A critical discourse analysis of hillary clinton’s 2015 presidential campaign launch speech

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THU HẰNG A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THU HẰNG

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF HILLARY CLINTON‟S 2015

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCH SPEECH

Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán bài phát biểu phát động chiến dịch tranh cử Tổng thống Mỹ năm 2015 của Hillary Clinton

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01

Hanoi, 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THU HẰNG

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF HILLARY CLINTON‟S 2015

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCH SPEECH

Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán bài phát biểu phát động chiến dịch tranh cử Tổng thống Mỹ năm 2015 của Hillary Clinton

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01

Supervisor: Prof Dr Nguyễn Hoà

Hanoi, 2018

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A critical discourse analysis of Hillary

Clinton‟s 2015 Presidential Campaign Launch Speech” is the result of my own

research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and

International Studies, Vietnam National University, and that this thesis has not been

submitted for any other degrees

Hanoi, 2018

Nguyễn Thu Hằng

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Professor Dr Nguyễn Hoà for helping me complete this study This paper would not have been accomplished without his expert, constant and valuable guidance and encouragement His patience and helpful criticism helped me confidently express

my ideas into this paper

I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable lectures which have helped me a great deal in gaining a lot of theoretical background as well as practical knowledge

My special thanks also go to my friends and colleagues for their enthusiastic help and support with my working schedule at school which gave me precious time to deal with my thesis

Finally, I would also like to express my deep gratitude and love to my family who gave me time and encouragement to overcome all obstacles during the completion

of this study

ABSTRACT

In the light of CDA framework suggested by Norman Fairclough, this study attempts to uncover underlying discursive structures in Hillary Clinton‘s presidential campaign discourse The specific aim is to identify elements of gender references, persuasive techniques and social inclusion and exclusion The analysis shows that gender references are marked by implicitness, and Clinton performs both stereotypical masculine and feminine genders As for social inclusion and exclusion, Clinton‘s use of pronouns revealed her attitude towards her supporters and opponents According to the results, it might seem that Clinton‘s main purpose of her campaign discourses is to construct an image of herself as President of the United States of America, and additionally, she contributes to eliminating the boundaries of the historical perception of the American presidency in regards to gender

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii

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 3

5 Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 Hillary Clinton‘s background 5

1.2 An overview of CDA 5

1.2.1 History of CDA 5

1.2.2 What is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)? 6

1.3 Key concepts in CDA 7

1.3.1 Ideology 7

1.3.2 Power 8

1.4 Three principal approaches to CDA 8

1.4.1 The socio – cognitive approach by Teun van Dijk 9

1.4.2 The discourse – historical approach by Ruth Wodak 9

1.4.3 The dialectical - relational approach by Norman Fairclough 10

1.5 Review of previous studies 13

1.6 Five common features among the approaches 14

1.7 Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) in CDA 15

1.8 Chapter summary 19

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES 20

2.1 Research questions restated 20

2 2 Methods of the study 20

2.3 Data of the study 21

2.4 Analysis procedure of the study 21

CHAPTER 3: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF HILLARY CLINTON‟S SPEECH 23

3.1 Functions of Hillary Clinton‘s underlying ideology in the speech 23

3.1.1 Ideology as a weapon of positive self-representation of ―us‖ and negative other representation of ―them‖ 23

3.1.2 Ideology as a weapon of persuasion 26

3.1.3 Ideology as a weapon of negotiation 28

3.1.4 Ideology of personality profiling 30

3.2 Textual description and Analysis 31

3.2.1 Vocabulary use 31

3.2.2 Grammatical features 34

3.2.2.1 The use of personal pronouns 34

3.2.2.2 The use of voice 35

3.2.2.3 Modes of the sentence 36

3.2.2.4 Modality 37

3.2.2.5 Connective values of the text 39

3.2.3 Transitivity 43

3.2.4 Thematization 44

3.3 Interpretation of the relationship between the productive and interpretative processes53 3.4 Explanation of the relationship between discourse and social processes 54

3.5 Chapter summary 55

PART C: CONCLUSION 56

1 Summary of findings 56

2 Implications 57

3 Limitations of the study and Recommendations for further study 58

APPENDICES 61

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Overview of process type (Halliday, 1994:143) 17

Table 2: Components of a multiple theme (adapted from Halliday, 1994:54) 18

Table 3: Lexical items for ‗in – groups‘ and positive terms 32

Table 4: Lexical items for ‗out – groups‘ and negative terms 33

Table 5: Frequency of personal pronouns 35

Table 6: Summary of modes of the sentences 36

Table 7: Summary of relational modality 37

Table 8: Summary of expressive modality 38

Table 9: Summary of transitivity analysis data 43

Table 10: Summary of thematic analysis 44

Figure 1: Interpretation (Fairclough, 2001, p.119) 12

Figure 2: Explanation (Fairclough, 2001, p.136) 12

Figure 3: Aspects of interpersonal management (Thompson, 1996:69) 17

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Discourse is a form of socially important interaction and communication The nature of a discourse is determined by the speaker, the listener and the context in which it happens Therefore, the knowledge of how to affect other people with a well – constructed discourse is a very powerful tool to influence people in all the fields in general and political world in particular where one‘s words are the means

of communicating visions, ideologies, power relations in society and/or finally making people advocate wholeheartedly or even comply with strict orders

We all know that political speeches, especially speeches delivered by Presidents are highly well – organized discourses Hence, in the light of the recent American presidential election, I find that it is really interesting to place political discourses

in the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis Despite the fact that the current situation for women has improved enormously in comparison with the social context from several decades before, and there are a variety of laws that guarantee the well-being of every citizen, especially women and children It cannot be denied that the women in many situations are still considered as inferior to their male counterparts And that is this situation has inspired the interest of many researchers who are ready to devote their time to analyzing the role of women within the traditional and modern society and how gender inequalities influence their public image

Having the same perspective with the previous researchers, the focus of my research will be centered on the story of Hillary Clinton First and foremost, she is

an active candidate who has launched her candidacy for the presidency of the United States in the present And another reason for choosing Hillary Clinton‘s speech comes from my own personal interest As far as I can remember, that was

my 18th birthday and it was also my first time in Hanoi After class, I strolled along

a street named Trần Quốc Hoàn where lots of old books are on sale on the

pavement I came across a book called "Living History" by Hillary Clinton, and this

is the first memoir I have ever read that was by the First Lady I read that book and I must admit that I enjoy it so much that I could not put it down Then I decided to buy it as my own birthday present for the age of 18, an unforgettable and fantastic

present Living History is her revealing memoir of life through the White House

years It is a story of her life, with a little background on her family, and how she came to be where she is now She grew up with a strong Christian belief and has worked tirelessly all her life to help people She worked hard for women and children's rights, health care, better working conditions, and the betterment of her

country Intimate, powerful, and inspiring, Living History captures the essence of

one of the most remarkable women of our time and the challenging process by which she came to define herself and find her own voice—as a woman and as a formidable figure in American politics

Therefore, through critical discourse analysis, the aim of this paper is firstly to conduct an analysis on appraising Hillary Clinton‘s Campaign Launch Speech from

2015 in order to analyze how she characterizes herself as a woman, to discover hidden factors such as gender, ideology, persuasive techniques, pronouns, family models and coordinating conjunctions

2 Significance of the study

This research is carried out in the hope to discuss on how ideology is embedded in political discourse by means of language use, specifically focusing on the Hillary Clinton‘s Campaign Launch Speech from 2015 In a political environment, politicians also use effective and appropriate elements of language to persuade and convince the target listeners

Theoretically, this study provides support to CDA theories, though at a minimum scale From an objective view as linguists when approaching discourses, CDA analysts can find out identity and ideology hidden behind words

Practically, this study may provide me another approach to language teaching and learning: looking at language teaching and learning from CDA viewpoint

Moreover, with the investigation of Hillary Clinton‘s speech, the study is hoped to help English language learners as it is commonly seen that they usually find discourses difficult to fully understand This is mainly due to their failure to interpret the authors‘ underlying assumptions The awareness of the ideological meanings of the discourse will enable the comprehensive understanding of discourses, especially political ones

3 Scope of the study

The analysis of Hillary‘s speech is confined to verbal aspects of the speech and the social context in which the speech was delivered Nevertheless, the limitations of the time and the intellectual capacity of author preclude discovering all the available features in the data Only salient points relating to the aims of the thesis are being concerned The study also excludes paralinguistic (intonation, speed, loudness, etc.) and extra – linguistics (body languages such as facial expressions, eye contact, etc.) factors although the author is fully aware of the fact that these ones are very influential in conveying the speaker‘s ideology and identity

This is a pure linguistic study and for academic purpose only I will not express my own political view And this study is not for or against any parties or to change anyone‘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 way in social studies Moreover, the study is also expected to contribute to the development of English language education, especially in studying CDA by giving some suggestions for the learners

In order to achieve these above aims, the objectives are specified to:

- Provide a theoretical background of CDA – its concepts, its analysis procedures as well as its role in social scientific research in general and linguistics in particular

- Figure out how ideologies are expressed via linguistics elements of the speech given by Hillary Clinton

Research questions:

In order to achieve the aims and objectives of the investigation, the researcher attempts to give answers to the following questions:

a, What are the functions of ideology Hillary Clinton expressed in the speech?

b, How are they realized linguistically?

Methodology

CDA as an approach will be applied in the speech analysis to uncover hidden power/struggle and ideology The three stages of CDA given by Norman Fairclough (2001) will be used To put it more specifically, following are three stages involving

Explanation: The speech is placed in social context to see how it is determined by social structures and what productive effects it has on those structures vice versa

5 Design of the study

The thesis consists of these following parts:

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 partand it consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background and Literature Review: This chapter gives an overview of CDA – definition, its principal approaches and a review of previous studies is carried out and the theoretical background is provided

Chapter 2: ―Data analysis and Discussions‖: 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, gives important conclusions and implications It also presents some limitations and offers

some suggestions for further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter presents the theoretical framework on which this study is based The breakdown includes: Hillary Clinton‘s background, an overview of CDA, key concepts in CDA, three principal approaches to CDA, review of previous studies, five common features among the approaches, differences between the approaches and SFG in CDA

1.1 Hillary Clinton‟s background

Hillary Clinton was born on October 26, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois, the United States going on to earn her law degree from Yale University She married a fellow law school graduate Bill Clinton in 1975 She later served as the First Lady from

1993 to 2001 when her husband was elected as the United States president in the elections of 1992 Since then, she has had an active career in the political life until now In 2000, she was elected as senator of New York, becoming the only first lady

of the United States who sought elective office from 2001 to 2009 In early 2007, Clinton announced her plans to run for the presidency During the 2008 Democratic primaries, she conceded the nomination when it became apparent that Barack Obama held a majority of the delegate vote After winning the national election, Obama appointed Clinton secretary of state She was sworn in as part of his cabinet

in January 2009 and served until 2013 In the spring of 2015, she announced her plans to run again for the U.S presidency In 2016, she became the first woman in U.S history to become the presidential nominee of a major political party After a polarizing campaign against GOP (Grand Old Party) candidate Donald Trump, Clinton was defeated in the general election that November

1.2 An overview of CDA

1.2.1 History of CDA

CDA was first known as Critical Linguistics (CL), which as developed by a group

of linguists and literary theorists at the University of East Anglia in the 1970s

(Fowler et al., 1979) Their approach was based on Halliday‘s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) They tried to marry a method of linguistic text analysis with a social theory of the functioning of language in political and ideological processes The paradigm of Critical Discourse Analysis is not homogeneous The British variety, represented by such figures as Gunther Kress, Robert Hodge, Roger Fowler, Norman Fairclough and Theo van Leeuwen have drawn upon Foucault‘s theory of discourse and, in its linguistic dimension, is closely associated with the systemic linguistic theory formulated by William Firth and M.A.K Halliday

The cognitive-oriented approach of Dutch Critical Discourse Analysis exemplified

by the work of Teun van Dijk, has used triadic model to show how personal and social cognition mediates between social structures and discourse structures

German CDA, as practiced by Utz Maas, Siegfried Jager and Jurgen Link, has been influenced even more strongly by Foucault‘s concept of discourse than has the British CDA concentrates on authentic everyday communication in media, political or other locations rather than in sentences or texts constructed in linguistic minds CDA regards both spoken and written discourse as a form of social practice (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997) It assumes a relationship between discursive acts and the situations, institutions and social structures in which they are embedded The situational, institutional and social contexts shape and affect discourse, and in turn, discourses influence social and political reality In other words, discourse constitutes social practice and it is at the same time constituted by it

1.2.2 What is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)?

By the 1990s, the terminology Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) came into existence and rapidly emerged as ―a distinct theory of language, a radically different kind of linguistics‖ (Kress, 1990, quoted in Wodak & Meyer, 2001, p.5) The terms CL and CDA are sometimes interchangeably utilized by some linguists until nowadays

According to Leeuween (1993), CDA is, or should be concerned with discourse as the instrument of power and control as well as with discourse as the instrument of the social construction of reality

In Van Dijk (1998a)‘s point of view, CDA is a field that is concerned with studying and analyzing written and spoken texts to reveal the discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality and bias It examines how these discursive sources are maintained and reproduced within specific social, political and historical contexts Fairclough (2001:229) defines that CDA aims to show non – obvious ways in which language is involved in social relations of power and domination

From these above statements, it can be easily seen that CDA is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context

1.3 Key concepts in CDA

According to Thompson (1990:12), ―ideology refers to social forms and processes within which, and by means of which, symbolic forms circulate in the social world Ideology is

an important aspect of establishing and maintaining unequal power relation.‖

For Thompson, the study of ideology is the study of the way in which meaning is constructed and conveyed by symbolic forms of various kinds This study also investigates the social contexts within which symbolic forms are used and not used

―A dominant ideology typically owes its success not to brute power and conscious imposition, but to the ability to convince people that it is not in fact a matter of ideology at all, but simply natural, ‗the way things are‘ We refer to this process as

‗naturalization‘ This use of the term ‗naturalization‘ does not necessarily refer to biological naturalness, but to people‘s sense of what needs no explanation‖ (Eckert

& Mc Connell Ginet, 2003)

We will always have a set of values, beliefs and feelings that guide our behavior, determining how we think, feel and act These may change over time and we will probably be aware of changes we have gone through in our own life But in losing one ideology we replace it with another This is not a bad or good thing but it is just the way things are We may think that some ideology is better than others but it is simply used to describe the state we live in

1.3.2 Power

Power is a fundamental feature of CDA studies Being distinguished from other linguistic analysis, CDA seeks to uncover and understand power relationships in the society through an examination of language, which is closely entwined in social power and power is a central condition of social life (Wodak, 2007c)

According to Fairclough (2001), ideologies are closely linked to power because the nature of ideological assumptions embedded in particular conventions, and the nature of those conventions themselves, depend on the power relations which underlie the conventions Moreover, ideologies are closely linked to language, because using language is the commonest form of social behavior where we rely most on ‗common sense‘ assumptions

For CDA, language is not powerful on its own – it gains power by the use of powerful make of it Wodak explains why CDA often chooses the perspective of those who suffer and critically analyses the language use of those in power, those who are responsible for the existence of inequalities and who also have the means and the opportunity to improve conditions

1.4 Three principal approaches to CDA

In spite of the fact that all the approaches to CDA present the concepts of ideology, critique, and power, they still differ in terms of theoretical foundations and the tools they use to analyze discourse In addition, they emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of CDA and show the dialectic relationship between language, culture, society, and politics

1.4.1 The socio – cognitive approach by Teun van Dijk

Teun Van Dijk is one of the leading figures and pioneers of study and research in domain of CDA Most of his critical works are concerned with prejudice and racism

in discourse As early as the 1980s, Teun van Dijk started to apply his discourse analysis theory to texts mainly focusing not only on what he called structural analysis (including the grammatical, phonological, morphological and semantic level but also the ―higher level properties‖ such as coherence, overall themes and topics of news stories and the whole schematic forms and rhetorical dimensions of texts), but also on the production processes (the influence of journalistic and institutional practices as well as of economic and social practices on the creation of the media discourse) and on the reception processes (the comprehension,

―memorization and reproduction‖ of news information)

The innovative aspect of van Dijk‘s approach lies especially in the interest taken in sociocognition, i.e social cognition (―the system of mental representations and processes of group members‖) and personal cognition (indirectly influenced by ideologies as mental representations in the act of comprehension of discourse among other actions and interactions) 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

1.4.2 The discourse – historical approach by Ruth Wodak

Ruth Wodak and his colleagues at Vienna University have chosen to work within the sociological model for their CDA studies This model is based upon Bernstein‘s tradition in sociolinguistics and Frankfurt School, especially Jurgen Habermas The

distinctive feature of this approach is that it attempts to use all the background information in analyzing different layers of a spoken or written text

Wodak (2001b: PP 69-70) has put forward some features for the historical approach to CDA as follows:

i This approach is interdisciplinary Like other critical linguists, Wodak acknowledges the intricacy of the relationship between language and society As a result he believes that CDA is interdisciplinary in nature

ii This interdisciplinary nature could be seen both in theory and practice She combines argumentation theory and rhetoric with Halliday‘s Functional Linguistics iii This approach is problem-oriented rather than emphasizing some special language issues

iv Methodology and theory are chosen through eclecticism

v In this approach the analyst is always on the move between theory and empirical data

vi Historical context will go under investigation and will be incorporated into the analysis of discourse and texts

1.4.3 The dialectical - relational approach by Norman Fairclough

Fairclough is considered to have the most significant contribution to the field of CDA His model may be the core section of the entire field of CDA, because he was the first to create a theoretical framework, which provided guidelines for future CDA research

Fairclough believes that our language, which shapes our social identities and interactions, knowledge systems, and beliefs is also shaped by them in turn Like Kress and Van Leeuwen, he bases his analyses on Halliday‘s systemic-functional grammar 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 (Halliday 1978; 1985; Hodge and Kress 1988; Thibault 1991), both because its approach to studying grammar and other aspects of language form is a functional one, and because it is systematically orientated to studying the relationship between the texture of texts and their social

contexts‖ and ―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, Linguistic and intertextual analysis within discourse analysis, 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 as follows

Three stages of CDA are description, interpretation and explanation Description is the stage which is concerned with the formal properties of the text Interpretation is concerned with the relationship between text and interaction – with seeing the text

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 Fairclough (2001: 21-2)

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 I)

Values of textual features only become realized when they are put in social interaction 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, 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 shape 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)

1.5 Review of previous studies

There are a variety of perspectives and studies on CDA regarding political speeches

in general and the position of women in society in particular These topics have been becoming a matter of main interest in doing researches

For example, a Chinese researcher, Junling Wang (2010) used M.A.K Halliday‘s Systemic Functional Grammar in ―A Critical Discourse Analysis of Barack Obama‘s Speeches‖ in terms of three meta-functions: ideational functions, interpersonal function and textual function in order to find out the relationship among language, ideology and power and how Obama used language features to persuade the public to support him in presidential campaign

Cooray (2012) examined the influence of women‗s suffrage and democracy on gender equality in education in a sample of 80 countries, covering Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America and Eastern Europe The findings revealed countries with a longer duration of suffrage tend on average to perform better in terms of gender equality in education In general, results from studies present a fact that women even in the past or in recent years, are still under discrimination and gender

in equality need right solutions

The third previous research ―American Political Discourse as Manifested in Hillary Clinton's Interviews: A Critical Approach‖ by Doha Mahmoud Abdel-Moety (2014) concerned with American political discourse of interview genre The study attempts

an analysis of a number of TV interviews with the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton It adopts a critical discourse analysis approach that draws on work from different disciplines, namely, genre theory, systemic functional grammar, and critical discourse analysis The study aims at achieving a number of goals First, it attempts to explore some characteristics of American interview genre Second, it aims at depicting features of Clinton's political discourse Third, it tries to unravel the use of power through language Fourth, it aims at exploring the hidden strategies that are involved in conveying ideological messages

Generally, after review the previous researches, the difference of this research is mostly on the purposes of the research The aim of this research is to figure out the ideologies that Hillary Clinton used in her speech and how these ideologies were expressed via linguistics elements of the speech given by Clinton Although Junling Wang‘s research also aims to find out the ideology but the theory is different Junling Wang applied Halliday‘s theory, meanwhile the theory used in this research was developed by Norman Fairclough

1.6 Five common features among the approaches

Among the different approaches to CDA, five common features can be identified It

is these that make it possible to categorize the approaches as belonging to the same movement The following account is drawn on Fairclough and Woodak‘s overview (1997: 271ff.)

i The Character of Social and Cultural Processes and Structures is Partly Linguistic – Discursive

Discursive practices – through which texts are produced (created) and consumed (received and interpreted) – are viewed as an important form of social practice which contributes to the constitution of the social world including social identities and social relations It is partly through discursive practices in everyday life (processes of text production and consumption) that social and cultural reproduction and change take place

ii Discourse is Both Constitutive and Constituted

For critical discourse analysts, discourse is a form of social practice which both constitutes the social world and is constituted by other social practices As social practice, discourse is in a dialectical relationship with other social dimensions It does not just contribute to the shaping and reshaping of social structures but also reflects them

iii Language use should be Empirically Analyzed within its Social Context

Critical discourse analysis engages in concrete, linguistic textual analysis of language use in social interaction

iv Discourse Functions Ideologically

In critical discourse analysis, it is claimed that discursive practices contribute to the creation and reproduction of unequal power relations between social groups – for example, between social classes, women and men, ethnic minorities and the majority These effects are understood as ideological effects

v Critical Research

Critical discourse analysis does not, therefore, understand itself as politically neutral (as objectivist social science does), but as a critical approach which is politically committed to social change In the name of emancipation, critical discourse analytical approaches take the side of oppressed social groups

1.7 Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) in CDA

As Fairclough‘s model is chosen as basis for my study, his method and analyzing procedure have been presented in detail Besides Fairclough‘s model, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is also taken into account and the following part is a brief look at SFL and the reason why and how it is used in CDA

Systemic functional grammar (SFG) or systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is a model of grammar that was developed by Michael Halliday in the 1960s It is part of

a broad social semiotic approach to language called systemic linguistics The term

"systemic" refers to the view of language as "a network of systems, or interrelated sets of options for making meaning" The term "functional" indicates that the approach is concerned with meaning, as opposed to formal grammar, which focuses

on word classes such as nouns and verbs, typically without reference beyond the individual clause

It now can be seen that both CDA and SFL approach functionally to textual analysis through studying grammar and other aspects of language form, and they are systematically orientated to studying the relationship between the texture of texts and their social contexts This also explains why SFL is of great help in doing CDA According to Halliday (1985), language simultaneously conveys three kinds of meanings: ideational or experiential, interpersonal and textual The following quotation illustrates the relationship among these meanings or metafunctions:

―… the fundamental components of meaning in language are functional components All languages are organized around two main kinds of meaning, the ―ideational‖ or reflective, and the ―interpersonal‖ or active These components, called ―manifestation

in the terminology of the present theory, are the manifestations in the linguistic system of the two very general purposes which underlie all uses of language: (i) to understand the environment (ideational), and (ii) to act on the others in it (interpersonal) Combined with these is a third metafunctional component, the

―textual‖, which breathes relevance into the other two‖ (Halliday, 1985)

In SFL, lexicogrammar is seen as functional grounded, shaped by the social functions it serves, and in particular built around the intersection of the

―macrofunctions‖ of language

Correspondingly to these three macrofunctions are three major networks of grammatical system which are transitivity, mood and modality, and information –including theme – rheme and given-new The unit for analyzing the meanings at the lexico - grammatical level is clause

The Experiential meaning is realized through the Transitivity system (or the system of process type) The Experiential meaning is the means of representing reality in the linguistic system It answers the question ―What‘s going on?‖ And the language has the function to express the experiential aspect of meaning through the system of transitivity This system consists of different process types, participants and circumstances In English, six process types are recognized: material process, behavior process, mental process, verbal process, relational process, and existential process:

Process types Category

The mayor resigned

Behavioral: ‗behaving‘ Behaver,

Verbal: ‗saying‘ Sayer, Target,

Table 1: Overview of process type (Halliday, 1994:143)

The Interpersonal Meaning is realized through the Mood Structure Through

Interpersonal meaning, we answer the question ―How do we use language to exchange?‖ Besides Mood structure, Thompson (1996) offers kinds of areas to be

explored in the analysis of Interpersonal meaning in text and these areas seem useful in my textual analysis

Figure 3: Aspects of interpersonal management (Thompson, 1996:69)

In terms of Textual meaning, thematic structure is under investigation The textual meaning deals with creating relevance between parts of what is being said and between the text and the context It asks ―How the content of the text organized?‖ Lexico - grammatically, it is expressed through the system of theme and information focus Relevant to the realization of the system of theme are two elements: the Theme and the Rheme The Theme serves as the point of departure of the message, which in English is initial elements of the clause; and the Rheme is the remainder of the message By analyzing the thematic structure of the clauses in a text we can find out the text‘s mode of development, i.e how speakers construct their messages in a way which makes them smoothly fit into the unfolding language event

A theme is single when the thematic element itself is presented by just one constituent – a nominal group, an adverbial group, or a prepositional phrase, or even

a clause in the case of predicated theme Meanwhile, the theme is multiple when it has further internal structure of its own The following is the summary of components of multiple theme

theme

Continuative elements Structural elements (conjunction or WH-relative)

Conjunctive elements (Adjunct)

Yes, no, well…

WH – (interrogative) Vocative element

The above-mentioned functions of language have been proved to be useful in many discourse analyses In addition, there is one aspect that I found of particular importance to my analysis of the text It is the macrostructure of text In Halliday ‗s viewpoint, the macrostructure represents relations between blocks of sentences and the global organization of texts, while the microstructure represents the relations between sequences in actual text The macrostructure of a text can be understood as the construction of global organizational patterns As communicative purpose plays

an important role in determining the macrostructure for writers/ speakers, when doing CDA, one cannot ignore mentioning how ideology is revealed in the writer/ speaker‘s choice of the text‘s overall scheme

1.8 Chapter summary

This chapter has discussed various approaches to understanding political discourse and attempted to show how it relates to ideology The principles of SFL were discussed in relation to their realization of patterns in the representation of processes and participants These principles provided a foundation for a discussion and the specific ways in which ideology is constructed The next chapter will present the data set to be analyzed

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

As it is indicated in the title, this chapter includes the research methodology and analytical procedures of the dissertation In more details, in this part the author outlines the research questions, the research method, the research approach, the selection of the data and the analysis procedure of the study

2.1 Research questions restated

As presented previously, the study seeks the answer to the following research questions:

1 What functions of ideology did Hillary Clinton express in the speech?

2 How are they realized linguistically?

2 2 Methods of the study

The data in the study tend to be discussed from the viewpoint of CDA framework given by Fairclough (2001) with three stages of analysis: Description, Interpretation and Explanation

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

In the first step, a general textual description of the speech is made in terms of lexis and syntax in order to uncover ideologies in Hillary‘s discourse

In the next step, questions relating to situational context will be discussed to find out the ideologies and power embedded in the text

Finally, in the last step, explanation, the text is portrayed as part of social process

All three steps of Fairclough‘s framework are followed Three stages are intertwined instead of being given separately

2.3 Data of the study

The data of the study is the underlying power and ideologies embedded in Hillary Clinton‘s launch campaign speech in 2015

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held the first major event in her campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination at a rally in which she outlined why she was making a second run for the presidency At the rally held in Franklin

D Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island in New York City she laid out a theme of ―four fights‖ involving the economy, families, increased opportunities, and democracy She talked about her upbringing and ideals, and topics including the divide between the rich and poor, the need to strengthen middle class families, and the foreign policy challenges the country faces She was joined onstage by her husband and daughter at the end of her speech

This study tends to focus on the critical analysis of the speech to uncover intentions and ideology embedded

2.4 Analysis procedure of the study

The study is attached to CDA approach and is carried out following some basic stages:

The first stage taken during the whole course of the research is to conduct a literature review in order to gain and present an understanding of the issues relevant

to the research topic A host of reference books, materials, studies and articles related to the field of CDA and the theme of the thesis will be collected, read, classified and interpreted

In the second stage, the two speeches on women delivered by Hillary Clinton and needed information concerning the aspects introduced will be collected The selected data are thoroughly examined by appropriate analytical tools

Last but not least, a careful analysis and a thoughtful investigation are made to unravel the underlying ideology and to cover the hidden meanings intended in the speech

CHAPTER 3:

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

OF HILLARY CLINTON‟S SPEECH:

„Presidential Launch Campaign from 2015‟

Chapter 2 presents a critical discourse of the speech The goal of this analysis is to reveal the different ways in which the speeches construct and frame Hillary Clinton‘s underlying ideologies

3.1 Functions of Hillary Clinton‟s underlying ideology in the speech

When analyzing the vocabulary of a text, an indication of a text being influenced by

a certain ideology can be found It is impossible to clarify which ideology is used in every single sentence, but the analysis of context can capture discourse structures

that have implications for ideology

3.1.1 Ideology as a weapon of positive self-representation of “us” and negative other representation of “them”

According to van Dijk (1998:125), people ―engage in intergroup discourse for reasons of self-presentation, self-defense, legitimation, persuasion, recruiting, and

so on.‖ Therefore, discourse is a platform for processes that help to create and sustain groups as well as intergroup relations Often times, intergroup discourse is polarized between Us versus Them dichotomy Van Dijk (1998:267) presents a four-dimensional classification that characterizes ideological intergroup discourse The ideological square is reproduced below:

A Emphasizes positive things about us;

B Emphasizes negative things about them;

C De-emphasizes negative things about us; and

D De-emphasizes positive things about them

The ideological square is one of the principal concepts in van Dijk‘s framework The central tenet of the ideological square is expressed in terms of emphasizing the positive actions of what a writer considers the in-group and deemphasizing its

negative actions while, on the other hand, deemphasizing the positive actions of the out-group, and emphasizing its negative actions

The extracts below represent the ideology of positive self- representation of ―us‖ and negative other representation of ―them‖ The political candidate tends to present herself and her group in positive terms and other groups in negative terms

Extract 1:

―When President Clinton honored the bargain, we had the longest peacetime expansion in history, a balanced budget, and the first time in decades we all grew together, with the bottom 20 percent of workers increasing their incomes by the same percentage as the top 5 percent.‖ [line 36 – 39]

When President Obama honored the bargain, we pulled back from the brink of Depression, saved the auto industry, provided health care to 16 million working people, and replaced the jobs we lost faster than after a financial crash.‖

[line 40 -43]

This is a typical example of positive representation of ―us‖, ―self‖ or ―in – group‖ Hillary Clinton considers her party – Democrats in the positive light The speaker represents her party ―We‖ as good Through the exploitation of lexical items with positive expressive value like: ―longest peacetime expansion‖, ―balanced budget‖,

―increase incomes‖, ―‖pulled back from the brink of Depression‖, ―saved the auto industry‖, ―provided health care‖, ―replaced jobs‖, the speaker emphasizes certain meaning, controls comprehension and influences her audience‘s opinions and attitudes

Ideology of positive self – presentation of ―us‖ is also utilized in the tracts below: Extract 2:

―We’re still working our way back from a crisis that happened because time-tested values were replaced by false promises [line 46 – 47]

Instead of an economy built by every American, for every American, we were told that if we let those at the top pay lower taxes and bend the rules, their success would trickle down to everyone else.‖ [line 48 – 50]

Extract 3:

―As we have since our founding, Americans made a new beginning [line 57]

America should.‖ [line 62 – 63]

The speaker, through illustration strategy projects the good things of her party and indicates the bad things of the other The subject pronoun ―we‖ plays a significant role in this context to bring both the candidate and the audience in the sense of common destiny together

Extract below is another typical example where opponents are represented in the negative light by the speaker The purpose of this information- giving strategy is to make the audience reject her opponent and accept her perspectives

Extract 4:

―These Republicans trip over themselves promising lower taxes for the wealthy and fewer rules for the biggest corporations without regard for how that will make income inequality even worse [line 129 – 131]

They pledge to wipe out tough rules on Wall Street, rather than rein in the banks that are still too risky, courting future failures In a case that can only be considered mass amnesia [line 136 – 138]

They want to take away health insurance from more than 16 million Americans without offering any credible alternative [line 139 – 140]

They shame and blame women, rather than respect our right to make our own reproductive health decisions [line 141 – 142]

They want to put immigrants, who work hard and pay taxes, at risk of deportation And they turn their backs on gay people who love each other [line 143 – 144] Fundamentally, they reject what it takes to build an inclusive economy It takes an inclusive society What I once called ―a village‖ that has a place for everyone.‖ [line 146 – 148]

The use of lexical items with negative expressive value such as ―income inequality‖, ―risky‖, ―mass amnesia‖, ―take away health insurance‖, ―shame‖,

―blame women‖, ―risk of deportation‖, ―reject‖ is deployed to deface the image of her opponent Clinton uses the metaphor ―turn their backs‖ to emphasize the disregard of Republicans about the concerning matter in America

The speaker suggests that the other party – Republicans is powerless, inferior while she and her party - Democrats should be seen as everybody‘s choice and the only one that can deliver the goods as promised for every single American

3.1.2 Ideology as a weapon of persuasion

In the extracts that follow, the speaker deploys ideology as a weapon of persuasion and pleads to get the audience to accept her and her party and to reject others and their parties

Hillary Clinton speech is opened by highly praising Roosevelt:

Extract 5:

―You know, President Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms are a testament to our nation’s unmatched aspiration and a reminder of our unfinished work at home and abroad His legacy lifted up a nation and inspired presidents who followed‖ [line 11 – 14]

Why does Clinton refer to Roosevelt specifically? The most obvious reason is because he was a hero of the USA who led the country through the critical moments

of World War II Hence, by opening her speech with Roosevelt as a reference, Clinton successfully guides her audience to understand her political messages She establishes an expectation among her audience of her following in the footsteps of Roosevelt

Clinton also refers to Bill Clinton as well as Barack Obama Clinton says:

Extract 6:

―One is the man I served as Secretary of State, Barack Obama, and another is my

husband, Bill Clinton‖ [line 14 – 15]

In the case of Bill Clinton, she addresses him both as president as well as her husband By doing so, she wants to express her respect for her peer and superior, and former presidents Besides, by referring the fact that Bill Clinton is her

husband, she intends to break the formal barrier and portrays a more feminine side

of herself as a wife, a normal American

However, in the case of Obama, it is important to note the use of the verb ―served‖ Clinton emphasizes her respect for Obama as president, and thus appeals to the Americans who voted for him as president rather than her in the previous presidential election

In summary, Clinton uses three specific presidential figures in order to confirm hercredibility among the supporters of the Democratic Party as a whole Thus, she has planted the idea of her as president in the public mind

Another persuasive technique is found in Clinton‘s metaphorical reference to the Republicans as a choir performing a famous The Beatles song

Extract 7:

―Now, there may be some new voices in the presidential Republican choir, but they’re all singing the same old song… A song called “Yesterday” You know the one – all our troubles look as though they are here to stay… and we need a place to hide away… They believe in yesterday‖ [line 123 – 127]

To start, by referring to ‗new voices‘ in the Republican presidential choir, Clinton acknowledges that new politicians have emerged In her opinion, they are too traditionalistic that she called them ―Yesterday‖ because in a choir, every member has to wear uniform and must follow the lead of a conductor Therefore, when describing the Republicans as a choir, Clinton wants to criticize the conservative Republicans Furthermore, the extract of song‘s lyric ―we need a place to hide away‖ indicates a belief of the Republicans hiding from the nation‘s problems rather than solving them, which is clearly contrast to how Clinton presents her own visions

―we‖ is meant to create a common identity between the speaker and the audience The song actually paints a negative picture of the other party

Extract 9 below presents a gender perspective in order to rake in the support of both male and female supporters of her political ambition

3.1.3 Ideology as a weapon of negotiation

The formation of ideology as a weapon of negotiation is obviously examined in the extract below:

Extract 10:

―If you’ll give me the chance, I’ll wage and win Four Fights for you [line 204] The first is to make the economy work for everyday Americans, not just those at the top [line 205 – 206]

government and revitalizing our democracy so that it works for everyday Americans.‖ [line 349 – 352]

The speaker sees herself as the one who holds the future of the masses This implicit ideology is usually taken for granted The negotiation goes on explicitly that if the audience gives her a chance of being the President, Clinton ―will wage and win Four Fights for you…we should offer…we have a third fight‖ In here, ―we‖ functions as subject suggesting the sense of collective responsibility It includes both the candidate and the listeners that will form the government and this creates the positive image of the party The use of the possessive ―our‖ in ―our country‖,

―our families‖, ―our primary and secondary schools‖, neutralizes the distance between the candidate and the audience and bring them together in a sense of common destiny

In the extract below, the use of ―will‖ further strengthens the sense of certainty and commitment to address the problems Therefore, the audience is assured that the social problem will be solved in the near future What the speaker suggests is that it has been designed, but the masses would not have them until they have voted her into power

Extract 11:

―As your President, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep Americans safe [line 327] Now, I’ll always seek common ground with friend and opponent alike But I’ll also stand my ground when I must.‖ [line 380 – 381]

The negotiation goes on explicitly that:

action The verb ―build‖ is used by the candidate proposes the image of a servant who is working for others The speaker uses this word in order to win their support and to convince the audience that she is sensitive to the wishes and aspirations of the people And the most important thing is that the unity among American people will make America become a great country serving for their own wishes and aspirations

3.1.4 Ideology of personality profiling

Looking at the whole speech, Clinton switches between using the plural nouns

‗children‘ and ‗kids‘ - the noun ‗kid‘ is informal while ‗child‘ is formal Certainly, Clinton uses both of these two words to attain a certain purpose

Clinton uses the noun ‗children‘ seven times in her Campaign Launch Speech She mostly uses it in the introductory part of the speech, when she is presenting her visions and goals for America while also creating her personal narrative, but she also uses it in both her ‗fourth fight‘ concerning the reforming of Government, and

in the speech conclusion where she asks people to join her in her vision for America Thus, ‗children‘ always occurs in connection with the personal pronoun

‗I‘ Clinton says:

Extract 13:

―I believe that success isn’t measured by how much the wealthiest Americans have,

but by how many children climb out of poverty‖ [line 151 – 152]

and

―but I’ve spent my life fighting for children, families, and our country‖ [line 415]

Therefore, when she uses ‗children‘, she is creating a narrative about herself as a caring and nurturing woman

Clinton uses ‗kids‘ three times in the speech; one time in the introductory part of the Campaign Launch Speech and two times in the part about her ‗first fight‘ When she uses the plural noun ‗kids‘, it is most commonly in connection with the pronoun

‗our‘, thus making all the kids of America her kids She says: