| The rhetorical theories of Aristotle are regarded as the foundations of western rhetoric.Though there exist various new ideological trends and new theories,they are all based on Aristotle's rhetorical theories,especially the three appeals.Even Kenneth Burke,the greatest rhetorician in modern history,also admits that his new rhetorical theories are the inheritance and continuation of Aristotle's.The core of Aristotle's theories is persuasion.Persuasion can be realized by three means:ethos,pathos and logos.As the new American president,studies about Trump's speeches haven't be found due to the limitation of time.To this paper tries to analyze Trump's speeches within the framework of Aristotle's three rhetorical appeals.This thesis includes micro-level analysis and macro-level analysis.In the micro-level analysis,we choose 35 typical examples to analyze how Trump employs three appeals in his speeches.In macro-level analysis,we divide the speeches into 5 types:economy,people's livelihood,military,security and education.We will study the distribution of three appeals in each type of speeches and the possible reason for the distribution.This paper tries to answer the following questions:how does Trump realize the three rhetorical appeals at the micro-level?What is the characteristics of the distribution of the three rhetorical appeals in his speeches and what are the possible reasons?After the studies,we get the following results:In the micro-level analysis,we find that:to realize ethos,Trump mainly uses good sense,good moral characters and good will and first person pronouns;to realize pathos,he mainly uses rhythmical language,language of images appealing to national pride,appealing to pains and woes,and appealing to shared values;to realize logos,he mainly uses figures,examples,testimony and analogy.In macro-level analysis,we find that:in his inaugural,Trump employs pathos most frequently because he wants to make the audiences excited and keep the atmosphere merry and alive;in the speeches about economy,Trump uses logos the most,because he wants to explain the economic statement and promote his economic policies by the use of figures;in the speeches about people's life,he uses ethos the most,because he is urgent in win the support of the public by showing cares for the low classes;in the speeches about education,he uses pathos the most,which is realized by appealing to national pride,because the five speeches are all about patriotism.Trump wants to strengthen their patriotism by listing the things America is proud of;in the speeches of security,pathos takes up 63.6%,which is mainly realized by rhythmical language.Trump lists the tragic situations of the families of victims murdered by illegal immigrants to persuade the public to support his policies to put more limitations on immigrants;in the speeches of military,rhythmical language is still the means used most.But Trump also uses a lot of figures to compare the military force in the past and that of today.He wants to make the public realize the need to increase military expenditure.overall,Trump employs pathos the most with 42.5%;ethos the second most with 39.7%;logos the least with 20.1%.This illuminates that Trump pays most of his attention to the controlling of the audiences'emotions because he wants win their support by affecting their judgement;he also wants to build a good image for himself in the audiences' minds because only when he lets the audiences believe he is trustworthy can he make them believe what he will say in the next.Through the analysis of Aristotle's three rhetorical appeals applied in trump's speeches,this paper provides a new perspective for the study of trump' s lectures.This study can help learners better understand the three rhetorical appeals and provide some reference for the application of this theory in political discourses.The results can motivate the non-English speakers to use more rhetorical strategies in the communication of English speakers and are helpful for the teaching and learning of political discourses. |
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