A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Strategic Functions In Theresa May's Brexit Speeches

By adopting theory of language and politics put forward by Chilton,this study makes a critical discourse analysis of the British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit speeches.By analysing the strategic functions embodied in her speeches and exploring the underlying power relationship and political purposes,this thesis aims to improve people's understanding of political speeches and critical awareness.This thesis mainly applies the three strategic functions put forward by Chilton to data analysis,that is,coercion,legitimisation and delegitimisation,representation and misrepresentation.Besides,this thesis applies pragmatic and intertextual methods to make a qualitative analysis of the data.Sixty four speeches on Brexit by Theresa May have been collected from 13 July 2016 to 31 March 2019 on the website of the UK Government in this thesis,and the analysis focuses on 8 speeches of hers on the important issues of Brexit.This thesis aims to answer the following three questions:(1)How does Theresa May coerce the British people into supporting Brexit?(2)How does Theresa May legitimise the Withdrawal Agreement and delegitimise separatism?(3)How does Theresa May represent the future relationship between the UK and the EU and misrepresent immigration?The research findings are as follows:(1)Theresa May tries to coerce the British people into supporting Brexit with emotive and cognitive coercion.(2)She legitimises the Withdrawal Agreement with self-praise,self-justification,self-identification and self-explanation,and delegitimises separatism by drawing boundaries between groups and expressing political difference.(3)She represents the future relationship between the UK and the EU with rhetorical devices,such as repetition and parallelism,and the personal pronoun “we”,and misrepresents immigration with quantitative and qualitative misrepresentation.This study has some practical significance.First,the theory of language and politics put forward by Chilton could improve people's understanding of political speeches and critical awareness.Second,this research could help people understand and apply the three strategic functions put forward by Chilton to data analysis.Third,this study may be taken for reference in English reading and writing,and help improve students' reading and writing abilities.