Discourse Analysis on Winston Churchill and Tony Blair
Section 1
1.1 In this essay, I will be conducting a discourse analysis on a speech made by Winston Churchill in the 1940s, when he informed the British public that they will be entering war. I will use sociological research which examines the discourse of politics to supply context for this speech. My research topic is to discover in this essay is how Prime Ministers use persuasive techniques to win the support of the people. To achieve this, I will be comparing Churchill’s speech to Tony Blair’s speech in 2003 when he declared war on Iraq, to see what changes and similarities of discourses there are, regarding persuading and gaining the support of the people.
1.2 The consideration of the audience and their specific thoughts and feelings is certainly an essential theme when making a speech. Politicians use the spoken word to rule, inform, strengthen and communicate with the public in order to implement their own, or their party’s politics. As van Dijk puts it, “social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context (2001: 352).” If we are the people who vote to put these politicians in power, we ought to become more aware of the strategies and tactics behind their speeches. This will give us more opportunity of making a fair judgement of the real meaning of the message, rather than the persuasive and deceiving language that often clouds our judgement. I will be using critical discourse analysis and rhetorical political analysis as it is an approach that is suitable for written texts and helpful for discovering institutional meanings that lay hidden within rhetorical strategies. This method will facilitate me in finding the ideological dimension of discourse within the speeches I am analyzing (Cameron 2001:123).
1.3 Using critical discourse analysis I will analyse how the language used in political speeches functions as a type of social practice that “constructs the objects of
1.1 In this essay, I will be conducting a discourse analysis on a speech made by Winston Churchill in the 1940s, when he informed the British public that they will be entering war. I will use sociological research which examines the discourse of politics to supply context for this speech. My research topic is to discover in this essay is how Prime Ministers use persuasive techniques to win the support of the people. To achieve this, I will be comparing Churchill’s speech to Tony Blair’s speech in 2003 when he declared war on Iraq, to see what changes and similarities of discourses there are, regarding persuading and gaining the support of the people.
1.2 The consideration of the audience and their specific thoughts and feelings is certainly an essential theme when making a speech. Politicians use the spoken word to rule, inform, strengthen and communicate with the public in order to implement their own, or their party’s politics. As van Dijk puts it, “social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context (2001: 352).” If we are the people who vote to put these politicians in power, we ought to become more aware of the strategies and tactics behind their speeches. This will give us more opportunity of making a fair judgement of the real meaning of the message, rather than the persuasive and deceiving language that often clouds our judgement. I will be using critical discourse analysis and rhetorical political analysis as it is an approach that is suitable for written texts and helpful for discovering institutional meanings that lay hidden within rhetorical strategies. This method will facilitate me in finding the ideological dimension of discourse within the speeches I am analyzing (Cameron 2001:123).
1.3 Using critical discourse analysis I will analyse how the language used in political speeches functions as a type of social practice that “constructs the objects of
Bibliography: Books: Atkinson, J (1985) Structures of Social Action: Cambridge University Press Gee, J. P. (2005). An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method. London: Routledge Seale, Clive (2004) Researching society and culture: Sage Publications Ltd; Second Edition Wodak, Ruth (2000) Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis: London, Sage Publications Wood, Linda A (1997) www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/norman/critdiscanalysis.doc (online word document) Guardian: Full text: Tony Blair 's speech (2003) http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/mar/18/foreignpolicy.iraq1 (website article)