Analysis of speech extract: Tony Blair

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Analysis of speech extract: Tony Blair

This speech was read by Tony Blair; however, it would have been written by a highly qualified team, who write his speeches to make them come across in a particular way.

Confidence is the key to prosperity. Insecurity spreads like a contagion. So people crave stability and order. The threat is chaos. Tyrannical regimes with weapons of mass destruction, and extreme terrorist groups who profess a perverted and false view of Islam.”

The most obvious characteristic of this extract from a speech given by Tony Blair is the fact that the vast majority of nouns in this speech are abstract nouns. The abstract nouns are shown in the extract above, in bold type. To the listener, at first, this speech will sound strong and upstanding for the country. However, after studying it more carefully, it becomes clear that Mr Blair, and his government, have no grounds for their actions. They have no concrete evidence, hence the fact of not being able to produce any concrete nouns in his speech.

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There are also a few concrete nouns in the speech, as shown in bold type, in the extract below.

“Confidence is the key to prosperity. Insecurity spreads like a contagion. So people crave stability and order. The threat is chaos. Tyrannical regimes with weapons of mass destruction, and extreme terrorist groups who profess a perverted and false view of Islam.”

However, the concrete nouns are all of very little importance, in relation to the actual topic of the speech itself. The only significant concrete nouns here are “terrorist groups” and “weapons”. “Weapons” is a common, concrete, plural, neuter gender noun.   The word “key”, is ...

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