Taking a Look at Sports Psychology - 1561 Words

Don’t think of a pink elephant. Come on – don’t let the picture creep into your mind. Stop thinking of that†¦ Pink Elephant (Gardner). It has been proven that putting a â€Å"don’t† or a â€Å"not† into a statement can cause the brain to have difficulties in interpreting the statement. In sports, players tend to tell themselves â€Å"not† to do something. In soccer, a goalie might tell him/herself to not let the other team score a goal, and then the team does. Or in tennis, players tell themselves not to serve the ball into the net, and then they do just that. Sometimes they tell themselves to â€Å"do† something, and that athlete might end up doing the unthinkable. With three seconds left in the game, a basketball player might take the three-point shot and win the game, even though they have never been able to make that shot before. These types of scenario tend to happen all the time. 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Barrack Obama’s Speeches Free Essays

ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. We will write a custom essay sample on Barrack Obama’s Speeches or any similar topic only for you Order Now 254-261, May 2010  © 2010 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10. 4304/jltr. 1. 3. 254-261 A Critical Discourse Analysis of Barack Obama? s Speeches Junling Wang School of Foreign Languages, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China Email: wangjl36@163. com Abstract—The Critical Discourse Analysis is often applied to analyze political discourse including the public speech, in which the speaker wins favorite response from the audience. This paper, based on Critical Discourse Analysis theory and Systematic Functional Linguistics, analyzes Barack Obama’s presidential speeches mainly from the point of transitivity and modality, in which we can learn the language how to serve the ideology and power. Moreover, we can have a better understanding of the political purpose of these speeches. Index Terms— Critical Discourse Analysis, transitivity, modalit y I. INTRODUCTION Critical linguistic is also called Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It first originated in Britain in 1980s when the work Language and Control was published. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a type of discourse a nalytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. With such dissident research, critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social equality (Van Dijk, 1985). Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday (often M. A. K. Halliday), an Australian linguist, developed an internationally influential grammar model-the Systemic Functional Grammar (also called Systemic Functional Linguistics). It is the main foundation of Critical Discourse Analysis as well as other theories in pragmatics. The object of CDA is public speech, such as advertisement, newspaper, politic al propagandas, official documents, laws and regulations and so on. Its aim is to explore the relationships among language ,ideology and power. In the past twenty years, Critical Discourse Analysis developed quickly in aboard and had achieved great achievements. A large number of scholars have made contribution in the fields of critical analysis of political discourse. However, Critical Discourse Analysis is, comparatively speaking, a kind of new study in China. Only a few researchers work in this field. Since 90s of the last century, some articles about the basic theories and principles of Critical Discourse Analysis have just appeared in linguistic journals. Chen Zhongzhu, a professor in Beijing University, was the first person who introduced Critical Discourse Analysis to China. He made a review of critical linguistics and introduced its philosophical and theoretical foundations to Chinese linguists. Xin Bin is another prominent and productive scholar of Critical Discourse Analysis in China. From 1996 to 2 002, he published many articles to further the study of Critical Discourse Analysis, in which he discussed the birth, development and methods of critical linguistics (Xu Xiaoxia, 2008). Since more and more Chinese-foreign academic exchanges in the 21st century, the development of Critical Discourse Analysis has come to a new stage. We can see more and more articles about Critical Discourse Analysis appeared in academic journals. We know that every four years, hundreds of thousands of Americans will welcome the glory moment of electing a new president. They will canvass for their favorite candidates willingly. And every candidate will apply his or her rich language expressions, impassioned speeches and wholehearted attitudes to try to win more votes. The stud y of presidential addresses has not only attracted the interests of political scientists and historians, but also attained the attention of linguists. This year, Barack Obama, the first African -American president in American history, captured the world? s attention. In this thesis, the author will apply Halliday? s Systemic Functional Grammar, in terms of the three meta -functions: ideational function,interpersonal function and textual function, to find out the formal features of Barack Obama? s speeches. Its aim is to explore the relationships among language ,ideology and power and to find out how to use the power of speeches to persuade the public to accept and support his policies. II. THEORETICAL BASES M. A. K. Halliday? s Systemic Functional Grammar is usually considered the main foundation of Critical Discourse Analysis as well as other theories in pragmatics. Systemic Functional Grammar has two components: SYSTEMIC GRAMMAR and FUNCTIONAL GTAMMAR.  © 2010 ACADEMY PUBLISHER JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH 55 They are two inseparable parts for an integral framework of linguistic theory. â€Å"Systemic grammar aims to explain the internal relations in language as a system network, or meaning potential. And this network consists of subsystems from which language users make choices. Functional grammar aims to reveal that language is a means of social interaction, based on the position that language system and the forms that make it up are inescapably determined by the us es or functions which they serve† (Hu Zhuanglin, 1988: 307). Halliday thinks the procedure of stylistic analysis can be divided into three logically ordered phrases: Analysis, Interpretation and Evaluation. The limitless practical functions can be generalized into a set of highly coded and abstract functions—meta-functions, which are inherent in every language. His idea of meta -function includes the ideational function, the interpersonal function and the textual function. A. Ideational Function The first function Halliday points out is the ideational functi on. What is ideational function? It is through this function that the speaker or writer embodies in language his experience of the phenomena of the real world; and this includes his experience of the internal world of his own consciousness: his reactions, cognitions, and perceptions, and also his linguistic acts of speaking and understanding (Halliday, 1971: 332) In other words, this function is to convey new information, to communicate a content that is unknown to the hearer. It reflects the events and experience in both objective and subjective worlds. The ideational function mainly consists of â€Å"transitivity† and â€Å"voice†. Hu Zhuanglin, a Chinese linguist, point out: â€Å"This function not only specifies the available options in meaning but also determines the nature of their structural realizations† (Hu Zhuanglin, 1988: 312). For Example, Kitty flies a kite can be analyzed as: the Actor is Kitty, the process is Material and the Goal is a kite. The Actor, Process, Goal, and their subcategories reflect our understanding of phenomena that come within our experience. The ideational function is mainly represented by the transitivity system in grammar. In this system,the meaningful grammatical unit is clause,which expresses what? s happening,what? s being done,what? s felt and what the state is and so on (Cheng Yumin, 2007). The transitivity system includes six processes: material proces s,mental process,relational process,behavioral process, verbal process and existential process. Material processes are those in which something is done. These processes are expressed by an action verb (e. g. eat, go, give), an Actor (logical subject) and the Goal of the action (logical direct object, usually a noun or a pronoun). Hu Zhuanglin,1988) e. g. Marry is eating a banana. Mental processes express such mental phenomena as â€Å"perception† (see, look), â€Å"reaction† (like, please) and â€Å"cognition† (know, believe, convince). A mental process involves two participants, Senser and Phenomenon. (Hu Zhuanglin, 1988) e. g. Tom likes chocolate. Relational processes can be classified into two types: Attributive and Identify ing. The former expresses what attributes a certain object has, or what type it belongs to, for example, The temperature is high. The latter expresses the identical properties of two entities. For example, Lily is a girl; The girl is Lily. (Hu Zhuanglin, 1988) Verbal processes are those of exchanging information. Commonly used verbs are say, tell, talk, praise, boast, describe, etc. In these processes the main participants are Sayer, Receiver and Verbiage. Behavioral processes refer to physiological and psychological behavior such as breathing, coughing, smiling, laughing, crying, staring, and dreaming, etc. Generally there is only one participant—Behaver, which is often a human. This kind of processes is much like the mental process. Behavioral process may sometimes be hardly distinguished from a material process that has only one participant. This depends on whether the activity concerned is physiological or psychological. When Behavioral process has two participants, we may take it as material process, for example, His father beat the disobedient boy. (Hu Zhuanglin, 1988) Existential processes represent that something exists or happens. In every existential process, there is an Existent. For Example, There is a girl in the garden. Does ghost exist on earth? Here comes a bus. B. Interpersonal Function In the second place, language serves as interpersonal function. As Halliday observed, The speaker is using language as the means of his own intrusion into the speech event: the expression of his comments, attitudes and evaluations, and also of the relationship that he sets up between himself and the listener —in particular, the communication role that he adopts of informing, questioning, greeting, persuading, and the like. (Halliday, 1971:333) Hu Zhuanglin (1988:313) points out: â€Å"The interpersonal function embodies all uses of language to express social and personal relations. This includes the various ways the speaker enters a speech situation and performs a speech act. † Modality and Mood are often used to express the interpersonal function. Mood shows what role the speaker selects in the speech situation and what role he assigns to the addressee. If the speaker selects the imperative mood, he assumes the role of one giving commands and puts the addressee in the role of one expected to obey orders. For exampl e, Pass  © 2010 ACADEMY PUBLISHER 256 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH me the book. (Hu Zhuanglin, 1988) Modality refers to the intermediate ranges between the extreme positive and the extreme negative. It is one of the most important systems in social communication. On the one hand, it can objectively express the spe aker? s judgment toward the topic. On the other hand, it can show the social role relationship, scale of formality and power relationship. In English, except modal verbs, modal adverbs, adjectives, there are also personal pronouns, notional verbs, tense, direct and indirect speeches to express the modalization. C. Textual Function The third role of language is called textual function. Halliday described, â€Å"Language makes links between itself and the situation; and discourse becomes possible because the speaker or writer can produce a text and the listener or reader can recognize one† (Halliday, 1971:334). According to Hu Zhanglin, The textual function refers to the fact that language has mechanisms to make any stretch of spoken or written discourse into a coherent and unified text and make a living passage different from a random list of sentences. Although two sentences may have exactly the same ideational and interpersonal functions, they may be different in terms of textual coherence. Hu Zhuanglin, 1988: 315) The textual function fulfils the requirement that language should be operationally relevant, having texture in a real context of situation that distinguishes a living passage from a mere entry in a grammar book or a dictionary. It provides the remaining strands of meaning potential to be woven into the fabric of linguistic structure. Information can be clearly expressed in a discourse. It can also be implicated between the lines. Therefore, all discourses are unities of explicit and implicit message. (Halliday, 1971) Because language serves as a generalized ideational function, we are able to use it for all the specific purposes and types of context which involve the communication of experience. Because it serves a generalized interpersonal function, we are able to use it for the specific forms of personal expression and social interaction. And a prerequisite to its effective operation under both these headings what we have referred to as the textual function, whereby language becomes text, is related to itself and to its contexts of use. Without the textual component of meaning, we should be unable to make any use of language at all (Hu Zhuanglin, 1988). III. INTRODUCTION OF SAMPLE SPEECHES A. The Introduction of Barack Obama Barack Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, becomes the first African -American president of the United States. He was born on August 4, 1961, in Hawaii and has lived in many places, including Indonesia. His mother was from Kansas and his father from Kenya. Obama attended Columbia University in New York and earned a law degree at Harvard University in Massachusetts. He and his wife, Michelle Obama, who also worked as a lawyer and later for the University of Chicago, have two young daughters, Sasha and Malia. Serving in the Senate since 2004, Obama introduced bipartisan legislation which allows Americans to learn online how their tax dollars are spent. He also serves on the Veterans? Affairs Committee, which helps oversee the care of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. So his approval rate on the internet is high. The most supporters of Obama are young people, African-American, poor citizens and the people who want to change. Facing with the economic crisis, two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama gave hi s campaign slogan â€Å"change has come† and hoped to rebuilt the confidence and believe of Americans. In last August, Barack Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady, and became the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. And during the following months in 2008, he defeated McCain, the Republican Party? s presidential candidate, and won the all three television debates held in Oxford (Mississippi), Nashville (Tennessee) and Hempstead (New York). And finally he relying on 333 electoral votes won the final success and became the 44th American president and the first African-American president in American history. Barack Obama has written two books: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (2006) and Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (1995). B. Speeches for Analysis Sample Speech 1. Obama? s Victory Speech On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama gave a victory speech in Grant Park of Chicago to appreciate his supporters and celebrated the success of elections. About 400,000 Americans got here and witnessed the happy moment. Sample Speech 2. Obama? s Inaugural Address On January 20, 2009, the new American president Barack Obama gave his inaugural address before the Capital Rotunda in Washington. According to the official reports, population of the attendance reached about 2 ,000,000. IV. DETAIL STUDY ON SAMPLE SPEECHES From table 1, we can have a general view of the two speeches. We can see the total words of sample 1 are 2057,  © 2010 ACADEMY PUBLISHER JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH 257 including 110 sentences. The average length of words is 4. 247 and sentence mean length is 18. 7. Sample 2 is as the same, the total words are 2396, with an average length of 4. 458. And the number of sentence is 112 with an average length of 21. 39. So here, we can find that the two sample speeches mainly use simple words and short sentences. The language is easy and colloquial. The audience of the speeches is usually various, including the rich, the poor, the black, the white and so on. In order to shorten the distance between the president and the audience, we can find Obama used a lot of spoken English. Moreover, the subject of the two speeches is extensive, which isn? t on account of one or two concrete issue. That is because the presidential speeches usually reflect the political platforms of the candidate, so the field is large, such as American history, present crisis, global issues and so on. TABLE 1 STATISTIC OF SAMPLE SPEECHES Statistical Item Statistic Words (Tokens) Words (Types) Tokens/Types Word Classification Sentences Paragraphs Characters Sentence Mean Length Word Mean Length Sample 1 2057 690 2. 981 1687_114_†¦ 110 63 8736 18. 700 4. 247 Sample 2 2396 894 2. 680 1969_123_†¦ 112 35 10681 21. 393 4. 458 A. Transitivity Analysis The ideational function is represented in text by transitivity. It is a basic semantic system, which construes the world of experience into a manageable set of process types. Halliday divides these processes into six types: material process , mental process,relational process,behavioral process, verbal process and existential process. TABLE 2 OVERVIEW OF PROCESS TYPES (PENG PINGPING, 2007) Core meaning Participants „doing? , „happening? Actor, Goal „sensing? Sensor, phenomenon „being? „saying? Sayer, Receiver, Verbiage „behaving? Behaver „existing? Existent Process types Material Mental Relational Verbal Behavioral Existential Sample Speech 1 NO. Total Number 212 % 2 NO. Material Processes 123 TABLE 3 TRANSITIVITY IN THE SAMPLE SPEECHES Metal Relational Behavioral Processes Processes Processes 18 48 8 Verbal Processes 12 Existential processes 3 58 227 % 8 23 4 6 1 141 14 52 6 10 4 62 6 23 2 4 2 From table 2 and 3, we can see that material processes are used most in the speeches with a percentage of 58% and 62%. Relational process ranks the second and then is followed by mental process. So here, the author will mainly analyze the first three ones. 1 Material process Material process is a process of â€Å"doing†. The process is usually indicated by a verb expressing an action, either concrete or abstract. There are usually two participants in the process: Actor and Goal. Actor is comparable to the Subject and Goal is comparable to the Object and both of them are usually realized by noun phrases. When the participants both exist, the clause can be either in active voice or in passive voice.  © 2010 ACADEMY PUBLISHER 258 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH ACTOT I We/Americans/each of us/all /our TABLE 4 TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF SAMPLE SPEECHES (MATERIAL PROCESS) PROCESS GOAL receive, congratulate, make, need, thank call, partner, voice, help achieve, start, get, face, share, seek, refuse, choose, money, the challenges, values, change, choice, vital reject, carry, understand, use, build, meet, restore, rust, hope, journey, gift, greatness, energy, roads transform, taste, consume, send, volunteer, support, and bridge, reality, science, schools and colleges, new threats, the bitter swill, new way, world? s resource , message, From the above table (Table 4), we can see the Actors of the two sample speeches are I and we /Americans/each of us/all. Material process, as a process of doing, is a good choice in the address to demonstrate what the government has achieved, what t hey are doing and what they will do in different aspects of affairs, home or abroad . And it can also arouse the American people? s confidence toward the president and his government and to get their support in policies or measures in the following four years. For example, We (Actor) will begin to responsibly leave (Material Process) Iraq (Goal) to its people, and forge (Material Process) a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan (Goal). With old friends and former foes, we (Actor) will work tirelessly to lessen (Material Process) the nuclear threat (Goal), and roll back (Material Process) the specter of a warming planet (Goal). We (Actor) will not apologize(Material Process) for our way of life (Goal), nor will we (Actor) waver in its defense (Goal) , and for those who (Actor) seek to advance (Material Process) their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents (Goal), we (Actor) say(Material Process) to you (Goal) now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken (Material Process); you (Actor) cannot outlast(Material Process) us, and we (Actor) will defeat(Material Process) you (Goal). 2 Relational process Relational process is a process of being. It can be divided into two modes: attributive relation and identifying relation. The first means what properties an object possesses or what category it can be put into. And the other means that an entity and another is uniform. It is used widely in describing people and objects. Look at the following table: TABLE 5 Attributive The dream of our founders is alive. Our challenges may be new. Identifying America is a friend of each nation. A friend of each nation is America. America is a place where all things are possible. A place where all things are possible is America. Relational process, as a process of being, is appropriate to explain the complex relationships between some abstract items because it sounds definite. As a result, the process accounts for a large proportion in these addresses to elaborate the relationship between traditional ideals and their beliefs. Such an elaboration can reach the President? s aim of making the reasoning naturally and unconsciously accepted and making the required sacrifice in the speech willingly taken by the audience. (Cheng Yumin, 2007) 3 Mental process Mental process is a process of feeling, thinking and seeing. Actor is not the real subject of doing, but the feeling. It represents inner experience, such as â€Å"perception†, â€Å"reaction† and â€Å"cognition†. We call the two participants are Senser and phenomenon. For example, (1) In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we (Senser) understand (Mental Process) that greatness is never a given. (2) As we (Senser) consider (Mental Process) the road that unfolds before us, we (Senser) remember (Mental Process) with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. 3) And we (Senser) know (Mental Process) the government can’t solve every problem. From above examples, we can see that mental process, as a process of sensing, appeals to the audience? s inner heart to connect the political beliefs, ambitions with their expectation, hope in a c lear and emphasized way. In this way, the audience? s emotion of promotion and willingness to devotion is aroused an d strengthened. Halliday declared that material, relational and mental processes are three primary ones in language use since the three add up to about 90%. As an inaugural address for a newly elected American President, it must fulfill the traditionally and ritually required functions: to state facts of the domestic or worldwide situations or problems objectively and the relevant policies forcefully, to conduct reasoning related to the relationship between traditional beliefs such as freedom, democracy, justice, equality, principles, union, happiness and American dreams and citizens? participation, responsibilities, sacrifice and the needed reforms in economy, Medicare, or other fields. (Cheng Yumin, 2007) For example, 1) There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage or pay their doctors’ bills or save enough for their c hild’s college education. (2) Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our ad versaries and threaten our plan et. The above two sentence are examples of showing the fact that the situation in American is not good. The economic  © 2010 ACADEMY PUBLISHER JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH 59 crisis leaded many people lost their jobs. It is hard for them to pay the housing fee, tuitions Medicare and other heavy pays. (3) There’s new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair. (4) So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other. These two examples reveal that the government hopes the Americans can join together and rebuild their confidence and believes to defeat all the bad things. B. Modality Analysis Modality refers to a speaker? s attitudes towards or opinion about the truth of a proposition expressed by a sentence. It also extends to their attitude towards the situation or event described by a sentence. 1 Modal verbs Positive Negative TABLE 6 MODAL VERBS (ZHANG GUOLING, 2006) Low politeness Median politeness Can, may, could, might, dare Will, would, should, shall Needn? t, doesn? t/didn? t , +need to, Won? t, wouldn? t, have to shouldn? t, isn? t/wasn? t to High politeness Must, ought to, need, has/had to Mustn? t, oughtn? t to, can? couldn? t, mayn? t, mightn? t, hasn? t/hadn? t to TABLE 7 MODALITY ANALYSIS OF SAMPLE SPEECHES (MODAL VERBS) Total Number Low politeness Median politeness No. % No. % 2057 23 1. 12 23 1. 12 2396 29 1. 12 28 1. 12 Sample Speeches 1 2 High politeness No. % 3 0. 15 9 0. 38 According to the statistics, it is obvious that modal verbs are used to convey the addresser? s attitudes and judgment, with an average of 0. 8% in the whole sp eeches. The high percentage of the use of modal verbs is appropriate to the speaking since the addresses are delivered in spoken form. Compared with other verbs, modal verbs are more easily identified and understood and then accepted because at the time of listening to the speeches, there is no time for the audience to reflect. For Example, (1) †¦because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference. (2) The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. (3) And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too. (4) We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do. 2 Tense Tense is the time of a clause. Halliday (1994) points out that primary t ense means past, present or future at the moment of speaking; it is the time relative to â€Å"now†. Sample Speeches 1 NO. Total Numbers 110 % 2 NO. % TABLE 8 TENSE OF SENTENCES Present Simple Perfect 72 8 Simple Past Simple Future 21 10 65. 5 112 7. 2 19. 1 9. 1 71 13 12 14 63. 4 11. 6 10. 7 12. 5 On the basis of the statistics of tenses, we can see that the tense of simple present is most frequently used in the speeches, the average percentage being 64. 45%. Simple past ranks second with an average percentage of 14. 9% and is followed by simple future with an average percentage of 10. %. The use of present perfect is slightly less than simple future and ranks the fourth. It is natural that simple present tense ranks with top priority since the addresses are to present the domestic and world wide situations ranging from political, economic and cultural fields at present. The use  © 2010 ACADEMY PUBLISHER 260 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEAC HING AND RESEARCH of the tense facilitates the creation of a close relationship between the president and his audience and the easy identification and acceptation of the validity of the assertions contained in the speaking. Simple future tense is primarily used to show the planned or expected things in the future. The tense helps the president to lay out his or his government? s following reforms or steps taken in his term to foster the buildup of the country and the corresponding change or results of these measures in the futu re. In this way, the government? s objectives are shown and at the same time, the audience? s confidence is built by the prospect of the beauty and prosperity of the future life. It will be a natural result that the American pe ople will follow the government? direction and guidance in the next four years and thus the addresses? goal of seeking support is achieved. Simple past and present perfect tenses are used to refer to the actions or things in the past. Their function lies in that the newly elected presidents usually state the achievements in the founding of the country or in the last term or recall the positive or negative experiences in the past as basis or incentive of hi s following actions. By this means, his respect for the past is displayed and it can also make his plans reasoning and fully grounded. Cheng Yumin, 2007) 3 Personal Pronouns TABLE 9 PERSONAL PRONOUNS Personal Pronoun First person I (me) We (us) Second person You (you) Third person He (him) She (her) It (it) They (them) Possecive pronoun My (mine) Our(ours) Your(yours) His (his) Her(hers) Its (its) Their (theirs) Obama? s victory speech 35 60 20 4 8 14 8 Obama? s victory speech 12 26 6 1 6 0 11 Sample Speeches Obama? s Inaugural Address 3 85 14 1 0 0 4 Obama? s Inaugural Address 2 69 3 0 0 0 0 From table 9, we can find out that the first person is used most. For example, the use of the first person pronoun â€Å"we† is to shorten the distance between the speaker and the audience, regardless of their disparity in age, social status and professions etc. it may include both the speaker and the listener into the same arena, and thus make the audience feel close to the speaker and his points. C. Textual Analysis The textual function refers to the fact that language has mechanisms to make any stretch of spoken or written discourse into a coherent and unified text and make a living passage different from a random list of sentences. Here, we take Sample 2 as an example. Obama? s inaugural address is the first time for him to give a formal speech as a president and also an optimal time to show himself a qualified president. As a result, to fulfill the aim of convincing the American people and the whole world that he and his team are capable of leadership, with vigor and with vision, he must illustrate the planned policies, both domestic and foreign, in a formal, convincing and forceful way. It often contains the following information: (Cheng Yumin, 2007) 1) Salutation ) The expression of gratitude and honor 3) A review of the American history and achievement in the past 4) An analysis of the contemporary situation, at home and in the world 5) A displaying and explanation of domestic policies and/or foreign policies of the new government 6) Hopes for the beautiful and prosperous future of the country 7) Resort to God for help and blessing The whole text is coherent, organized, accurate and logical. So it can help to persuade the public to accept and support his policies. Meanwhile, we can find the strong religious content in his speech. Look at the following examples: (1) †¦the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. (2) This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny. (3)†¦with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations. (4) Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.  © 2010 ACADEMY PUBLISHER JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH 261 We know most Western people are godly Christian. These prayers, direct and indirect speeches from Bible and the Christian stories can all help the speaker to win the sympathy and supporting of audience. They make the speech full of charisma. V. CONCLUSION On the basis of the above discussion, we may come to the conclusion. According to Halliday? s Systemic Functional Grammar, we can summarize the features of Barack Obama? s speeches as follow. First, he used more simple words and short sentences instead of difficult ones. His language is easy and colloquial. Thus, it can easily shorten the distance between him and the audience . Second, from transitivity analysis, we can see material process, a process of doing, has been used most in his speeches. From this process, Obama showed us what the government has achieved, what they are doing and what they will do. And also we can see t hat with applying transitivity, his speeches are trying to arouse the American people? s confidence toward the president and his government in the following four years. Third, modality refers to a speaker? s attitudes towards or opinion about the truth of a proposition expressed by a sentence. Through the analysis of modality, we can find that Obama made his audience more easily to understand and accept his political speeches by means of modal verbs, tense and first person pronouns. He used simple present tense to present the domestic and world wide situations ranging from political, economic and cultural fields at present. And then depending on simple future tense, he laid out his following reforms and steps taken in his term. In this way, the government? s ob jectives are shown and at the same time, the audience? s confidence is built. Moreover, by using first person pronouns and religious belief , he successfully shortened the distance between him and the audience. So it can help him persuade the public to accept and support his policies. Critical Discourse Analysis can explore the relationships among language, ideology and power. It provides a new idea and method to analyze public addresses. So it is worth for us to pay more attention. REFERENCES Halliday, M. A. K. ( 1979). Linguistic function and literary style: an inquiry into the language of William Golding? s The Inheritors. In Linguistic Studies of Text and Discourse. ed. Jonathan J. Webster. 88-125. Peking: Peking University Press. [2] Van Dijk, (1985). A Handbook of Discourse Analysis London Academic Press Limited. Volumn 4. [3] Cheng Yumin. (2007). An Analysis of Style Features of Inaugural Speeches Given by American Presidents Based on the Functional Theory of Han Lide. From the thesis of a master. Tai Yuan science University. [4] Dai Weihua, Gao Jun. (2002). A Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory Comment and Examples Analysis. Foreign Language Issue 6. P 85-88. [5] Hu Zhuanglin. (1988). A Course of Linguistics. Peking: Peking University Press. [6] Lin Wei,Yang Yuchen. (2007). English Discourse Analysis. Shanghai:Fu Dan University Press. [7] Luo Li. (2007). A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Political Speech. Science and Education Collection P193-194? [8] Wei Fang. (2005). Language Feature Analysis and Translation Method of Political Speeches. Journal of Peking Printing College Volumn13, issue 4. P75-78. [9] Xiong Li. (2004). A Study of Kennedy? s Writing Style from Words of His Inaugural Speech. Journal of Southwest National University, Issue 6. P 407-410. [10] Xu Xiaoxia. (2008). A Critical Discourse Analysis of Sino-American Political News Report. From the thesis of a master. Shan Dong Normal University. [1] Junling Wang was born in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, China in 1963. She received her M. A degree in English language and literature from Foreign Languages Department of Northwest Normal University in Lanzhou, China in 1989. Now she is an associate professor in Northwest Normal University. Her research interests include English teaching and translation practice.  © 2010 ACADEMY PUBLISHER How to cite Barrack Obama’s Speeches, Papers

Essay about Foundations of Contract Law

Question 1: Jamie is retiring from the catering business. His neighbours daughter Sonia has just finished college and is about to open up a restaurant. Last Monday Jamie told Sonia he was selling his catering equipment and was prepared to let her have everything for 5,000 but that he wanted an answer by Friday as one of his friends was also interested. On Wednesday Sonia telephoned Jamie to ask whether she could have 2 months to pay. Jamie was not in so she left a message on his answer machine asking for 2 months to pay. On Wednesday, Jamie posted a letter to Sonia saying he had sold the equipment to his friend. He did not pick up his answer machine messages. As Sonia had heard nothing and was unable to get hold of Jamie on the phone, she wrote out a cheque for 5,000 and put it in an envelope with a note saying, Here is 5,000 for the catering equipment and put it in the post on Thursday. On Friday Sonia saw Jamies wife and Sonia asked if her letter and cheque had arrived. Jamies wife said no a nd hadnt she received Jamies letter saying had already sold the equipment to his friend. The letter from Jamie did not arrive until Saturday. Advise Sonia as to whether she has a contract with Jamie for the equipment. Answer1: The issue that needs to be decided in the present case is that an offer was made by Jamie to his neighbor's daughter Sonia to sell all his catering equipment for $5000. Jamie also told Sonia that she should reply to is offered by Friday because one of his friends was also interested in purchasing the catering equipment from him. On Wednesday, Sonia made a telephone call to Jamie in order to ask if she could have two months to pay the amount. Due to the reason that Jamie was not them, Sonia left a message on Jamie's answering machine. For the other hand, Jamie posted a letter to Sonia on Wednesday in which he informed Sonia that he has sold the catering equipment to his friend. By this time, Jamie had not picked up the messages on his answering machine. On the other hand, when Sonia did not hear from Jamie, she wrote a cheque for $5000 and put the same in post on Thursday. Therefore, the issue that needs to be decided in the present case is if there is a contract between Sonia and Jam ie for the sale of catering equipment. In order to constitute a valid acceptance, there should be an offer and the acceptance should be in response to such an offer. According to this principle, not only should an offer be made but the offer should be in existence at the time when the same has been accepted by the other party. On the other hand, an offer may come to an end in many different ways like revocation, rejection, termination, death and a condition which brings the offer to an end. In this regard, the law provides that the original offer is terminated by a counteroffer made by the other party. Therefore if the party to whom the original offer has been made response by putting forward an alternative proposal, in such a case, it can be considered as a counter offer and the effect of such an offer is that the original offer is terminated. Traditionally, a contractual agreement is analyzed in terms of offer and acceptance. In such a case, an offer is made by one party known as the offeror and the other party, known as the offeree accepts the same and it results in the creation of a legally binding contract. It also needs to be noted in this regard that an offer has to be distinguished from an invitation to treat. At the same time, it is also significant to make a distinction between bilateral and unilateral contracts. The leading case in this regard is that of Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. At the same time, in order to amount to an offer, it is required to be shown that the party making the offer had the intention to be bound by such an offer (Harvey v Facey, 1893). As mentioned above, and offered also needs to be distinguished from an invitation to treat. That main difference between the two is that while on acceptance, an offer results in the creation of a legally binding contract, an invitation to trade cannot b e accepted by the other party to create a contract as it is only an invitation for offers by the other party. In this regard, the law provides that the goods on display in shops are generally not offers but they only amount to an invitation to treat. In such a case, an offer is made by the customer to purchase the goods. It is for the trader to decide whether to accept the offer or not (Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots, 1953). In the same way, generally advertisements are also considered as invitations to treat (Partridge v Crittenden (1968) 2 All ER 425). However, it needs to be noted that in some cases, an advertisement may also amount to an offer. An example in this regard can be given of the case of Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball co (1893). An offer can be terminated by the death of the party making the offer or by the death of the party to whom the offer has been made. Similarly, an offer is also terminated by lapse of time. When no time has been prescribed in the offer, the offer terminates after the lapse of reasonable time. However, in what amounts to a reasonable time depends on the circumstances of each case (Ramsgate Victoria Hotel v Montefiore, 1866). In the same way, the law provides that the party making the offer can evoke the same at any time before the offer has been accepted by the other party (Dickinson v Dodds, 1876). In Dickinson v Dodds (1876), a house was offered for sale by Dodds to Dickinson and while making the offer, it was stated that the offer will remain open until 12 June, 9 AM. It was decided by Dickinson to accept the offer on 11 June but Dodds was not informed immediately. Later on, a third-party informed Dickinson that the house has already been sold to someone else. Thereafter, Dickinson tried to accept the offer however Dodds replied that the house has been sold and therefore it was too late. On the other hand, Dickinson claimed that there was a legally binding contract between them as the offer has been accepted by him. In this regard, the court stated that no particular form of revocation is required. The only thing that is required in such a case is that the offeror should convey to the offeree, directly or indirectly, that the offeror had changed his or her mind regarding the offer. Therefore, the court stated that there is no doubt that the same thing has happened in this cas e and Dickinson was aware that Dodds was no longer ready to sell the house. The court also stated that the promised to keep the offer open for a particular period was not supported by any consideration therefore it was not binding on the party making the offer to keep it open for that particular period. However in this regard it needs to be noted that this provision does not apply to the cases involving unilateral offers where the acceptance of the offer needs full performance (Errington v Errington Wood (1952). At the same time, it also needs to be noted that the original offer is terminated when the other party makes a counter offer. A counter offer takes place when the party to whom the offer has been made response by making an offer but on different terms. This results in destroying the original offer and as a result, the party to whom the offer has been made can no longer accept the original offer (Hyde v Wrench, 1840). On the other hand, once valid acceptance has taken place, there is a legally binding contract between the parties. As a result, it is significant to know what constitutes a wedding except in so that it can be established if the parties are bound by the agreement or not. There are three main rules related with acceptance. These rules of acceptance provided that (i) the acceptance should be communicated to the offeree (ii) the terms of acceptance should match exactly with the terms of the original offer and (iii) the agreement should be certain. At the same time, the law related with the communication of acceptance provides the general rule that the party making the offer should receive acceptance before it is effective (Entorres v Miles Far East, 1955). At the same time, the law also provides that the silence of the party cannot amount to acceptance of the offer. This rule has been provided by the court in case titled Felthouse v Bindley (1862). However, it has also been provided by t he court in Brogden v. Metropolitan Railway Co. (1877) 2 App. Cas. 666 that acceptance can take place to conduct of the party (Butler Machine Tool v Ex-cell-o Corporation [1979] 1 WLR 401). The facts of the present case are also somewhat similar to that of Dickinson v Dodds (1876). In this case also, the party making the offer had agreed to keep the offer open for a particular number of days. This so-called agreement was nothing more than an offer. It was heard by Dickinson from a third party that Dodds was going to sell the house to someone else and therefore, Dickinson tried to give notice to Dodds regarding his acceptance of the offer. Therefore, it was held by the court that so long as the buyer is aware that the other party wanted to deal somewhere else, the offer has to be considered as revoked. In this regard, it does not matter if the buyer had heard regarding it from the offeror himself or from someone else. At the same time, it was also stated by the court that unless the promise to keep the offer open for a particular period is supported by consideration, the same cannot be considered as binding. On the other hand, if the promise and is supported by considera tion, it is a valid option. When it has been agreed by the parties that post will be used as a means of communication, the postal acceptance rule applies in such a case. According to the postal rule, where a letter has been addressed and stamped properly, the acceptance is purported to have taken place when the letter containing the acceptance has been placed in the post box. This rule was provided by the court in Adams v Lindsell (1818). In the present case, Jamie made an offer to Sonia to sell the catering equipment and at the same time, Jamie also agreed to keep the offer open till Friday. However, instead of accepting the offer straight away, Sonia made the phone call to Jamie in order to ask if she could have two months to pay. As Jamie was not in, Sonia left a message on the answering machine on Wednesday. On the same day, a letter was posted by Jamie in which the informed Sonia that he had sold the catering equipment to his friend. Jamie had not listened to the message left by Sonia on his answering machine. On the other hand, when Sonia did not hear from Jamie, she wrote a letter to Jamie accepting the offer made by him and also sends a check of $5000. The letter was posted by Sonia on Thursday. On Friday, Sonia came to know from Jimmy's wife that the catering equipment had been sold and Jamie had not received the letter containing the acceptance. On the basis of the above mentioned discussion, it can be said in the present case that first of all by making a counteroffer, the original offer made by Jamie has been terminated and it is no longer possible for Sonia to accept the original offer made by Jamie. At the same time, although the postal role provides that the acceptance is considered to have taken place when the letter containing the acceptance has been placed in the post box, however in the present case, the letter along with the object was placed in the post box by Sonia on Thursday while Jamie had already sold the catering equipment to his friend on Wednesday. So far as the promise made by Jamie to keep the offer open till Friday is concerned, this promise was not supported by consideration and therefore was not binding. As a result, it can be set in the present case that Sonia does not have a legally binding contract with Jamie for the sale of catering equipment as Jamie was not bound by the promise to keep the offer open because it was not supported by consideration and at the same time, due to the reason that a counteroffer has been made by Sonia. Therefore, as the equipment was already sold by Jamie on Wednesday, Sonia cannot accept the offer made by Jamie on Thursday. Question2: Write a brief analysis reflecting on how preparing and completing this assignment has contributed to the development of your skills as a learner. Answer2: While preparing and completing this assignment, I was able to develop my skills as a learner as this assignment helped me increase my knowledge regarding the various aspects of the law of contract, particularly offer and acceptance, the postal acceptance rule, and what the law provides regarding the promise made by the offeror to keep the offer open for a particular time. At the same time, this assignment also increased my analytical skills and allowed me to apply knowledge to the facts of the given case. References Adams v Lindsell (1818) 106 ER 250 Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball co [1893] 1 QB 256 Dickinson v Dodds (1876) 2 Ch. D. 463 Entorres v Miles Far East [1955] 2 QB 327 Errington v Errington Wood [1952] 1 KB 290 Felthouse v Bindley [1862] EWHC CP J35 Harvey v Facey [1893] UKPC 1 Hyde v Wrench (1840) 49 ER 132 Ramsgate Victoria Hotel v Montefiore (1866) LR 1 Ex 109