An analysis of rhetorical devices in hillary clinton’s speeches from systemic functional perspective

AN ANALYSIS OF RHETORICAL DEVICES IN HILLARY CLINTON'S SPEECHES FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE PHÂN TÍCH CÁC PHƯƠNG TIỆN TU TỪ TRONG DIỄN THUYẾT CỦA HILLARY CLINTON THEO QUAN ĐI

AN ANALYSIS OF RHETORICAL DEVICES

IN HILLARY CLINTON'S SPEECHES FROM

SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

PHÂN TÍCH CÁC PHƯƠNG TIỆN TU TỪ TRONG DIỄN THUYẾT CỦA HILLARY CLINTON THEO QUAN ĐIỂM CHỨC NĂNG HỆ THỐNG

M.A THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Hà Nội - 2017

AN ANALYSIS OF RHETORICAL DEVICES

IN HILLARY CLINTON'S SPEECHES FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

PHÂN TÍCH CÁC PHƯƠNG TIỆN TU TỪ TRONG DIỄN THUYẾT CỦA HILLARY CLINTON THEO QUAN ĐIỂM CHỨC NĂNG HỆ THỐNG

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled

―An analysis of rhetorical devices in Hillary Clinton‘s speeches from systemic functional perspective‖ submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Linguistics Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‘s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2017

Approved by

SUPERVISOR

Date:

post-Last but not least, a special word of thanks to my family members who gave

me great encouragement, my friends and my colleagues who were willing to share

my heavy workload at school so that I could invest my time to this academic work

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ABSTRACT

This study analyzes the use of rhetorical devices in Hillary Clinton‘s speeches The analytical framework of the study is adapted from So (2005) which synthesizes Tribble‘s (2002) framework with the SFL‘s notion of metafuntion of language The data of the research contain ten Hillary Clinton‘s speeches from 2010

to 2016 Both the quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted to analyze the data It gives a sufficient analysis of the factual data of the phenomena and provides

a logical and rational interpretation based on relevant theories The results show that

in certain contextual factors, five rhetorical devices including metonymy, repetition, irony, metaphor, and parallelism are exerted; and two last listed devices are employed the most frequently The use of five rhetorical devices not only contributes to creative expression of message but also boosts up persuasive effects

on the audience

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TABLE OF CONTENT

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

ABBREVIATIONS vi

TABLES vii

FIGURES vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1.Rationale 1

2 Scope of the study 2

3 Aims and objectives of the study 3

4 Research questions 3

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Significance of the study 3

7 Structure of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

1.1 Rhetorical devices in Systemic Functional Linguistics Approach 6

1.1.1 Systemic Functional Linguistics 6

1.1.2 Rhetorical devices 13

1.1.3.Rhetorical devices in Traditional vs SFL 21

1.2.Political Speech 22

1.3 Review of previous studies 23

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 25

2 1 Data and instrument 25

2.1.1 Data source 25

2.1.2 Data collection procedures 26

2.2 Analytical framework of rhetorical devices in SFL 27

2.3 Pilot study 29

2.4 Research methods 30

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2.5 Data analysis procedures 30

CHAPTER 3: FINDING AND DISCUSSION 32

3.1.FINDING 32

3.1.1.Overview 32

3.1.2 Realization of rhetorical devices in ten chosen speeches 35

3.1.3 Frequency of rhetorical devices in three periods 38

3.1.4 Realization of rhetorical devices in the period of secretarial term of office 39

3.1.5 Realization of rhetorical devices in the period of retirement 41

3.1.6 Realization of rhetorical devices in the period of presidential campaign 43

3.1.7 Realization of rhetorical devices in each speech 45

3.2.Discussion 63

3.2.1.Answer to Question 1 63

3.2.2.Answer to Question 2 65

PART C: CONCLUSION 74

1.Summary of findings 74

2.Implications of the study 76

3.Limitations of the study 77

4.Suggestions for further studies 78

REFERENCES 79 APPENDIX I Appendix 1 I Appendix 2 XXI Appendix 3 XXXV Appendix 4 LI Appendix 5 LXIV Appendix 6 LXXVIII Appendix 7 XCII Appendix 8 CX Appendix 9 CXXVII Appendix 10 CXLII

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ABBREVIATIONS

1 Systemic Functional Linguistics SFL

2 The year of the speech_Speech, the ordinal

number of the speech in the same year

20YY_Sx

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TABLES

FIGURES

3 The adapted classification of rhetorical devices 17

4 The relationship between contextual analysis and content

5 Rhetorical devices in Hillary‘s two speeches 30

6 Analysis of rhetorical devices ten speeches 37

8 Frequency of rhetorical devices in three periods 38

9 Rhetorical devices in secretarial term of office 40

of a subtle manipulation of language, skilful orators have traditionally been able to exert great influence on the preconceptions, beliefs, aspirations and fears of the masses, to the extent of causing people to accept false assertions as true postulates,

or even to support policies contrary to their interests (Thomans&Wareing, 1999) Language is thus too helpful for those interested in controlling people‘s ideas Then, language inevitably forms a valuable tool in politics, as it is a crucial element not only in making politicians come closer to the public but also in gaining their support As a result, almost all of the politicians seem to be good at eloquence However, to interpret the statements the speakers deliver and understand the real meaning they would like to express people need to draw attention to the linguistic choices made by these and how well these choices fit in the social processes and how they involve in through their speeches Rhetorical devices have been willingly used by politicians for years, which is the reason why attempts have been made to study about rhetorical devices in political speeches

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Hilary Clinton, whether in the role of the First Lady of the United States, as the head of Department of State, or as a presidential candidate, has long been famous for her intelligence, strategic position, ambition, and eloquence Moreover, according to mandatory financial disclosures, Hillary Clinton earned $21,667,000 in speaking fees after retirement from April 2013 to March 2015 Many conferences and forums invited her to speak; and whenever and wherever she came, she was always welcomed warmly The speeches she made have always created huge influence on the audience Nevertheless, there has never been any analysis on the way Hilary Clinton uses rhetorical devices in her speeches This thesis is aimed to look closely at Hilary Clinton‘s use of rhetorical devices in the light of Systemic Functional Linguistics Undeniably, SFL incorporates many of the more socio-cultural branches developed within linguistics in the second half of the twentieth century, such as pragmatics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and etc (Manfredi 2008) For example, Fairclough's three levels are interpreted as phases along the cline of instantiation of systemic functional theory (Halliday, 1991, Matthiessen, 1993) This enables SFL to explain both language structure and language use In other words, SFL is not "concerned with a static or prescriptive kind of language study, but rather describes language in actual use and centres around texts and their contexts" (Manfredi, 2008) Therefore, in analyzing rhetorical devices, knowledge

of context and its relation to language is needed to have a complete view of employing rhetorical devices in political speeches

2 Scope of the study

As the title suggests, the thesis studies rhetorical devices in Hillary Clinton‘s speeches However, this MA thesis focuses on analyzing the use of five major rhetorical devices including metaphor, metonymy, repetition, parallelism and irony

in ten speeches made by Hillary Clinton during the three big stages of her political life: the period of secretarial term of office, the period of retirement, and the 2016 presidential campaign from the perspective of SFL Other rhetorical devices which are often said to be minor types, are not discussed here due to the constraints on the thesis word limit

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3 Aims and objectives of the study

This study is conducted with the aim of investigating how five major rhetorical devices are employed by Hillary Clinton in her speeches In relation to that goal, this research sets two objectives as presented below

1 To analyze the use of five major rhetorical devices in Hillary Clinton‘s speeches

2 To discuss the contribution and the effect of the rhetorical devices on the persuasiveness of the speeches

4 Research questions

There are two questions that the study attempts to answer:

1 How are five major rhetorical devices employed in Hilary Clinton‘s speeches?

2 How does the use of rhetorical devices contribute to conveying the message of the speaker and creating persuasive effect on the audience?

5 Methods of the study

In order to accomplish the objectives mentioned above, the methods are both quantitative and qualitative In detail, the research is conducted according to several steps below:

Firstly, data was chosen carefully on the Internet based on several criteria set

in advance by the researcher

Secondly, the collected speeches were analyzed in order to discover the realization of major rhetorical devices in each one by using SFL as the theoretical framework

Finally, the number of five major rhetorical devices in analyzed speeches was examined critically to see their contribution to the persuasiveness of Hillary‘s talks

6 Significance of the study

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Once completed, the study will give both theoretical and practical significance It is expected that the results can be advantageous in the following ways:

Theoretically, this research can, first, enrich the research in linguistics field, especially in SFL, which becomes a bibliographical resource to the next relevant type of research Second, the study will provide an insight into the effects of using rhetorical devices in speeches

Practically, the finding of the study will, hopefully, be regarded as a source

of reference for English teachers Teachers can apply the results of this thesis in their teaching such as teaching vocabulary and writing skills Besides, as language users and public speakers, or only presenters, the readers of this thesis can learn how to manipulate rhetorical devices to control and convince audiences In the end, this research expectantly inspires other researchers to develop or to conduct empirical studies in the same scope with different subjects

7 Structure of the study

This study consists of three main parts, a reference and a number of appendixes

Part A: Introduction

The introduction gives rationale for the study It also states research questions and outlines the scope, the aims, the significance and the methods of the study

Part B: Development

The development comprises two chapters

Chapter 1 named “Theoretical background‖, provides the theory of

systemic functional linguistics and rhetorical devices

Chapter 2 entitled ―Methodology‖ discusses the theoretical framework,

methods, instruments and procedures for collecting and analyzing data What‘s more, a review of related studies will be presented

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Chapter 3 called ―Finding and Discussion‖ presents the results of the study

and discusses the contribution of rhetorical devices in conveying the message

Hillary Clinton would like to express and in persuading the audience

PART C: Conclusion

The conclusion gives the summary of findings as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research

Reference includes all the books, articles or website that has been referred to

during the writing of this thesis

The appendixes list analysis of Hillary‘s speeches

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This part sheds light on the some key concepts of SFL, rhetorical devices and political speeches In addition, it also presents a brief summary of related previous studies

1.1 Rhetorical devices in Systemic Functional Linguistics Approach

1.1.1 Systemic Functional Linguistics

Systemic-Functional Linguistics (SFL) is a theory of language with the primary source claimed to be the work of Firth and his colleagues in London SFL

is, then, wholly developed in the work on the grammar of Chinese by Halliday (1956), and is considered the more comprehensive linguistic approach because of its focus on the functions of language, not the structure of language, which distinguishes it from other traditional approaches In other words, SFL focuses on language choices which language learners employ to express different meanings Just like other functionalists have discussed, Martin (2001) also claims that the basic concern of systemic functional linguistics is the choice of language Besides, SFL starts at social context, and looks at how language both acts upon, and is constrained by this social context

SFL is an avowedly functionalist approach to language, and it is arguably the functionalist approach which has been most highly developed Because applied linguists have always been keen on language use in context such as contexts associated with specialized registers (e.g., business or academic), contexts for language learning (e.g., classrooms and study abroad programs), and contexts for language assessment (e.g., speaking tests and writing assignments), they are interested in linguistic theory that takes into account the contextual dimensions of language However, as Thompson (1994) states that there exist some kinds of context, and we can have some categories for them That may depend on the time,

of situation‖ (Firth 1935, quoted in Halliday 1973) The framework later developed

by Firth included the participants in the situation, their both verbal and non-verbal action, the effects of the verbal action, and other relevant features Firth's (1957) key contribution is to assert that all linguistics is the study of meaning and that meaning cannot be divorced from the social context or context of situation Halliday, like Malinowski, looks at language as behaviour potential, an open-ended set of possibilities: ―The context of culture is the environment for the total set of these options, while the context of situation is the environment of any particular selection that is made from within them‖ (Halliday, 1973) Halliday‘s definitions are better and clearer to help readers understand and have a primary knowledge of language Figure 1.1 below provides a brief view of SFL

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Figure 1.1 Model of language (Adapted from Halliday, 1994)

Any analyses of language in use in the light of SFL necessitate the discussion

of some key concepts, including context, context of culture, context of situation, field, mode, tenor and genre

Context

The notion of context is presented at the beginning of Halliday‘s account as the most important base to see the functions of language As Halliday puts it, context conditions ―how language works‖ Language use must always be seen through the prism of social context No matter how good language is, it should be appropriate to the context of use Hasan (2009) argues that in such a conception of language, context cannot be an ―a-theoretical appendage which functions as a dis­ambiguator of ambiguous sentences‖ Instead, in SFL context is a concept crucial at every vantage point in the theory, to the dimensions of realization and instantiation, to metafunction, and to Halliday‘s conception of the strata in language Besides, Halliday claims that context ―extends along the cline of

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instantiation from the overall contextual potential of a community to the contextual instances involving particular people interacting and exchanging meanings on particular occasions‖ To the best of the researcher‘s knowledge, context can be understood to the environment where the language occurs

Context of Culture

The relations of situation and culture are central to Halliday‘s conception of language as an open dynamic system, as a ―vast, open-ended system of meaning potential, constantly renewing itself in interaction with its ecosocial environment‖ (Halliday, 2003) Context of culture is interpreted as the environment of a system of higher-level meanings which contain both language and paralanguage (Halliday

&Matthiessen, 2014)

Context of Situation

In SFL, the appropriateness of linguistic options is conditioned by the current

―context of situation‖ Situational context refers to "the total environment of a text, including the verbal environment, but also the situation in which the text was uttered" (Halliday & Hasan 1985) Moreover, Halliday (1985) characterizes situations in terms of field, tenor and mode These three components offer a system which helps illustrate any socio-linguistic occurrence

 Field: it refers to the subject matter and it may be similar to certain uses of the term domain in computational linguistics: what is happening, to whom, where and when, why it is happening, and so on

 Tenor: it refers to the social relation existing between the interactants in a speech situation It includes relations of formality, power, and affect (eg: manager/clerk, father/son, etc) Tenor influences interpersonal choices in the linguistic system, and thereby it affects role the structures and the strategies chosen

to activate the linguistic exchange

 Mode: it describes the way the language is being used in the speech interaction, including the medium (spoken, written, written to be spoken, etc.) as well as the rhetorical mode (expository, instructive, persuasive, etc.)

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In Halliday‘s Introduction to Functional Grammar revised by Matthiessen in

2014, these terms are elaborated as follows:

 Field: what‘s going on in the situation: the nature of the social and semiotic activity; and the domain of experience this activity relates to the subject matter or topic

 Tenor – who is taking part in the situation: the roles played by those taking part in the socio-semiotic activity – institutional roles, status roles (power, either equal or unequal), contact roles (familiarity, ranging from strangers to intimates) and sociometric roles (affect, either neutral or charged, positively or negatively); and the values that the interactants imbue the domain with (either neutral or loaded, positively or negatively)

 Mode – what role is being played by language and other semiotic system in the situation: the division of labour between semiotic activities and social ones (ranging from semiotic activities as constitutive of the situation to semiotic activities as facilitating); the division of labour between linguistic activities and other semiotic activities; rhetorical mode: the orientation of the text towards field (informative, didactic, explanatory, explicatory) or tenor (persuasive, exhortatory, hortatory, polemic); turn: dialogic or monologic;.medium: written or spoken; channel: phonic or graphic

From those, it can be understood simply that:

 Field: topic of the speech

 Tenor: the relationship between speakers and audiences

 Mode: type of speech

These three elements make possible for the speakers or writers to orient themselves in the context of situation Language learners must try and maintain the situational and cultural context by finding the corresponding three components in the target language

In the end, language and context are in a relationship of realisation with one another (Martin 2005) Language is in part realized by social context, and social

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context is in part realized by language In relation to the model of language in figure 1.1 above, linguistic realisations of social context are imagined through two terms such as genre and register This is illustrated in figure 1.2 below

Genre

The linguistic realisation of context of culture is termed genre while register

is the linguistic realisation of context of situation Genre is defined in Introducing Functional Grammar by Thompson (1994) as register plus purpose Register is also defined as ―variation according to use‖ (Halliday &Hasan, 1985) Therefore, genre includes what the interactants do through language and how they arrange linguistic resources to succeed in accomplishing a certain purpose To conclude, when discussing genre, it is necessary to describe the text with two characteristics such as sociability and purposiveness Likewise, Wu & Dong (2009) also argue that genre is

a social process following some sequenced stages, in which language is used and composed into spoken or written texts The form of the texts can be either formal or informal; and either standard or non-standard in terms of the contexts embedded Additionally, genre-based approach possesses a certain purpose or goal People use genre approach to achieve a goal or fulfil a purpose in social activities In the same way, Martin defines genre as "a staged, goal oriented, purposeful activity in which speakers engage […]" (Martin, 1984 as cited in Figueiredo, 2010) For example, the genre used in a sales encounter is used to sell or buy something These activities are staged, and there are different stages in it including sales request, sales compliance, purchase and thanks, which is goal-oriented, somebody wants to buy something; and it is purposeful, language is used with a specific purpose in mind, to buy and sell something

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Figure 1.2 Genre, register and language (Martin 2005)

To sum up, in SFL view, language relates to human experience, which fits into social structure So, language is not just a part of ‗cognitive mechanism‘ (Reuter, 2000), but how people use it in social functions in certain culture This is distinguishable from other theories of linguistics To be more detailed, in discourse, the language is analyzed from the aspects of text, co-text and physical text, while

we, in systemic linguistics, analyze how the language works in social functions We analyze how words are expressed in a particular context (Halliday, 1985) in which the meanings are embedded in different activities The words we use in particular contexts will have different meanings when the socio-functional purposes are different In other words, our intended meanings in using the language in society are determined by our own chosen words

Furthermore, Reuter (2000) asserts that systemic linguistics acknowledges both the sounds and words of language and their meanings through other instruments including paralanguage, cultural behavior, art forms, family structure, social exchange, and clothing

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Accordingly, it can be deduced that SFL looks at the language based on the contexts and purposes as well as the socio-functional outcomes which refer to

different types of genres Above all, SFL fits this study so nicely that the researcher

believes readers can have a clear view of the use of rhetorical devices made by politicians generally and Hillary Clinton particularly

1.1.2 Rhetorical devices

1.1.2.1 Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the term developed by Aristotle in Ancient Greece It is the

technique of manipulating linguistic sources effectively and persuasively in spoken

or written form Similarly, the Oxford English Dictionary (1933) defines it as ―the art of using language so as to persuade or influence others; the body of rules to be observed by a speaker or writer in order that he may express himself with eloquence‖ A very important part of what politicians do involves convincing audiences of the accuracy of the arguments they present in addition to their own personal conviction and ability to act upon these arguments Therefore, the definition of rhetoric as ―using language so as to persuade or influence others‖ (Oxford English Dictionary, 1933) is the most relevant description to be used in this study The rhetoric has been used for a long time as one of the most powerful persuasive language techniques Today, rhetoric used especially by politicians can

be identified by ―the identifiable habits of speech which govern the linguistic structures and devices which they use to increase the impact of their ideas‖ (Thomas

et al: 2004) A speaker is able to use a range of rhetorical techniques incorporated into the language to persuade the audience What and How the speaker chooses to define problems, support claims, validate premises and state conclusions is crucial

to whether an audience is likely to accept an argument As Hyland points out "the logical connections used to elaborate an argument by adding, comparing, sequencing or explaining its elements are critical to a text‘s overall persuasive force‖ (as cited in Markus, 2006)

It is undeniable that the wide range of potential linguistic choices, especially rhetorical figures a politician can choose to build up his or her discourse may have a

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crucial effect on shaping an ideology that will lead people to more easily accept his

or her arguments Moreover, it seems that the language used by politicians often provides an implicit rationale through which the issues under discussion in each communicative situation are identified and understood

1.1.2.2 Rhetorical device classification

There are some different ways to classify kinds of stylistics devices:

 Taylor (1981) argues that figurative expressions have been divided into three groups (as cited in Widyanti 2013) They are as follows:

+ Comparison and substitution: simile, metaphor, allusion, metonymy, analogy and allegory

+ Representation by substitution: synecdoche, personification, symbol

+ Contrast by discrepancy and inversion: overstatement, understatement, paradox (oxymoron), irony

Basically, this is clear enough for learners to acknowledge and then to take

the use of these in expressing their ideas

 Little (1985) classifies figure of speech into three classifications based on

comparisons, associations, and other figurative language

+ Comparisons: simile, metaphor, personification, analogy, hyperbole + Associations: metonymy and symbol

+ Other figurative language devices: apostrophe, and irony

It seems that this category is quite different from Taylor‘s one with which the researcher is likely to agree more Because that hyperbole is grouped with comparison is quite difficult to understand

 Lyons (1995) in Linguistic Semantics: An introduction mentions three

traditional rhetorical principles such as:

+ Metaphor

+ Metonymy

+ Synecdoche

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According to Lyons, there are always ways to interpret meaning of sentence

if the sentence is conceived suitably and its component of expression is extended Particularly, metaphor, metonym and synecdoche are often means to broaden that component

 Thomas et al (2004) in ―Language, Society and Power‖ pay more

attention to some stylistic devices as follows:

It seems that these authors‘ ways to express kinds of stylistic devices are not clear enough They intend to use other devices to make their explanation more convincing However, this way might not be effective since they do not mention these examples as official kinds of rhetorical devices For instance, in discussion of metaphor, the authors also mentioned simile as a contrastive example and personification as special kinds of metaphor Metaphor, simile and personification should be separate kinds in the same basic of imagery instead of grouping in metaphor As a result, readers have difficulties in identifying and naming figures of speech

 Fahnestock (2011) in Rhetorical Style - The Uses of Language in

Persuasion, categorizes rhetorical devices in the terms of association (synecdoche, metonymy), analogy (metaphor, simile, full allegory) and misstatement (antiphrasis, ironia, hyperbole, litotes) Nevertheless, Fahnestock mostly mentions four master

tropes:

At the beginning of the chapter 5 part I, Fahnestock (2011) shows her focus

on four major tropes which have been repeated over centuries; however, she still mentions some other kinds when presenting each device For example, when talking about metaphor, she also distinguishes it from simile but at the end of this paragraph she concludes ―it is essentially a metaphor‖ It takes readers much time to catch exactly all kinds the author wants to introduce Besides, the writer still tells about hyperbole and litotes and the amphiboly and paradox in spite of her introduction of only four tropes In the part of summary, she also groups them to the same group of irony Furthermore, at the end of the chapter, she summarizes to classify tropes based on three terms as stated above

After analyzing and comparing all the above classifications, it can be seen that the ways these scholars define and classify the different rhetorical devices are almost the same In this paper, based on the existing classifications, the classification of rhetorical devices to be analyzed in this study could be adapted in Figure 1.3 One more thing, because grammatical metaphor is one of the most important features of systemic functional grammar, the researcher also notices during her analysis

Metaphor Metonymy Repetitio

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Figure 1.3: The adapted classification of rhetorical devices

It is clear from figure 1.3, five major figurative devices are metaphor, metonymy, repetition, parallelism and irony which are classified according to some criteria including comparison, substitution, reduplication and misstatement

Metaphor

In the first place, regarding the comparison group, metaphor belongs to this group because it is defined as the implied comparison of two objects; in other words, metaphor is used to say that one is something else based on analogy According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), metaphor is classified into three groups such as structural metaphor, orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor A structural metaphor is a metaphor in which one concept is understood and expressed

in terms of another structured, sharply defined concept For example, “love is a

journey” is structural metaphor The abstract concept of love is expressed through

Litotes Synecdoch

e Apostroph

e Personification

Symbol Euphemis

m Pronouns Criteria

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more specific concept journey, since their inner structures are similar Second, orientation metaphor is that most of them have to do with spatial orientation: up-down, in-out, front-back, central-peripheral Lakoff and Johnson (1980) says that these spatial orientations originated from our bodies of that sort which function as

they do in our physical environment For instance, happy is up and sad is down

Physical basis of expressions in sadness is drooping posture or heads whereas we tend to raise posture with a positive emotional state in happiness Just as orientational metaphors, so our experiences with physical objects provide the basis for an extraordinarily wide variety of ontological metaphors Ontological metaphors serve various purposes, and the various kinds reflect the kinds of purposes served

Here is an example of Lakoff and Johnson (1980), inflation is an entity It is said

that inflation is lowering our standard of living If there is much more inflation, we will never survive Besides, we need to combat inflation (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 26) In this instance, the authors view inflation as an entity which allows us to refer

to it, quantify it, and identify a particular aspect of it To sum up, metaphor utilizes our experiences or specific and familiar objects in order to express abstract things

Metonymy

In the second place, concerning the substitution, metonymy is, like metaphor,

a way of conceiving of one thing in terms of another, but unlike metaphor, it has primarily a referential function It involves replacement of one word with another with which it is associated In other words, metaphor bases on similarities to allow

us to use one thing to describe another; however, metonymy bases on contiguity to allow us to use one entity to stand for another In addition, there are seven cases of metonymy: part for the whole, produce for product, object used for user, controller for controlled, institution for responsible, place for institution, and place for the

event For example, ―Our company has many good heads”, which is case of the part for the whole An example of the case of produce for product is: “He bought a

Mercedes for his wife on her 28 th birthday” An instance of the case of controller

for controlled is: “the Crown in fact has little power” By acknowledging all these

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kinds of metonymy, we find it easier to understand and employ metonymy in our talk, which can make the talk more interesting

Repetition

Repetition is said to be one of the most common rhetorical tactics employed

by political rhetoricians to reinforce ideas, gain attention and exert powerful impact

to motivate the audience There are some definitions of repetition but repetition is,

in the researcher‘s opinion, the simple repeating of a word or a phrase within a sentence without creating rhythm The main focus of repetition is to emphasize the words Moreover, repetition has many subtypes which will be presented below The first subtype is repetition of letters, syllables, sounds such as alliteration that is repetition of the same sound at the beginning of two or more stressed syllables and assonance that is repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent Second, that is repetition

of words such as anadiplosis - repetition of the last word of one clause or sentence

at the beginning of the next Another is anaphora which repeats the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines The third one is repetition of clauses and phrases For example, coenotes is repeating two different phrases: one at the beginning and the other at the end of successive paragraphs The last one is repetition of ideas such as epanodos mentioning again the main terms of an argument in the course of presenting it Nevertheless, in this study, the research just focuses on the basic meaning of repetition that repeating a word or a phrase in a sentence

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an excerpt from Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s famous speech as an ideal instance, ― I

have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”

As can be seen from the excerpt, it is a parallelism since each paragraph

begins with the evocative phrase “I have a dream,” and is followed by a noun phrase and the verb “will” The shared grammatical structure from phrase to phrase

gives this speech a rhythm that makes it more powerful, inspiring, and memorable

Irony

Irony is defined expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effects (the Oxford dictionary) Besides, there are three common kinds of irony, including verbal irony, dramatic irony and situational irony The first one is verbal irony which takes place when the speaker says something in sharp contrast to his or her actual meaning The speaker often makes a statement that seems very direct, yet indicates that the opposite is in fact true, or what the speaker really means For example, we are going to the zoo but it is raining heavily Nevertheless, at this time,

we say “What a pleasant day!” Unlike dramatic and situational irony, verbal irony

is always intentional on the part of the speaker Verbal irony can also consist of

―ironic similes‖, which are comparisons in which the two things are not alike at all

such as “as soft as stone” or “as cool as summer.” These similes mean that the

thing in question is actually not soft or warm at all The next one is dramatic irony occurring when the audience has more information than one or more characters in a work of literature This type of irony is popular in works of art such

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as movies, books, poems and plays For example, in dramas, almost all of the audiences can guess who is a villain and who is kind soon, and even they can foresee the imminent disaster while a main character does not know that and has to undergo many troubles before discovering the truth As a rule, there are three stages

of dramatic irony which are installation, exploitation, and resolution In the first stage, the audience is informed of something the character does not know about Next, in the exploitation, the writer uses this information to develop curiosity among the audience Finally, coming to the resolution, it is that what happens when the character finds out what is going on The last one is situational irony that consists of a situation in which the outcome is very different from what was expected There are contradictions and contrasts present in cases of situational irony An example would be when someone spends much money on cosmetic surgery with the aim of becoming more beautiful Though, she not only does not become more beautiful but also she is injured

After all, in this thesis, the research only studies the most popular kind of irony- verbal irony

1.1.3.Rhetorical devices in Traditional vs SFL

In the traditional view, a rhetorical device is defined as a technique that an author or a speaker uses to convey a meaning to the listener or reader with the aim

of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective, using sentences designed to encourage or provoke a rational argument from an emotional display of a given perspective or action Basically, a rhetorical device is a use of language that is intended to have an effect on its audience through spoken or written forms Especially, in traditional grammar, rhetoric was the study of style

through grammatical and logical analysis

In SFL view; however, rhetoric is the study of how effective writing achieves its objectives The term rhetoric in this new sense offers an analytical lens to investigate and concentrate on how to convey oneself accurately and effectually in connection with the subject of writing or speech, and the audience, and to employ

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methods to identify the relations between texts and contexts (Jost& Olmsted, 2004)

In other words, any rhetorical devices must be understood in relation to context as

any linguistic choice is decided by context

1.2 Political Speech

Beyond any doubt, political discourse is characterized by representations of ideologies, power struggle and authority Politics unquestionably is a struggle for power, and language is the most effective tool to exercise power Political ideologies are not only involved in the production or understanding of political discourse but they are produced by them It should be affirmed again that the relationship between language and power cannot be ignored Fairclough (2000) asserts that power is enacted and exercised in discourse Likely, Martin (2014) also states that politics should always be with persuasion, and ―by its very nature politics requires choices to be formulated, options to be weighed and decisions to be made‖ Besides, politicians are often representatives of their party, government or political institutes strive to ascertain power, determine identities and establish social relations

by integrating ideologies in the discourse Political discourse is a collection of all speech acts, as well as public law, tradition and experience, which is determined and expressed in the form of verbal formations, content, subject and the addressee

of which belongs to the sphere of politics Political discourse is not just a communication; it brings together its clear goals and specific participants

In regards to classification of political discourse, the criterion of orientation was offered by V.I Karasik in 2000 He identified two main types of discourse such

as personal (personal-oriented) in which the speaker acted as the individual in all richness of his inner world and institutional (status-oriented) in which the speaker acted as the representative of a certain social status (Karasik, 2000)

In terms of genre, most political actions such as passing laws, decision making, meeting, campaigning are largely discursive Thus, besides parliamentary debates, bilis, laws, government or ministerial regulations, and other institutional forms of text and talk, it is found that some other political discourse genres are

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propaganda, political advertising, political speeches, media interviews, political talk shows on TV, party programs, ballots, and so on

1.3 Review of previous studies

As regards the analysis of rhetorical devices, it is expected that the very nature of political language has since ancient times drawn the attention of many orators, theorists, and linguists as this kind of discourse is a gold example exploiting

to the maximum all the resources offered by language with the aim of providing most valid and compelling arguments A large number of linguistic studies (Edelman, 1977; Bolinger, 1980; Fairclough, 1989; Arnold, 1993; Thomans&Wareing, 1999; etc) have concentrated indeed on the analysis of the techniques and kinds of language used by politicians to reinforce their ideological roots in the masses and to attain specific objectives in their political programmes Furthermore, there are several researchers have studied about the use of rhetorical features of politicians; namely, Lopez (2004), Markus (2006), Bokayeva (2013) and others For example, Lopez (2004) did a research on John Kerry‘s political rhetoric

In his paper, a most remarkable feature of Kerry‘s discourse in the four events analyzed was his organization and concern for clarity This concern was reflected in

a very personal and productive use of a defined set of discourse organizers, but also

in the use of other devices such as three-part statements, contrastive pairs or repetition, which resulted in the production of tightly-woven pieces of discourse Additionally, Markus (2006) analyzed the use of some rhetorical devices in Gordon Brown‘s speech which he delivered to the Labour Party conference on September

25, 2006 The results indicated that Brown carefully selected and structured rhetorical devices in deliberate ways to fulfil the basic fundamentals and necessary requirements of effective rhetorical features Linguistic features used by Brown appeal to the audience through his choreographed inclusion of character or

background, ‗ethos‘, his audience awareness, ‗pathos’, and his presentation of logical information or evidence, ‗logos‘ He also employed person pronouns,

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boosters, engagement markers, and three-part statements in a political to convey the messages of the speech Bokayeva‘s research (2013) showed that Barack Obama‘s speeches were characterized by a high degree of repetitions of words and phrases They were key linguistic devices to which Barack Obama frequently resorted in order to make his discourse persuasive, appealing, and effective They were also used by ancient orators to persuade the audience and to influence their thoughts and emotions

Basically, those previous studies are essentially included within the review of the theories that contributes a sort of understanding for the researcher about how politicians employ rhetorical figures in their speeches What‘s more, so far in many studies it has been revealed that using rhetoric plays an important role in persuading someone successfully According to all previously mentioned ideas, there is obvious appearance and effect of rhetoric in speeches generally and in political speeches particularly Moreover, it has not been popular to investigate this problem from SFL As observed from these typical examples, most of them are analyzed by using the theory of discourse analysis or critical discourse analysis As a result, a new research should be done to get nearer to that This new study is different from the previous studies The differences are on the approach of the study, the subject of all

of the discussion, and on the source of data

On the whole, chapter 1 covers the background and relevant contents of the study In chapter 2, the method and analytical framework used in this research will be presented

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

Following chapter 1, which has summarized the background knowledge, chapter 2 describes data and instrument, data collecting technique, data analysis, analytical framework, pilot study and research methods employed to carry out the research

2 1 Data and instrument

2.1.1 Data source

With regard to data, ten Hillary‘s speeches that have been made since 2010 are selected into the data source The features of these speeches and the reasons for choosing them are presented as follows

In the matter of features of the chosen speeches, all of materials are spoken discourse collected on the Internet With the goal to provide reliable illustrations and valid data for research, the researcher uses combination of visual and audio stimuli that supports her not only to benefit real verbal communication, real dialogue with stress, intonation, rhythm of language but also to witness non-verbal behavior and specifically, the audience‘ support Accordingly, the speeches as linguistic data were collected, and other nonlinguistic features helping characterize the speeches in their contexts as mentioned were recorded for use in data analysis

In the matter of reasons for choosing Hillary Clinton, first, it is said that she is one of the most well-known rhetoricians all over the world Second, she has played many important roles such as Secretary of State and First Lady; therefore, her political discourse can be considered representative of American political discourse Third, previous analyses of her discourse were all conducted from a pragmatic approach and CDA approach rather than from a systemic functional approach Besides, another reason is that in the period from 2010 to 2016 when Hillary Clinton played as three different roles Specifically, three speeches were delivered when Hillary Clinton was in the role of Secretary of State, three others when she was in the role of a member of the Clinton Foundation, and the rest were when she

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was a presidential candidate During a five year period of Secretary of State, Hillary did give many famous remarks Three of these famous speech from 2010 to 2012, which were chosen here, were considered the most successful ones Next, Hillary Clinton took part in many conferences after retirement as stated in the rationale Last but not least, it is a big error if her presidential campaign speeches were not mentioned Hillary Clinton has made and continues making historic stories in American history when becoming the first female presidential candidate All of them are collected from reliable websites such as http://www.state.gov/

2.1.2 Data collection procedures

There are two phases in collecting data

Phase 1: Data corpus compilation

This stage focused on identifying and selecting speeches suitable for this thesis Because Hillary Clinton made so many presentations; therefore, it was necessary to set up criteria to choose those for examining In terms of this study, the speeches were chosen based on different characters Hillary has performed from

2010 to 2016 The data were looked for on the Internet from trusted websites such

as http://www.thedailybeast.com/andhttp://www.state.gov/in the mode of spoken form

Phase 2: Transcripts construction

At the second stage, the researcher listened and took notes of the transcripts of all speeches Some had the online transcripts; therefore, it was easier to check these when listening

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2.2 Analytical framework of rhetorical devices in SFL

In this study, the analytical framework is constructed based on Halliday‘s description of the text – context relationship The general analytical framework is composed of contextual analysis and content analysis, which is presented in Figure 2.1.The criteria for identifying and classifying rhetorical devices in the speeches are presented in Table 2.2; and the details of contextual analysis is presented in Table 2.1

Figure 2.1: The relationship between the contextual analysis and content analysis

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1 Genre types and subtypes What is the name of the genre of which the text is

an exemplar? Are there any subtypes or subsets in this genre?

2 Context of situation

a Mode

b Tenor

c Field

What is the channel of communication?

What roles may be required of the speaker and hearers? Do they have equal status and how is their affect and contact?

What subject matter is the text about?

3 Purpose What are the communicative purposes of the text?

How are they achieved? How are they related to the rhetorical functions of the text?

4 Institutional practice In what institution is this kind of text typically

produced? What constraints and obligations does this discourse community impose on speakers and hearers? Do the production and hearing processes influence its structure and language?

5 Sociocultural context Are there any social, historical or cultural factors

that make the text appear the way it is?

Table 2.1: The contextual analysis is adapted from So, (2005)

Parallelism is a device that uses words or phrases with

a similar structure to express several ideas

Irony

Irony is a device based on the opposition of meaning

to the sense

Table 2.2: The content analysis of rhetorical devices

It is said that this framework helps linguistic researchers examine a language symptom on an account of both contextual and linguistic factors, as a result, they can have an in-depth analysis of the relations between language use and context

2.3 Pilot study

With the aim of testing the research process, a pilot study was conducted with two randomly chosen speeches by Hillary After analyzing two speeches, the researcher obtained the following results

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Figure 2.2: Rhetorical devices in Hillary’s two speeches

It can be seen from the chart that five popular rhetorical devices are used in these which include metaphor, metonymy, repetition, parallelism This result is similar to the intended rhetorical devices which are presented in the literature review Therefore, in this thesis, the researcher decides to use the analytical framework as presented above with the focus on five major stylistic devices: metaphor, metonymy, repetition, parallelism, and irony

2.4 Research methods

Based on the above analytical framework, the researcher uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to conduct the study The research concentrates on examining the phenomena of the use of rhetorical devices in speeches qualitatively; however, the statistic data also inform about the general distribution of the devices in the speeches The form of numbers is used to strengthen the interpretation As a result, this combination helps the researcher analyze more effectively

2.5 Data analysis procedures

First, the speeches are coded with the coding scheme as follows