Abstract

The relationship between language and politics is historical. Politicians have always strived to affect the audiences’ emotional response, and focus on the emotional appeal to enhance their argument. A bond, then, needs to be created between the speakers and their audiences with the aim of persuading the latter of the former’s arguments. This emotional appeal is what Aristotle terms Pathos. The intersubjective appearance of the speakers/writers is formed via the stances that they adopt towards their argument and the audience they communicate with and desire to persuade. The linguistic choices made by the speakers are the means via which the interpersonal relation is created between speakers and their audiences. The success of a political speech depends by and large on the successful and witty linguistic choices made by the politician to convince and persuade the target audience. This study aims at applying the Appraisal Model devised by Martin and White (2005) to analyze Michelle Obama’s 2016 speech addressing the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia supporting Hillary Clinton in her presidential campaign back then. The Appraisal Model is employed with the intention of benefiting from its structure which is designed “to systemize a varied set of linguistic resources that speakers and writers use to negotiate evaluations with their addressees and to construct solidarity around shared values” (Thompson, 2014).

Presenters

Marwa Abuelwafa
Head of the Languages Department , College of Language & Communication , Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, Egypt

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

2020 Special Focus: Transcultural Humanities in a Global World

KEYWORDS

Appraisal, Martin and White, Linguistic Resources, Solidarity

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