Critical Discourse Analysis Of Inaugural Speeches Of Obama And Bush Based On Systemic Functional Grammar

Language plays a vital role in the development of politics, economics andcultures as globalization increases, and many linguists have been studying andexploring the science of “language”. CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis) comes fromcritical linguistics, as put forward and developed by Roger Fowler and other linguistsfrom1970s to1980s. CDA combines much knowledge of subjects in terms oflinguistics, sociology, physiology and politics and other subjects. It aims to analyzethe complex relations among language, ideology and power. Moreover, ideologyexists in language, and language is not only a media between social control and powerrelations, but also is an important social practice. Critical discourse analysis hasdeveloped greatly from the last century, and many scholars have engaged in relevantstudy and research about CDA. Kress pointed out that the purpose of studying CDA isto examine how power is controlled, maintained and rebuilt in social relations. ThenFairclough developed a three-dimensional framework as a language analysisframework and methodology, he maintained that CDA is used to explore the relationsamong language, social practice and cultural context. Furthermore, Van Dijkconsidered CDA as a study of spoken text and written text related to relations amongpower, dominance and ideology, then it can reflect that how power is applied in social,historical, political and economic conditions.Critical discourse analysis is an analysis of all the texts such as newspapers,political speeches and commercial advertisements. Initially, the critical discourseanalysis of political discourse became a very important approach; in addition to this,English is considered as a lingua franca in recent years and it plays an irreplaceablerole on political, economic, social and cultural development. Thus, the criticaldiscourse analysis of English political speeches has been a new research approach.Inaugural speeches are representative of political speeches, and in these speeches politicians spread their thoughts to the audiences. Those speakers intend to affectlisteners’ ideologies and gain the support and affirmation from the audience. In recentyears, there have been many studies about critical discourse analysis of Obama’s andBush’s political speeches, and many further studies can be added. Many scholarsdirectly and indirectly illustrate the political aims of Bush’s and Obama’s speeches,they reveal the relations among power, ideology and language. However, these studiesare only concerned with political speeches made by one president, and few areconcerned with the contrast and comparison between two presidents’ politicalspeeches. More precisely, many scholars have been emphasizing the study ofObama’s first inaugural speeches or Bush’s “anti-terrorism” speeches, while fewanalyze their inaugural speeches. Therefore, this present study intends to explore thefollowing three questions:1. What are the features of their language in their speeches?2. What are the comparison and contrast of their language?3. What is the underlying relationship between their language, ideologies andpolitical power?This present study can help readers improve the sensible consciousness oflanguage, and can help them know the delicate relations among language, power andideology, they can have a better understanding about how language changes ideology.In light of this, they could develop a sense of how language controls societal norms.Many relevant studies have examined that System-functional Grammar as a practicaland an operational research methodology in analysis of discourse, rather than otherapproaches. Thus, this study uses Halliday’s System-Functional Grammar as atheoretical framework in terms of an ideational function, interpersonal function andtextual function. Ideational function can be expressed by transitivity related to sixprocesses: material process, relational process, verbal process, mental process,behavioral process, and existential process (especially for the study of materialprocess and relational process). Besides, this study is analyzed from interpersonalfunction in terms of modality. Thirdly, this study is explored from a textual function interms of theme-rheme systems, especially for unmarked theme and marked theme, in light of this, the analysis of this study from these three perspectives can gain morepersuasiveness and reliability. The question of relations among language, power andideology can be examined from the language features of their speeches. This studyuses quantitative methods and interpretation methods to contrast and compare theinaugural speeches made by Obama and Bush. It can reveal how politicians applytheir linguistic features to express their ideology and realize their political aims, andthis study proves the practicality of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar as atheological framework.