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4 The Strategy of Using Special Sentences
4.1 Sentences of Religious Coloring
In the book named Speak English Like Obama published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press in 2010, 28 speeches made by Obama were selected to make an album. Among all the 28 speeches 14 of which were ended with sentences like "God bless you" and "God bless America". It takes up 42.9% of the collection. As a result, this kind of sentences of religious coloring will be paid special attention in the following paragraphs.
Example 11: God bless you. Thank you. (extracted from The Audacity of Hope)
Example 12: God bless you, and God bless America. (extracted from My Education, My Future)
One of the Leech’s Politeness Principle is Sympathy Maxim which requires the participants "minimize antipathy between self and other; maximize sympathy between self and other". In America Bible enjoys high popularity. People often follow the guide of Bible or God. As a result, Obama uses sentences containing "God" to shorten the social distance between himself and the audience. Moreover, a common ground was found by ending with religious sentences. By this way, Obama win the audience’s supports easily.
4.2 Sentences of Special Pattern
Here sentences of special pattern especially refer to the "I believe", "I think" and "I know" sentences. According to Grice’s Cooperative Principle, the participants of any conversation should follow the maxim of quality. That is to say, one does not say what he believes to be false or lack adequate evidence. Grammatically, "I believe", "I think"and "I know"are parentheses. They don’t have any real meaning, but the use of which can emphasize the truth of what the speaker said. Obama uses these parentheses not only to tell his experiences, but also to put forward his opinions.
Example 13: I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair. I believe we ’ve got win on our bats. I believe that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.(extracted from The Audacity of Hope)
Example 14: Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork. I get it. I know what’s that like. (extracted from My Education, My Future)
In the above two examples, the "I believe" and "I know" respectively appeared three times. By using these two patterns, Obama was telling his own stories and expressing his own true feelings. On one hand, it made what Obama said more sincere and convincing. On the other hand, the audience will accept Obama’s idea much easier.
4.3 Discussion
The strategy of using special sentences is a very common one among all the speech strategies. No matter the use of the sentences is in accordance with the Sympathy Maxim or the Quality Maxim, the result of which is to make the audience accept what the speaker said. There are still many other special sentences used in Obama’s speeches. From the perspective of literariness, the adoption of these sentences makes the speech language more vivid and colorful; while from the point of content, the use of these sentences makes the speeches more convincing and persuasive.
5 Conclusions
From an unknown senator to the first African-American President in the US history , Obama gave his own definition to the American dream. The American Presidential election is famous for its fierceness. No matter in what stage, the candidates have to debate or make public speaking to convince the public to vote for them. The excellent oratorical skills helped Obama to overcome the racial borders and finally lead his way to the White House.
In the earlier chapters, we have made detailed analysis to the speeches made by Obama in various situations. This chapter will conclude the major findings, implications, the limitations and suggestions.