A Rhetorical Analysis of Prince Daniel
A rhetorical analysis of Prince Daniel's wedding speech
After many years of waiting for her father’s approval, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden finally got her Prince Daniel. They officially became a couple in May 2002. In the years prior to the wedding, Daniel has appeared more and more in the royal context and their engagement was announced on 24 February in 2009. The wedding date was set to the 19th of July in 2010. At the wedding reception, after the ceremony, Prince Daniel gave his first official speech as Prince Daniel of Sweden, Duke of Västergötaland.
As a public figure, Prince Daniel must master the art of speaking and thus to build and maintain a strong ethos . Delivering good speeches are a demanding task, but with practice anyone can learn to speak well. This speech, being his first as a part of the Swedish Royal Family, makes it especially interesting to analyse. This paper is going to provide an analysis of Prince Daniel’s speech at the wedding reception. The analysis consists of a discussion of the speech in relation to the rhetorical situation (Bitzer’s theory), disposition and figures of speech (Rehnberg: rhetoric analysis) and methods of argumentation (Aristotle’s). All translations are my own, unless otherwise indicated.
All speeches are influenced by their context. It is possible to analyse the context and to argue whether the speaker is adapting to the context successfully or not. In “The rhetorical situation” (1968), Lloyd F Bitzer presented three constituent parts that makes up any rhetorical situation. The first is exigence (emergency) which is a problem that a rhetorical speech can solve. The exigence becomes rhetorical only when it can be transmitted by human interaction. An example of rhetorical exigence is the reduction of pollution. By using persuasion it is possible to change a group's attitude or behaviour towards the idea of pollution reduction. The second constituent part is audience. The audience functions as mediators of
After many years of waiting for her father’s approval, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden finally got her Prince Daniel. They officially became a couple in May 2002. In the years prior to the wedding, Daniel has appeared more and more in the royal context and their engagement was announced on 24 February in 2009. The wedding date was set to the 19th of July in 2010. At the wedding reception, after the ceremony, Prince Daniel gave his first official speech as Prince Daniel of Sweden, Duke of Västergötaland.
As a public figure, Prince Daniel must master the art of speaking and thus to build and maintain a strong ethos . Delivering good speeches are a demanding task, but with practice anyone can learn to speak well. This speech, being his first as a part of the Swedish Royal Family, makes it especially interesting to analyse. This paper is going to provide an analysis of Prince Daniel’s speech at the wedding reception. The analysis consists of a discussion of the speech in relation to the rhetorical situation (Bitzer’s theory), disposition and figures of speech (Rehnberg: rhetoric analysis) and methods of argumentation (Aristotle’s). All translations are my own, unless otherwise indicated.
All speeches are influenced by their context. It is possible to analyse the context and to argue whether the speaker is adapting to the context successfully or not. In “The rhetorical situation” (1968), Lloyd F Bitzer presented three constituent parts that makes up any rhetorical situation. The first is exigence (emergency) which is a problem that a rhetorical speech can solve. The exigence becomes rhetorical only when it can be transmitted by human interaction. An example of rhetorical exigence is the reduction of pollution. By using persuasion it is possible to change a group's attitude or behaviour towards the idea of pollution reduction. The second constituent part is audience. The audience functions as mediators of