Masaryk university faculty of education
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31.Reagan’s speech
Reagan’s speech is the second shortest speech behind Roosevelt’s with only 982 words and 17 words average per sentence with a longest sentence of only 36 words. Sentence structure is predominantly coordinated; resembling that of Nixon, however due to the length of the speech, there is no wordiness or extensive explanation. The organization of the speech is different as there is no declaration of war or ultimatum and no talk about the future. The speech begins by recounting an air and naval strike that had already taken place earlier that day. This as well as the exclusive use of active voice gives the speech a confident and determined feel. The most powerful syntactic feature of the speech is the use of short sentences basically all throughout the last paragraph. In some cases, the sentences are as short as two or three words, giving them a sound bite like feel like in the examples below. We Americans are slow to anger. None succeeded. He counted on America to be passive. He counted wrong. I meant it. Tonight, we have. As already mentioned, three out of nine topic categories are missing, allotting 20% of the speech to the issue and its impact, 19% to an appeal to American values, 18% to we are good and 15% to they are bad, as shown in chart 8.28. While Nixon had to provide ample justification for staying in Vietnam, the nature of Reagan’s announcement is different and perhaps that is why he feels only 8 percent of the speech needs to be spent on justification. Chart 8.28 Unlike in Nixon’s speech, there are no other topics discussed in the speech, aside from the Libyan conflict.
While Nixon’s speech was friendly and frank, Reagan’s speech is confident and concise, as a speech with only 900 words is expected to be. Reagan does not use any extreme appeal to emotions, but rather a composed and rational vocabulary, describing what was done and why, as in the following example: And for us to ignore by inaction the slaughter of American civilians and American soldiers, whether in nightclubs or airline terminals, is simply not in the American tradition. Though Reagan selects a strong expression, slaughter of civilians, he reacts to it in a very cool, informal way, stating it is simply not an American tradition to ignore such a thing. Thanks to this approach, the speech leaves the audience not distraught, not ashamed, not even upset, but rather informed and comfortable. Reagan is the first president in the corpus to use the term terrorism and terrorists, perhaps introducing a new era of warfare. Along with this vocabulary appear also words like attack or mission, among the expected words such as people, United States or evidence, as noted in table 8.29. Table 8.29
Interestingly, Reagan also uses the word friends three times in a very colloquial way, addressing the allied nations in such a manner twice. Indeed, instead of using elevated or sophisticated language, he opts for colloquial expressions making the speech very approachable for the common man. The Libyan people are a decent people… … as long as I’m in this Oval office… We Americans are slow to anger. I made it clear… There are only a few clear metaphors in the speech and one conceptual metaphor, related to terrorism and its sanctions. First, Reagan explains the reasons for bombing Libya as being a punishment for attacking American citizens around the world, as per excerpt A.
Later in the speech, as per excerpt B Reagan omits the nationality of people which America is protecting.
In excerpt C he insinuates any terrorists anywhere in the world will be tracked down and punished by the US forces.
This progression is in line with conceptual metaphors of previous speakers, where one concept develops into another and is then interchangeable with one another. In this speech, the conceptual metaphor is developed but not used any further due to the length of the speech.
Table 8.30 shows a successful use of 1st person plural with a 57% rate and we being stated 21 times. It also confirms an earlier statement about the speech’s confident style, showing 24% of pronouns dedicated to 1st person singular, namely I being used 11 times. Though Reagan did not use any rhetorical questions or let us/let’s, his speech still comes across as considerate and aware of the audience needs as demonstrated by the following sentence, directly addressing the European forces through the friendly pronoun you. …I would only say you have the permanent gratitude of the American people. Reagan also uses pronouns to help him appear as a valiant leader, using I as a source of power and authority and you as a communicative tool. …we will respond so long as I'm in this Oval Office It's an honor to be your Commander in Chief. Several weeks ago in New Orleans, I warned Colonel Qadhafi Table 8.30 As for Reagan’s deictic pointers, it is not surprising that though the attacks on American citizens and the bombing of the enemy occurred outside of the US, the majority of the deictic pointers stay within the local time and place, mainly due to the use of I but also this. Table 8.31 It is no surprise, at this point in the analysis, to find that Reagan appealed to the audience by clearly confirming America’s superior position in the world, stating that Qadhafi is a world enemy, but we (as in United States) will make it our responsibility to punish him.
Though the speech is short, there are repetitions or three part statements to be found. Our evidence is direct; it is precise; it is irrefutable. As for the media impact, it is clear that the language level and length was neatly planned to be aligned with the audience’s expectations and needs. The occasional sound bites in the form of short sentences also fare well with a live broadcast. There are also references to European history and World War II, making it appealing to the world-wide audience and reiterating the superior position of the United States at the time of the speech. Download 0.63 Mb. Share with your friends:
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