had high position in government of America and she mostly used Standard English when giving formal or informal speech.
5. Rising Intonations in Declarative Statement
Lakoff 1973, “there is a peculiar sentence intonation-pattern, found in English as far as I know only among women, which has the form of a declarative
answer to a question, and is used as such, but has the rising inflection typical of a yes-no question, as well as being especially hesitant”. As a woman, Hillary used
this kind of the women’s language features. There were 12 rising intonations that were found in the selected videos.
The researcher found one of the evidences in the fourth video. It was mentioned in the statement [14] and the simulation of Hillary’s rising intonation
could be seen in the following graphics. In the statement [14], Hillary might want to emphasize the important things happened. She told that David always helped
her in the beginning of her work as a senator. So, she raised some words in her utterances.
[14]“When I was just starting out as a senator, Davids door was always open.”
When I was just starting
out
as a
senator,
Davids door was always
open.
[15] “This is a government wide challenge and something that no great country should do. I mean, just as a final note, you know, I was giving a
speech in Hong Kong during the last debt ceiling debate, and all these very sophisticated investors and government officials, you know, lined
up to say, is the United States really going to default on its credit? And I said, oh, no, no, no, well never do that,…”
[16] “You know why we have to do all of this? Because we are the indispensable nation. We are the force for progress, prosperity and
peace. And because we have to get it right for ourselves. Leadership is not a birthright. It has to be earned by each new generation.”
The rising intonations were used again in statement [15] and [16]. It appeared in the middle of her utterances. Actually, the researcher just mentioned
some piece of her utterances because it is too long to be mentioned here. It could be found in the second video. In the statement [15], Hillary told about her speech
in Hongkong and some investors and government officials asked about economic problem of United Stated.Again, the rising intonations that appeared in statement
[15] and [16] are similar with statement [14]. Hillary emphasized and raised the important things that she might want the audience exactly know.
In this case, the researcher assumed that Hillary was not hesitated in delivering her speech. In this case, she was inclined to use masculine language
rather than feminine language. It was because she just stated the important things in her speeches. Most of her intonations within her speeches in the selected videos
were falling intonation. Falling intonations could show that the speaker was straightforward, assertive, and confident with what she was talking about. So, in
Hillary’s utterances, the rising intonations were to emphasize the important things so that the audience could understand well.
6. Empty Adjectives
