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3 The Strategy of Proper Redundancy
Redundancy is an important term in linguistics. The speaker give information more than that they are required, which is considered as a pragmatic strategy (Qian Guanlian. 2002). However, according to Grice’s Quantity Maxim under Cooperative Principle, a speaker should "make your contribution as informative as is required". It seems the violation of the Cooperative Principle will lead to communication breakdown. Nevertheless, the truth is that one may achieve special communication effect by violating CP. In this section, the reason of this phenomenon will be discussed through several specific examples.
3.1 Parallelism
Parallelism is one of the most common proper redundancy strategies. According to the New Oxford English-Chinese dictionary, parallelism means the use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose which correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning etc. Parallel sentences can strengthen the tone of the words and achieve the climax of the speech. Obama often use parallel sentences as a kind of speaking strategies to carry his opinions. Following is an example chosen from Obama’ s declaration of candidacy.
Example 9: That’s why we were able to reform a death penalty system that was broken. That’s why we were able to give health insurance to children in need. That’s why we made the tax system, right here in Springfield, more fair and just for working families, and that’s why we passed ethics reforms that the cynics said could never, ever be passed. (extracted from Declaration of Candidacy)
At the time when Obama made this speech, America was undergoing one of the most difficult period in this century. The financial crisis together with the Iraq War made the Americans to doubt themselves. To boost the morale, Obama mentioned the success people have achieved. In Springfield, people learned to disagree without being disagreeable and the government knows to listen to different voices. As a result, they have achieved such great success listed in Example 9. Although the sentence patterns of this example are similar, the content developed in a gradually strengthen manner. It is obvious that to pass ethics reforms is more difficult to realize than to reform a death penalty system. With a series "that’s why" sentences, Obama arouse the passion of the audience and help them to pick up their hope again.
3.2 Repetition
During the 2008 general election, the most famous slogan of Obama is "Yes, we can". This sentence appeared frequently. In his speeches, he likes to use repeated sentences to emphasize the theme and leave a deep impression to the audience.
Example 10: Yes, we can. At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reached out for the ballot. Yes, we can. When there was despair in the dust bowl.Yes, we can. When the bombs fell on our harbor. Yes, we can. She was there for the buses in Montgomery. Yes, we can. A man touched down on the moon. Yes we can. America, we have come so far. Yes, we can. (extracted from This Is Your Victory)
In 2008, American has encountered the most serious financial crisis since this century. The morale of American people has fallen to the lowest point. To encourage the public, Obama choose Hope and Change as his campaign slogan. In the above example, "yes, we can" has been repeated un-continuously for seven times. The repetition intensified the strength of the whole speech and emphasized the theme that as long as the Americans work together, a new America is about to be made. "Yes, we can" not only brought confidence to the audience but also made the speech more convincing.
3.3 Discussion
Proper redundancy is frequently used by the orators. Although it deliberately violated the Cooperative Principle, it strengthened the passion and the meaning of the speeches and held the audience’s attentions firmly. In fact, proper redundancy helped Obama to express himself better and achieve a more interactive effect.