• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Language and Social Context Assignment Coversheet 2007Background:Student Name
Doan Nhu Thuc Quyen
Student ID number 
3016043
Unit name
Language and Social Context
Unit number 
006156
Name of lecturer 
Dr Deborah Hill
Assignment name andnumber 
Assignment 2
Title (e.g. of essay)
Analyzing Bush’s Inauguration Speech
Due date
May 28, 2007
1
 
At noon of January 20
th
, 2005, President Bush, the 43
rd
president of the US,made an inauguration speech for his second term on the west steps of the USCapitol, the symbol of American power. During his first term, in spite of the factthat he encountered a lot of strenuous objection of many countries, Bush sent theUS forces to Afghanistan and Iraq to overthrow the dictators. Therefore, in thisspeech, President Bush not only tried to propagate to fight for freedom andliberation in all over the world but also demonstrated the power of the US.Besides, he showed his ambition to oppress the tyranny and terrorism. Thisspeech was broadcast live across the US and the world to millions of viewers.Many influential politicians such as Vice President Cheney, Mr. Chief Justice,Former Presidents Carter, Bush and Clinton Senator Hillary Clinton, US defensesecretary Donald Rumsfeld, Homeland security department secretary Tom Ridge,Secretary of state Collin Powell and National security adviser Condoleezza Rice,etc attended to the ceremony.
Sociolinguistic concepts:
Power and hierarchy:
The major sociolinguistic concepts in Bush’s inauguration speech are power,hierarchy, solidarity, politeness, collectivism and individualism.According to Fitzgerald (2003: 23), “the most useful dimension for explainingcommunicative behaviour is the power distance dimension”. Power is divided intohigh power and low power. Power can be understood by turn taking, interruptionand changing topic. In fact, in a conversation, the superordinate tends todominate the topic and interrupts the subordinator. Saville-Troike (2003:256)says that voicing (both active and passive) and transitivity conceal power andpowerlessness.Moreover, power and hierarchy are closely related. Hierarchy is often based onfeatures such as age, gender and family background. For instance, therelationship between the old people and their young offspring clearly
2
 
demonstrates the hierarchy in which the elder members of the family are morepowerful and have to be respected by the younger ones.
Solidarity and politeness:
Women and men tend to show their politeness in different ways. Coulmas (2005:101) says: “women in many societies are commonly expected to, and actually,choose more polite strategies than men”. Politeness can be both positive andnegative. According to Coulmas (2005: 85), negative face expresses the want notto be forced by others, while positive face implies the aspiration to be admitted byother people. In Vietnam, people often show their positive politeness when givingcompliments. For instance, Vietnamese people usually say: “You look sobeautiful” or “You have a really nice necklace” to show that they care about theothers and want to be accepted. On the other hand, Western people tend toshow the negative politeness. When asking for permission, they may make thequestion “Would you mind if I open the window?”According to Wardhaugh (1986: 277), “positive face looks for solidarity”.Wardhaugh (1986: 277) also says that negative politeness leads to respect,excuse and indirectness and etiquette. For example, in the Vietnameselanguage, young close friends usually show the positive politeness when usingpronouns “may” (“I”) and “tao” (“you”). On the contrary, using pronouns “ong/ ba”(“you”) and “toi” (“I”), old people often show their negative politeness or deference politeness. Furthermore, people also show the hierarchical politenessin which the “higher” use pronouns “cau” (“you”) and “to” (“I”) to imply that theywant to be friendly with the “lower”. Conversely, the “lower” imply theindependence face strategies by using pronouns “anh” (“you”) and “em” (“I”).
Collectivism and individualism:
Fitzgerald (2003: 23) says: “in collectivist societies, relationships take on greatimportance and there can be complicated ties of loyalty and obligation amongingroup members”. In Eastern countries, the parents-children relationship seems
3
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...