Speeches
Harry Truman The Truman Doctrine
In this speech Harry Truman addresses the Congress to help Greece in the hard situation it was in. The speaker uses metaphors to show all the difficultness of the situation, which allows the audience to understand what was going on in Greece. Besides, Truman uses similies to explain that Greece is in much more difficult situation than Albania, Yugoslavia and other Balkan countries. One of the peculiarities of Truman’s speech is that he uses short emphasized sentences which are explained later. This allows drawing audience’s attention and makes the speech more organized and understandable. Sometimes the speaker uses anadiplosis, repeating “the United States” for several times. This helps the audience understand that the mission of the United States of America is to help Greece to renew their economic. Truman uses anastrophe to show all the importance of the mission and makes people follow him. Moreover, it is necessary to understand that not only words help the speaker to draw audience’s attention, but his voice as well. Truman during this speech managed to emphasize the most significant parts of the speech with his intonation that helped to convince the Congress and the President that Greece needs the help of the United States of America.
Mary Church Terrell What It Means To Be Colored In the United States
In this speech the speaker uses commoratio and conduplication, repeating the word “colored” and the word combination “The Colored Man’s Paradise”. These figures of speech help the audience understand the problem the speaker wants to emphasize. Besides, Mary Church Terrell is using anastrophe in her speech to show all the cruelty of the situation in Washington, D.C. The speaker uses the word combination “as a colored woman” for several times at the beginning of every sentence, which is anaphora. Such figure of speech shows the deepness of the problem and helps outline the main and the most significant parts of the whole speech. Aposiopesis is used frequently to show how the colored people suffer and to draw audience’s attention. The peculiarity of her speech is that Mary Church Terrell uses hyperbaton often to express her feelings and her disappointment in the government of the United States of America. Moreover, hyperbaton helps her draw the audience’s attention and keep it until the end of the speech.
Newton N. Minow Television and the Public Interest
Newton Minow presented this speech in 1961 and began it saying that it was his first speech. From the very beginning, he posed himself not as a speaker, but as a friend to the audience; such attitude defined his behavior. From the beginning of the speech, Newton uses asteismus to joke about his new job (“I was not picked for this job because I regard myself as the fastest draw on the New Frontier.”) The good thing about this speech is that the speaker addresses the audience directly; he does not pose any questions that cannot be answered by the audience, instead he makes friends with all the listeners. Minow uses climax to show the importance of the audience more than a speaker; this helps him draw attention and make the audience interested in his speech. The sentences are not long, which does not bore the audience and lets the speaker add some new thoughts and ideas in what he has said. The peculiarity of this speech is that it is joking on the one hand and on the other hand, it is an analytical one, because the speaker provides the quotes and criticizes them. His voice is quiet and calm, without any breakings, which helps him show that, although he is joking from time to time, he does not seem to be a comic to entertain the audience.
Edward M. Kennedy Truth and Tolerance in America
The speaker uses anacoenosis to draw the audience’s attention and make it think about the situation in the United States of America (“I believe that there surely is such a thing as truth, but who among us can claim a monopoly on it?”). Besides, Kennedy uses metaphors to express his thoughts. The peculiarity of the speech is that the speaker refers to himself, using the I sentences. This helps Kennedy to show the audience that he is an ordinary American, like every one of them. Along with the I sentences Edward Kennedy uses We sentences to show that he is the part of the family of Americans. He addresses both the past and the future, showing that the nation is something eternal. The speech of Kennedy does not contain much of figures of speech, because, it is for the audience that listens with their heart and not ears.
Woodrow Wilson The League of Nations
The speaker uses anacoluthon to draw the audience’s attention and to present arguments for his statement. His speech is quiet and calm, however, he speaks about the creation of the new union, the League of Nations. Wilson uses hyperbaton to express his thoughts and ideas about the significance of the creating the union. The using of I and We constructions in one sentence makes him explain the audience that the creation of the League of Nations is their common problem and it should be solved not by one person but discussed by the community. The usage of You constructions lets the audience know that the representatives of all the countries should unite, because they cannot do anything alone. The repetition of the word “background”, conduplicatio, by using the word combination “it is defined”, shows that the word itself is not as insignificant as it might seem. The usage of the epistrophe emphasizes the problem that should be solved, the parts of it that are urgent.
Eleanor Roosevelt On the Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The speech of Eleanor Roosevelt is built correctly and it does not have many figures of speech. However, she tends to use metaphors to express her thoughts about the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She expresses her thoughts using enallage to present her ideas and to draw the audience’s attention. Besides, she did not agree to the position of the USSR and stated that in a correct manner, the usage of commoratio and conduplicatio shows that she was willing to draw the audience’s attention to some particular thoughts and ideas. (the word “Soviet” is used without negative sense, however it emphasizes the wrongness of the ideas of the representatives of the USSR). Hyperbaton was used to express her thoughts, along with climax, which helped the speaker to emphasize the importance of the ideas that were mentioned. Her voice was calm and, although she was making some pauses, they were not significant and did not express her ideas about the situation. On the other hand, there was not many figures of speech used, the speech impressed the audience.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt The Four Freedoms
From the very beginning the speaker addresses the audience to make some contact; he explains his choice of the words. When speaking, Roosevelt uses asyndeton to show the unbreakable connection between two statements. Different kinds of repetition are used to express his thought and show the significance of the problem that he speaks about: he uses the word “war” to explain that the situation is difficult and reasons for it. The usage of hendiatris helps Franklin Delano Roosevelt express his thoughts better and make the audience understand what he intended to say. Parallelism is used for the same aim – to help the audience understand him. The usage of synonimia allows the speaker to outline the problem and make the others follow the thought and share the ideas with the speaker. While speaking, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s voice was calm. However, he emphasized some words and word combinations that he thought were significant. Together with figures of speech, this helped the audience understand the problem and follow Roosevelt. From time to time the audience was breaking into applause which meant that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was presenting the speech correctly and the audience could hear him, understand his thoughts and share them.
Huey P. Long Every Man a King
Unlike the speeches that were analyzed above, here the speaker does not address anyone, he begins the speech with a rhetoric question to the audience. (“Is that a right of life, when the young children of this country are being reared into a sphere which is more owned by 12 men that is by 120 million people? ”) This allows him to draw the attention of the listeners and make them interested in what he will say. The next step to keep the attention of the audience is to use the parrhesia; Huey P. Long apologized for having only thirty minutes for the speech (“I have only 30 minutes in which to speak to you this evening…”). Having done so, he stated that his speech would have been short but significant. He addresses the audience using the word combination “my friend”, that means that he is willing to co-work with the listeners and that they are not his enemies. Another figure of speech that helps the speaker to draw the attention of the audience is the hyperbaton. When Huey P. Long realized that he loses connection with the audience, he changed the word order of the sentence. Unfortunately, the speech was not recorded that is why it is difficult to outline the role of paralanguage in the speech of Huey P. Long.
John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address
At the beginning of the speech, Kennedy addresses the Vice President and the President, besides he addresses the whole nation. The speech is not full of figures of speech, because Kennedy should have addressed the whole nation of Americans and not a particular group of the society. However, the President tends to use such kinds of repetition as hyperbaton, epanalepsis, commoratio and conduplicatio: one may find that the speaker repeats such words as God, we, people, nation very often. Besides the repetition, Kennedy uses metaphor to help people understand him better. The peculiarity of the speech is not in the figures of speech that are used, but in paralanguage: the voice of the speaker, his intonation and the words that are emphasized. Kennedy is speaking with all his heart; it was obvious that he was trying to make every citizen of the United States of America listen to him, hear his thoughts and share them. He emphasizes such words as America, nation, hope, freedom; the words that are significant for every American, because they symbolize the principles the United States of America were based on.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt First Inaugural Address
As it was mentioned above, the inaugural address does not contain many figures of speech. It is worth to mention that this speech takes the third place in the Top 100 of the speeches. In his speech Franklin Delano Roosevelt uses aposiopesis to let people think about his words; however, it happened that such pauses were for applauses. The speaker uses sentences with the constructions to show that he is a part of the society, an average American who will try to reign the country correctly. Besides, Franklin Delano Roosevelt uses asterismos (“I address you…”, “let me assert my firm belief…”) to outline the beginning of the new thought and to address the audience. The paralanguage is also important in this case, because Roosevelt had to address not the whole nation but every citizen. That is why he uses exclamations and emphasizes some words. Besides, he addresses God, as the helper for the actions he will take, which is also significant because the belief in God is one of the principles of the American nation.
