An analysis of president barack obama’s speech at president nelson mandela’s memorial, from critical discourse analysis perspectives001

ABSTRACTThis study presents an attempt to apply a critical discourse analysis perspective toinvestigating a political speech addressed by President Barack Obama on the occasion ofthe Nel

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FALCULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-

 -NGUYỄN DIỆU HẰNG

ANANALYSISOFPRESIDENTBARACKOBAMA’SSPEECHATPRESIDENTNELSONMANDELA’SMEMORIAL,FROMCRITICALDISCOURSE

ANALYSISPERSPECTIVES

PHÂN TÍCH BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CỦA TỔNG THỐNG BARACK OBAMATẠI LỄ TƯỞNG NIỆM TỔNG THỐNG NELSON MANDELA TỪ BÌNH

DIỆN PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN

MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English LinguisticsCode: 60220201

Hanoi - 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FALCULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-

 -NGUYỄN DIỆU HẰNG

ANANALYSISOFPRESIDENTBARACKOBAMA’SSPEECHATPRESIDENTNELSONMANDELA’SMEMORIAL,FROMCRITICALDISCOURSE

ANALYSISPERSPECTIVES

PHÂN TÍCH BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CỦA TỔNG THỐNG BARACK OBAMATẠI LỄ TƯỞNG NIỆM TỔNG THỐNG NELSON MANDELA TỪ BÌNH

DIỆN PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN

MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English LinguisticsCode: 60220201

Supervisor: Prof NGUYỄN HÒA

Hanoi - 2014

I would like to express my deep gratitude towards my supervisor, Prof Nguyễn Hòa, forhis constant and invaluable assistance without which my study would be far fromfinished

I am also greatly indebted to all my colleagues at Thuan Thanh High School 3 whoprovided me with valuable materials and enthusiastic support

Finally, my sincere thanks go to my beloved family for their love, encouragement, andsupport while I was carrying out this research

Hanoi, May 2014

Nguyễn Diệu Hằng

ABSTRACTThis study presents an attempt to apply a critical discourse analysis perspective toinvestigating a political speech addressed by President Barack Obama on the occasion ofthe Nelson Mandela’s memorial on December 10th, 2013 Based on a brief overview ofcritical discourse analysis introduced by Norman Fairclough, the study follows aframework with three parts: Description, Interpretation and Explanation It focuses onthe analysis of language features (lexical ones and grammatical ones), the relationshipbetween situational and intertextual context, and the discourse process and socialprocess Data for the research, thanks to which the objectives are achieved, are collectedfrom the research The findings show that the author employs linguistic features as thestrategies to represent his power and ideology The ideology of freedom, democracy andtolerance does not only belong to Nelson Mandela, but to Barack Obama as well That isthe way Obama hopes to exert his power and gain support from people around theworld The analysis also proves that critical discourse analysis is the smartest choice forthose whose concern is about political discourse, especially political speech.

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Common pronouns in the speech 19

Table 2: Summary of thematization analysis 26

Table 3: Reasons of making the speech 28

Table 4: Mandela as a liberator, a person who struggles for liberation and democracy 28

Table 5: Mandela as a person of tolerance and non-violence 29

Table 6: The on-going struggles 31

Table 7: Our actions 31

Table 8: Representatives 36

Table 9: Commissives 36

Table 10: Commissives 36

Table 11: Directives 36

Table 12: Summary of the findings 38

TABLE OF CONTENTS

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

LIST OF

TABLES

ii PART A: iii INTRODUCTION 1 1 Rationale of the Study 2 Objectives of the Study 1

3 Scope of the Study 1

4 Method of the Study 2

5 Structure of the Study 2 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2 1.1 Political Discourse and Speech 3

1.2 Critical Discourse Analysis 3

1.2.1 Definition of CDA 5

1.2.2 Stages of CDA 5

1.2.3 CDA as the main approachforthisstudy 5 1.3 Ideology 5

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHOD 6 2.1 Collecting data 8

2.2 Analyzing data 8

CHAPTER 3: AN ANALYSIS OFBARACKOBAMA’SSPEECHATNELSONMANDELA’S 8 MEMORIAL 10 3.1 Context

of the chosen text 10 3.2 Textual Description and Analysis 3.2.1 Vocabulary Analysis 11

3.2.2 Grammatical analysis 11 Analysis

3.2.3 Thematization 18

3.2.4 Macro-level Analysis 26

3.3 Interpretation of the relationship between the productive and interpretative 27 processes 32

3.3.1 Interpretation of situational context 32 3.3.2 Intertextual context and presupposition Social Practice in the Discourse 3.4 Explanation of the Discourse Process and 33

1 Recapitulation

38

iv

2 Conclusion 40

3 Limitations 40

4 Recommendations and implications 40

REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX 1: VII APPENDIX 2: VII

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the Study

Along with the development of the human society, language has evolved to satisfyhuman needs An important move in linguistics in recent years has introduced a newmodel and method of analysis of language known as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA),

a new branch of Discourse Analysis (DA) Different from Discourse Analysis in general,CDA views language as a social practice – language is a part of society, language is asocial process, and language is a socially conditioned process (Norman Fairclough,1989) This is a linguistic approach widely applied for the analysis of political discourse

In politics, CDA is often applied to explore and discover power and ideology hidden inthe political discourse held by the authority This inspired me to choose NormanFaircoulgh’s as the theoretical framework for my MA thesis Furthermore, I myself findCDA really useful and interesting as it provides us an analytic tool to illustrate andclarify CDA concepts, along with uncovering the speaker’s power and ideology Forthose reasons, I have decided to choose CDA as the field of my study and take “Ananalysis of President Barack Obama’s speech at President Nelson Mandela’s memorial,from critical discourse analysis perspectives” as a text for my thesis, using NormanFairclough’s viewpoints as a theoretical framework

2 Objectives of the Study

Basing on CDA approach and Norman Fairclough’s framework , the study aims at:Analyzing the grammatical and lexical features, and the structures of the

discourse

Analyzing Nelson Mandela's values presented in the discourse, and the purpose

of the author making this speech through grammatical and lexical items, and thestructures of the discourse

With the above objectives, the study deals with the following research questions:What are Nelson Mandela's values presented in the discourse?

How are these values realized in terms of lexical and grammatical features, and structure of the discourse?

3 Scope of the Study

The study takes the written text of the speech at Nelson Mandela’s memorial by theincumbent president of the USA, Barack Obama It is the speech Barrack Obamadelivered in Prague on Tuesday, December 10, 2013, paying tribute to Mandela’s life,and calling on the world to remember him by continuing to fight injustice, on theoccasion of Mandela’s memorial at the First National Bank Stadium (FNB Stadium),South Africa

In this study, I focus only on relevant salient features Since this research is purelinguistic, I have no intention of giving an in-depth research into political science.Nevertheless, social-political context is presumed to result in the realization andrepresentation of power and ideology of the speaker

4 Method of the Study

The methodology in this paper follows the view of the most outstanding theoreticians

in this approach (Fairclough1989, 1992, 1995, 2001, 2002; van Dijk1993, 1997, 1998,

1980, 2000) Methods of description and analysis are applied to investigate therealization and representation of power and ideology of the discourse Althoughseveral approaches to CDA have been chosen and analyzed, the one by NormanFairclough is prior as it supplies most fundamental knowledge in the CDA

5 Structure of the Study

The study consists of three main parts Firstly, the Introduction part explains therationale, aims, scopes and methods of the research The next part is TheoreticalBackground, which sets a theoretical and suppositional orientation for the study Adetailed Analysis will follow this with a thorough look into description, interpretationand explanation stage And the two parts ending this study are Conclusion andReferences

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Political Discourse and Speech

We may come across two interpretations of a discourse A broader one and a narrowerone The former, as called by Teun A van Dijk, is a communicative event, which

“involves a number of social actors in a specific setting (time, place, circumstances)and based on other context features”, and the latter is “the verbal dimension of thespoken or written communicative act of a communication event” (Teun A van Dijk,1998: 194), basically a talk or text In Fairclough’s view, it is “the whole process ofsocial interaction of which a text is just a part” (Fairclough, 2001: 24) So thecommunicative event is equally important to the product of it

Teun A van Dijk defines political discourse as “the text and talk of professionalpoliticians or political institutions, such as presidents and prime ministers and othermembers of government, parliament or political parties, both at the local, national andinternational levels”, and forms of which “have political functions and implications”(1997) Whether or not a discourse is political is decided by the context- the event inwhich the discourse presentation takes place Hence, the study of a discourse cannot beonly dependent on the written text or talk itself, but is based on the context forinvestigating its inside ideological meanings as well

Many linguists suggest political discourse be seen as a form of political action In hisopinion, Barber supposes “political talk is not talk about the world; it is talk that makesand remakes the world.” (Barber, 1984: 177) Andrey G Kirillov, a lecturer at SamaraState Teacher Training University says “As politics is action in its essence, politicallanguage or political discourse can be treated as a purposeful social communicative act

in the sphere of politics “(2003).Teun A van Dijk accepts that it is a constitutive part

of the political process of e.g governing, legislating, election campaigns, partypropaganda, and so on.” (1997: 21)

The most familiar types of political discourse involve speech Speech is a written type

of political discourse which is done by one representative of a particular political party.One speaker talks about a topic in front of a number of audiences Although it is a textspoken aloud by someone, it lacks the features of spoken discourse Clearly,

speech is characterized by formal monolog form and there is no oral communicativeinteraction between the speaker and the audience The speaker expresses his/her ideas,opinions and attitudes with no hope to receive response from the audience, particularlythen The speaker plays the role as the speaker only, and the audience plays the role asthe hearers, not the listener- the fundamental characteristics of spoken language Inpolitical speeches, there is no direct interaction between the sender and the receiver ofthe information.

Most of the speeches, with specifically chosen lexicology and syntactic structures aswell, have the main characteristics of being formal, impersonal and polite (JanaLangrová, 2010: 11) For the first one, speeches are one type of formal documents such

as official reports or academic writing Their linguistic features to be detected arecomplex sentences, explicit clause and sentence linkers, subordination, non-finite andverbless clauses, subjunctive mood, impersonal constructions, uncontracted forms,generic pronoun one, polysyllabic, classical vocabulary (Dontcheva-Navratilova 52-

53, cited by Jana Langrová ) The second one can be exemplified by the fact thatalmost all speeches avoid too personal reference, which is signaled by the lack of firstperson singular Instead, the use of formal subjects, collective nouns, abstract nounsubjects and passive voice are promoted (Dontcheva-Navratilova 63, cited by JanaLangrová) The last one may be detected by the form of address, the socialcommunication formulae, the use of indirect speech acts, the formula please, and theuse of slang This is not easy to do, since whether a used language is polite or notdepends on the knowledge of both linguistic and socio-cultural aspects

The general purposes of speeches are to orientate the audience towards the future andpersuade them to believe in and act as the speaker’s will According to Dedaić, thepurpose of political speeches is “primarily persuasion rather than information or

entertainment” (Dedaić 2006: 700, cited by Lotte Skjøttgaard Sørensen in Obama ‟s New Best Speech in Tucson”) Moreover, a speech should not only get people to listen

to and accept what is said, but as described by Joe Garecht, should have “an ability tostir a crowd’s emotions through the spoken word.” as well

1.2 Critical Discourse Analysis

1.2.1 Definition of CDA

Norman Fairclough in his book Critical Discourse Analysis (1997) prefers discourse

analysis to be considered as a research tactics rather than a model of analysis CDA, inhis view points, is an approach that tends to investigate the relationships betweendiscursive practices and the social structures It is also interpretative and explanatorythat oftentimes is historical in the form of social action

1.2.2 Stages of CDA

When referring to CDA, three stages are taken into consideration Firstly, thedescriptive stage examines the basic formal properties of the discourse The followingstage, interpretation views the discourse as a result of process of production and also as

a resource in the act of interpretation And lastly, the explanation stage, mostly crucial,attempts to find the relationships between interaction and social context In

Fairclough’s Language and Power (1989), a peculiar approach to CDA is stated,

focusing on the –What of the description toward the –How and – Why of theinterpretation and explanation

1.2.3 CDA as the main approach for this study

There are several reasons why Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is often chosen asthe main approach to political discourse Firstly, the central objective of discourseanalysis is “to perceive language use as social practice “as Juraj Horváth asserts.Social, cultural and psychological frameworks are reflected in language, and languagecannot be separated from them Horvath says that CDA” studies the connectionsamong textual structures and takes social context into account and explores the linksbetween textual structures and their function in interaction within the society”.Secondly, there is a close and dependent connection between the interpretation and thelistener/the reader The interpretation emerges from the listener/reader‘s understanding

of the text which is affected by listener’s experience of the world

My analysis is dependent on Norman Fairclough's assumptions in CDA, claiming that

"ideologies reside in texts" and that "texts are open to diverse interpretations"(Fairclough, 1995)

1.3 Ideology

1.3.1 Concept of ideology

There are a variety of definitions of ideology by a number of linguists It is stated inFairclough (2001: 77) that ideology is any social policy which is in part or wholederived from social theory in a conscious way” and refers to the ““ideas which arisefrom a given set of material interests”

In Van Dijk’s viewpoint (2000: 87), there is “the basis of the social representations”

shared by members of a group which gives “a mental framework of beliefs aboutsociety and the cognitive and social functions of such a framework for groups” (1998:9) Ideology as a system of beliefs can be expressed in “symbols, rituals, discourse andother social and cultural practices” (1998: 26)

Although ideology can be expressed both in the form and content of discourse,ideological meaning can only be reproduced through the interpretation and explanation

of text

1.3.2 Role of ideology

When individuals or groups in society truly believe that their ideology can give theright answer to challenges and problems, they take for granted that it enables them toachieve their goals Since they have access to various types of discourse, they cancontrol the creation and content of discourse, so as to persuade and control publicopinion to their beliefs Language, therefore, proves to be very important in persuadingand manipulating and one of the most important means of domination and control

Van Dijk (1998: 244) defines persuasion as a process in which listeners change theiropinions under the influence of some discourse Once the listeners’ opinions havechanged, the speaker can influence their subsequent activities and participation insociety (2003: 355)

1.4 Concept of values

According to American Journal of Sociology, "values may be seen as absolutes, as

inherent in objects, as present within man, and as identical with his behavior" (Vol 62,

No 3) In sociology, values are culturally defined standards to judge desirability,

are defined by all of the things human do More broadly, they serve as guidelines for social living as well as public policies.

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHOD2.1 Collecting data

The data are firstly collected from the speech by President Barack Obama at PresidentNelson Mandela’s memorial by counting and classifying words, phrases, clauses andsentences into categories Then they are taken from other references as well, such asother previous speeches and statements by different authors I have tried to find theanswers to the following questions:

What are the grammatical and lexical items used in the text?

Is the vocabulary formal or informal?

What is special about vocabulary usage?

How many clauses/ sentences are there in the text?

What are the types of the clauses/ sentences?

What type of mode/ Is active or passive voice is prominent?

Which pronouns/nouns are commonly used?

When data have been collected and classified, they are put into the next step

2.2 Analyzing data

Norman Fairclough framework is applied with three stages:

In the first stage, description, the formal properties of the text (vocabulary, grammarand value of the discourse) are analyzed in order to illustrate political views of the USPresident about President Mandela, thanks to which the main stream America isrevealed For lexical features, experiential, relational, expressive values are thoroughlyinvestigated via analyzing vocabulary As a result, the image and values of PresidentNelson Mandela are illustrated What is more, through studying the repeated words andphrases, the audiences and participants of the speech are examined so as to clarify theobjectives of the author giving this speech And I also take formal vocabulary andclassification schemes into account so that the powerfulness and persuasiveness of thespeech is proved For grammatical features, the study analyzes the applied pronouns,active and passive voice, mode of the sentences and modality These help to reveal thespeaker’s attitude, opinion and purpose when giving this speech At the end of thisstage, I would like to investigate

the connective values which provide the text with cohesion and coherence In addition,transitivity and thematic structures are examined so that the power and ideology of thespeaker are clarified macro-structurally.

In the interpretation stage, context is considered as the main factor for interpretation.Field, mode, and tenor - three aspects of the context, also the determining factors forthe linguistic features of the text are discussed as well Besides, the discourse isinterpreted with regard to situational context and intertextual context so as to realizethe relationship between text and interaction – with seeing the text as a product of aprocess of production, and as a resource in the process of interpretation

In the last stage, explanation, the Discourse Process and Social Practice in theDiscourse are taken as the main explanations for study The aim of this stage is toanalyze the relationship between interaction and social context – with the socialdetermination of the processes of production and interpretation, and their social effects’(Fairclough, 2001) in order to discover how they are determined by social structuresand what productive effects discourse can have on those structures

CHAPTER 3: AN ANALYSIS OF BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH AT

NELSON MANDELA’S MEMORIAL3.1 Context of the chosen text

3.1.1 Nelson Mandela, life and death

The speech was given on December 10th, 2014 at the Memorial of Nelson Mandela.Mandela’s real name is Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013).His father died when Nelson was nine and he was the first person in his family toattend school Mandela began his political career early in his young adulthood

In 1962, Mandela was arrested, and after 27 years of being imprisoned, he wasreleased in 1989 In 1992, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work toend apartheid Two years later, he was elected president of South Africa

When his administration ends in 1999, Nelson Mandela was dedicated to endingglobal poverty and helping to resolve wars and conflicts throughout Africa

In June 2004, at the age of 85, Mandela announced that he was "retiring fromretirement" and began to suffer from illness He died at his home in Johannesburg on 5December 2013 Despite his failing health, Mandela still participated in someinternational affairs

After suffering from a prolonged respiratory infection, Mandela died on 5 December

2013 at the age of 95, A national mourning period of ten days was announced on 6December 2013, with the memorial, the main event held at the FNB Stadium inJohannesburg on 10 December 2013 A state funeral was held on 15 December 2013 inQunu, South Africa President Barack Obama is one ofapproximately 90representatives of foreign states travelling to South Africa to attend the memorialevent

3.1.2 Nelson Mandela’s ideology

His leading life is rehearsed in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom Even the

name of the autobiography expresses his purpose life: freedom His ideas are also

pointed out clearly in Obama’s speech: “I’ve cherished the ideal of a democratic and

free society in which all persons live together in harmony and [with] equalopportunities It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve But if needs be, it is

an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

In his life, Mandela was known as a great South African anti-apartheid revolutionary,politician, and philanthropist and served as President of South Africa from 1994 to

1999 He was South Africa's first black chief executive, and the first elected in a fullyrepresentative democratic election The focus of his government is on destroying thelegacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalized racism, poverty and inequality,and fostering racial reconciliation and his life hope is to bring down the presentoppressive government in his country and rebuild the country based on democracy,freedom, and above all, equality His life provides an inspiration to all who areoppressed and deprived as well as to all who are opposed to oppression anddeprivation

3.2 Textual Description and Analysis

The analysis of text is a necessary process in discourse analysis in general and criticaldiscourse analysis in general According to Fairclough (1989), there are three stages ofCDA, in which description is the first one The aim of this stage is to investigate lexicaland grammatical features such as vocabulary, verb tenses, sentence modes, mood,modality, transitivity process etc., basing on which some power relations andideologies are conveyed In this part, qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis areemployed, with the collection of data from the chosen speech and other CDA booksand documents

3.2.1 Vocabulary Analysis

Fairclough, in his book Language and Power (2001) claimed that formal features of

texts have experiential, relational, expressive or connective value, or some combination

of these I will take the vocabulary into consideration to encode these values The firstone deals with contents and knowledge and beliefs The second one focuses onrelations and social relationships enacted via the text The third one aims to concernsubjects and social identities And since connective value is related to somegrammatical aspects, this last one will be discussed in one sub-part of GrammaticalAnalysis

Experiential and expressive values are expressed in the vocabulary features of thetext

The Image and Values of Nelson Mandela

With chosen vocabulary, the image of Nelson Mandela is built up with an attitude ofrespect and admiration throughout the speech Never in his administration has BarackObama represented any person so appreciatively.

In the first place, Nelson Mandela is described as a great liberator of the 20th century

At the very beginning of the speech, related words are employed to describe the values

of Nelson Mandela

It is shown that Nelson Mandela is a great person of freedom, a person who has spentall his life fighting for the freedom and democracy, who has left influences on not onlyhis nation, but also billions around the world

Also, in the rest of the speech, these types of relating and repetitive words including

freedom, democracy,justice and phrases are assigned strategically.

moral necessity of racial justice.

The speaker also quotes several of Mandela’s sayings, which clearly representMandela’s viewpoints and ideas, persuade his listeners and readers about the truth ofhis ideas about Mandela, and make the speech more convincing:

all persons live together in harmony and (with) equal opportunities”

In the second place, the image of Nelson Mandela is drawn out as a person of

tolerance A person of self-acceptance:

(line 32) He could be not only admit to imperfection

and in his private life, he was not strong and outstanding as the way he is regarded afigure of the century,

(line 34, 35) He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood- a son and a husband, a father and a friend

He learned from those he didn’t agree with, as well as learned the language and the

customs of his oppressor (line 63).

Mandela taught us the power of action, but he also taught us the power of ideas, the importance of reason and arguments; the need to study not only those who you agree with, but also those who you don’t agree with (line 57, 58)

After he succeeded in bring about peace to his nation, Mandela believed that

reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth(line 89, 90), and he decided to free not just the

prisoner, but also the jailer

Then, throughout the speech, the prominent value of Mandela that is represented inthe strategic language by Obama is non-violence By calling Mandela a liberator andusing the word “ struggle” much more than “ fight”, Obama means that everythingwhich is done in the great life of Mandela is for liberation, not war

for those around us

To sum up, with a not very long speech, President Obama can summarizes and reset the life and career of Nelson Mandela, basing on which his ideas about the deceased

are expressed Also, this is an effective way to represent the ideas and characteristicattitude of American people, often called mainstream America; that is towardsfreedom, democracy, justice and equality.

Audiences and Participants

The speaker of the speech is President Barack Obama His full name is BarackHussein Obama II, born on August 4, 1961, who won two elections and became the44th and current President of the United States He is also the first African-American tohold this position The identity of the speaker is mentioned several times in the speech:

(line 126-130) Over 30 years ago, while still a student, I learned of Nelson

Mandela and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land, and

it stirred something in me It woke me up to my responsibilities to others and to myself, and it set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example, he makes me want to be a better man.

The speech was given at the memorial on 10 December 2013 of President NelsonMandela, the former president of South Africa and one of the greatest leaders of ourtime So, the target hearers are, first, the people of South Africa, then people all overthe world There seems to be something in common between the two persons Both ofthem are black and their objective for life is to fight for democracy

At the very beginning of the speech, the audience that Obama would like to address isMandela’s family The next audiences are the current president of South Africa, themembers of government, the distinguished guests, and the people of South Africa.Calling Mandela’s wife with her real name, as well as employing a nickname Mandibafor Mandela later through the text, Obama creates an intimate and warm atmospherefor the speech

(line 1,2,3) To Graça Machel and the Mandela family; to President Zuma and members of the government; to heads of states and government, past and present;

distinguished guests it is a singular honor to be with you today, to celebrate a life like no other

Then in the text, the scope of audience is bigger and bigger There are not only the

audience at the memorial and the people of South Africa, but “those he inspired

around the globe” as well; and then “let me say to the young people of Africa and the young people around the world”.

In the text, the name Madiba is repetitively used 11 times This results in the warmfeeling that the reader and hearers may have when reading or listening to the speech.Whenever the intimate name is called, there seems to be a close relationship betweentwo friends, the speaker and the deceased person It seems not to be a formal speechthat a head of a nation gives out to memorize and eulogize another

(line 15,

century.

(line 28,

Instead, Madiba insisted on sharing with us his doubts and his fears

with Madiba’s struggle for freedom

( like 129,

130)

And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example

comfort within the four walls of his cell

Besides, while the first pronoun plural we is widely used, making the audiences more

involved and connected as discussed in the next part of this study the first pronoun

singular I appears sometimes in the text For examples:

(line 126,

128) Over 30 years ago, while still a student, I learned of Nelson

Mandela and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land, and

it stirred something in me.

want to be a better man.

(line 98,

I is the subject used for a person only Obama would like to talk about his personal

experiences as well as his responsibilities as an ordinary human, or a president Hewould also like to emphasize that it is he who must follow Mandela’s example, to

contribute to build a better world On contrary, the addressing we, with a sense of

sharing and solidarity, involves all people into one union with the aspirations ofdemocracy and peace

Formal Vocabulary

Formal language in academic writing and in political documents and speeches is usedwith the aim of avoiding the use of slang and colloquial language.The formality of thesocial relations in a formal situation, which expresses relational value, is indicatedeffectively thanks to the choice of vocabulary in the speech A variety of formal wordsand phrases are used instead of informal ones as seen in the following examples:

(line 19) endure (line 23) erect a constitutional order

When these words are used occasionally in the text, they demonstrate the speaker’sconcern about the classes of audience and the solemnity of the memorial With the use

of formal language, the speech has the necessary appropriate politeness of an importantmeeting and the proper manner of the speaker Thanks to the formality, the importance

of the speech is emphasized and as a result, the attraction to the speech is enhanced

Classification Schemes

As Fairclough suggests (2001), lexical meanings are the result of the vocabularyselection made by speakers or writers from members’ resources They are reflected bythe author’s own knowledge, opinion, attitude and emotions, so that they conveyexpressive and experiential values As discussed in the Theoretical Part, experientialvalues show the speaker’s view of the world, involving his negative or positive attitudetowards an issue while the expressive values show how the speaker’s evaluation isexpressed According to Fairclough (2002), classification schemes are systems ofevaluation, in terms of which vocabulary is organized, to analyze the attitude of theauthor in a discourse In the speech, the classification scheme is drawn to represent thevalues of the deceased person and express the speaker’s attitude toward PresidentNelson Mandela:

17

the scope of his accomplishments, the adoration that he so rightly earned

(line 28,

(line 37,

38)

(line 91,

92)

Madiba’s passing is rightly a time of mourning

By using such positive words and phrases, the speaker expressed his admiration andadoration to the deceased person He also emphasizes that Mandela’s life is one like noother, a great life from which we can learn so much The influence that Mandela has tothe world is not only his tireless struggle or his outstanding triumph, but also his heartand everlasting spirit For the first time to make a speech, Obama concludes what he

speaks with an emotional and touching remark “we will miss him deeply” as his

sympathy for his audience With this sentence, the politician succeeded in drawing theaudience into his emotional currents and the meaningfulness of his speech, from whichthe consensus and support from the audience may be gained

3.2.2 Grammatical analysis

First plural and third singular pronoun

According to Fairclough (2002), the use of pronouns “we, I and they” helps make up

the relational value of grammatical features In the text, the pronouns “we, us, he” are

of frequent occurrence

Table 1: Common pronouns in the speech

This form of address to the audience can be perceived as more inclusive, including allnationalities and ethnicities, applying a more democracy-centered attitude In the firstpart of the speech, President Obama addresses to a variety of audiences who arepresent at the memorial, including Graca Machel and Mandela family, the first belovedperson in Mandela’s life, then to President Zuma and members of the government, toboth past and present heads of states and government, and to distinguished guests This

is an appropriate chosen order of addressing when talking about a positive person Thespeaker emphasizes that the memorial of President Nelson Mandela is to celebrate alife like no other, which expresses that he appreciates and admires the great liberator ofthe 20th century Besides, the addressing also is to the people of South Africa,Mandela’s beloved hometown and country The speaker honorably thanks the people

of South Africa, people of every race and walk of life, most of whom are black anddespised for thousands of year, for sharing Nelson Mandela with the world

The pronoun with the second most frequent occurrence is he, as seen as in some

examples:

He is the third singular subject which refers to President Nelson Mandela, the focus of

the speech The pronoun is frequently employed in the text so as to emphasize theposition and role of the character in the liberation and democracy evolution ofparticularly the people of America and generally people all over the world Theaddressing shows the admiration that President Obama, on behalf of American people,has to President Mandela The repetition of this simple word in the above sentencesreveals what Mandela has suffered and the most prominent positive changes Mandelahas achieved in his leading career, as well as his spiritual influence on other people

In the last sentence consisting of the pronoun he, the speaker makes a conclusion he

makes me want to be a better man Mandela is the president of the South Africa.

Obama is the president of America The remark that Mandela has such strong influence

on Obama is a clever strategy attracting the world’s sympathy and support sinceObama accepts to step down and follow Mandela, the leader of liberation anddemocracy

Passive and active voice

The choice of passive voice and active voice helps express what the speaker impliesand this results in indicating expressive values of the text There are 191 clauses in thetext and most of all are in active form

(line 59,

(line

119 )

Nelson Mandela remind us that………

When talking about Mandela, the author mostly use active voice to give focus on thedeceased great president In contrast, to emphasize that it is humans who still have toencounter and endure the struggle and challenges, passive voice is occasionallyapplied

(line 106, 107) men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs

However, this is also an effective way to focus on the events instead of the agents:

With the use of voices, the experiential values are therefore expressed clearly

Mode of sentences

Fairclough (1997, p404) suggests that there are three major modes includingdeclarative, grammatical question and imperative As can be seen in the text, most ofthe sentences are declarative, two of them are imperative ones and one of them is

grammatical question (How well have I applied his lessons in my own life?)

In general, declarative mode involves confirmation or giving information In the text,almost every declarative sentence is employed to help to remind people about life andaccomplishments of President Mandela, his lively life, talents and strong power,spiritual and emotional effects that he had on billions of people They also

clearly states the struggles that people in South Africa, America and all over the worldface with at present The relational values are implied with such high frequency of thedeclarative mode, which concerns the part of the information receivers.

Besides, with the low percentage of imperative mood in the text, the speaker likes torequest other people to do some actions The imperative mood is shown in thefollowing clauses:

around the world

(line 133, 134) let us search then for his strength for his largeness of spirit

somewhere inside ourselves

The first two clauses begin with let: let me and let us Using the former, the speaker would like to refer to himself as a president, on behalf of his nation, say to the young

people of Africa, and young people around the world The latter focuses not only on me-the speaker, but you- the audience as well, by using the first pronoun plural us This

means President Obama, as well as every people in the world, can follow Mandela’sstrength and spirit to step on the way to justice, liberation, democracy and peace

Modality

Modality plays an important role in creating relational values and expressive ones ingrammar As defined in The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, modality is “theexpression of the speaker's opinions about present likelihood or about obligation: (a)(narrowly) by means of a modal auxiliary verb; (b) (more widely) using any of thelinguistic means available” In the text, modality is clearly and commonly expressed inthe form of modal auxiliaries as analyzed below:

Modal auxiliaries

Would: evaluation of the truth

century.

(line 16) Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement

(line 18, 19) Like King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the

oppressed, and the moral necessity of racial justice.

Kennedy and Khrushchev (line 21, 22) he would like Lincoln hold his country together when it

threatened to break apart Like America's founding fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations

In the statements containing would, the speaker would like to give a certain evaluation

of the events happening in Mandela’s life, what challenges he got through and a

confirmation about his position “ Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of

the 20th century” This modal auxiliary plays a part in providing the text with a sense

because he could be so full of good humor

(line 48,

49)

so men and women could stand up for their God-given dignity

In the first three statements, the speaker would like to make a positive deduction about

Mandela’s personality from what he said and what he did And the last could represent

the probability of the results that may happen

Can: possibility

23

South Africa shows we can change.

but by our common hopes.

(line 122,

justice and opportunity.

(line

By employing the modal auxiliary can, the speaker emphasizes the possibility of what

we will do in the future, and the direction that we will follow The repetition of “we

can” may be considered as an affirmation of the ability to learn from Mandela to make

the world better

Must: duty, necessity

Again, the repetitive use of must bring about a sense of duty and/or necessity Instead

of saying “We, too, must act on behalf of justice and peace”, Obama divided justice and peace and put them into two sentences with the emphatic words “we, too, must act

on” This results in a stronger and more persuasive voice in the above sentences.

Will: determination

Another modal auxiliary, will, in the following sentences gives a sense of

determination about what happens in the future

(line 124) We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again.

(line 140) We will miss him deeply.

Connective values of the text

In the text, the repetition is normally employed Words or whole phrases, usually arange of expressions corresponding to the type of political speech are repeated in thediscourse, especially the pronouns

Examples:

Connectors:

There are a number of connectors used in the text, such as but, instead, and, for,

moreover, because, and finally, and so, too, but the most common ones are but and and The former appears 11 times as the connectors, while the latter accounts for 13

times “But”, which is often used to show a contradiction, is applied here to contrastthe different characteristic aspects and evaluation of President Mandela

This is proved in the following examples:

(line 28, 29, 30) it’s tempting I think to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait.

(line 59, 60) Mandela taught us the power of action, but he also taught us the power

of ideas; the importance of reason and arguments

The second common connector in the text, 'and', is used as a conjunction when thewords or phrases are of equal importance and both conditions exist In many

examples, the speaker makes use of the simple word to talk about parallel actions orevents and list what Mandela did in his leading life.

(line 65- 68) He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement And he learned the language and the customs of his oppressor so that one day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depends upon his.

3.2.3 Thematization Analysis

A detailed analysis of themes of the speech in can be viewed in Appendix 2 In thefollowing table, a summary of thematic analysis is given:

Table 2: Summary of thematization analysis

As can be seen from the summary above, the topical theme is predominant in the text,

of which there are 21 marked ones and 126 are unmarked ones The number of marked

theme includes adverbs of time (today, one day, over 30 years ago, finally), and other

adverb phrases and adverbial clauses as below:

Born during World War I

Emerging from prison

Given the sweep of his life

In the arc of his life

like other early giants of the ANC

No matter how right

On core principles

With honesty, regardless of our station or our circumstance

in America, and in South Africa, and in countries all around the globe

The adverbs of time are mainly used in order to express the chorological order of events

mentioned in the speech The others are adverb phrases of place (in America,

and in South Africa, and in countries all around the globe, for around the world today,

In the arc of his life), manner (like Gandhi, like Dr King, like America’s Founding Father, like other early giants of the ANC, like South Africa, with honesty, regardless of our station or our circumstance, on core principles) and reduced adverbial clauses(Born during World War I, Emerging from prison, Given the sweep of his life, No matter how right) Especially, the word like is repeated 4 times in order to make comparison

between President Nelson Mandela with other admirable contemporary leaders ofdemocracy movements

The main unmarked topical themes are proper nouns (Madiba, Mandela, the

Constitution, South Africa) and animate nouns (most of them are he and we) indicating

that the main character to be mentioned in the speech is President Mandela and theparticipants are the speaker and the audience Whereas, a large number of the inanimate

nouns (his struggle, his triumph, your dignity, your hope, your freedom, your

democracy, etc.) are abstract words applied in order to emphasize the success of

Mandela’s life as well as persuasively pull the audience in the contents of Obama’sspeech and his own ideology

For textual themes, they are represented via conjunctions like and, but, so, so that,

etc and creates connective values to the whole text which have been discussed in the

previous part

3.2.4 Macro-level Analysis

There are two types of structures in a normal text, firstly the microstructure whichconveys the local relations among subsequent clauses, the surface of a text, which hasbeen explored in the previous part with lexical and grammatical analysis and secondlythe macrostructure, the overall structure, which conveys the meaning that the speakerimplies As Van Dijk (1980) claims, ‘macrostructures’ represent the various notions ofglobal meaning” of a discourse, embody its important information, and explain overallcoherence of the discourse Also, according to Van Dijk, there are four procedures forseparating the macrostructure from a given discourse (1977: 144-146) Firstly,

attributive deletion is a procedure in which attributes and other less important parts of

the text are irrecoverably deleted This is followed by predictive deletion, in which deleted information is inductively recoverable The next procedure is simple

generalization, in which a more generic term will be used to replace

information In the last one, integration, a more general term entailing all of the

processes will be the result of the combination of descriptions of processes Oninvestigating the speech, I found out the macrostructure statements as below And inthis part, I would like to analyze the macrostructure points more clearly

1 Reasons for the speech

2 The values of Nelson Mandela: a liberator, a person of non-violence and tolerance

3 The on-going struggles

At the beginning of the speech, Obama states the reason why he is standing and

making a speech at Mandela’s memorial

Table 3: Reasons of making the speech

number

To eulogize, to capture in words not just the facts and the dates 10-11that make a life, but the essential truth of a person their private

joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities

The next macrostructure points spreads from line 14 to line 24 in the form of thelist, in which the figure of President Nelson Mandela as a liberator is clearlydemonstrated

Table 4: Mandela as a liberator, a person who struggles for liberation and democracy

Mandela as a liberator, a person who struggles for liberation and Line

A boy raised herding cattle and tutored by the elders of his Thembu tribe 14-15

Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century 15-16

He would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed and the moral 18-19

necessity of racial justice.

He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of 19-20Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War

He would hold his country together when it threatened to break apart 21-22

He would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future 23-24generations

In this part, the author draws out a summary of Mandela’s career as a liberatorthrough his life By using several simple short sentences, the most prominent roles andsuccesses that Mandela had are revealed shortly and specifically

Along with the image of Mandela as a liberator who struggles for liberation anddemocracy, the speaker also draws out his characteristics and skills as an ordinaryhuman, of which the most vial one is tolerance This is illustrated from line 29 to line90

Table 5: Mandela as a person of tolerance and non-violence

Mandela as a person of tolerance and non-violence Line

numberMadiba insisted on sharing with us his doubts and his fears; his 29-30miscalculations along with his victories

He could admit to imperfection because he could be so full of good 32-33humor, even mischief, despite the heavy burdens he carried

He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood 34

He earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness, and 37-38persistence and faith

He tells us what is possible not just in the pages of history books, but 38-39

in our own lives as well

Mandela showed us the power of action; of taking risks on behalf of 40our ideals

He shared with millions of black and colored South Africans the anger 42-45born of, “a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand

unremembered moments…a desire to fight the system that imprisoned

my people

Madiba disciplined his anger and channeled his desire to fight into 47organization, and platforms, and strategies for action

He accepted the consequences of his actions, knowing that standing up 49-50

to powerful interests and injustice carries a price

Mandela taught us the power of action, but he also taught us the 56-58power of ideas; the importance of reason and arguments; the need to

study not only those who you agree with, but also those who you don’t

agree with

He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls, or 58-59extinguished by a sniper’s bullet

He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread 62-63his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement

He learned the language and the customs of his oppressor so that one 63-64day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depends

upon his

Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough; they must 66

be chiseled into law and institutions

He was practical, testing his beliefs against the hard surface of 66-67circumstance and history

He was unyielding and could rebuff offers of unconditional release 68-69

He was not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larger goal 71

His recognition that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible 78-80

to the eye; that there is an oneness to humanity; that we achieve

ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around

us

He shows that you must trust others so that they may trust you;to teach 88-90that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means

of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth

Being a great liberator of the 20th century, Mandela is not one of the most strong andinfluential leader in the world, but he is a person with the same attitude, emotion,happiness, anger and life as an ordinary person as well That is the reason why he