TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Research Questions
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
1.5 Justification for the Study
1.6 Significance of the Study
1.7 Scope and Delimitation of the Study
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Preamble
2.1 Topical Reviews
2.1.1 Parallelism as a Foregrounding Device
2.1.2 Types of Parallelism
2.1.3 Political Discourse
2.1.4 Speech Making and Political Discourse
2.1.5 Presidential Speeches as a Form of Political
Discourse
2.1.6 Language of Politics
2.1.7 Stylistics: An Overview
2.1.8 Stylistics: A Brief History
2.1.9 The Concept of Style
2.1.10 Theories of Style
2.1.11 Situating Stylistics in Linguistics
2.1.12 Literary Stylistics and Linguistic Stylistics
2.1.13 Oral
Versus Written Styles
2.1.14 Approaches
to Stylistics
2.2 Review of Previous Studies
2.3 Theoretical Framework
2.4 Summary
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Preamble
3.2 Sources of Data
3.3 Analytic Procedure
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION AND
ANALYSIS OF DATA
4.0 Preamble
4.1 Stylistic Analysis of Barack Obama‟s
Speech
4.1.2 Phonological Level of Analyses
4.1.3 Lexical and Syntactic Level of Analyses
4.1.4 Semantic Parallelism
4.3. Stylistic Analysis of Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan‟s Presidential Speech
4.3.1 Phonological Level of Analysis
4.3.2 Lexical Level of Analysis
4.3.3 Syntactic Parallelism
4.3.4 Semantic Parallelism
4.4 General Discussion
4.5 Findings
4.6 Discussion
of Findings
4.7 Comparism between Barack Obama and
Goodluck Jonathan‟s use
of Parallelsim
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY AND
CONCLUSION
5.0 Preamble
5.1 Summary
5.2 Conclusion
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX A: Presidential
Address by President Barack Obama on the
occasion of his
second tenure inauguration
APPENDIX B: President
Goodluck Jonathan‟s Inauguration Speech
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The role of language
in every society is multi functional; it serves various purposes ranging from
communication to command and persuasion. The language of politics is a
persuasive one and hence, politicians are expected to be conversant with this
characteristic of language. The elegant use of language to perform the task of
persuading and emphasizing goes a long way in making the language of politics a
beautiful language. One of
the beautiful features of human language is the fact that it is used for social
interaction. No wonder Bloch and Trager (1942) define human language as ―a
system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates‖. In social lives of humans, language is used
to establish and maintain social relationships. It is by ―virtue of our
membership of social groups that we are able to interact with others and in
doing so, to establish our individual identity and personality‖ (Lyons 1977:51).
The act of speaking is one way by which human beings communicate feelings and
emotions as well as ideas to other members of a social group.
Speaking is the
cement that holds friendships, families, communities, societies and government
together, (Philips et al, 1985 cited in Ahmed 2012). This communication at a
formal level involves public discourse such as sermons, debates and political
speeches and language is central to meaningful political discourse. Schaffner
(1996) opines that any political action is prepared, accompanied, controlled
and influenced by language.
In countries where
true democracy is practiced, politicians can only come to power after effective
campaigning. Therefore, for elections to be won, these politicians have to be
efficient in public speaking, hence, the relationship between language and
politics is a very significant one, therefore, for any political speech to be
successful there has to be a creative use of language by the politician.
Language is used by politicians to convince, persuade but in most cases it is
used to deceive. This study, however, is not concerned with the negative or
deceptive use of language by politicians, rather, it seeks to analyse the
linguistic devices used in political speeches, most especially that of
foregrounding because that is where the concept of parallelism‘ falls.
The study of
political discourse is as old as politics itself. The emphasis the Greeks
placed on rhetoric is a case in point. Every aspect of their lives is concerned
with giving public discourse and this is often political in nature, ranging
from the speeches in the arena of any sporting events to senate debates. From
Cicero (1871) to Aristotle (1891) the concern was basically with particular
methods of social and political competence in achieving specific objectives.
While Aristotle gave a more formal twist to these overall aims, the general
principle of articulating information on policies and actions for the public
good remains constant. This general approach continues today. Public speaking
or political speeches are part of the political state of affairs. Thus, when a
man/woman is elected president, he/she faces the daunting task of public
speaking as acceptance and presidential speeches are part of the numerous
speeches he/she is expected to deliver. Therefore, the focus of this study is
to analyse how the foregrounding device of parallelism works in the
presidential speeches of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of Nigeria and
President Barrack Obama of the United State of America.
Stylistics is the
branch of linguistics that studies the use of language in specific contexts and
attempts to account for the regularities that mark the language use by
individuals or groups. Stylistics, which is often referred to as "literary
linguistics" is concerned with the linguistic choices that distinguished
genres (Poetry, Drama, Prose…etc) and with the ways in which individual writers
exploit language, Hancock (1986) cited in Ahmed (2012). Stylistics is not
always concerned with literary analysis alone. In recent times, it has expanded
its scope by delving into the analysis of other discourse types including
political discourse, which is the main focus of this study. The label
―Linguistic Stylistics‖ is given to those stylistic studies that are not a
literary exercise. Ayeomoni (2004:177) sees Linguistic Stylistics as ―an
analytical approach that helps readers to objectively study both literary
pieces and non literary materials‖. Linguistic stylistics is concerned with the
analysis, interpretation and evaluation of texts of all categories, whether
literary or non-literary, constructed with the verbal apparatus of language,
from the perspective of linguistics. Short (1996) defines Stylistics from the
perspective of linguistic study, he says ―Stylistics is concerned with relating
linguistic facts (linguistic description) to meaning (interpretation) …‖ Ibid
(1996:15). According to McMenamin and Dongdoo (2000), Linguistic Stylistics is
the scientific analysis of individual style-markers as observed and identified
in the idiolect of a single writer. In fact, the present study tackles the
notion of parallelism as a unique style marker that is highly observed on
different linguistic levels in the speeches of the American and Nigerian
presidents.
Parallelism is a
foregrounding device which refers to the use of words, phrases, clauses, or
sentences that are similar in structure, in sound or in meaning. It is useful
in the sense that it allows a writer or speaker to drive home an idea, image,
or relationship, and to force‘ the reader or listener to pay attention. The theory of foregrounding is probably the
most important theory within stylistic analysis, and foregrounding analysis is
arguably the most important part of the stylistic analysis of any text. One way
to produce foregrounding in a text is through linguistic deviation. Another way
is to introduce extra linguistic patterning into a text. The most common way of
introducing this extra patterning is by repeating linguistic structures more
often than would normally be expected to make parts of texts parallel with one
another. Such parallel structures have the same overall grammatical structure
(grammatical parallelism) and some of the words are repeated in identical
syntactic locations.
Parallelism has numerous
advantages in speech as it beautifies a speech or write-up. The patterned
repetitions always beg for attention by the listeners/readers.
Moreover, it
intensifies the listener/reader‘s excitement and suspense. Most importantly,
parallelism in political discourse serves to convey the meaning of the
discourse more comprehensively. In other words, it is basic to meaning. It is
where syntactic arrangement most deeply engages with reason. Thus, it is
fundamental to the logical structure of language. The present study is a modest
contribution that aims at analysing selected speeches by the United State
President and the Nigerian President – Barack Obama and Goodluck Jonathan to
explore the nature and effects of parallelism in the speeches. It investigates the
notion of parallelism which characterizes the style of these two presidents.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Political speeches
are often pregnant with meanings. People tend to misunderstand as well as give
false interpretation to what is said and how it is said.
President Jonathan‘s
and Obama‘s speeches are laced with various types of parallelism, and the
audience‘s inability to identify these parallel constructs will make them lose
sight of the beauty and creativity that the device brought out in the speeches.
This study will attempt to find out if this rhetorical device of repeating
similar patterns gives a better clarification and interpretation to political
speeches. It will also examine how the use of similar patterns of repetition
helps to add proper meaning and brings out creativity in these speeches.
There is always a
disparity on the language use between a native speaker and a second language
speaker. Therefore, the use of parallelism as a stylistic device between
Presidents Obama and Jonathan cannot be the same due to the fact that one is a
native speaker of English and the other is a second language speaker of
English. This study investigates the disparities in these speeches, hence, the
comparism between Obama – first language user and Goodluck – a second language
user.
Parallelism as a
stylistic device is not common in linguistic studies, that is why very few
studies have been conducted on it in this field. Does it have any significance
in linguistic analysis like it does in literary analysis? Can it be divorced
from literary stylistics and experimented in political speeches? Will it have
the same effectiveness in political speeches as it does in poetic analysis?
These are a few problems that the researcher investigates.
1.3 Research Questions
The study will seek
to answer the following research questions:
i.
What are the vital roles and the effects of parallelism
as used in political discourse?
ii.
How does parallelism contribute to the realisation of
political meaning in speeches?
iii.
How does parallelism characterize Barack Obama and
Goodluck Jonathan‘s style?
iv.
What similarities and differences exist in the use of
parallelism in speeches of the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of Nigeria and
President Barack Obama of the United States of America?
1.4 Aim and Objectives of
the Study
The main concern of
the present study is to carry out a linguistic study of parallelism as a
significant stylistic device used in the selected Presidential speeches of
Barack Obama and Goodluck Jonathan. However, the objectives are to:
i.
Provide an account of the vital roles of parallelism
and its effect in political discourse.
ii.
Illustrate the ways in which parallelism contributes to
meaning in political discourse.
iii.
Establish parallelism as one of the effective stylistic
devices that characterize Barack Obama and Goodluck Jonathan‘s style.
iv.
Account for the similarities as well as the differences
between Barack Obama and Goodluck Jonathan‘s use of parallelism.
1.5 Justification for the
Study
The topic under
study is chosen particularly because the area of political discourse, most
especially presidential speeches is one of the most interesting areas to
investigate, because presidential speeches present a real political situation
in which political language is used. In addition, choosing to explore the
linguistic patterns of parallelism is due to the fact that parallelism is a
strong foregrounding device that captures the reader's attention, serves to
deliver the speaker's message, and marks the style of any piece of
writing.
Chomsky (1957)
modified the work of de Saussure‘s concepts of ‗langue‘ and parole‘ and
referred to them as ‗linguistic competence and linguistic performance‘.
Competence refers to the entire knowledge one possess of a language and performance
refers to one‘s ability to use the language. One of the things this study sets
to find out is how far ‗competence and performance affect the skilful use of
rhetorical devices. It seeks to justify how competence and performance work in
a native speaker of English and a non-native speaker of English language.
Hence, the comparison between the speeches of Barrack Obama (a native speaker)
and Goodluck Jonathan (a non-native speaker). The effective use of parallel
structures in their speeches (which were written and delivered in English
Language) and the effects these have on their target audience will determine
the extent to which they convey their message.
Another reason why
the researcher embarked on this study is to analyze the stylistic effect of parallelism
obtains in political discourse and how effective it serves as a foregrounding
concept. Hitherto, most studies carried out on parallelism are usually related
to literary works, most especially poetic studies. Hence, the research
investigates the concept of parallelism in political discourse, to ascertain if
it has the same effect as it does in literary works.
The reason for the
comparison between presidents Barrack Obama and Goodluck Jonathan is because
both men are quite educated. President Barrack Obama holds a Juris Doctor in
Law while President Goodluck Jonathan holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in
Zoology. Furthermore, another reason for the comparison is due to the fact that
President Obama is a native speaker of English while President
Jonathan is not.
1.6 Significance of the
Study
This study is
significant because it studies how this powerful tool in discourse is
manipulated by these presidents in their speeches and the study also uses the
approach of stylistics. This is because parallelism is a stylistic device and
can only be effectively explored in a linguistic stylistic study. Parallelism
is one of the most noticeable stylistic device which is accepted not only as a
traditional rhetorical device used in classical literature, but also as a
common feature of style that characterizes political discourse. Thus, the
present work aims at drawing more attention to parallelism as a stylistic
device that characterizes the style of Presidents Barack Obama and President
Goodluck Jonathan‘s speeches.
The study also seeks
to discuss political discourse from Stylistic angle instead of Critical
Discourse Analysis because Stylistics creates a good foundation for different
aspects of style to be studied since politicians have their individual unique
styles which usually characterize their personality. The study is also
significant because it will expose the powerful effect that parallelism has in
speeches, especially on the audience.
1.7 Scope and Delimitation
of the Study
Stylistics as an
aspect of linguistics is a multifaceted discipline. This is due to the fact
that it discusses individual styles when it comes to language usage. It also
expands and discusses linguistic features of any given text. This research is
therefore, limited to the analysis of parallelism as a stylistic device in the
presidential speeches of Presidents Barack Obama of The United States of
America and Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria. For President Barack Obama, his
second tenure presidential speech of 2013 will be analysed, this is because a
lot of work has been done on his first tenure presidential speech, hence, it is
expedient for his second tenure speech to be selected for the purpose of
originality. The presidential speech of President Goodluck Jonathan‘s current
administration delivered in 2011 on the occasion of his inauguration ceremony
will be used for analysis. The research is designed to focus on parallelism as
a rhetorical device in their language use. It will look at the types of
parallel structures used in these presidential speeches and their effect on
political discourse.
This study will look
at parallelism under the four linguistic levels of phonological parallelism,
syntactic parallelism, lexical parallelism and semantic parallelism. This will
help to make the analysis clearer and understandable and sufficient examples will
be drawn from both speeches.
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