Of United States President Barrack Obama - Speech or Presentation Example

Running Head: Analyzing a Speech Analyzing a Speech Customer’s Name: Customer’s Course: Tutor’s Name: 15th May, 2012 Introduction The aim of this essay is to analyze a political speech by forming a hypothesis about the ideas raised by the speaker. The essay also highlights the purpose of the speech to the audience as well as background information about the speech. In the analysis; theme, body language of the speaker, gestures, and other stylistic devices the speaker uses will be discussed (Bates, 1995). The speech was given by United States president Barrack Obama on 14th march 2012 in Aipac conference in Israel (Obama, 2012). The speech’s theme is to encourage Israel people to continue with their fight against Iran’s and to highlight the relationship between United States and Israel in the fight against Palestinians. The second and the third paragraphs of this essay will describe the nature of the speech and its purpose to the audience. Fourth and fifth paragraphs will analyses the speech in terms of figurative language and how the speaker addresses the audience. Final paragraph of the body part will assess the importance and the effectiveness of the stylistic devices used both to the audience and to the speaker. Finally, the conclusion will highlight the main point gathered from the speech and discussed in the body part. Analysis Obama in his speech gives a brief history of the relationship between his government, the USA fore fathers, the people of American and Israel counterparts. In particular, the relationship has been stronger in fighting the terrorist who attack them. In addition, both countries have a common enemy who is Iran government and its allies who are using nuclear weapons. The form of war that the two countries have strongly fought is the Iranian threats to attack Israel and its allies. Obama describes how both countries have worked together to ensure that Palestinians do not attack. Moreover, Israel, USA, and other governments have joined hands to negotiate for peace between the fighting countries. In the speech, the speaker describes how Shimon was born away from Israel and how Shimon (as a young boy) had his heart on the Jewish people and how he moved from Poland across the land and sea to ‘home’. The speaker also describes how Shimon fought for security, peace and independence of Israel people (Obama, 2012). He also compares between the forms of leadership between the two major fighting nations. At the middle of the speech, the speaker uses the opportunity to let the crowd know that his efforts in fighting terrorist started with the very first month after taking the presidential office. Furthermore, in his speech, the speaker uses many forms of communication such as non-verbal communication (gesture), voice alternation, and other figurative language like metaphors and similes. The speech is given orally all through the whole period of the presentation using illustrations such as compliments. For example, the speaker uses the following figurative language; ‘I had faith in Israel before it was established,’ “at every crucial juncture at every fork in the road we have been there for Israel. Every single time, “when one-sided resolutions are brought up at the human rights council, we oppose them”, “peace is hard to achieve,” “when I took office, the effort to apply pressure on Iran were in tatters. Iran had gone from zero centrifuges spinning to thousands,” “They can choose a path that brings them back into the community of nations, or they can continue down a dead end,” and many other extracts in the speech that show figurative language usage. The use of similes, stories, proverbs and metaphor is evident in the quotations. In particular, a metaphor is used where the speaker compares the fight with rough waters and peace with prosperous shore. (To secure both of our countries and to see that the waters of our time lead to a peaceful and prosperous shore) The speaker alternation of voice in the speech is great in the sense that he raises his voice to match the message put across. Metaphor, simile and proverb are used by the speaker to let the audience digest the intended meaning themselves. Moreover, the gestures match the utterances of words. Due to the nature of crowd and the seriousness of the matter, the speaker did not use humor as a stylistic feature in his speech. Again, due to the seriousness of the speech; the audiences are interested with every word that is uttered by the speaker. To fight resilient Iran the speaker says that all manner of negotiations has to be used and if they don’t yield to democratic way of resolving the issue then, they have to solve the issue using the last option which is war. The speaker exaggerates that his government will have to use all means possible to help Israel against Palestinians (Obama, 2012). Ethos is the characteristic spirit of certain culture, community or an organization in a certain time (Bates, 1995). The views of the speaker are shaped by values and the beliefs of the community. The speaker’s tone and literary work are dictated by the community perspective about the fighting Iran. Due to the threat and the risk involved both to American people and the Israel people as well as the whole world at large about the use of nuclear weapons, the speaker makes sure that the message is passed to his audience. The English language command associated with the speaker makes the speech interesting (Sakai & Inoue, 1960). At that time, the occasion is about the Iran usage of biological weapons hence the speaker must address the issue of fighting using such weapons. The tone also changes depending with the nature of the message put across at that particular time. Say, when the speaker is commenting about someone in the congregation, he lowers his voice and facial expressions to catch the attention of the audience. Pathos are used to expressed emotional torture and physical or mental suffering (Eidenmuller, 2008). In the speech, there is no direct expression of either emotional or physical torture but there is illustration of mental torture. Melancholy face expressed by the speaker when he talks about the encounters he had with his men and women when they are back from the battle field, is a form of pathos. On the same point, to refer his army personnel as men and woman is a stylistic feature. The speaker uses borrowed language as a stylistic device. He uses the words tikkun olam meaning to protect the world in Hebrew. He also uses a story by Harry Truman who he says he understood the Israel’s story of hope. Finally, the speaker uses a proverb, “A man is judged by his deeds, not his words”. He uses this proverb to enlighten the audience and make them understand that mere words without action are as good as dead. Again, the proverb is to make the audience take actions about the issue at hand (Bird, Klein & Loper, 2009). One may argue that, the proverb is used to illustrate what the speaker had done about the issue. Finally, a logo is the creativity associated with the speaker of the speech (Kent, 2001). In the speech the speaker says that ‘...I salute your leadership’. This demonstrates creativity of the speaker in the sense that he is able to relate between regarding and leadership. In most cases, the creativity comes about depending with the nature of message to be passed (Bird, Klein, & Loper, 2009). It is therefore clear that the speaker uses this logo to illustrate his message (Emmeline, 1913). The logos bring together to existing phenomena that happen in the real world so; the speaker did not illustrate his message with the imaginary demonstration hence making the speech interesting. To some extent, I agree with the speaker’s notion about the fight between the two countries. I also agree to the view that if Iran does not yield to democratic détente, then the issue would be solved using war. The only part I disagree is where he says that idea to engage Iran in negotiations about use of nuclear weapon was not conceived before his election to office. Before his term begun, his predecessor had fought battle to protect his people as well as people of Israel. The phrase ‘I have never seen Rosy on a basketball court. I’ll bet it would be a threat’ is meant to be a humorous statement which do not hit the patch line i.e. the audience must know what had happened before the speech for the speaker to make such remarks (Obama, 2012). Conclusion In conclusion, the speech by the speaker is one that is whole in terms of rhetoric language and other stylistic devices. Nodding as non-verbal communication is used to show the importance of the message. In addition, similes and metaphors are used in the speech (Eidenmuller, 2008). Pathos, ethos and logos form the better part of the speech. The selection of words by the speaker is due to the sensitivity of the matter and the then culture of English people. Humor and story are part of the speech which makes the speech effective and accurate to pass on the intended message. Finally, the wide range of knowledge about the subject matter makes the speech interesting and worth listening (Jurafsky & Martin, 2008). References Bates, M (1995) Models of natural language understanding. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 92, No. 22, pp. 9977–9982. Bird, S., Klein, E & Loper, E (2009). Natural Language Processing with Python. California: O'Reilly Media Eidenmuller, M (2008) Great Speeches for Better Speaking (Book + Audio CD): Listen and Learn from History's Most Memorable Speeches. New York: McGraw-Hill Jurafsky, D & Martin, J (2008). Speech and Language Processing. Sydney: Pearson Prentice Hall Kent, R (2001) Acoustic Analysis of Speech. Singular: Online Obama, B (2012) Speech at the America Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual policy conference. Available online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/04/obama-aipac-speech-read-text Accessed on 14th May, 2012 Sakai, T & Inoue, S (1960) New Instruments and Methods for Speech Analysis: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 32(4), 441-450 Read More

The use of similes, stories, proverbs and metaphor is evident in the quotations. In particular, a metaphor is used where the speaker compares the fight with rough waters and peace with prosperous shore. (To secure both of our countries and to see that the waters of our time lead to a peaceful and prosperous shore) The speaker alternation of voice in the speech is great in the sense that he raises his voice to match the message put across. Metaphor, simile and proverb are used by the speaker to let the audience digest the intended meaning themselves.

Moreover, the gestures match the utterances of words. Due to the nature of crowd and the seriousness of the matter, the speaker did not use humor as a stylistic feature in his speech. Again, due to the seriousness of the speech; the audiences are interested with every word that is uttered by the speaker. To fight resilient Iran the speaker says that all manner of negotiations has to be used and if they don’t yield to democratic way of resolving the issue then, they have to solve the issue using the last option which is war.

The speaker exaggerates that his government will have to use all means possible to help Israel against Palestinians (Obama, 2012). Ethos is the characteristic spirit of certain culture, community or an organization in a certain time (Bates, 1995). The views of the speaker are shaped by values and the beliefs of the community. The speaker’s tone and literary work are dictated by the community perspective about the fighting Iran. Due to the threat and the risk involved both to American people and the Israel people as well as the whole world at large about the use of nuclear weapons, the speaker makes sure that the message is passed to his audience.

The English language command associated with the speaker makes the speech interesting (Sakai & Inoue, 1960). At that time, the occasion is about the Iran usage of biological weapons hence the speaker must address the issue of fighting using such weapons. The tone also changes depending with the nature of the message put across at that particular time. Say, when the speaker is commenting about someone in the congregation, he lowers his voice and facial expressions to catch the attention of the audience.

Pathos are used to expressed emotional torture and physical or mental suffering (Eidenmuller, 2008). In the speech, there is no direct expression of either emotional or physical torture but there is illustration of mental torture. Melancholy face expressed by the speaker when he talks about the encounters he had with his men and women when they are back from the battle field, is a form of pathos. On the same point, to refer his army personnel as men and woman is a stylistic feature. The speaker uses borrowed language as a stylistic device.

He uses the words tikkun olam meaning to protect the world in Hebrew. He also uses a story by Harry Truman who he says he understood the Israel’s story of hope. Finally, the speaker uses a proverb, “A man is judged by his deeds, not his words”. He uses this proverb to enlighten the audience and make them understand that mere words without action are as good as dead. Again, the proverb is to make the audience take actions about the issue at hand (Bird, Klein & Loper, 2009). One may argue that, the proverb is used to illustrate what the speaker had done about the issue.

Finally, a logo is the creativity associated with the speaker of the speech (Kent, 2001). In the speech the speaker says that ‘.I salute your leadership’. This demonstrates creativity of the speaker in the sense that he is able to relate between regarding and leadership. In most cases, the creativity comes about depending with the nature of message to be passed (Bird, Klein, & Loper, 2009). It is therefore clear that the speaker uses this logo to illustrate his message (Emmeline, 1913).

The logos bring together to existing phenomena that happen in the real world so; the speaker did not illustrate his message with the imaginary demonstration hence making the speech interesting.

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