MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A Thesis Field: English Language Code: 8220201 POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN DONALD TRUMP’S SPEECH AT REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION 2016 CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ TRONG BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CỦA TỔNG THỐNG DONALD TRUMP TẠI ĐẠI HỘI TỒN QUỐC ĐẢNG CỘNG HỊA NĂM 2016 NGUYỄN TIẾN ĐẠT Hanoi, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A Thesis Field: English Language Code: 8220201 POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN DONALD TRUMP’S SPEECH AT REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION 2016 CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ TRONG BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CỦA TỔNG THỐNG DONALD TRUMP TẠI ĐẠI HỘI TOÀN QUỐC ĐẢNG CỘNG HÒA NĂM 2016 NGUYỄN TIẾN ĐẠT Supervisor name: ASSOC PROF DR HỒ NGỌC TRUNG Hanoi, 2018 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN DONALD TRUMP’S SPEECH AT submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2018 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION 2016 Nguyen Tien Dat Approved by SUPERVISOR Assoc Prof Dr Ho Ngoc Trung Date: 19/11/2018 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc Prof Dr Ho Ngoc Trung, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher A special word of thanks goes to the teachers at Faculty of Post Graduate, Hanoi Open University and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my wife, for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of authorship Acknowledgements List of tables Abstract Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study 1.2 Aims and Objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Methods of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Design of the study Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous studies 2.2 Theoretical background 2.2.1 Pragmatics 2.2.2 Discourse analysis 2.2.3 Conversational cooperative principle 2.2.4 Political speeches 2.2.5 Historical background of the speech 10 2.3 Theoretical framework 10 2.3.1 Face 10 2.3.2 Politeness strategies 14 2.4 Summary 25 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 27 3.1 Subjects 27 3.2 Instruments 29 3.3 Procedures 29 3.4 Statistical Analysis 31 3.5 Summary 31 Chapter 4: POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN DONALD TRUMP’S SPEECH AT REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION 2016 32 4.1 Realizations of politeness strategies used in Donald Trump’s speech at Republican National Convention 2016 32 4.1.1 Realizations of bald on record 33 4.1.2 Realizations of positive politeness 35 iii 4.1.3 Realizations of negative politeness 45 4.1.4 Realizations of off record 46 4.2 Functions of politeness strategies in Donald Trump’s speech at Republican National Convention 2016 47 4.3 Discussion 49 4.4 Implications 50 4.4.1 Result of the survey questionnaire 50 4.4.2 Suggestions for improving English textbook and testing - assessment of speaking skill/presentation skill 51 4.4.3 Suggestions for methods/techniques of teaching speaking skill/ presentation skill 52 4.4.4 Suggestions for methods/techniques of learning speaking skill/ presentation skill 53 4.5 Summary 53 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 55 5.1 Summary of the findings 55 5.2 Concluding remarks 55 5.2.1 Concluding remarks on the first objective of the study 55 5.2.2 Concluding remarks on the second objective of the study 55 5.3 Recommendations for further Study 55 REFERENCES i APPENDICES iii iv LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Sub-strategies of Bald on record 15 Table 2.2 Sub-strategies of Positive Politeness 16 Table 2.3 Sub-strategies of Negative Politeness 21 Table 2.4 Sub-strategies of Off record 22 Table 4.1 Realizations of politeness strategies 32 Table 4.2 Results of Survey questionnaire 51 Table 4.3 Sample matching table 52 v ABSTRACT The reason for writing the research lies in two points The first one is to find out the politeness strategies and their functions in the speech of Donald Trump in Republican National Convention 2016 The second point is to apply the findings of the research to suggest measures to improve presentation skill of Vietnamese students The research problem is politeness strategies in politeness theory by Brown and Levinson The scope of the research is politeness strategies used in the speech of Donald Trump in Republican National Convention 2016 In this research, the author uses a pragmatic approach to a genre of discourse: political speeches Within this domain, qualitative method is chosen as the main method to carry out the research because this study focuses on understanding a linguistic phenomenon, politeness strategy used in a formal speech Besides, the author would like to also use quantitative method and statistical instrument in order to list all of the politeness strategies, their frequency Donald Trump uses all four politeness strategies in his speech at Republican National Convention 2016 Among those strategies, positive politeness is mainly used and has the highest rate of use The other three strategies only used occasionally due to their limitation and nonconformity The main reason for the difference in using rate lies in the function of each strategy The reason is positive politeness strategy helps Donald Trump to be closer to the hearers and therefore, Donald Trump will more likely gain sympathy and support from the hearers From the findings of the research, the author suggests to improve presentation skill of Vietnamese students via three measures First of all, the author suggests improving English textbook and testing - assessment speaking skill/presentation skill Secondly, the author suggests some speaking skill/presentation skill teaching methods/techniques The last implication is suggestions for speaking skill/ presentation skill learning methods/techniques vi Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study Politeness strategies are widely used in communication to maintain harmony as well as to avoid conflict Those phenomena can appear in any speech In the situation of this study, Donald Trump was a candidate of the president of the United States and he delivered a speech in front of American people and the officials of the Republican Party Therefore, it was a must for him to use politeness strategies to have a successful speech This research focuses on finding out the politeness strategies that have been used, their functions and their implication in improving presentation skill The expected result of the study is to give modest contribution to linguistics theoretically and practically Theoretically, the author would like to give scientific contributions especially in the Politeness Theory proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987) Besides, practically, the study is expected to give a valuable source of information for readers and other researchers and Vietnamese students For the readers, by reading the research, they can gain useful information and understanding about Politeness Strategy The study can lay a firm ground for other researchers to carry out further research on Politeness strategy Then, this study will help Vietnamese students improve their presentation skill 1.2 Aims and Objectives of the study The study is aimed at helping Vietnamese students have a better presentation skill by better knowing the politeness strategies used in Donald Trump’s speech in Republican National Convention 2016 The study has two objectives: • Finding out the politeness strategies used in the speech and their functions; • Suggesting some implications for improving presentation skill for Vietnamese students 1.3 Research questions Based on the aims and objectives of the study, the author comes up with two research questions: - What are politeness strategies and their function used in the speech of Donald Trump in Republican National Convention 2016? - What are implications of politeness strategies in improving presentation skill for Vietnamese students? 1.4 Methods of the study In this research, the author adopts a pragmatic approach to a genre of discourse: political speeches Within this domain, qualitative method is chosen as the main method to carry out the research because this study focuses on understanding a linguistic phenomenon, politeness strategy used in a formal speech The first reason for this choice is that qualitative method helps the researcher to have a deeper look into the phenomenon than the quantitative method Secondly, the data source of this study is utterances, which makes difficulties in transforming them to numerical statistics In addition, because the data of the research is analyzed by word other than by number, the researcher also employs descriptive method, which helps to analyze the data descriptively to gain deep understanding about politeness strategies used in the speech Besides, the author would like to also use quantitative method and statistical instrument in order to list all of the politeness strategies, their frequency The data was collected from reputable sources from the internet about the speech of Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention 2016 The main source is youtube.com This is an important speech, so the speaker has to be careful with his sayings and therefore, the words, phrases and sentences are carefully chosen to make sure that the speech is liked by the voters In doing this research, the researcher collected, identified, analyzed and discussed the data collected During this process, the important data which contains politeness strategy was sometimes collected and noted down For the step of collecting the data, the researcher used the transcript from trusted source on the internet To assure the accuracy of the transcript, the author watched the video several times and changed the initial transcript accordingly Then the author highlighted the utterances which contain politeness strategy In general, there are four main steps that the author follows in order to the research Firstly, the researcher identifies the data containing politeness strategy based on Brown and Levinson’s theory Secondly, the researcher decides what strategy is used in each utterance among: positive politeness, negative politeness, bald on record and off record Thirdly, the findings are analyzed and discussed by using the theory of politeness strategies by Brown and Levinson Finally, the researcher APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT POLITENESS STRATEGIES? A: YES B: NO WHAT IS FACE IN LINGUISTICS? A: PUBLIC SELF-IMAGE THAT EVERY MEMBER WANTS TO CLAIM FOR HIMSELF B: THE FRONT SIDE OF A HEAD C: THE IMAGE THAT THE SPEAKER USES TO DESCRIBE OTHERS DO YOU THINK FACE CAN BE THREATENED DURING NORMAL COMMUNICATION AND NEED TO BE RESERVED AND MAINTAINED? A: YES B: NO WHY DO PEOPLE USE POLITENESS STRATEGIES? A: TO BE IMPOLITE B: TO EXPRESS CONCERN FOR HEARERS AND TO MINIMIZE FACE THREAT IN SOCIAL CONTEXTS C: TO EXPRESS CONCERN FOR THE SPEAKER D: A&C HOW GOOD IS YOUR PRESENTATION IN FRONT OF A CROWD? A: VERY GOOD B: QUITE GOOD C: NOT QUITE GOOD D: NO GOOD AT ALL ARE YOU WILLING TO USE POLITENESS STRATEGIES TO BETTER UP YOUR PRESENTATION SKILL? A: YES B: NO iv APPENDIX 3: REALIZATIONS OF POSITIVE POLITENESS STRATEGY No of Politeness No of sub sub realization strategy strategy Where maximum efficiency is very important and both hearer and speaker know that no face redress is necessary Detail I am asking for your support tonight so that I can be your champion in the White House, and I will be your champion in the White House and I will be your champion America is a nation of believers, dreamers and strivers that is being led by a group of censors, critics and cynics Remember, all of the people telling you, "you can't have the country you want" are the same people that wouldn't stand I mean, they said Trump doesn't have a chance of being here tonight, not a chance The same people Oh, we love defeating those people, My opponent has called for a radical 550 percent increase in Syrian, think of this, think of this, this is not believable but this is what is happening A 550 percent increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing massive refugee flows coming into our country already under the leadership of President Obama Our trade deficit in goods reached nearly, think of this, our trade deficit is $800 billion, think of that, $800 billion last year alone We’re gonna fix that This Administration has failed America’s inner cities Remember, it has failed America’s inner cities It’s failed them on education It’s failed them on jobs It’s failed them on crime It’s failed them in every way and on every single level Remember it was Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA, one of the worst economic deals every made by our country or frankly any other country Never ever again v APPENDIX 4: REALIZATIONS OF POSITIVE POLITENESS STRATEGY No of sub strategy Politeness sub strategy No of realization Exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with hearer) Intensify interest to hearer Detail This was prior to the signing of the Iran deal, which gave back to Iran $150 billion and gave us absolutely nothing – it will go down in history as one of the worst deals ever negotiated Another humiliation came when president Obama drew a red line in Syria – and the whole world knew it meant absolutely nothing How great are our police! And how great is Cleveland! I will ask myself: does this make life better for young Americans in Baltimore, in Chicago, in Detroit, in Ferguson who have really in every way folks, the same right to live out their dreams as any other child America? To make life safe for all of our citizens? To protect us from terrorism, we need to focus on three things We must have the best absolutely the best gathering of intelligence anywhere in the world We're going to work with all of our students who are drowning in debt to take the pressure off these young people just starting out in their adult lives Tremendous problem We will take care of our great veterans like they have never been taken care of before My just released ten-point plan has received tremendous veteran support My opponent dismissed the V.A scandal One more sign of how out of touch she really is What about our economy? Again, I will tell you the plain facts that have been edited out of your nightly news and your morning newspaper: vi Use ingroup identity markers Seek agreement The budget is no better President Obama has almost doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion, and growing And yet, what we have to show for it? Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our airports are Third World condition, and forty-three million Americans are on food stamps After four years of Hillary Clinton, what we have? ISIS has spread across the region, and the entire world Libya is in ruins, and our Ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control Iraq is in chaos Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons I will present the facts plainly and honestly Tonight, I will share with you my plan of action for America My opponent has called for a radical 550 percent increase in Syrian, think of this, think of this, this is not believable but this is what is happening A 550 percent increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing massive refugee flows coming into our country already under the leadership of President Obama And I have to say as a Republican it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said Thank you June 16th last year, we, and I say we, because we are a team, would have received almost 14 million votes, the most in the history of the Republican Party and that the Republican Party would get 60 percent more votes than it received eight years ago, who would’ve believed this, who would’ve believed this? vii The Democrats, on the other hand, received 20 percent fewer votes than they got four years ago, not so good, not so good Together, we will lead our party back to the White House, and we will lead our country back to safety, prosperity, and peace We will be a country of generosity and warmth But we will also be a country of law and order Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place They are throwing money at her because they have total control over every single thing she does She is their puppet, and they pull the strings That is why Hillary Clinton’s message is that things will never change Never ever My message is that things have to change – and they have to change right now By ending catch-and-release on the border, we will stop the cycle of human smuggling and violence Illegal border crossings will go down We will stop it, it won't be happening very much anymore, believe me Peace will be restored America first again, America first! Excessive regulation is costing our country as much as $2 trillion a year, and we will end it very, very quickly We are going to lift the restrictions on the production of American energy This will produce more than 20 trillion dollars in job creating economic activity over the next four decades Don't we love defeating those people Love it, love it, love it But history is watching It's waiting to see if we will rise to the occasion and if we will show the whole world that America is still free and independent and strong I am asking for your support tonight so that viii I can be your champion in the White House, and I will be your champion in the White House and I will be your champion 10 11 Presuppose/ raise/ assert common ground I am with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you To all Americans tonight in all of our cities and in all of our towns, I make this promise we will make America strong again We will make America proud again We will make America safe again And we will make America great again Our trade deficit in goods reached nearly, think of this, our trade deficit is $800 billion, think of that, $800 billion last year alone We’re gonna fix that But here, at our convention, there will be no lies And I have to say as a Republican it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said Thank you The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment than frankly I have ever seen and anybody in this room has ever watched or seen they said Trump doesn't have a chance of being here tonight, not a chance The same people Oh, we love defeating those people, don't we? Don't we love defeating those people And when a Secretary of State illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so the authorities can’t see her crime, puts our country at risk, lies about it in every different form and faces no consequence – I know that corruption has reached a level like never ever before in our country ix Assert or presuppose speaker's knowledge of and concern for hearer's wants Lastly, and very importantly we must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place We don't want them in our country We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore Offer/ promise Together, we will lead our party back to the White House, and we will lead our country back to safety, prosperity, and peace We will be a country of generosity and warmth But we will also be a country of law and order I will present the facts plainly and honestly We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else I will tell you the plain facts that have been edited out of your nightly news and your morning newspaper: Nearly four in 10 African-American children are living in poverty, while 58 percent of AfricanAmerican youth are not employed I will share with you my plan of action for America The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponent, is that our plan will put America first I will outline reforms to add millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth that can be used to rebuild America But his supporters will join our movement, because we will fix his biggest issue: trade Millions of Democrats will join our movement, because we are going to fix the system so it works fairly and justly for each and every American We will bring the same economic success to America that Mike brought to Indiana, which is amazing He is a man of character and accomplishment x 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 I will restore law and order to our country Believe me, believe me I will work with, and appoint, the best prosecutors and law enforcement officials to get the job properly done In this race for the White House, I am the Law and Order candidate I will work to ensure that all of our kids are treated equally, and protected equally Every action I take, I will ask myself: does this make life better for young Americans in Baltimore, in Chicago, in Detroit, in Ferguson who have really in every way folks, the same right to live out their dreams as any other child America? I will everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology, believe me Tonight, this candidate and the whole nation stand in their corner to support them, to send them our love, and to pledge in their honor that we will save countless more families from suffering and the same awful fate By ending catch-and-release on the border, we will stop the cycle of human smuggling and violence Illegal border crossings will go down We will stop it, it won't be happening very much anymore, believe me Instead, I will make individual deals with individual countries Excessive regulation is costing our country as much as $2 trillion a year, and we will end it very, very quickly We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of tomorrow This in turn will create millions of more jobs I will always give you my love You are most special to me xi 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Include both speaker and hearer in the activity I am asking for your support tonight so that I can be your champion in the White House, and I will be your champion in the White House and I will be your champion I am with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you I have been honored to receive the endorsement of America’s Border Patrol Agents, and will work directly with them to protect the integrity of our lawful, lawful immigration System, lawful I am asking for your support tonight so that I can be your champion in the White House, and I will be your champion in the White House and I will be your champion Our trade deficit in goods reached nearly, think of this, our trade deficit is $800 billion, think of that, $800 billion last year alone We’re gonna fix that I will everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology, believe me To all Americans tonight in all of our cities and in all of our towns, I make this promise we will make America strong again We will make America proud again We will make America safe again And we will make America great again America is far less safe – and the world is far less stable – than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America’s foreign policy Let's defeat her in November I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets Let's defeat her in November We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore The problems we face now – poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad – will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians xii who created them in the first place 10 11 Lastly, and very importantly we must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place We don't want them in our country We will bring the same economic success to America that Mike brought to Indiana, which is amazing On Monday, we heard from three parents whose children were killed by illegal Immigrants Mary Ann Mendoza, Sabine Durden, and my friend Jamiel Shaw They are Illegal border crossings will go down We will stop it, it won't be happening very much anymore, believe me We are going to lift the restrictions on the production of American energy This will produce more than 20 trillion dollars in job creating economic activity over the next four decades My opponent on the other hand wants to put the great miners and the great steelworkers of our country, out of work and out of business That will never happen with Donald J Trump as president Our steel workers and our miners are going back to work again We can accomplish these great things and so much more All we need to is start believing in ourselves and in our country again Start believing It is time to show the whole world that America is back, bigger and better and stronger than ever before I have had a truly great life in business, but now my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country, to go to work for you It's time to deliver a victory for the American people We don't win anymore, but we are going to start xiii winning again 12 13 14 15 Give/ ask for reasons 10 Assume or assert reciprocity America is a nation of believers, dreamers and strivers that is being led by a group of censors, critics and cynics Remember, all of the people telling you, "you can't have the country you want" are the same people that wouldn't stand I mean, they said Trump doesn't have a chance of being here tonight, not a chance The same people Oh, we love defeating those people, To all Americans tonight in all of our cities and in all of our towns, I make this promise we will make America strong again We will make America proud again We will make America safe again And we will make America great again Our horrible trade agreements with China and many others, will be totally renegotiated That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America – and we’ll walk away if we don’t get that kind of a deal Let’s review the record In 2009, preHillary, ISIS was not even on the map Libya was stable Egypt was peaceful Iraq was seeing a reduction in violence Iran was being choked by sanctions Syria was under control She is their puppet, and they pull the strings That is why Hillary Clinton’s message is that things will never change I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it I am asking for your support tonight so that I can be your champion in the White House, and I will be your champion in the White House and I will be your champion xiv When I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country Believe me, believe me xv APPENDIX 5: REALIZATIONS OF NEGATIVE POLITENESS STRATEGY No of Politeness sub No of sub strategy realization strategy Be conventionally indirect Give deference 1 Detail So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully-crafted lies, and the media myths, the Democrats are holding their convention next week, go there Friends, delegates and fellow Americans: I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States xvi APPENDIX 6: REALIZATIONS OF OFF RECORD STRATEGY No of sub strategy Politeness sub strategy No of realization Presuppose Detail Remember it was Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA, one of the worst economic deals every made by our country or frankly any other country Never ever again We are going to lift the restrictions on the production of American energy This will produce more than 20 trillion dollars in job creating economic activity over the next four decades My opponent on the other hand wants to put the great miners and the great steelworkers of our country, out of work and out of business That will never happen with Donald J Trump as president Our steel workers and our miners are going back to work again I have had a truly great life in business, but now my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country, to go to work for you It's time to deliver a victory for the American people We don't win anymore, but we are going to start winning again To all Americans tonight in all of our cities and in all of our towns, I make this promise we will make America strong again We will make America proud again We will make America safe again And we will make America great again We don't win anymore, but we are going to start winning again But to that, we must break free from the petty politics of the past We can accomplish these great things and so much more All we need to is start believing in ourselves and in our country again Start believing It is time to show the whole world that America is back, bigger and better and stronger than ever xvii 2 Use metaphors before My opponent wants to essentially abolish the second amendment I, on the other hand, received early and strong endorsement of the National Rifle Association And will protect the right of all Americans to keep their families safe Two million more Latinos are in poverty today than when the President Obama took his oath of office less than eight years ago Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely Household incomes are down more than $4,000 since the year 2000, that's 16 years ago This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness But Hillary Clinton’s legacy does not have to be America’s legacy The problems we face now – poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad – will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them in the first place A change in leadership is required to produce a change in outcomes I am the Law and Order candidate xviii ... Chapter 4: POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN DONALD TRUMP’S SPEECH AT REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION 2016 4.1 Realizations of politeness strategies used in Donald Trump’s speech at Republican National Convention. .. questions: - What are politeness strategies and their function used in the speech of Donald Trump in Republican National Convention 2016? - What are implications of politeness strategies in improving presentation... presentation skill by better knowing the politeness strategies used in Donald Trump’s speech in Republican National Convention 2016 The study has two objectives: • Finding out the politeness strategies