Political speech: Obama’s Speech
to Young People in Brussels
(Text Analysis)
Although political communication is today dominated by print and broadcast media as well as
online technologies, the speech remains a fundamental medium of political communication. Very often
the purpose of political speech lies in the presentation of a particular ‘way of seeing’ the situation or
phenomena, of a particular understanding or defining certain circumstances. The aim of this analysis is
to examine and uncover implicit statements in the language of this Obama's speech (Appendix I) and,
under the light of CDA based on Fairclough’s analytical framework, to detect examples of linguistic
strategies that impose moral or ideological values on people as well as its linguistic features such as
vocabulary, grammar, textual structures, rhetorical devices, etc.
Politicians use a lot of mechanisms that the language provides to practice the oldest of
democratic arts, the art of persuasion, which is rhetoric. As Ojwang (2002: 198) points out, “language
is an instrument of control as well as communication. Linguistic forms allow significant information to
be conveyed and be distorted. In this way, hearers can either be manipulated or informed”. Although
those who are in power can use language for coercion and the manipulation of information, its
principal use in politics is for persuasion (as in e.g. a debate).
In order to gain the audience empathy and catch its attention Obama blends formal and
informal language throughout of discourse. One of the features of informal language is an unusual way
to start a sentence with a conjunction such as “and” and “but”. I have found a considerable number of
, instances of them; I would say that Obama overdoes it. This has to do with a stylistic preference rather
than a grammatical rule. It could be really useful to start a sentence with these conjunctions if your aim
is to create a dramatic or forceful effect. However, it is slightly informal. Obama is speaking mainly to
the young people, so he chooses a more informal language. As the following examples show, the
introductory conjunction gives more weight to the thought encapsulated in the sentence:
“And I can only imagine...” (2)1
“And it was here in Europe...” (5)
“And those ideas eventually inspired...” (6)
“But those ideals have also been tested...” (7)
“And this story of human progress...” (13)
“But that’s not because man’s darkest impulses”… (14)
Jokes also contribute to arouse the interest of the audience and catch their attention. That’s
why at the beginning of the speech he says: “I have to admit it is easy to love a country famous for
chocolate and beer” (3). This simple sentence makes the audience laugh, catches their attention and
puts them in a good humor.
Ideology is an important feature of Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth CDA). Ideology
refers to “a body of ideas characteristic of a particular social group, class or society and ideas which
help to legitimate a dominant political power” (Eagleton, 1991: 1). From the perspective of CDA, no
text is ideologically neutral and innocent. Ideologies are hidden or subtle and the linguistic features
and structures used in a political discourse are far from arbitrary.
From Obama’s speech, we can understand that the Europe and America see in Ukraine the
embodiment of a universal struggle for freedom and Western values. We just have to take a look at the
discourse to realize that Obama uses the particular negative and ideologically influenced vocabulary,
talking about Russia, based both on his own negative experience and on the historically cold
1
The number in brackets refers to the paragraph where this extract appears in the original transcript of the speech,
reproduced in the Appendix I.
2
to Young People in Brussels
(Text Analysis)
Although political communication is today dominated by print and broadcast media as well as
online technologies, the speech remains a fundamental medium of political communication. Very often
the purpose of political speech lies in the presentation of a particular ‘way of seeing’ the situation or
phenomena, of a particular understanding or defining certain circumstances. The aim of this analysis is
to examine and uncover implicit statements in the language of this Obama's speech (Appendix I) and,
under the light of CDA based on Fairclough’s analytical framework, to detect examples of linguistic
strategies that impose moral or ideological values on people as well as its linguistic features such as
vocabulary, grammar, textual structures, rhetorical devices, etc.
Politicians use a lot of mechanisms that the language provides to practice the oldest of
democratic arts, the art of persuasion, which is rhetoric. As Ojwang (2002: 198) points out, “language
is an instrument of control as well as communication. Linguistic forms allow significant information to
be conveyed and be distorted. In this way, hearers can either be manipulated or informed”. Although
those who are in power can use language for coercion and the manipulation of information, its
principal use in politics is for persuasion (as in e.g. a debate).
In order to gain the audience empathy and catch its attention Obama blends formal and
informal language throughout of discourse. One of the features of informal language is an unusual way
to start a sentence with a conjunction such as “and” and “but”. I have found a considerable number of
, instances of them; I would say that Obama overdoes it. This has to do with a stylistic preference rather
than a grammatical rule. It could be really useful to start a sentence with these conjunctions if your aim
is to create a dramatic or forceful effect. However, it is slightly informal. Obama is speaking mainly to
the young people, so he chooses a more informal language. As the following examples show, the
introductory conjunction gives more weight to the thought encapsulated in the sentence:
“And I can only imagine...” (2)1
“And it was here in Europe...” (5)
“And those ideas eventually inspired...” (6)
“But those ideals have also been tested...” (7)
“And this story of human progress...” (13)
“But that’s not because man’s darkest impulses”… (14)
Jokes also contribute to arouse the interest of the audience and catch their attention. That’s
why at the beginning of the speech he says: “I have to admit it is easy to love a country famous for
chocolate and beer” (3). This simple sentence makes the audience laugh, catches their attention and
puts them in a good humor.
Ideology is an important feature of Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth CDA). Ideology
refers to “a body of ideas characteristic of a particular social group, class or society and ideas which
help to legitimate a dominant political power” (Eagleton, 1991: 1). From the perspective of CDA, no
text is ideologically neutral and innocent. Ideologies are hidden or subtle and the linguistic features
and structures used in a political discourse are far from arbitrary.
From Obama’s speech, we can understand that the Europe and America see in Ukraine the
embodiment of a universal struggle for freedom and Western values. We just have to take a look at the
discourse to realize that Obama uses the particular negative and ideologically influenced vocabulary,
talking about Russia, based both on his own negative experience and on the historically cold
1
The number in brackets refers to the paragraph where this extract appears in the original transcript of the speech,
reproduced in the Appendix I.
2
