The term “genre” derives from the Latin word for “type” or “very level.” Traditionally, the word was used to refer to literature and cultural encounters. Liu (2012) observes that in recent years, linguists and language experts have expanded the time allotted for language lessons and contact courses in different facets of life (Liu 2406). Furthermore, since the 1970s, significant attention has been paid to stylistics, syntactical features, or other forms of discourse that have been turned into an in-depth and multi-faceted example, and text linguistics. All these emergencies have defined the macro-formations and connective exercises of discourse, and therefore, the appearance of genre evaluation and ultimately results in a significant branch of dialogue assessment (Liu 2407).
Apparently, there are two notable schools of thought in the specialization of linguistics that narrow down to the theory of genre,’ these include the Swalesian School, whose exemplars are both Vijak K. Bhatia and John M. Swales, whereas, the Australian School is represented by Jim R. Martin (Flowerdew 370). The English political utterances that indicate the social-cultural outcome of the West is an illustration of the Western attributes of reasoning as well as speaking. Thus, for instance, the American Presidential Inaugural Addresses (APIAs) is frequently acknowledged illustrative of English political talk. In essence, their assumptions that APIAs studies from the viewpoint of genre evaluation can facilitate the comprehension of how speakers and writers choose approaches to accomplish their dissemination goals amidst the pressure to establish every genre and that it is affiliated to which discourse (Liu 2408).
Therefore, in an exploration of the speeches of political candidates, the type analysis falls under rhetoric language. According to Horwood and Driver (2002), an oratory language is a form of oral speaking that is compelling and meant to influence the audience. Further, is denotes a combination of instructions applied by an individual to accomplish the most satisfactory and meaningful articulation (Horwood and Driver 2). Therefore, by employing rhetoric to speech, people can speak both efficiently and persuasively as well as implement the style of elegance and art. All political candidates have preferred the use of usual rhetoric as an apparatus to persuade their listeners (Dickson and Scheve 1-3). The following key points characterize a good speech:
The speech intended for a certain occasion that is proper in that circumstance.
The speech properly utilizes eloquence and art.
Employing effectual language to talk and persuade.
Although in various instances the term rhetoric is applied in a manner that is derogatory, it implies artificiality in the speech in areas. These are: where there is lack of actual material that proves sense within empty utterances, an eloquent statement has great potential as a technique that can ordinarily modify speech into an enjoyable experience (Bakhtin 15-18). There are some ways that a particular text can be made effectual and forming of entire paragraphs, as well as complete versions, is one of the many important methods by which a speaker grabs the focus of the audience. Nevertheless, the primary importance of a good speech requires disseminating the piece of information or important message with rhetorical characteristics (Dickson and Scheve 4-7).
Objectives
This essay will purport to determine the attributes of utterances in powerful political speeches of different leaders that include: speeches of Tony Blair, George Bush, and Barack Hussein Obama. Keyword repetition will characterize the disparities in these talks, the outlining of key ideas, the flow of thoughts or ideas and accumulation or extra words continuously that have similar sounds and effect. The inclusion of rhetorical questions and language as well as inferences of incidences that are not current, therefore, the aims for this exploration stands out as a conceptual interest in the correlative success of speeches by Blair, Bush and Obama (Bakhtin 28-32). Thus as will be observed in the political statements, the characteristics of rhetorical features are elaborate and also, the effect they have to cause an impact or influence the audience.
Evaluation of the Speeches
The study will also determine, using the selected concepts of rhetoric and genre, an account of the speeches. For instance, there will be an application of the Classical Rhetoric evolved by Aristotle and therefore, will be used to evaluate the rhetorical approaches and instruments for the Obamas inaugural speech. The theories include the following:
The rhetorical scenario that encompasses various aspects: such as the topic of dialogue, audience, the link between topic and audience and the rhetor (Crowley & Hawhee 27).
Debates or proofs: refer to 3 types of arguments including logos, ethos, and pathos that are implemented by the rhetor to persuade the audience (Rapp 5).
Classical Canons of rhetoric, which is a design and style (Crowley and Hawhee 36).
Inaugural Speech of President Obama
President Obamas address encompasses a broad use of rhetoric dialogue which is indeed a robust communicative tool to articulate his American vision and initiate the goals for the country. From Denton and Hahns (1986) description of speech, we can understand that the address was rather rhetorical and convincing organization which comprised of social duty, creates context for gathering information, as well as facilitates the oral explanation of the country as well as it history. The goal of the presidential inaugural is to integrate and restore the audience, to reflect on national values, to articulate the agenda and action plans of the new government (Iqbal 9).
Moreover, driven by the goal to unite and collaborate with people of the nation, Obama is seen to have rehearsed the countrys values, drawing them from past experiences of success and national coherence among the citizens. Obama quotes that . . . all people are created equal; that they are supplied right to life, the goal towards happiness and liberty (Rapp 3). This shows that he was clearly aware of the expectations of the electorates and had prepared himself to meet them. His inaugural speech got termed as very inspirational and an eye opener to the majority of American voters.
The involvement of George Bush is a bit more forceful in the conclusion part than the beginning because it ends with Bushs energetic declaration as indicated by Cirincione et al. (2004), My fellow countrymen, the perils to our nation and the globe will be defeated . . . We will provide liberty to others, and we will win (Cirincione et al. 20-25). Indeed, the context of George Bushs address to the American population in 2003 was an establishment of a justification expression to the reasons for the Iraq attack and need to do so that the Americans will obtain victory. There is a federal register portrayed here as well and official and vindicatory. In spite that the speech lacks dramatic illustrations, the concluding statements are quite forceful and influencing attributes. Furthermore, the perceptions of Bush in the speech are not as conspicuous as in the Obamas speech, however, it reviews the impacted time and location as it was in America and the expression declaration happened at a time that fear and unrest had occupied the American societies (Cirincione et al. 25).
Tony Blairs speech as the Prime Minister of Britain gets attributed to neither considerable influence at the start nor a clear justification at the end as to the reasons why military reaction in Iraq was essential. According to Chandler (2003), there is one indication of emphasis in one of Blairs paragraph such as So our preference is clear: withdraw and preserve Saddam greatly fortified or rather progress to defeat him through force. Withdraw could provide a chance of respite. However, years of redemption at our flaws would be a conviction flow (Chandler 298). The register presented here shows an ideology as well as an association of the government and the citizens in some very distinct way. The season and location of the speech is also just before the conflict and appears to vary from Bin Ladens statement that was made after the effect of the war got experienced
Lexis
Lexis is an additional fundamental component of a style used in writing and primarily focused on appealing particular audiences through the engagement of words, particularly terms that are significant to improve the style of document (Bakhtin 30-43). According to Thorne and Scott (2005, 4-7), lexical characteristics are not just terms that describe certain inferences but conventional components of words.
In George Bushs declaration, he advances with the following, My American comrades, at this juncture, American and collaborative forces
protect the world from extreme danger (Cirincione et al. 120). This statement emerges to constitute a unique form as phrases like ‘my American comrades,’ ‘at this juncture’ seem to indicate appropriate proportions of cohesion providing the dialogue in a positive manner to the beginning. Bush further confirms, ‘To all gents and ladies of the United States Armed Forces
That trustworthiness is well accorded’. The phrases such as ‘peace of an afflicted world’ or ‘hopes of suppressed communities seem to have been established an improved outcome such that the message of the speech can be relevant to all understanding citizens that are knowledgeable (Cirincione et al. 122). The lexical formation of the sentence ‘The country advances this war reluctantly — however, our aims are clear’ is also highlighted as a particular form where the style contrary to the interpretation gains importance.
The third affirmation by Blair is marked by several vigorous styles and lexical illustrations (Chandler 290). For instance, in the sentence ‘there are other lamenting that if we act, we end up being a target. The truth is, every country can be (Chandler 296). Apparently, such word categories, ‘the truth,’ ‘if we act’ exhibit designs of coherence and approach. An additional statement However, the obstacles and others that we experience – poverty, climate change, disease epidemic are in need of liberty and stability in the world. Saddam and terrorists such as the Al Qaeda compromise the nature of sustenance of the world that is liberated and stable (Chandler 280-295). Present how various attributes in statements like disease epidemic,’ nature of sustenance and world that is liberated,’ where focus and design cause Tony Blairs speech effectual and relevant.
Analysis
From the above determination on a register and lexical as rhetorical characteristics of the three statements evaluated above. Therefore, in assessing Obamas speech, there are various metaphors, fundamental rhetoric as well as measurable effects (Achenbach A1). Ultimately, the register or rather the contextual characteristics, present Obamas speech as very impactful with a comprehensive contextual emphasis and management. Likewise, the speech of Bush has particular elements of rhetoric, however, due to the absence of metaphors or distinctive rhyming considerations that could be added to improve the effectiveness of the impact to the audience. Thus, both the context and content are not as much vigorous as they are presented and the use of strong words to describe the nation, is as well observed to have minimal effect on the community (Charteris 1-20). Many authors concur that the speech of Blair and Obama were evaluated to be the most balanced than the Bushs speeches. It is, however, with no doubt that the design of harmony, good definition of the context and content or even register that has emerged out in clear sense of the national identity of the British populations. In their statements, Obama and Blair have presented an equal quantity of metaphors and eloquence that is comprised of facts as well as content that appeals to the audiences. The debate should be compelling, form and design, and various elaborate properties of considerable lexical, and also, consider the different quantities lexical cohesion that is incorporated in beautiful and efficient speech (Thorne and Scott 398).
Conclusion
According to Liu (2011), the evaluation of genre does not uncover the existing relationship of a document or discourse, alone but even facilitates fundamentally to the comprehension of language among learners (p. 2480). From investigating the reasons for dissemination, rhetoric instances, roles and generic conventions of political address, candidates speeches can be considered as a genre. The fact that all kinds will constitute their individual cognitive framework to execute, the procedural design of political speech, are evaluated. After sampling the three speeches of well-renowned political leaders, explanation of two features of discourse as probable fundamental structures in this genre was discussed. The two attributes are evaluated and analyzed in this essay, that are based on justification or criticism of the conflict in Iraq, as well as revealing the sophistication, rhetoric, and effectiveness of the speeches. Therefore, it is important that rhetoric discourse in speech is balanced because application of excess can be reflected as it was, which appeared to lack the feeling of content and get extremely rhetoric. Similarly, the speech of Bush is identified by the application of too small attributes of metaphor and rhetoric. However, Blair and Obama had figured out their speech to be balanced in all aspects.
Works Cited
Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Texas: University of Texas Press, 2010. Print.
Chandler, David. Rhetoric without Responsibility: The Attraction of Ethical Foreign Policy. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 5.3 (2003): 295-316.
Charteris-Black, Jonathan. Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor. USA: Springer, 2011. Print.
Cirincione, Joseph, Mathews, T. Jessica, Perkovich, George, & Orton, Alexis. WMD in Iraq Evidence and Implications. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004, pp. 1-108
Cronick, Karen. The Discourse of President George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden: A Rhetorical Analysis and Hermeneutics Interpretation. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research 3.3 (2002): 1-17.
Crowley, Sharon, & Hawhee, Debra. Ancient rhetorics of contemporary students. 3rd Edn. New York: Pearson/Longman
Denton, Jr., Robert, E., & Hahn, Dan, F. Presidential Communication. New York: Praeger, 1986. Print. pp. 20-50
Dickson, Eric, S., & Scheve, Kenneth. Social Identity, Political Speech, and Electoral Competition. New York: New York University, 2005. Print.
Flowerdew, L. Using a Genre-Based Framework to Teach Organizational Structure in Academic Writing. ELT Journal 47.4 (2000): 369-378
Horwood, James, N., & Driver, Allison, L. Politocal speech and PEG access: A Legal Analysis. Community Media Review 25.4 (2002): 1-3
Iqbal, Naeem. The rhetoric of Obama: An Analysis of Rhetoric and Genre Characteristics of President Barack Obamas 2013 Inaugural Address. University of Gothenburg, 2013, pp. 1-38
Liu, Fang. Genre Analysis of American Presidential Inaugural Speech. Theory and Practice in Language Studies 2.2 (2012): 2407-2411
Rapp, C. Aristotles Rhetoric, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013
Edition), Edward N. Zatla (ed.), 2013.
Thorne, Steven, L., and Scott, Payne, J. Evolutionary Trajectories, Internet Mediated Expression, and Language Education. CALICO Journal, 2005, pp. 371-397
