CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Language has a very important function for every human being in this
world, that is to express their thought, intention, feelings and so on in the
form of oral and written communication or gestures. Many factors influence
the use of language, and one of them is a social factor. The social factor that
involves is called register, genre and ideology.
Register or context of situation is one of language varieties. Register "
is the set of meanings, the configuration of semantic patterns, that are
typically drawn upon under the specific conditions, along with the words and
structures that are used in the realization of these meanings" (Halliday,
1978:23). Register analysis is concerned with the variables of field, tenor, and
mode. In considering these three variables, Halliday is making a claim that-of
all the things going on in a situation at a time of language use-only these three
variables have a direct and significant impact on the type of language that
will be produced.
Field refers to "what is happening, to the nature of the social action
that is taking place," mode concerns "what it is that the participants [of a
transaction] are expecting language to do for them in that situation," and
tenor has to do with who are taking part in the transaction as well as the
1985:12). These three register variables delineate the relationships between
language function and language form. In other words, a register is constituted
by "the linguistic features which are typically associated with a configuration
of situational features—with particular values of the field, mode and tenor"
(Halliday, 1976:22). For example, the tenor of a text, which concerns the
relationship between the addresser and the addressee, can "be analysed in
terms of basic distinctions such as polite-colloquial-intimate, on a scale of
categories which range from formal to informal.”
Genre or context of culture is "a set of communicative events, the
members of which share some set of communicative purposes". Genre can
be thought of as the general framework that gives purpose to interactions of
particular types, adaptable to the many specific contexts of situation that they
get used in" (Eggins, 1994:32). It provides "a precise index and catalogue of
the relevant social occasions of a community at a given time" (Kress,
1985:20).
Ideology is "basic systems of fundamental social cognitions and
organising the attitudes and other social representations shared by members
of groups" (Van Dijk in Eggins). As "a more abstract contextual dimension"
of the systemic approach, ideology denotes "the positions of power, the
political biases and assumptions that all social interactants bring with them to
This paper attempts to apply one of the three types of register system
of analysis, it is tenor. In this analysis, tenor will be discussed through the
scripts of Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice’s Speeches.
The writer chose the mentioned speeches of texts due to two reasons.
Firstly, their speeches can make a vast difference in human’s ability to
influence decisions in speaking in the public sectors. In a public speaking, a
person has the opportunity to deliver an interrupted message to a few
individuals or a few million individuals. The ability to communicate
effectively is essential both to individuals and society. The value of effective
communication extends into the political arena. The second is that their
speeches are interesting because they are the best female communicators in
public speaking that can be learned by women all over the world especially as
their necessary speaking skills and insights of women natural communication.
As has been stated formerly that tenor analysis has been placed under
the discussion of the interpersonal meaning which is concerned with the
interaction between the speaker and addressee; influence the speakers’
behaviour and their expression of their viewpoint. In this case of the two
speakers mentioned above as the data source are relevant to be analyzed to
prove people’s strong beliefs in the truth of their message. Tenor analysis is
also suitable to be applied to explore the communication process in order to
reach the objective of this analysis in women’s speech performances. The
writer plans to describe three parts of tenor analysis, namely status or power,
Based on public perception, women have less knowledge or ability to
address political topics than men. This is a real dilemma and reason enough
to consider developing women public speaking skills. Women are regarded
have generally experienced difficulty in accommodating to the
argumentative, or adversial, style of speaking. (Elizabeth J. Natalie and
Fritzie R. Bodenheimer, 2004)
So that in this thesis the writer will bring some world’s prominent
women who essentially influence people. Through their thoughts, their
charisma, and their grace attitude people praise them. Hillary Clinton and
Condoleezza Rice are world’s most influencing women (based on polling in a
famous site in www.forbes.com/power-women/ in 2010, 2011 and 2012).
Hillary Clinton was born on October 26, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois.
Hillary was the eldest daughter of Hugh Ellsworth Rodham, a prosperous
fabric store owner and Dorothy Emma Howell Rodham. Hillary had two
younger brothers, including Hugh E. Rodham (born in 1950) and Anthony
Rodham (born in 1954).
As a young woman, Hillary Rodham was active in young Republican
groups and campaigned for Republican presidential nominee Barry
Goldwater in 1964. She was inspired to work in some form of public service
after hearing a speech in Chicago by the Reverend Martin Luther King and
became a Democrat in 1968.
Rodham attended Wellesley College; she was active in student
She then attended Yale Law School, where she met Bill Clinton. Graduating
with honors in 1973, she also attended one post-graduate year of study on
children and medicine at Yale Child Study Center.
Hillary worked at various jobs during her summers as a college
student. In 1971, she first came to Washington, D.C to work on U.S. Senator
Walter Mondale's subcommittee on migrant workers. In the summer of 1972,
she worked in the western states for the campaign of Democratic presidential
nominee George McGovern.
In the spring of 1974, Rodham became a member of the presidential
impeachment inquiry staff, advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of
Representatives during the Watergate Scandal. After President Richard M.
Nixon resigned in August, she became a faculty member of the University of
Arkansas Law School in Fayetteville, where her Yale Law School classmate
and boyfriend Bill Clinton was teaching as well.
Rodham married Bill Clinton on October 11, 1975, at their home in
Fayetteville. In 1976, she worked on Jimmy Carter's successful campaign for
president while husband Bill was elected Attorney General. He was elected
governor in 1978 at age 32, lost re-election in 1980, but came back to win in
1982, 1984, 1986 (when the term of office was expanded from two to four
years) and 1990.
Hillary joined the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock and in 1977 was
appointed to part-time chairman of the Legal Services Corporation by
1983-1992), she chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee,
co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and served on the
boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital, Legal Services and the Children's
Defense Fund. She also served on the boards of TCBY and Wal-Mart. In
1988 and 1991, The National Law Journal named her one of the 100 most
powerful lawyers in America. During the 1992 presidential campaign, she
emerged as a dynamic and valued partner of her husband, and as president he
named her to head the Task Force on National Health Reform (1993). The
controversial commission produced a complicated plan which never came to
the floor of either house. It was abandoned in September 1994.
In January of 2009, Hillary Clinton became the 67th Secretary of
State, the third woman and the only former First Lady to serve in this
capacity. The position’s duties are to serves as the primary advisor on foreign
affairs to the President and also enact presidential policy decisions through
her department, which also includes the U.S. Foreign Service. She is also
responsible for negotiating with foreign leaders on policy and treaties,
granting passports, suggesting and advising the President on individuals for
the posts of ambassador, consul and minister, and on which foreign
government representatives to receive or dismiss.
Hillary Clinton has continued to enjoy a diverse and unprecedented
career in public service. In a 15 July 2009 speech to the Council on Foreign
Relations, she offered her forecast of the challenges and opportunities of the
U.S. as it entered the second decade of the 21st Century: "We are determined
nuclear weapons, global warming, poverty, and abuses of human rights, and
above all, a world in which more people in more places can live up to their
God-given potential.”
Not only the press and public of the U.S. but much of the world
continued its avid interest in the life of Hillary Clinton, from her career to the
July 2010 wedding of her only child, daughter Chelsea.
Concoleezza rice is a woman of force and character, beauty and
charm who has reached the highest level of power in the United States
Government. Rice was born in 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her parents,
John Wesley Rice Jr. And Angelena were both educators. Angelena loved
opera and she named her only child after an Italian-language term, con
dolcezza. It is used in musical notation and means “to play with sweetness”.
Condoleezza began her education home-schooled by her mother
during her first year. The program included learning the piano. At second
grade she was placed in a segregated school. Eventually her father got a job at
the University of Denver in Colorado, and Condoleezza attended high-school
at a private Catholic school there. She graduated at a very young age and
attended Denver University even as she finished her last year of high-school.
She would go on to receive her Masters (Notre Dame) and Doctorate (Denver
University) in Soviet Studies.
Her early career is marked by stunning and rapid advancement. She
was hired at Stanford as an assistant professor and soon got tenure. Because
Scowcroft who hired her on at the National Security Council as an adviser to
President Bush where she helped greatly in forming U.S. policy in response
to the fall of the Soviet Union and the re-unification of Germany.
After a two year stint at the NSC. Condoleezza returned to Stanford to
become provost (the person in charge of the internal running of the
university). Yet in 1999, the younger George Bush asked her to help with his
presidential campaign. Soon she became involved in politics and was a great
help, especially in foreign policy matters. When Bush won the election she
was appointed his national security adviser.
During her time at NSC the United States was attacked on September
11, 2001. The U.S. responded by invading Afghanistan and subsequently
engaged in the Iraq War. Condoleezza Rice helped to coordinate efforts to
bring democracy to Iraq once the war was won. In recognition of her
knowledge and abilities Condoleezza Rice became Secretary of State in
George W. Bush's second term.
Condoleezza Rice became one of the most influential women in the
world of global politics when President George W. Bush named her as his
national security adviser in December of 2000. Her role became extremely
important after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and the
Pentagon in Washington. Rice has played a crucial part in shaping the most
aggressive U.S. foreign policy in modern history, with wars launched against
Each has excellent public speaking skills, but those skills are
complemented by a persona that helps the speaker obtain her goals. They can
effect many people to do what they want, what they are thinking about, their
persuation or opinion about what happened in their country or other
countries. They use their intelligence to gather belief’s society of them and
make them have a big power and respected by a lot of people although they
are women.
1.2 Problems of the Study
Based on the research background above, the problems of this study
can be divided as the following :
a. How is the configuration status in the speech of Hillary Clinton and
Condoleeza Rice?
b. How is the configuration contact in the speech of Hillary Clinton and
Condoleeza Rice?
c. How is affective involvement stated in the speech of Hillary Clinton
and Condoleeza Rice?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study are :
a. To find out and explain the status that are used in Condoleezza Rice
and Hillary Clinton’s speeches.
b. To find out and explain the contact that are used in Condoleezza Rice
c. To find out and explain the affective involvement that are used in
Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton’s speeches.
1.4 Scope of the Study
The scope of the study is limited to the analyzing of aspects of tenor
in some world’s influencing women speeches in context of situation in
discourse analysis study because tenor is concerned more with the interaction
between the speaker and addressee; influence the speakers’ behaviour and
their expression of their viewpoint, and their strong beliefs in the truth of
their message.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The study is expected to share and give knowledge about how to
analyze speech with tenor in context of situation to the reader and what the
correlation between the speech and the speaker; how women’s speech can
influence many people.
1.6 Method of the Study
In analyzing tenor on some world’s influencing women speeches, I
apply descriptive qualitative research. The findings in this research are not
gained through statistics procedure or other counting. The purpose of this
research is to describe the correlation between the dimensions of status or
power, contact and affective involvement in some world’s influencing
