Language investigation into the language used by George Bush on the day of and days following the september 11th attacks.

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Richard Skelton – 1189 – Language Investigation

Richard Skelton

Candidate no – 1185

Centre no – 51119

3997 Words

ENGLISH    LANGUAGE

       INVESTIGATION

Contents Page

  1. Title Page
  2. Contents
  3. Introduction
  4. Hypothesis
  5. Methodology
  6. Pragmatic Features
  7. Prosodic Features
  8. Lexical Features

      9-10.Grammatical and Semantic Features

      11.Discourse and Structural Features

      12.Conclusion

      13.Evaluation

      13.Bibliography

      14 - . Texts

Introduction

My English Language investigation centres around the change in the language used by George Bush, on the day of and days following the September 11th terrorist attacks. This includes addresses to the nation, a speech to congress and speeches on the days of national remembrance. My particular main areas of investigation will centre on speech devices and the change in tone depending on the audience of the speech. Although I have chosen to investigate speech, my focus will be more around the content of the speech, euphemistic devices and the tone that Mr Bush sets rather than transcript conventions. Phonology, lexis, orthography, pragmatics, grammar, semantics and discourse are all key areas.

My inspiration for this investigation is two-fold. During a conversation with my English Language teacher, the idea of investigating speech came up and then I paired this with a George Bush speech that I received as a homework task. This combination inspired me to investigate the language further. What makes this choice even more interesting is that September 11th 2001 was an event that rocked the confidence of the American people and saw the most powerful country, led by the most powerful man, falling to their Knees against a ‘series of deliberate and deadly terrorist attacks (address to the nation 9/11/01).’

Hypothesis

I expect that the speeches given by George Bush on the day of the September 11th terrorist attack and the speeches of the days following will change in tone and impact, Focusing more heavily on positive language and patriotism.

Methodology

All of the evidence in terms of the actual physical speeches used in my investigation was easy enough to find on the White House website found at . During the period that I am investigating, a total of 6 speeches were produced, all of which are published on that very website. Although in an ideal world I would like to have an in depth analysis of all 6 of these speeches, I feel that it would not only take my investigation way above the limitations set out in the project brief, but it would also not provide a good enough side by side analysis of the most contrasting speeches. I feel the investigation will be far more successful if I limit my in depth study to three texts. These texts will be the 8.30 PM address to the nation, the proclamation for the day of remembrance from the 13th September and also the speech given at Ground Zero on that very day of remembrance on the 14th September 2001.

Bold texts subject to investigation

Pragmatic Features

In terms of pragmatic features of the first speech, immediately as a reader can see that the text has a strict audience and purpose. As an address to the nation (audience) only hours after terrorist attacks it is clear that this text has a purpose to inform and reassure. The tone of the piece is solemn and serious ‘attack, deadly, terrorist.’ Looking at the time period contextually, the text comes soon after the attacks there were a large degree of conspiracy theories and rumours and so the text has a direct purpose of informing and reassuring the American public.

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The pragmatic features of text two are similar to those of text one. As this text is a speech from two days after the attacks, it is fair to assume that the level of knowledge the American government has of the attacks will have increased, hence why statistics of death counts are now starting to appear. Although this speech is a communication to the national press, it is by that form of media a communication to the American public. The tone of this piece in comparison to the speech on the day of the attacks is far more ...

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