A critical discourse analysis of president barack h obama’s address on cuba detente policy

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULITY OF GRADUATE STUDIES


HOÀNG THỊ THẮM

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF U.S PRESIDENT BARACK
H.OBAMA’S ADDRESS ON CUBA DETENTE POLICY
(NGHIÊN CỨU BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CỦA TỔNG THỐNG BARACK H.
OBAMA VỀ CHÍNH SÁCH BÌNH THƯỜNG HÓA QUAN HỆ VỚI CUBA
TỪ GÓC ĐỘ PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN)

Field:

English Linguistics

Code:

60220201

Course:

QHF.2014

Supervisor:

Prof. Nguyen Hoa

- Hanoi, September 2017 -

Abstract
In my thesis, I employ Fairclough‟s approach of CDA and Halliday‟s Systemic
Functional Grammar to analyze a case study which is a political speech named
“Obama‟s address on Cuba détente policy”. The study is to find out the relationship
between language, ideologies and power hidden behind the discourse. At the same
time, linguistic strategies are also discussed to see how the ideologies are constructed
and manifested in the speech. The results indicate that CDA helps reveal the
relationship between language, ideologies and power in the speech. Language is a
means to show ideologies and power; on the other hand, language is also to construct
one‟s ideologies or his identity to some extent. By analyzing this case study, it can be
seen that Obama is of great intelligence in using language as a strategic tool to display
his ideologies and power.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On the completion of this thesis, I am indebted to many people.
First and foremost, I wish to thank my supervisor, Prof. Nguyen Hoa for his
valuable and prompt advice and helps, without which, this thesis could not come
into being.
Much gratitude also go to all my lecturers and officers from Faculty of Graduate
Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National
University, who facilitated with the best possible conditions during my whole
course of studying.
Last but not least, I express thanks to my family and friends, whose encouragement
and assistance are of extreme importance during the course of my writing this
paper.

Hanoi, September, 2017
Hoang Thi Tham

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TABLE OF CONTENT
TABLE OF CONTENT ........................................................................................................ iii
PART I: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1
1.

Rationale ......................................................................................................................1

2.

Scope of the study ........................................................................................................1

3.

Purposes of the study...................................................................................................1

4.

Empirical Data .............................................................................................................2

5.

Design of the study ......................................................................................................2

PART II: DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................................3

CHAPTER 1: Literature Review ............................................................................................3
1.1.

The history of CDA .....................................................................................................3

1.2.

Elements in CDA .........................................................................................................3

1.2.1. CDA definition .............................................................................................................3
1.2.2. CDA goals ....................................................................................................................4
1.2.3. Critical .........................................................................................................................4
1.2.4. Ideology .......................................................................................................................5
1.2.5. Power ...........................................................................................................................5
1.2.6. Discourse .....................................................................................................................6
1.2.6.1. Discourse as a social practice ..................................................................................6
1.2.6.2. Type of power ............................................................................................................7
1.2.6.3. Political discourse .....................................................................................................7
CHAPTER 2: Methodology....................................................................................................8
2.1.

Data ..............................................................................................................................8

2.2.

Procedure .....................................................................................................................8

2.2.1. Fairclough‟s Three – Dimensional Approach ..............................................................8
2.2.1.1. Description ................................................................................................................8
2.2.1.2. Interpretation ............................................................................................................9

2.2.1.3. Explanation .............................................................................................................10
2.2.2. Halliday‟s Systemic Functional Linguistics ..............................................................10
2.2.2.1. Transitivity system ...................................................................................................10
2.2.2.2. Thematic system ......................................................................................................11
CHAPTER 3: Findings and Discussion ................................................................................13

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3.1.1. Experiential values ....................................................................................................15
3.1.2. Relational values........................................................................................................18
3.1.3. Expressive values .......................................................................................................19
3.1.4. Metaphors ..................................................................................................................19
3.2.

Grammatical analysis .................................................................................................20

3.2.1. The use of personal pronouns „I‟, „we‟ and „you‟ .....................................................20
3.2.2. Nominalization and passivization ...............................................................................21
3.2.3. Modes of sentences ....................................................................................................23
3.2.4. Modality analysis .......................................................................................................23
3.2.5. Cohesive devices ........................................................................................................24
3.2.6. Transitivity analysis ................................................................................................... 26
3.2.7. Thematic analysis ......................................................................................................28
3.3.

Textual analysis .........................................................................................................29

3.4.

Interpretation .............................................................................................................29

3.4.1. Interpretation of institutional context and speech act ...............................................30
3.4.2. Interpretation of inter-textual context and presupposition ........................................32
3.5.

Explanation ................................................................................................................33

PART III CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................35
1)

Summary and conclusion ...........................................................................................35

2)

Implications ...............................................................................................................37

REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................38
WEBSITE ..............................................................................................................................38
Appendix 1 .............................................................................................................................. I
Obama‟s address on Cuba détente policy ............................................................................... I
Appendix 2 Transitivity analysis in detail ........................................................................... IX
Appendix 3 Thematic analysis in detail ........................................................................... XVII
Appendix 4 Content Analysis ......................................................................................... XXIII
Appendix 5 Thematic structure.......................................................................................XXXI

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PART I: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale
Regarded as a social phenomenon, the study of language in use helps discover many
interests such as ideologies or power behind the language. Recently, critical discourse
analysis (henceforth CDA) has become very popular among linguists because of its
purposes. That is, the study of CDA is to find out the relationship between ideologies,
power and language, and in turn to reveal ideologies and power hidden behind the
discourse. For that reason, I decide to apply CDA in my minor thesis.

In addition, as a learner of language but having a great interest in politics, I choose one
political speech named “Obama‟s address on Cuba détente policy to analyze. I make
my mind up to vote for this speech because of several reasons. First, with more than
2,000 words, it becomes a proper choice for a study of 10,000 words. Second, it is an
official speech which is delivered by a high-ranking politician (President Obama).
Finally, the most important reason, I want to see what Obama‟s ideologies are
constructed and how they are manifested linguistically in his speech.
2. Scope of the study
In this study, I employ written aspects of the speech, but with the absence of spoken one
despite my awareness of such an importance in comprehending the overall message. Yet,
with more than 20,000 words in the text, I think it is enough for a minor thesis to meet its
requirements. For such a reason, I put my emphasis on basic features such as vocabulary,
grammar or textual ones to reveal hidden messages behind the discourse.
3. Purposes of the study
Purposes of the study are to uncover the relationship between language, ideologies and
power hidden behind the speech and to reveal how the ideologies are manifested
linguistically and constructed in the discourse. In order to reach these purposes, I
answer the two research questions as following:
1) What are Obama‟s themes as constructed in his speech?
2) How are the themes manifested linguistically?

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4. Empirical Data
The

empirical

data

used

in

the

paper

comes

from

the

website

( />
In particular, the data is a speech, which was delivered on December 17th, 2014 at
Cabinet room, the White House and it is considered as a sudden, shocking and historic
event. The purpose of the speech is to restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba,
ending the 54 -year - deep -freeze relation between the two nations. The seeds of

change were planted after Obama‟s 2012 reelection, when he huddled with advisers
and asked them to „think big‟ about the second term agenda, including the possibilities
of new starts with longstanding U.S foes such as Iran and Cuba. Then the speech was
the result of 18 months of hush-hush talks between the two nations, including secret
meetings in Canada and the personal involvement of Pope Francis. Such a condition
helps create an important pave to divulge ideologies hidden behind the speech.
5. Design of the study
This study consists of three main parts. They are:
Part I: Introduction
It includes the rationale, the scope of the study, the aims of the study, data collecting
and sampling, and the design of the study.
Part II: Development
The development comprises three chapters.
Chapter 1 named “Literature Review” provides the development process of critical
discourse analysis and important features of its theory as well.
Chapter 2 entitled “Methodology” shows clearly the analytical framework of the study.
I employ Fairclough‟s approach to analysis the speech because it is the most linguistic.
Chapter 3 labeled “Findings and Discussion” talks about Obama‟s ideologies hidden
behind the speech and strategies he resorted to get his ideologies across.
Part III: Conclusion
This part summarizes findings; hence, being able to conclude what ideologies and power are
constructed in the speech and how these ideologies are manifested linguistically. Also, some
recommendations for further study are presented as well.

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: Literature Review
1.1. The history of CDA

CDA is a domain of critical applied linguistics. The 1970s saw the emergence of CDA.
Its development was credited with prominent works including Kress and Hodge (1979),
Fowler et al (1979), van Dijk (1985), Fairclough (1989) and Wodak (1989).

In particular, Fowler et al. (1979-1996) made an important contribution to ascertain the
early foundations of Critical Linguistics. Then, from 1989 to 1999, Fairclough set out
the social theories underpinning CDA as well as explained and elaborated on some
advances in CDA, showing not only how the analytical framework for investigating
language in relation to power and ideology developed, but also how CDA is useful in
disclosing the discursive nature of much contemporary social and cultural change.
After that, van Dijk worked in text linguistics and discourse analysis, and considered
the relevance of discourse to the study of language processing. Also, he focused on
developing a theoretical model that explained cognitive discourse processing
mechanisms. These famous linguists built up main assumptions, principles and
procedures of what became Critical Linguistics. By 1990s, it came into existence with
this particular approach to linguistic analysis, showing how CDA was, by that time,
emerging as a distinctive theory of language, a radical different kind of linguistics.
Noticeably, most studies of these famous linguists are drawn on Hallidayan systemic
functional grammar. This indicates that an understanding of the basic claims of
Halliday‟s grammar and his approach to linguistic analysis is essential for an adequate
understanding of CDA.

1.2. Elements in CDA
Concepts relating to „critical‟, „ideology‟, „power‟ and „discourse‟ are discussed as
deeply as possible to make a proper understanding of CDA. However, before talking
about these elements, we should talk about CDA definition and its goals.
1.2.1. CDA definition

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The notion of Critical Discourse Analysis is the principal issue for those who wish to
research such an area. It stays dissimilar among different scholars such as van Dijk
(1998), Rebecca Roger (2004), Gilbert Weiss and Ruth Wodak (2003), Norman
Fairclough (2001) or Theo Van Leuuwen (1993). However, I only mention some basic
and famous definitions. As stated by van Dijk (1998), CDA investigates the way „social
power abuse, dominance and inequality which are enacted, reproduced and resisted by
text and talk in the social and political context‟. Quite different from van Dijk, Norman
Fairclough (2001) holds his attitude that CDA is considered as ideological analysis. For
the above opinions, CDA can be seen as an interdisciplinary approach to the study of
discourse that views language as a social practice and its targets are to uncover hidden
power and ideology behind discourses.

1.2.2. CDA goals
The main purpose of CDA as cited by (Litosseliti, 2006), is to understand social issues,
inequalities, and ideologies, by exposing the subtle role of discourse in maintaining
them. Also, it is to develop more effective means against persecution in society
(Rathzel, in Wodak, 1997). Toward deconstructing and reconstructing images of the
other still represents other target of CDA (Rathzel in Wodak, 1997). (Schaffner, 1996)
suggests that what CDA should act is to describe and explain, and if necessary criticize
social and discursive practices, based on solid research.
1.2.3. Critical
The notion of „critical‟ which is inherent in CDA‟s program is also understood very
differently. For general understanding, as suggested by Oxford Dictionary, „critical‟ is
to be understood as a way of thinking about and examining culture and literature by
considering the social, historical and ideological forces. The opinion of Wodak and
Meyer (2002) is relatively different that „critical‟ is something keeping distance to the
data, embedding the data in the social, taking a political stance explicitly and a
concentration on self-reflection as scholars doing research. With Corson (2000) (in
Roger 2004), he holds his opinion about „critical‟ that it is often associated with

researches in power relations. By means of „critical‟ , linguists find it easier to uncover

4


power inequalities hidden in discourses and wider social and cultural formations.
Overall, it is believed that „critical‟ is something qualitative and a sharp tool to reveal
ideologies and power behind the discourse.

1.2.4. Ideology
„Ideology‟ for CDA, is seen as an important aspect of establishing and maintaining
unequal power relations. Thompson (1990) holds his opinion about the study of
„ideology‟ „the ways in which meaning is constructed and conveyed by symbolic forms
of various kinds‟. It also discovers the social contexts within which symbolic forms are
employed and deployed. For Simpson (1993), „ideology‟ is created by a combination of
cultural assumptions, political beliefs and institutional practices. According to Eagleton
(1994), the study of „ideology‟ has to consider the variety of theories and theorists that
have examined the relation between thought and social reality. Despite different
concepts of „ideology‟, its main functions according to van Dijk are to self-represent
the group or the membership and identification of its members, to organize their social
practices or struggles, and to promote the interests of the group and its members with
respect to other groups.

1.2.5. Power
Wodak and Meyer consider „power‟ as relations about difference, and especially about
the influences of differences in social structures. They also mention that „power‟ does
not derive from language, yet in the service of language, „power‟ is challenged,
subverted and altered distributions of power in the short and long term. From the point
of view of Teun van Dijk (1998), „power‟ is defined in the light of control. When one
group or individual is likely to more or less control the acts and minds of other groups

or individuals, they can have more or less power. „Power‟ in CDA often is seen as
ideological power which is exercised in discourse, and the power to project one‟s
practices, beliefs and perspectives as universal, „common sense‟ or „right and just‟.
„Power‟ in CDA is signaled not only by grammatical forms within a text, but also by a
person‟s control of a social occasion by means of the genre of a text. It is often exactly
within the genres related to given social occasions that power is exercised or
challenged.

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1.2.6. Discourse
In this session, I will start to discuss „discourse‟ in CDA as „discourse as a social
practice. Then I mention to some types of discourse and focus on „political discourse‟
because it relates to the study.

1.2.6.1. Discourse as a social practice
In CDA, „discourse‟ is considered as a social practice. By using „a social practice‟,
Fairclough implies that language is a part of society, and not somehow external to it, a
social process and a socially conditioned process, conditioned that is by other (nonlinguistic) parts of society. In turn, „discourse‟ involves social conditions, which can be
specified as social conditions of production, and social conditions of interpretation.
These social conditions also relate to three different „level‟ of social organization
including the level of the social situation, or the immediate social environment in
which the discourse occurs, the level of the social institution which constitutes a wider
matrix of the discourse and the level of the society as a whole.
Social conditions of production
Process of production

Text
Process of interpretation

Interaction
Social conditions of interpretation
Context

Table 1: Discourse as text, interaction and context

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1.2.6.2. Type of power
Norman Fairclough (2001) categorizes discourse into two major aspects including
power in discourse and power behind discourse. Power in discourse is associated with
discourse in which relations of power are actually exercised and enacted. In other
words, discourse is the site of power struggles. Through power in discourse, analysts
can reveal the control of powerful participants and the constraint the contribution of
non-powerful participants. The later aspect is about power behind discourse which
represents the stake in power struggles – for control over orders of discourse is a
powerful mechanism for sustaining power.

1.2.6.3. Political discourse
For Dieckmann and Christina Schaffner, political language is to denote the use of
language in the context of politics and a point of view of language use, respectively. Political
language contains some features (Geiss, 1987); that is, it might have an indirect but stronger
effect on people‟s political thought than expressions of strong opinions; bias very often exists
in political discourse and verbs which denote speech may imply positive impact or negative
impact; especially, the context in political discourse is of great importance in understanding
of the messages embedded in the text.
One more thing, political speeches contain some characteristics as follow:
 The speeches are parts of and/ or the results of politics.
 They fulfill different functions due to different political activities.

 Their topics are primarily associated with politics.
 In the majority of the cases, they are meant for a wide public.

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CHAPTER 2: Methodology

2.1. Data
As mentioned in the previous part (Empirical Data), the data for this CDA is
empirical. In particular, I employ one political speech called “Obama‟s address on
Cuba

détente

policy”

which

is

taken

from

the

website

( />2.2. Procedure

CDA is to find out the relationship between language, ideologies and power; in turn,
reveal ideologies and power hidden behind the discourse. Therefore, I want to employ
CDA to see how the relation between ideologies and language are manifested
linguistically in Obama‟s speech, and what his ideologies are constructed.
In addition, CDA in all of its various forms understands itself to be strongly based on
theory. And there is a wide variety of theories which are applied in analyzing CDA;
however, I employ Fairclough‟s analytical framework because it is seen as the most
linguistic. Also, in his work, Fairclough used Halliday‟s systemic functional grammar
to analysis; therefore, I will focus on three-dimensional approach of Fairclough and
several key points relating to Halliday‟s systemic functional linguistics below.
2.2.1. Fairclough’s Three – Dimensional Approach
In his approach, Fairclough recommends three different stages which are description,
interpretation and explanation as well.
2.2.1.1. Description
At this step, features including vocabulary, grammar and textual structure are all
mentioned in order to reveal hidden meanings, embedded messages and speaker‟s
ideologies. For such reasons, a number of questions are listed below:
A. Vocabulary
1. What experiential values do words have?
2. What relational values do words have?
3. What expressive values do words have?
4. What metaphors are used?

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B. Grammar
5. What experiential values do grammatical features have?
6. What relational values do grammatical features have?
7. What expressive values do grammatical feature have?

8. How are sentences linked together?
C. Textual structures
9. What interactional conventions are used?
10. What larger-scale structures does the text have?
2.2.1.2. Interpretation
Interpretation step copes with discourse processed and their dependence on background
assumptions. It is generated through what is in the text and what is „in‟ the interpreter.
This stage is summarized through the figure as follow:
Interpretative procedures (MR)

Resources

Interpreting

Social orders

Situational context

Interactional history

Inter-textual context

Phonology, grammar,

Surface of utterance

vocabulary
Semantics,

Meaning of utterance

pragmatics
Cohesion,

Local coherence

pragmatics
Text structure and „point‟

Schemata

Table 2: Interpretation
Norman Fairclough (2001; 119)

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2.2.1.3. Explanation
The objective of the third stage- explanation- is to portray a discourse as part of a social
process, as social practice, presenting how it is determined by social structures, and
what reproductive effects discourses can cumulatively have on those structures,
sustaining them or changing them. Norman Fairclough shows three questions in
common in order to be applied in certain discourse analysis.
1. Social determinants: What power relations at situational, institutional, and societal
level help shape this discourse?
2. Ideologies: What elements of MR which are drawn upon have an ideological
character?
3. Effect: How is this discourse positioned in relation to struggles at the situational,
institutional, and societal levels? Are the struggles overt or over? Is the discourse
formative with respect to MR or creative? Does it contribute to sustaining existing

power relations or transforming them?

2.2.2. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics
This kind of linguistic system is of great importance for CDA analysts. Halliday
distinguished three meta-functions of language which are continuously interconnected:
they are the ideational function through which language lends structure to experience,
the interpersonal function which constitutes relationships between the participants, and
the textual function which constitutes coherence and cohesion in texts. In my paper, I
utilize two functions including ideational and textual functions. These two functions
are realized at the lexico-grammar level by choices in the transitivity and thematic
system of the language, and the unit of this level is clause.

2.2.2.1. Transitivity system
This system is defined as the world of experience into a manageable set of process
types. Normally, a process type contains three components such as the process itself,
participants in the process and circumstance associated with the process. Transitivity
provides the potential to group the infinite variety of occurrences into a finite set of

10


process types. They are material, mental, relational, behavioral, verbal, existential
process. This frame of reference is useful when we interpret experience of what goes
on.

2.2.2.2. Thematic system
Thematic system answers the question „how is the content of the text organized?‟ and it
is realized the ordering of „theme and rheme‟ in a clause. Halliday (1994) states that the
theme is the starting-point for the message, the ground from which the clause is taking
off; and the theme is divided into simple and multiple theme. The theme extends from

the beginning of the clause up to the first element that has function in transitivity; and it
is named topical theme. If there are other things coming before the topical theme,
multiple themes will appear. Vice versa, in case there is nothing before the topical
theme, it stays single. Components of a multiple theme can be summarized as below
according to Bloor, T and Bloor, M (1995).
Meta-function

Component of theme

Textual theme

Continuative
Structural
Conjunctive

Interpersonal theme

Vocative
Modal
Finite
Wh-interogative

Experiential theme

Topical (participant, circumstance, process)
Table 3: Components of a multiple theme

It also should be distinguished between marked and unmarked themes. The first notion
can be defined that a theme which is other than the subject, in a declarative clause while
the later one is often found in adverbial groups, prepositions or nominalization. It is

placed where the subject is the starting point of the clause.

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In this chapter, I have argued on the one hand that CDA theories are reviewed and
discussed, and on the other hand that the analytical framework by Norman Fairclough is
mentioned in detail. They are considered as a useful and major tool in analyzing
Obama‟s speech which is presented next part – the most important part of the study.

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CHAPTER 3: Findings and Discussion
To answer the first research question “What Obama‟s themes1 as constructed in his
speech”, I analyze the content of the speech (See appendix 4 Content Analysis) and
then collect it into a thematic schema (See appendix 5 Thematic Structure). In
particular, Obama‟s themes are represented as following:

1. The topic of the speech: Announce for changes
2. Background of the past policy: Failure of the past policy to make a case for
changes
3. Need for changes: plan and steps; benefits for changes
4. Difficulties
5. Solutions
6. Acknowledgment
It can be seen that Obama‟s thematic argumentation is so obvious. Right at the first
sentence of the speech, Obama directly shows the topic sentence “Today, the United
States of America is changing its relationship with the people of Cuba.” Then the
audience can recognize the issue and continues to follow the speech.

So why need changes? We can find out the answer in the second step of Obama‟s
thematic schema – Background of the past policy. Because he wants to make a case for
changes, Obama indicates failures of the past policy. Indeed, he demonstrates that the
past rigid policy does not serve the American or Cuban‟s interest “Neither American,
nor Cuban people are well served by a rigid policy.” (Line 31-32), and it receives no
support by other nations “No other nation joins us in imposing these sanctions, and it
has had little effect…” (Line 26-27) although it has the best of intentions (Line 26)
which serve democracy and human rights (Line 22). Showing such failures requires a
need for changes.
1

Themes and ideologies are interchangeable

13


At the step of need for changes, Obama specifies his plan and steps and benefits for
changes. He displays four steps for changes by using connective words- “first, second,
third and finally” which helps create a logical and coherent content. The four steps are:
reestablish diplomatic relations “First, I‟ve instructed Secretary Kerry to …reestablish
diplomatic relations” (Line 66-67); review Cuba‟s designation as a State Sponsor of
Terrorism “Second, I‟ve instructed Secretary Kerry to review Cuba‟s designation as a
State Sponsor of Terrorism” (Line 84-85); increase travel, commerce, and the flow of
information to and from Cuba “Third, we are taking steps to increase travel,
commerce, and the flow of information to and from Cuba” (Line 90-91); and renew
leadership in the Americas ““Finally, our shift in policy towards Cuba comes at a
moment of renewed leadership in the Americas” (Line 175-176).

In addition, Obama indicates benefits for changes to persuade the audience believe and
follow his policy. That is, Cuban Americans can travel and send remittances to their

families in Cuba “We lifted restrictions for Cuban Americans to travel and send
remittances to their families in Cuba” (Line 38-39). Moreover, it will be easier for
Americans to travel to Cuba and they will be able to use American credit and debit
cards on the island (Line 94). Also, it will be easier for U.S exporters to sell goods in
Cuba and Cubans enable to communicate with the United States and other countries.
On the other hand, the journey to make such Obama‟s steps come to an end is not easy.
It certainly contains a lot of difficulties. He claims the change is hard (Line 196) and
“No es facil- It‟s not easy (Line 164). By using a daily-life-Cuban sentence, Obama
wants to connect and share with Cuban community about the difficulties. Despite these
obstacles, he always shows his belief and hope about the success of his changes “Ideals
matter more than the color of our skin, or the circumstances of our birth; a
demonstration of what the Cuban people can achieve, and the openness of the United
States to our family to the South (Line 192-193)”.

14


To persuade the public, Obama does not only present his belief about the policy, but
also give solutions for the difficulties. His administration discusses with the government
of Cuba about Alan‟s case and other aspects of the two nation‟s relationship “many
months, my administration has held discussions with the Cuba government….” (Line
49), and continue to do on issues related to democracy and human rights in Cuba “We
will continue to do on issues related to democracy and human rights in Cuba.” (Line
78), “We will continue to support civil society there” (Line 132).
One more important thing in Obama‟s thematic argumentation is his acknowledgment.
He does not forget to thank those who are his partners in his efforts. They are Holiness
Pope Francis who shows the importance of pursuing the world; the government of
Canada, which hosted discussions between two nations, and a bipartisan group of
congressmen who have worked tirelessly for Alan Gross‟s release (Line 171-172).
In sum, analyzing the content of the speech, we can see Obama‟s themes/ideologies

hidden behind the speech; then to observe how these themes are manifested
linguistically in the speech, I present strategies Obama used to manifest his themes
getting across. The linguistic strategies I present below are associated with the themes
which are found out after analyzing the content analysis.

3.1.

Vocabulary analysis

In this session, I will examine values words can have. They are experiential, relational,
expressive value and metaphor.

3.1.1. Experiential values
A formal feature with experiential value is a trace of and a cue to the way in which the
text producer‟s experience of the natural or social world is represented. To begin with,
let‟s look at such a value, which is represented in the discourse, to gain a general picture
of the speaker‟s attitude, ideology and his perspective as well. A great number of
utilized words which are to describe events, actions, or persons give us a universal

15


outlook of Obama‟s perspective: he focuses on the failures caused by the „rigid policy‟
previously, in turn, to emphasis on his plan and steps which could bring about mutual
benefits. On the other hand, he also indicates the difficulties for changes. In sum,
Obama‟s perspective is about his policy to make changes with the relationship with
Cuba. The study will be analyzed this aspect in detail as following.

Concerning the previous relation between two countries, the speaker says it is
„outdated‟, „failed‟ and „complicated‟. Due to such an „outdated‟ relationship, „neither

the American, nor Cuban people are well served‟. Via his word use, his attitude about
the prior policy is unfavorable. Digging up deeper, it can be realized the speaker‟s wits
with his word choices. Apart from being against the policy in the past, he worries about
its detriment caused for the people of two nations. It created „barrier‟ to ideology,
economic, commerce, travel or the flow of information, made the Cuban exile
community in the United States feel a „painful‟ yearning for their land and family, and
„jailed‟ „wrongful‟ people of two countries.
Turning into another issue relates to the speaker‟s idea of the relationship. He regards
America and Cuba as „unique‟ (line 21), „friendship‟ (line 159) and „partner‟ (line 168)
and this „unique friendship‟ can lead two countries to a „new chapter‟ (line 8) and „a
better future‟ (line 203). His witting employed vocabulary makes his policy become a
right human thing.
In his speech, Obama does not forget to mention „Communist Party‟ like „China‟ or
„Vietnam‟ to whom America has successfully reestablished the relation. Cuba is also a
Communist nation, and by delivering such examples, the speaker wants them believe
that his policy can come to an end.
Furthermore, meaning relations which are of great worth in conveying the speaker‟s
ideology/theme should be examined. In his discourse, the speaker employs synonyms
which are in nature the similar meanings; yet, are likely to use in different situations.

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Dealing with the previous relation, Obama resorts synonymous words such as
„isolation‟, „against‟, „opposition‟, „barrier‟, or „restriction‟ while concerning about
his own policy, he uses vocabularies including „a new chapter‟, „opportunities‟,
„openness‟, „a better future‟, and „ a source of hope‟.

Whether or not any implications appears when synonym is applied in the discourse. Let
have a look at the synonym phenomenon to discover the answer. It can be seen that

there is an opposite picture between the prior relationship and the one which is created
by the speaker‟s policy. The former one is built in with negative sense and is reviewed
throughout the discourse thanks to synonymous words. This is to help the public
recognize the matter and at the same time and have a contrast with what the speaker‟s
plan and steps creates. On the other hand, when describing the outlook of his policy,
many near synonyms are resorted so as to reveal his belief in its success. Clearly, in the
process of reality construction with a picture of the past policy and his plan and steps,
the speaker‟s attitude, evaluations are drawn on the discourse. Obviously, these
relations of synonym are ideologically determined.
Also, antonyms, which are defined as meaning incompatibility – the meaning of one
word is incompatible with the meaning of another, are found in the text:
An outdated approach >< a new approach (Line 5 & 84)
Barriers >< freedom (Line 31)
Enjoy lasting transformation >< are subjected to chaos (Line 54)
Once controversial >< now obvious (Line 41)
Imposed >< codified (Line 18)

Most of these antonyms are put in the parallel structures to present ideas more
persuasive. Using this technique, Obama wants to create an opposite points: negative
points for the prior policy and positive points for his plan and steps. The audience will
be greatly affected caused by this way of presenting ideas. In turn, they can easily make
a comparison by themselves, and decide which policy brings more benefits. So what

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does this mean? It means Obama got his success in using the strategy of antonym to
present his ideology. That is, the phenomenon of antonym is employed skillfully in the
speech helps the audience get a clear vision about Obama‟s policy.

3.1.2. Relational values
A formal feature with relational value is a trace of and a cue to the social relationships
which are enacted via the text in the discourse. This value is to do with relations and
social relationships. Strategies such as euphemism and formality of the situation are
often resorted to show relational values. During speech production, Obama does not
forget to apply the latter strategy in order to indicate his ideologies.

The formality of the situation demands formality of social relations, and this evident in
the vocabulary, which consistently opts for more formal choices as against less formal
available alternative, expressing politeness, concern from participants for each other‟s
„face‟, or respect for status and position.

Let‟s consider cases on the formality

appeared in the text:
….made a clear strong belief ….(Line 122)
….a hand of friendship….(Line 159)
….thank you….(Line 170)
….my fellow leaders….(Line 183)
….my fellow Americans….(Line 190)

As the President of the United States, Obama has to make careful considerations during
his speaking, especially, when the discourse is broadcast live before the public not
only in America, Cuba but also in the world. So his speech can be evaluated by
different analysts in different conditions. Such a formality requires a formality of social
relations, and the evidence is shown clearly in the speech with his word use. They
express the speaker‟s politeness, social position, and respect his audience face, in turn,
prove that he is adequate for the national highest position. Sharply chosen word choices

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of the formality is a worthy strategy for Obama creating a relaxing atmosphere, being a
convenient condition for him in persuading the audience „believe‟ his policy.

3.1.3. Expressive values
A formal feature with expressive value is a trace of and a cue to the producer‟s
evaluation of the bit of the reality it relates to. Expressive value is to do with subjects
and social identities. This value plays an important role for Obama to portray his
persuasive intention.
There are a number of examples in the discourse where the speaker‟s negative
evaluation of the prior policy described is implicit in the vocabulary. They are:
„outdated‟, „complicated‟, „backdrop‟, „separated‟, „hardened‟, „barrier‟, „restrictions‟
and so forth. On the other hand, a variety of positive word choices are to estimate his
plan such as „new chapter‟, „‟belief‟, „good‟, or „advance‟. The overall effect may be
easy and persuasive for the audience.

3.1.4. Metaphors
Metaphor is a means of representing one aspect of experience in terms of another, and
is by no means restricted to the sort of discourse it tends to be stereotypically
associated with – poetry and literary discourse. Metaphor in political contexts can be,
and often is, used for ideological purposes because it activates unconscious emotional
associations and thereby contributes to myth creation (Jonathan, 2011). In his speech,
Obama also used metaphor as a strategic tool to tell his story.

He used metaphor for positive representations of future scenarios that are construed as
solutions to problems. That is, for instance, by using the metaphorical phenomenon of
„heart‟, he considered policy toward Cuba as a greatly important policy. He then told
about „A new chapter‟ (Line 8) between two countries‟ relations. This results a positive
attitude of the audience about his policy.

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3.2. Grammatical analysis
3.2.1. The use of personal pronouns ‘I’, ‘we’ and ‘you’
Let‟s start with the analysis of the speaker‟s use of personal pronouns „we‟, „I‟ and
„you‟ with their distribution which are presented below:
Personal pronouns

Times

I

27

We

65

You

6

Table 4: The distribution of „I‟, „we‟, and „you‟
From the table above, the audience can recognize a number of „we‟ reappearing
throughout the speech with a high rate of density. The pronoun is utilized for 65 times,
which are the most noticeable. It appears with structures such as „we did‟, or „we will
do‟ stressing the speaker‟s or his administration‟s actions.
….we will end an outdated approach. (Line 5)

…we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries. (Line 6)
…we will raise those differences directly -- as we will continue to do on issues related
to democracy and human rights in Cuba. (Line 79)

Noticeably, the usage of this pronoun assists shortening the distance between the
speaker and the public and in turn accepting his perspectives, regardless of social
status, age, color, or profession. Furthermore, by identifying him as a member of the
collective, Obama wants people think that they belong to the same side; in other words,
his actions are to make contributions for all people (American citizens, Cuban people)
and in the absence of their hand, his effort may not come to an end.

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