Rodrígue (2006) demonstrates the presence of symbolic power in Bush’s speeches after the event of September 11 attacks He also gives a description of the appeal to emotion in this president’s speeches In another article by Sarfo and Krampa (2013), three different addresses delivered by Bush are analyzed in contrast with those of other presidents The study reveals that vocabulary items, phrases, clauses and sentence structures constitute the linguistic resources that are used to project terrorism and anti-terrorism as far as speeches on terrorism by the two presidents are concerned The vocabulary items used to project terrorism and anti-terrorism are dominantly verbs and nouns The phrasal categories that are used to project terrorism and anti-terrorism include verb phrases, noun phrases, adjectival phrases, adverbial phrases and prepositional phrases and clauses while sentences that are used to project terrorism and anti-terrorism include simple, compound and complex sentences These mentioned-above studies have provided numerous cues and suggestions for further studies as doing a survey always evokes another In this case, analysis of

the shifts in the use of personal pronouns ‘we’ and ‘I’, and a deeper description and

explanation of emotion techniques used by the speaker in the single chosen address are expected to bring some contributions to the understanding of political speeches and applying CDA in doing linguistic research

1 What power and ideology did Bush want to express in the speech, in terms

of vocabulary and grammatical features?

2 How are power and ideology, macro-structurally, realized in Bush’s speech after September 11 attacks?

2 Research approach

This paper draws on Critical Discourse Analytical framework This resolve is made in consideration of CDA’s concern with the social context of a given text and the power dynamics that may be brought to bear Texts are looked at here as products of a socially or politically determined context Choices of linguistic elements are not made in a random or for the luxury of a range of alternatives but can be made to represent the world in a way disposed to one own point of view or ideology The analysis of a text also transcends textual analysis It involves analyzing the processes of text production and interpretation and also the explanation of the social and cognitive conditions that give nuance to them

On deciding to apply this framework, the author is fully aware of its subjectivity

As the term ‘critical’ reflects itself, doing CDA means taking one’s own political stand to analyze the data, during which personal judgments are unavoidable As professor Teun Van Dijk explains it: ‘Unlike much other scholarship, CDA does

not deny but explicitly defines and defends its own socio-political position That is, CDA is biased – and proud of it’ (Van Dijk, 2003, p.96)

In order to minimize the subjectivity, first and foremost, beside the analysis done

by the researcher, this study tries to include opinions, remarks on the issues of different individuals whose voice is considered reliable such as political analysts,

or recognized linguists, with clear references In addition, both qualitative and quantitative methods of processing the data are utilized in search for the objective findings

3 Research method

The primary method employed in this study is descriptive, a qualitative content analysis method which, as Hsieh and Shannon (2005) claim, is a research method for subjective interpretation of the context of the text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying patterns This method is more than simply counting words or extracting objective content from texts to examine meanings, structures that may be manifest or latent in a particular text It allows researchers to understand the social reality in a subjective but scientific manner The three- stage practical framework of CDA given by Norman Fairclough (2001) will be employed The three stages include description, interpretation, and explanation However, it is notable that not all the questions suggested by Fairclough are covered in this study Only the outstanding features of the speech are focused on in order to enlighten the assertion of ideology and power

Initially, in the first stage named description, the speech’s lexicalization, grammar, and macro-structure are placed under analysis For vocabulary, the in-group positive and out- group negative lexicalizations are examined Besides, lexical choice regarding formality is inspected In terms of grammar, the use of voice, personal pronouns are the main focus of investigation Macro-structure of the text

is also analyzed in this stage

In the next phase, questions relating to situational context will be discussed to make lucid the ideologies and power embedded in the text Finally, in the last step, explanation, the text is portrayed as part of social process, part of social practice for analysis at both situational and societal levels

4 Description of the data

On the morning of September 11, 2001, four American passenger airplanes were hijacked by a group of terrorists Three of these airplanes crushed into the World Trade Center building and the Pentagon, causing death to 2, 977 citizens, as cited

by CBC news These are the worst attacks that America has ever been through in its history September 11 was also the deadliest incident for firefighters and for law enforcement officers in the history of the United States, with 343 and 72 killed respectively

Nearly 12 hours after the attacks, the President G.W Bush came back to his Oval office and delivered this speech at 08:30 pm This address was regarded as the first official response of the U.S government to the whole nation after the attacks The target of analysis in this paper is the textual version of President G.W Bush’s speech after the September 11, 2001 attacks named: Address to the Nation on the September 11 Attacks This speech lasts about five minutes, with 34 sentences, including a salutation at the beginning The whole text is broken into sentences and then numbered for analysis (See Appendix 2)

5 Analytical framework

Basing on the framework suggested by Fairclough, an analytical framework is made in order to detail the analytical units and the main goals in each separate stage

Positive terms:

in-groups: allies, etc…

Negative terms:

out-groups: enemies, etc…

The situational context that affects the choice

of vocabulary

The effect of the discourse (the choice of vocabulary) at the institutional level and societal level

Grammatical

features

Voice: the use of

active and passive voice

Personal pronouns:

the use of ‘we’ and

‘I’

The situational context that affects the choice

of voice and personal pronouns

The effect of discourse (the choice of voice and personal pronouns)

at the institutional and societal level

Macro-structure

Large-scale structure: list of

macro-structure statements

Emotion techniques: The

evocation of emotions throughout

the address

The situational context that affects the use of large-scale structure and emotion techniques

The effect of discourse (the choice of large-scale structure and emotion

techniques) at the institutional and societal level

Since Fairclough (1989) emphasizes that his proposed procedure of doing CDA analysis should not be considered a blueprint, and together with research purposes, some might find parts of it too detailed or irrelevant, consideration is taken to decide which part of the suggestions should be followed From the initial examination of the speech, it can be seen that some aspects proposed by Fairclough are absent do not stand out in terms of clarifying the author’s expression of power

and ideology Therefore, while some of the suggested questions are taken, a few of them are developed in accordance to the features of the text and research purposes (See appendix 3)

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

1 Description

1.1 Description of vocabulary use

According to Van Dijk (2001), the ideological semantics underlying lexical selection, to a certain extent, follows a clear strategic pattern that, in general, ‘in-groups’ and their members, as well as friends, allies, or supporters, tend to be described in positive terms, whereas ‘out-groups’, enemies, or opponents are described in negative terms This, as he adds, may be shown in adjectives or nouns used to describe in-groups and out-groups as well as their properties

In his very first speech given only twelve hours after the attacks on September 11,

2001, Bush resorts to legitimising language to positively portray the ‘us’- group, which he principally defines in favourable terms

The ‘us’- group, first of all, includes ‘America’, ‘the American people’, all Americans from every walk of life’ In Bush’s wording, this group is depicted as ‘a great people’, ‘a great nation’, the ‘ brightest beacon’ for freedom and opportunity

in the world, whose institutions, in the financial, business, and public sectors are

‘strong’ and whose citizens are ‘daring’, ‘unyielding’, ‘resolved’, but also ‘caring’ America stands for ‘all that is good and just’ in the world: ‘peace’, ‘justice’,

‘security’, ‘freedom’, and opportunity’, and Americans willing to ‘defend’ these values In other instances, the ‘us’-group consists of ‘friends’, ‘allies’ who embrace America’s values and who are willing to defend these values against terrorism’

America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security

in the world, and we stand together to win the war against terrorism

While a lot of efforts are placed into creating a positive image of the ‘us’-group, attention is also paid to the ‘other’ They are named by Bush as the ‘enemy’, the

‘terrorist’ who are ‘evil’, ‘despicable’ and represent the ‘very worst of human

nature’ However, they, in the speech, have ‘failed’ in their endeavor to frighten Americans into chaos and retreat American in Bush’s portrayal appears as a

‘foundation’ that cannot be touched, as ‘steel’ that cannot be dented, and as ‘the brightest beacon for freedom’ that can never be stopped from ‘shining’

1.2 Description of grammatical features

1.2.1 The use of voice

Researchers in CDA and psycholinguistics claim that voice, particularly, the presence of passivation, is influenced by social factors, e.g gender, social standing,

or political bias According to Webber (1992), there exists a direct and automatic connection between surface linguistic form and underlying ideological meaning However, he adds a notable point that, like nominalization, passivation has no intrinsic meaning As he states, an utterance which contains a passive or nominalized structure only has a meaning-in-context, as constructed by each individual hearer or reader Meaning is always the result of a particular reader's inferential processing (Webber, 1992)

This view proves to be true in the case of Bush’s speech after the September 11 attacks Investigations into Bush’s use of voice in this speech actually reveal his ideology and intentions

Table 1: Number of passive and active sentences

It is obvious that the active sentences outnumber the passive ones (sentences are counted after each point) Out of the 34 sentences investigated, the active ones

account for 25 (74%), compared with the number 9 (26%) of the passive voice Even when having to mention the attacks, Bush stays persistently faithful with the active voice

Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in

a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts (Line 2)

Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature (Line 19)

Meanwhile, the passive voice is still employed though with a small number (9 sentences throughout the speech)

Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror (Line 5) These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat (Line 12)

America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world (Line 16)

1.2.2 The use of personal pronouns

Pronouns can become an effective tool to discover the ideology and power relation

As Hall (1977) states, both linguists and anthropologists recognize the importance

of pronouns in anchoring language to specific speakers in specific contexts and in signaling the reciprocal changes in the roles of participants through their performance of, and engagement in communicative acts

Common syntactic strategies concern the use of pronouns, as well as of word order variations which allow for the more or less prominent placement of words and word groups the political actor wishes to emphasize Particularly, Wodak et al (1999) consider the repeated use of the pronoun ‘we’ in political discourse a reliable linguistic device which helps reveal identification and solidarity with the

‘we-group’, which, however, simultaneously implies distancing from and marginalization of ‘others’

In the discussion of relational values of grammatical features, Fairclough (2001) mentions pronouns, especially the employment of ‘we’ and ‘I’, as one of the keys

to uncover ideology and power

The table below demonstrates the number of ‘we’ and ‘I’ employed by President Bush in the address

Table 2: Frequency of personal pronouns

Except for the two ‘I’ that the author quotes from Psalm 23, the use of ‘we’ and ‘I’

is almost equal It’s notable that all the ‘we’ are used inclusively, that is, to all mention to America as a whole The impression of united American is additionally emphasized with a dense use of the possessive adjective ‘our’ (16 times), and the object pronoun ‘us’ (3 times) Meanwhile, the pronouns ‘I’ only appear at the later part of the address when the president mentions his prompt reactions to the attacks (line 28, 32, 34, 37, 39)

1.3 Description of macro-structure

In the preceding parts, Bush’s address has been cracked into small units in terms of vocabulary and grammar to dig up the hidden ideology and power In upcoming part, the discourse in connection with the local situation will be scrutinized on a more general level: the larger scale structure of the text and the emotion techniques employed by the author in order to propagate the ideologies and fulfill his purposes 1.3.1 Large-scale structure

In examining the whole text, a list of macro-structural statements can be done as follow M stands for micro-structure in the speech