Identification In Obama’s State Of The Union Address2012

Kenneth Burke, the founder of new rhetoric, who is possibly the greatest rhetorician since Aristotle, has drawn lots of attention in modern times. His theory is derived from the classical rhetoric, but he is praised for redefining and enlarging the extent of rhetorical analysis,"identification" is the core notion of his theory, which indicates a significant change of stress from classical rhetoric. Based on Kenneth Burke’s rhetorical theory "identification", this thesis selects state of the union address delivered by President Barack Obama in Congress on January24,2012as corpus and aims to analyze the identification applied in the discourse, so as to deepen our understanding of the political public speaking, reveal how the politicians use identification strategies effectively to gain identification, and persuade the audience accept and endorse their political views.The paper contains six chapters. Chapter one introduces the background of state of the union address and formulates aims and significance of the research. Methodology and data are stated too. Chapter two describes the characteristics of English political public speaking and briefly reviews the previous literature. Chapter three briefly introduces the development of western rhetoric and Kenneth Burke’s new rhetoric theory and expounds the core notion "identification". This chapter contributes as the theory foundation for chapter four. Chapter four tries to construct a rhetorical model for English political public speaking identification. Identification in speaking discourse is the result of the dynamic cooperation of rhetorical formulation and rhetorical reception, which can be achieved in audience through rhetoric content and rhetoric form. Chapter five investigates identification in Obama’s state of the Union address in2012by rhetorical content and rhetorical form. Rhetorical content mainly includes common values, antithesis and inaccuracy. Rhetorical form focuses on conventional form, progressive form, repetitive form and figurative form. Chapter six is the conclusion of the research. It also points out the inadequacies of the study and the research direction in the future. In the research, we find that Obama is an outstanding orator. He is adept at utilizing identification strategies to transcend division and induce cooperation, which are infectious and persuasive. Identification strategy plays an important role in political address. This research has an instructive and directive significance to the effects of political address.