Persuasive Strategies in Political Speeches: a Contrastive Analysis of Barack Obama's and Donald Trump's Electoral Speeches
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Masaryk University Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature Persuasive strategies in political speeches: A contrastive analysis of Barack Obama's and Donald Trump's electoral speeches Diploma Thesis Brno 2021 Supervisor: Author: doc. Mgr. Martin Adam, Ph.D. Bc. Jana Veselá, DiS. I hereby declare that I have worked on this thesis independently and that I have used only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. Kroměříž, 5th April 2021 Jana Veselá Acknowledgement In this place I would like to express gratitude and thank my supervisor doc. Mgr. Martin Adam, Ph.D., for his guidance, valuable advice, helpful criticism, endless patience. Abstract This thesis presents a contrastive discourse analysis of Barack Obama's and Donald Trump's political electoral speeches with a focus on persuasive strategies. It provides a theoretical background for the analytical part dealing with basic concepts of political discourse and persuasion. The main aim of the thesis is to analyse collected electoral speeches with a focus on selected persuasive strategies on the basis of their relation to the three Aristotelian types of appeal to the audience, to observe differences in persuasive techniques between the 44th president and 45th president of the USA, and to determine the impact of the analysed strategies on a persuasive potential of the political speeches. Key words: discourse analysis, political discourse, communication in politics, electoral speeches, Barack Obama's political speeches, Donald Trump's political speeches, persuasion, persuasive strategies, logos, ethos, pathos, political campaigns Anotace Tato práce představuje srovnávací diskurzní analýzu politických volebních proslovů Baracka Obamy a Donalda Trumpa se zaměřením na persvazivní strategie. Poskytuje teoretický podklad pro analytickou část práce zabývající se základními koncepty politického diskurzu a persvaze. Hlavním cílem práce je analyzovat sesbírané politické proslovy se zaměřením na vybrané persvazivní strategie na základě jejich vztahu ke třem aristotelovským typům apelu k publiku, pozorovat rozdíly co se týče persvazivních technik mezi 44. a 45. prezidentem Spojených států amerických a stanovit dopad analyzovaných strategií na persvazivní potenciál daných politických proslovů. Klíčová slova: diskurzní analýza, politický diskurz, politická komunikace, volební proslovy, politické proslovy Baracka Obamy, politické proslovy Donalda Trumpa, persvaze, persvazivní strategie, logos, étos, patos, politická kampaň “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 9 Theoretical part ........................................................................................................................ 12 1. Persuasion ......................................................................................................................... 12 2. Rhetoric and Aristotle ...................................................................................................... 15 2.1 Three types of persuasive speeches ....................................................................... 16 3. Persuasion in politics ....................................................................................................... 17 4. Persuasive strategies ........................................................................................................ 21 4.1 Intertextuality ........................................................................................................... 25 4.2 Figurative language .................................................................................................. 27 4.3 Sharing the personal experience ............................................................................ 30 4.4 Direct appeal to the audience ................................................................................. 30 4.5 Speech acts ................................................................................................................ 31 5. Summary ........................................................................................................................... 33 Practical part ............................................................................................................................. 34 6. Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 34 7. Logos .................................................................................................................................. 35 7.1 Intertextuality ........................................................................................................... 35 7.1.1 Intertextuality in Barack Obama's speeches ................................................. 40 7.1.2 Intertextuality in Donald Trump's speeches ................................................ 46 7.1.3 Results ................................................................................................................ 51 7.2 Figurative language .................................................................................................. 53 7.2.1 Figurative language in Barack Obama's speeches ....................................... 53 7.2.2 Figurative language in Donald Trump's speeches ....................................... 62 7.2.3 Results ................................................................................................................ 67 8. Ethos .................................................................................................................................. 70 8.1 Sharing the personal politician's experience ........................................................ 70 8.1.1 Barack Obama's personal experience in his speeches ................................. 71 8.1.2 Donald Trump's personal experience in his speeches ................................. 75 8.1.3 Results ................................................................................................................ 80 9. Pathos ................................................................................................................................. 82 9.1 Direct appeal to the audience ................................................................................. 82 9.1.1 Barack Obama's direct appeal in his speeches ............................................. 83 9.1.2 Donald Trump's direct appeal in his speeches ............................................. 86 9.1.3 Results ................................................................................................................ 89 9.2 Speech acts ................................................................................................................ 90 9.2.1 Speech acts in Barack Obama's speeches ...................................................... 91 9.2.2 Speech acts in Donald Trump's speeches ...................................................... 95 9.2.3 Results ................................................................................................................ 99 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 102 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 106 Appendices .............................................................................................................................. 112 Introduction This thesis investigates Barack Obama's and Donald Trump's political electoral speeches using a contrastive analysis with a focus on persuasive strategies according to three classical rhetoric Aristotelian concepts logos, ethos, and pathos. Politics creates an important part of everybody's life and the political rhetoric has been taught since the time of Aristotle who mastered oratory and rhetorical skills of his followers. Aristotle himself considered the art of persuasion as the key for the politics. Thus, rhetoric has become a part of classical education for thousands of years. Furthermore, politicians themselves use persuasive techniques that convince citizens to vote them or to sign a petition to change a law. I have decided to study this topic because I would like to examine how persuasion works and because I am interested in politicians' tactics based on the logical arguments that are influenced on psychological approach to gain the desired behaviour from the audience. The sphere of my interest is the candidacy for the president of the United States in particular. Therefore, for the purpose of this thesis I have chosen two politicians