Text Analysis of the Positive Self-Presentation of Americans in Barrack Obama's Speech.

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ABSTRACT

Skripsi ini mengungkapkan bagaimana rakyat Amerika direpresentasikan positif dalam pidato kemenangan Barack Obama. Barack Obama kembali terpilih menjadi presiden dan memberikan pidato tersebut tepat setelah kemenangannya pada hari Selasa, 7 November 2012 di Chicago.

Teori yang saya gunakan adalah teori van Dijk, yang memiliki tiga tahapan analisis: macro, meso dan micro. Akan tetapi, dalam skripsi ini saya hanya akan menggunakan teori mikro analisis. Teori mikro analisis memiliki tiga aspek yaitu analisis macrostructure, microstructure dan superstructure.

Macrostructure analysis mengungkapkan bahwa topik pidato ini adalah Obama ingin rakyat Amerika bersatu dan mewujudkan masa depan mereka menjadi negara yang paling baik. Dalam macrostructure analysis, representasi

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Maranatha Christian University

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Background of the Study

Speech “offers the audience an orientation, a way of thinking about a phenomenon” (Definition Speeches). Based on the definition, it can be assumed that the individual who delivers a speech, for example a president, might have certain ideas and want to persuade people to agree with him. As the leader of a country, a president must have delivered many speeches in their period of presidency, whether it is to persuade his people or to inform that something is the case. For this reason, I would like to analyze a speech, specifically one of Barack Obama’s speeches.

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Maranatha Christian University his struggle to overcome the problem and become the most important person in America. Obama has opened people’s eyes that there is nothing impossible if they are willing to try and fight for what they wish. His success also proves that differences cannot prevent anybody from becoming someone greater.

Aside from his persistent personality, Obama is amazing in another way as we can see from his speeches. Obama’s use of words in his speeches is admirable. He uses different pronouns and “a variety of rhetorical devices that made his speech come to life and connect deeply with his audience” (Loh, par. 31). _{This fact proves that the way he persuades, convinces and inspires people in} his speeches should be given two thumbs up. “Barack Obama has become a political superstar in part because of his famous speeches. He is often considered the best orator in politics, and even his political opponents do not deny his incredible oratory ability” (How to Make Speeches, par. 1). Obama undoubtedly has the ability in getting and keeping his listener’s attention. Therefore, I decide to analyze Barack Obama’s speech.

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In analyzing the speech, the area of linguistics that I choose is Discourse Analysis. Discourse Analysis is a study and analysis of the uses of language (Discourse Analysis, par. 1). Since I am going to reveal the use of language in Barack Obama’s speech, I think Discourse Analysis is the right approach in analyzing the speech. In addition, there are some ways of analyzing the text or conversation in Discourse Analysis. One of which is by using van Dijk’s theory. In this thesis, precisely, I will focus more on using van Dijk’s theory to analyze Barack Obama’s speech.

There are three levels in van Dijk’s theory: the macro level, the micro level and the meso level; yet, I decide to make a deeper analysis in the micro level, which includes the macrostructure, microstructure, and superstructure analysis. I analyze the positive self-presentation of Americans in Barack Obama’s speech, with the reason that Obama has praised Americans a lot.

I believe the topic is significant because through reading a text analysis of a speech, we can be more critical in understanding the writer’s use of language, how the writer positions himself in the society or how the writer describes the other positively or negatively. We can also get to know the kind of expressions that the writer uses in delivering the speech, whether the speech is to persuade people or just to give information or ideas.

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Maranatha Christian University 1.2 Statement of the Problem

The problems that I am going to analyze in this thesis are stated in the following questions.

1. How is the global topic in Barack Obama’s speech shown through the macrostructure analysis?

2. How is the positive self-presentation of Americans in Barack Obama’s speech revealed by the local meaning and style through the microstructure analysis?

3. How is the organization of the information about the positive self-presentation of Americans in Barack Obama’s speech explained through the superstructure analysis?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

From the problems that I have stated before, the study is conducted to reveal:

1. how the global topic in Barack Obama’s speech is shown through the macrostructure analysis.

2. how the positive self-presentation of Americans in Barack Obama’s speech is revealed by the local meaning and style through the microstructure analysis.

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1.4 Method of Research

The theory that I used to conduct the research is text analysis. I tried to find the theory through searching the Internet and by using library research. After I learned the theory, I looked for the data. Since I was interested in analyzing Barack Obama’s speeches, I tried to find one that was really suitable to be analyzed for my thesis. Finally, I wrote the research report.

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter I would like to make some conclusions of the result of the analysis on Chapter Three. The conclusions were based on the micro level analysis: the macrostructure analysis, the microstructure analysis and the superstructure analysis.

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Looking at the global topic of the speech, I think that the global topic is not specific enough to raise the reader’s curiosity. As a result, I cannot get enough information about the positive self-presentation in the speech through the macrostructure analysis.

The microstructure analysis can reveal the positive self-presentation better as in this analysis there are a lot of strategies that can be used to analyze the speech. Thus, I conduct a deeper analysis in the microstructure analysis by analyzing the text through local meanings and style (lexicon, local syntax and rhetorical devices) to reveal the positive self-presentation of American people in Barack Obama’s speech.

The first strategy to analyze the speech is called local meanings, which have two elements: giving many details and being specific. Those two elements show the positive self-presentation in the speech clearly because Obama is praising and giving compliments to Americans by giving many details about the positive hopes that he believes all Americans hope for and about the good spirit at work that Americans have. Obama knows that Americans people have a lot of positive things. Thus, he describes all those things by giving many details to make Americans aware of their positive things. He also describes one of their positive things by being specific about it. I conclude that the use of local meanings is a good strategy to reveal the positive self-presentation in the speech.

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Maranatha Christian University this text is Obama’s victory speech. In his speech, Obama wants to celebrate this happiness and delivers his gratitude to American people. Hence, it is certain that on this occasion, Obama praises the Americans and gives them a lot of positive words and phrases. I find that this second strategy is more helpful than the other strategies in revealing the positive self-presentation as I am able to easily point out the positive words referring to Americans.

Besides lexicon, I also use the local syntax, namely the construction of the active sentences. I choose to analyze the speech through the active sentences because I think the active sentences show the accurate proof that Obama praises the Americans. The active sentences help to reveal the positive self-presentation by showing how the speaker praises or describes the self vividly. In the active sentence construction, the doer is considered important so that it is explicitly mentioned and put at the beginning of the sentence. The doer (the American) is followed by the positive action which shows that the doer is doing something positive. It can be seen that Obama openly praises the American as I find five active sentences in which Obama describes what American people do in this speech.

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Those repeated words and phrases are followed by the positive noun, which results in the positive meaning. Thus, I think that these four strategies show how excellent Obama is in using language to reveal the positive self-presentation of Americans.

In the superstructure analysis, the positive self-presentation of Americans is not clearly shown. However, the speech shows that Obama precisely follows the structure of an analytical exposition. As it can be seen, there are thesis, argument and reiteration in the speech. Obama opens up the speech by telling the purpose of the speech which belongs to thesis. Then he gives the supportive statements as arguments and reminds them about the purpose of his speech in reiteration part. This fact shows that Obama has organized the speech orderly. By delivering his speech in an organized way, Obama wants to go step-by-step according to the structure to make Americans know and understand about the purpose of his speech. He wants to make it clear that his idea is well delivered to the hearer as he follows the structure in the conventional organization.

Lastly, I would like to give my suggestion to the linguistic students who want to take Critical Discourse Analysis for their thesis topic and use van Dijk’s theory. I suggest that they should be very detailed in analyzing the text or speech, particularly in the microstructure analysis as it helps a lot in making a deeper analysis. The key point of analyzing the text through the microstructure analysis is the data. The data which is presented in the thesis should be the one which can be analyzed through the strategies in the microstructure analysis. Good data make a good analysis.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Texts

“Obama Election Speech: President Makes 2012 Victory Address.” Huffingtonpost.com. 7 November 2012. Web. 12 March 2014.

References

“Definition Speeches.” Plymouth School District. N.p. N.d. Web. 8 May 2014.

“Discourse Analysis.” BMJ. N.p. 7 August 2008. Web. 29 April 2014.

Gerot, Linda and Peter Wignell. Making Sense of Functional Grammar. Sydney: Antipodean Educational Enterprises, 1994. Print.

“How to Make Speeches Like Barack Obama.” eHow. N.d. Web. 8 May 2014.

Loh, Benjamin. “8 Powerful Speech Techniques that President Barack Obama used to ‘Wow’ the World in his Presidential Victory Speech 2012.”

Benjamin Loh. 7 November 2012. Web. 13 May 2014.

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Tannen, Deborah. “Discourse Analysis—What Speakers Do in Conversation.”

Linguistic Society of America. N.d. Web. 15 April 2014.

van Dijk, Teun A. a. “Analyzing racism through discourse analysis.” Discourse in

Society. N.d. Web. 20 May 2014.

van Dijk, Teun A. b. “The Handbook of Discourse Analysis.” Discourse in Society. N.d. Web. 15 April 2014.

Dictionary References

“Bond.” Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Charity.” Def.3. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Compassionate.” Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Determination.” Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Difference.” Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Diverse.” Def. 1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Duty.” Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

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Maranatha Christian University “Exceptional.” Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Freedom.” Def.2. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Generous.” Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Great.” Def. 1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Great.” Def.4. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Height.” Def.7. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Hope.” Def.2. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Lift.” Def.5. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Love.” Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Open.” Def. 1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Patriotism.” Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Powerful.” Def.4. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Pride.” Def.3. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Reaffirm.” Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Recover.” Def. 2. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

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“Rich.” Def. 1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Strong.” Def. 6. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Sweep aside.” Def. 1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Together.” Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Together.” Def.2. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Tolerant.” Def .1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Triumph.” Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.