Lexical Analysis of 2008 US Presidential and Vice-Presidiential Debates - Who's the Windbag? Lexical Analysis of 2008 US Presidential and Vice-Presidential Debateshome | Martin Krzywinski : projects contact 1 minute summary Metrics of speech structure of candidates fall within narrow tolerances, suggesting high degree of wordsmithing and rehearsal. For example, noun/verb/adjective/adverb ratio spread is very small with candidates' values within 2%. Relatively small differences seen in unique word count and noun phrase profile. The Obama/McCain debates began with balanced performance from both candidates but end with Obama verbally overpowering McCain and delivering speech with more concepts and higher complexity.
When words exclusive to a candidate are considered, Obama's more frequent use of verbs and much more frequent use of adjectives and adverbs, compared to McCain, suggests that he is more of a fluid and contextual thinker who, unlike McCain whose language metrics suggest a categorical approach, does not seek to fit issues into pre-existing categories. Introduction Methods. Barack Obama Speech Inauguration 2009. Martin Luther King speech - I Have a Dream - deutscher Untertitel. Kennedy - I am a Berliner - Ich Bin Ein Berliner. First Moon Landing 1969. Never was so much owed by so many to so few - Winston Churchill Speeches. Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You! The Blue and the Gray (1982) - Gettysburg Address. Jodie Foster's Golden Globe acceptance speech: full transcript | Film. The genius of Jodie Foster's speech | Film. Reading this on mobile? Click here to view the video It's a considerable thing to deliver a speech that is at once artfully put together and emotionally affecting.
At the Golden Globes – where in accepting the Cecil B DeMille award for lifetime achievement, she made the first public acknowledgement of her sexuality – Jodie Foster managed both. What's striking is not what the speech gave away, but the control and delicacy with which it delivered its payload. The art of rhetoric is, at root, about the relationship between a speaker and an audience.
But Foster didn't just take their attention for granted. She teased their expectations. By using anaphora (1) ("we've giggled ... we've punched") and polysyndeton (2) (all those ands), she made the sentence sound loose, spontaneous, a little out of control. Writ large, that's the same technique she used when she approached the meat of her speech. She teased it out.
Big, nervous laugh from the audience. Finally her peroration (6). How do political leaders justify their actions? We’ve probably all been in a situation where we felt the need to justify or ‘legitimise’ our behaviour or actions in some way. This legitimisation usually takes the form of providing arguments which can explain our actions or even our opinions about something. There can be many reasons why we do this; to gain social acceptance; perhaps an attempt to get or maintain power; to improve relationships or maybe to achieve popularity or fame.
Whatever the reason, in most cases when we do this, we’re looking to get the support or approval of the person or people that we’re talking to. A good example of where we see this process of legitimisation in action is in political discourse. Politicians (or ‘political actors’) need the support of the electorate and they must therefore justify their actions, non-actions or their ideological standing on a particular issue in order to gain that support. The third strategy is legitimisation through rationality. Do euphemisms soften the impact of war or mask the truth? Casualty ‘He had been trained to take out other men. We had made sure his weaponry was smart, And softened up the enemy with carpet Bombing. Sadly, he was taken out By some friendly fire.’ Instead he could have taken out some girls, The mirror having proved him smart enough; And one, perhaps, happy to take him home, Might have softened up on some dark carpet By some friendly fire.
In his short poem ‘Casualty’, Gerry Abbott responds to the use of euphemisms for killing often seen and heard in the media. He looks first at the use of euphemisms in daily life as a way of avoiding delicate or taboo subject matter and refers to these as ‘respectful’ euphemisms. He then turns his attention to the increased use in recent years of military euphemisms used in war reporting. Of course, as Abbott acknowledges, euphemisms thrive in spheres other than military contexts. The main thrust of this paper, then, is that the use of euphemisms in these contexts points to a lack of truthfulness. Abbott, G. (2010). Obama's inaugural address – full text | World news.
"Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional – what makes us American – is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
" Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time. For more than two hundred years, we have. We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. Rhetoric. Rhetoric Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking and writing. "That form of speaking which has the intention of making an impact upon, persuading, or influencing a public audience. " Rhetorical devices are frequently used consciously in advertising and in public speeches to create an effect.
Rhetoric may be used to present a case in the most effective way, showing verbal dexterity. The danger of rhetoric, with its intention to persuade, is that the speaker may "stretch" the truth and effectively present a worthless or immoral cause. Examples of Rhetorical Devices Two basic principles of Socrates: 1. The principles of Cicero: The orator ... • must first hit upon what to say; • then manage and marshal his discoveries, not merely in an orderly fashion but with a discriminating eye for the exact weight of each argument; • next go on to array them in the adornments of style; • after that guard them in his memory; • and in the end deliver them with effect and charm. " The Skills of Rhetoric. Obama Inaugural Address: The Unapologetic President. A Point of View: Roll up for the inauguration. 25 January 2013Last updated at 12:12 ET The US presidential inauguration is a unique political spectacle, says historian David Cannadine.
Whenever possible, I like to be in the United States to witness the patriotic festivities and political theatre that once again took place in Washington DC last Monday, for they are an extraordinary amalgam of national celebration and religious fervour, piety and partying, glitz and glory, showbiz and razzle-dazzle. Nowhere else in the world is there anything quite like an American presidential inauguration, and the fact they've happened once every four years for more than two and a quarter centuries is also unique. In their fundamentals, the pomp and the ceremonial are essentially unchanging, and all of them since Bill Clinton's second inaugural in 1997 have been available live on the internet, which means it's possible to follow this quintessentially American spectacle as it happens from virtually anywhere in the world.
Continue reading the main story. Transcript - Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address - Text. Language in Conflict - Negation.