A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF PRESIDENT CHAKWERA’S INAUGURAL SPEECH

Stylistics has been defined as a sub-discipline of linguistics that is concerned with the systematic
analysis of style in language and how this can vary according to such factors as, for example,
genre, context, historical period and author (Jeffries & McIntrye, 2010). Jeffries and McIntrye
(2010) further states that stylistics aims to account for how texts project meaning, how readers
construct meaning and why readers respond to texts in the way that they do. Usually, stylisticians
below linguistic tools in order to conduct a stylistic linguistic analysis of a text. Since it is the
duty of leaders to lead, they often make addresses to their audiences. The current president of the
Republic Malawi, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, made an inaugural address to the nation on 6 th July,
2020 at BICC grounds. The purpose of this paper was to conduct a stylistic analysis of the text
focusing on figurative language, lexical and syntactic structures. While there are several such
devices in the speech, this paper solely focused on personification, metaphor, hyperboles,
parallelism, enumeration, point of view, and stylistically neutral and coloured words.
Personification is one of the stylistic devices that has been employed in the Speech. According to
(Wales, 2011) personification is a figure of speech or trope in which an inanimate object,
animate nonhuman object or abstract quality is given human attributes. Chakwera’s speech is
characterized by such figurative speech. For instance, the first sentence of the first paragraph
exhibits the personification of Malawi, “our nation was born”. Here, Malawi is depicted as a
person who has been delivered. The personification depicts the transition from being a colony to
being an independent nation. This has been used to capture the emotions of the people to remind
them that they are free individuals. Malawi’s independence has been further emphasized at the
beginning of the second sentence of the same paragraph, by using another personification “it was
a birth that”. The fourth paragraph also contain several personifications. For example, the second
sentence of the paragraph has personified Malawi through the sentence “the national bones we
have dislocated cannot be corrected without suffering”. Another personification in the same
paragraph is “part of her (Malawi’s) solution”. In addition, the same paragraph has the
personification “heal our fractured nation and governance system”. Furthermore, “the context of
Malawi’s recovery” also portrays personification in the same fourth paragraph. Personification in
the fourth paragraph has been used to illustrate that Malawi is still underdeveloped and
Malawians need to work extra hard to improve the situation. The fifth paragraph’s first sentence
also contains personification, whereby Malawi has been portrayed as a sinner as in “collective
sense of responsibility over our national sins”. Here Malawi has been portrayed as sinful due to
maladministration whereby people do not follow the rule of law and constitutionalism.
Metaphors have also been used by the speech by Dr. Chakwera's. According to Simpson (2004) a
metaphor is a process of mapping two different conceptual domains. It is used to add beauty in a
text. One case of a metaphor in the speech is "passing the baton of turning our land into a great
nation". Passing the baton, here, is used to symbolize the transfer of leadership from one
generation to the next. Another metaphor in the speech is “building a new Malawi” which aims
to emphasize that Malawi has been left exhausted by maladministration of previous regimes and
therefore needs to start afresh. In addition, "fading generation" is also another metaphor which
aims to remind individuals that the last of the generation of the so-called Nyasas has declined
over the years. Another case of a metaphor in the speech is “clearing the rubble” which has been
repeated several times in the third paragraph. The phrase ‘the rubble’ has been used to illustrate
that the Malawian nation is in a devastated state to various factors like corruption, regionalism,
and laziness. As a result, ‘the rubble’ has been used to evoke the emotions of the audience so that
they understand that the nation is in a sorry state and at the same time emphasize that the
malpractice mentioned should be put in check if the nation is to progress as a whole. The last
paragraph also contains a metaphor “to root out the culture of corruption and selective justice”.
This metaphor means that the Tonse regime will eradicate corruption and selective justice and
therefore Malawians should be assured that they are being governed by an accountable and a
transparent government.
In addition, Chakwera’s speech also contains hyperboles. A hyperbole is also called an
exaggeration or overstatement, it is usually used for emphasis as a sign of great emotion or
passion (Wales, 2011). Wales (2011) observes that hyperboles violate Grice’s maxims of
quantity and quality since it distorts the truth by saying too much, however, she is quick to point
out that hyperboles do not contain lies since the addresser does not intend to deceive the
audience. The speech portrays a hyperbole in the last sentence of the seventh paragraph. The
hyperbole reads “If it were not for thousands of knees scraping floors across this country in night
long prayers that gave heaven no rest until God’s kingdom came, none of us would be here.” The
hyperbole arises since the president assumes that many Malawians were not having night long
prayers and that heaven was forced to admit to the needs of the people. The hyperbole has been
used to evoke the positive feelings of Malawians and assure them that it is their commitment to
the Tonse Alliance cause that led to the victory of the Tonse government led by Dr. Chakwera
and Dr. Chilima.
Chakwera’s speech is also characterized by parallelism. Parallelism is achieved through the
principle of equivalence or repetition of the same syntactical structures pattern: commonly
between phrases or clauses (Wales, 2011). According to Leech (196) parallelism is foregrounded
regularity. Foregrounding has been used in the speech through parallelism in order to emphasize
some important issues that the president discussed. Throughout the Chakwera’s speech,
parallelism has been used. For instance, the structure “I am fully aware that” has been used three
times in the speech. Here the president wanted to emphasize that the president understands his
role in developing the country and the context in which this development must happen. The third
paragraph’s also reviews how parallelism has been portrayed in the speech. Such structures
include “it is no secret that” which has been repeated three times. Here the president aimed at
emphasizing that everyone knows that Malawi has not only not progressed but regressed in terms
of development due to poor leadership in the past. This regress is further emphasized by another
use of parallel structure "promising...but delivering...". An instance is promising prosperity but
delivering poverty. Another case of parallelism is " we must clear the rubble of ...for it has..." as
exemplified in we must clear the rubble of corruption for it has left our taxes in ruins. This
parallelism emphasizes that it is the duty of all citizens to fight injustice and promote prosperity
and the Tonse government will lead by example. As a result, Malawians should expect a
competent and transparent government from the Tonse alliance.
Another stylistic syntactic structure used in the speech is enumeration. Enumeration refers to
naming separate things, objects, phenomena, ideas and actions in a chain (Ziyatdinova &
Khsainova, 2017). Enumeration occurs when there is a relationship among those things that are
enumerated. The inaugural address by Dr. Chakwera exhibits several enumerations. For instance,
the paragraph’s second sentence contains enumeration in naming various kinds of promises and
how these promises have not been fulfilled. For example, “promising prosperity but delivering
poverty; promising nationalism but delivering division” and so on. This has been used to remind
the people that they were being deceived but the Tonse led government will be different. Another
case of enumeration is seen in the sentence “When we promise to build new homes with a solid
roof, electricity, and tap water”, which has been used to remind the people the promises of the
Tonse administration. Furthermore, the eighth paragraph the statement “making great strides in
transforming their home, or their neighborhood, or their village, or their workplace, or their
business, or their country” is enumeration. This is the case because several places have been
mentioned in a sequence. Here the president emphasizes that to Malawians should be patriotic. In
addition, the fourth sentence to the last sentence of the seventh paragraphs reveals how
enumeration has been employed. Consider the example below.
“If it were not for the courage of over one hundred Malawians who toiled through the
night to gather evidence of electoral fraud so that our court petition against the 2019
election was built on facts, none of us would be here. If it were not for the courage of
over twenty witnesses who submitted testimony to the court in the face of death threats,
none of us would be here. If it were not for the courage of over a dozen lawyers who
stood up to the abuse of office and misuse of the law by a politically compromised
Attorney General, none of us would be here. If it were not for the courage of the five
judges of the Constitutional Court to do right by law despite attempts to bribe them in the
interest of subverting justice, none of us would be here.”
A clear observation of the extract above shows how enumeration has been used to name various
groups of individuals who contributed to the victory of the Tonse Alliance. Here enumeration
was used to emphasize how useful collective efforts can be in a country and also to show
appreciation.
It is also noted that Chakwera's speech uses the first narration point of view. Point of view is the
angle of vision or perception by which the events of a novel are narrated and the information
presented (Wales, 2011). This conceptualization is derived from the angle of vision used in art
and film theory. Simpson (2004) agrees with Wales (2011) that point of view is the perception
through which a narration is done and that it brings texture and colour in a text. Every narration
has a point of view and this is also the case with Dr. Chakwera’s speech which is in the first
person narrative. This is the case because Dr. Chakwera , the narrator, prevails in the narration of
the speech. Throughout the speech Dr. Chakwera's delivers the speech by referring to various
instances of first narration point of view and it is natural that this is the case since he is the one
addressing the mob. For instance, the use of “I myself gave witness to” in the first paragraph. In
addition, the use of "we have had one administration after another shifting its post to the next
election". These are but a few instances that illustrates that the speech has delivered in the first
narration point of view.
One of the lexical features in the speech is common and literary words. Common words are
words that are used by a speech community in their daily lives, some authors call these words
stylistically neutral words (Ziyatdinova & Khusainova, 2017). Chakwera’s speech employ many
common words so that the audience can understand the message clearly. In some respect, he is
trying to identify himself with the crowd he is addressing. Some of the common words used in
the speech are solid roof, tape water and electricity. These words have been used to emphasize
that although his administration promised to provide these necessities, the masses should not just
sit but work to earn them. In contrast, the speech also uses some cases of stylistically coloured
words like literary terms that are specific to some group of individuals. These stylistically
coloured words mainly aim to add an aesthetic value to the speech. Some of these literary words
include green stick fracture, surgery, and orthopedic surgeon. The words mentioned here have
been used to emphasize that Malawi cannot develop without making some sacrifices and that
these sacrifices require some pain. This is to reassure the people that the task of developing
Malawi will meet various challenges and the people must endure the pain.
As a matter of a recap, this paper has done stylistic linguistic analysis focusing on figurative
language, lexical and syntactic structures use in the inaugural speech by Dr. Chakwera on 6 th July
2020 at BICC grounds. The analysis has shown that various stylistic linguistic devices were used
in the speech to make emphasis on serious issues, promote communication, show appreciation
and add an aesthetic value to the paper.
References
Jeffries, L., & McIntyre, D. (2010). Stylisitics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Simpson, P. (2004). Stylistics: A resource book for students. London and New York: Routlrdge.
Wales, K. (2014). A Dictionary of Stylistics. London: Routledge Press.
Ziyatdinova, J. N., & Khusainova, G. R. (2017). Practical Modern English Stylistics: Tutorial.
Kazan KNRTU Press.