A Study Of Barack Obama's Speeches From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

The first African-American president Obama's outstanding communication ability plays a decisive role in his successful election. This study probes into characteristics in Obama's speeches during his electoral process as well as his communication competence via the four angles provided by Jef. Verschueren's Theory of Linguistic Adaptation. This study attempts to answer the following questions:1. What contextual correlates do Obama's linguistic choices adapt to?2. What kind of utterance-building ingredients does Obama employ for making adaptation to those contexts?3. How does the adaptation of Obama's speeches process in a dynamic way?4. How does the adaptation process actually work in Obama's speeches?Based on the Theory of Linguistic Adaptation, this study, which employs a combination of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis, is divided into four parts to answer those questions.First, the study concentrates on the contextual correlates of adaptability. The author finds that Obama adapts to physical world, social world and mental world of the utterer and the interpreters. When it comes to the adaptability in linguistic context, the author discusses contextual cohesion and intertextuality. Obama applies repetition, contrasting, comparison, substitution and structural iconicity to realize cohesion in his speeches so that the audiences would have an impression of what he says. He also cites famous sentences and biblical lexicon to remind what is in their memories and to create an emotional response.Second, the study analyzes structural objects of adaptability in Obama's words. After listening to his speeches, the author thinks Obama has the ability to control his rhythm and amplify his voice. The analysis also shows Obama's wonderful employment of Theory of Linguistic Adaptation in terms at lexical level, sentence level as well as discourse strategies.Third, the study comes to the part of discussion of the dynamics of adaptability. Obama's context changes when he alters his role from the new president to a conciliator who comforts the ordinary people from economic crisis, then to a warner against the hostile forces Americans are facing. The various roles Obama plays in his speeches aim at his desire for being the spokesman of the Americans and gaining support from them. The dynamics of contexts and the related linguistic choices contributes to the adaptability in Obama's speeches.Fourth, the study discusses the salience of linguistic choices, which is basically a function of the operation of metapragmatic awareness. The author analyzes the discourse marker and arrangement of phrases in order to show the degrees of salience in Obama's speeches.In addition, based on the analysis on Obama's speeches via Theory of Linguistic Adaptation, this paper mentions that it is important to cultivate skills such as empathy in order to adapt to the language users'contexts. Hopefully, this study would provide a new perspective of appreciating and evaluating Obama's speeches.