A Comparative Study On American Presidents’ Speeches At 9^th And 22^nd APEC Summits From The Perspective Of CDA

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC) has played a very important role in maintaining regional stability and boosting the economic development in the Asia-Pacific region. This international summit was hosted in China twice, one in 2001 and the other in 2014. The author of this thesis does a comparative study on the two speeches made by President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama at 9th and 22 nd APEC summits, and makes discourse analysis on their language use from the perspective of critical discourse analysis(CDA), aiming to find out the similarities and differences in prominent linguistics features between the two different speeches, how to achieve their desired effects and different socio-historical backgrounds.The thesis applies Fairclough?s three-dimensional framework and Halliday?s systemic functional grammar(SFG) as theoretical foundations. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies are combined in this thesis, and Corpus AntConc3.4.3 is used as the tool of quantitative method.The following conclusions can be drawn from the comparative discourse analysis of the two American Presidents? addresses.Firstly, in the stage of description, Halliday?s three meta-functions are employed to analyze the linguistic features. In the realization of experimental meta-function, it is found that American leaders are prone to use certain words frequently to highlight the main points of speeches and that material processes, relational processes and mental processes account for the majority of the process types, with the percentage of 49%, 34% and 10% respectively. In the realization of interpersonal meta-function, the author finds that there are some particular reasons why President Bush uses will and must more than Obama does in spite of the shorter speech. The inclusive personal pronouns we/our are used more to create unity and show solidarity in the two speeches, while Bush employs more exclusive personal pronouns they/their to draw a clear distinction between themselves and terrorists. Parallelism makes speeches appealing and persuasive. In the realization of textual meta-function, marked theme is frequently used to thematize the time or something else. The employment of conjunctions makes speeches cohesive and the content compact.Secondly, in the stage of interpretation, the four questions are studied: what?s going on(content), who?s involved(subjects), in what relations(relations) and what?s the role of language in what?s going on(connections). After the research, it can be better understood how the presidents have their true intentions conveyed through the speeches.Thirdly, in the stage of explanation, the author finds that certain background shapes and produces certain speech through the analysis of socio-historical background and that power is embodied in the speech through the analysis of power relations. It can also be found that America?s attitudes towards China have changed a lot, with China?s rise in comprehensive national power.Through the comparative discourse analysis of the two political speeches based on Fairclough?s three-dimensional framework and Halliday?s SFG, the thesis reveals American attitudinal changes towards China and conveys some instructive implications in cultivating people?s critical attitudes towards political speeches. The result also shows that CDA is a feasible way to unveil the ideology in political speeches and demystify the complicated relationship between language, power and ideology.