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CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter, the results of this research would be explained. Besides, another finding related to this research would also be revealed so that the results
would be compared. This section is intended to analyze adverbs of stance found in Obama’s and Clinton’s speeches. Adverbs of stance are not as popular as other
adverbs. Despite their unpopular use, adverbs of stance have decent use in showing personal judgment about the proposition. Therefore, adverbs of stance
are also important to be introduced. In analyzing the adverbs of stance in Obama’s and Clinton’s speech, the researcher made classification tables, figures and
checklist tables. The criteria of adverbs of stance and their position in a sentence were put and employed in the tables to analyze the data and to get the research
results and other findings.
A. Discoursal Distributions of Adverbs of Stance
This following part shows the analysis of Adverbs of Stance in Obama’s speech. Table 1 shows that both speakers have different tendency in using
adverbs of stance. Obama was more likely to use adverbs of stance showing certainty, while Clinton was likely to use adverbs of stance showing attitude.
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Table 1 shows the classification and distribution of adverbs of stance in Obama’s and Clinton’s speeches. The researcher used Biber’s theories. Based on
semantic criteria, there are three main types of stance adverbs, which are epistemic adverbs, attitudinal, source of knowledge and stylistic Biber et al.,
1999, pp. 854-857. Epistemic adverbs consist of adverb of stance showing doubt
and certainty.
Table 1 shows several adverbs of stance used by Obama and Clinton. Based on the table above, there are six classifications of adverbs of stance.
However, there are only five types of adverbs of stance found in both speeches. First, Table 1 shows adverbs of stance showing certainty. According to
Biber 2006 this particular adverbs are used to express someone’s attitudes or
personal feelings, about how certain they are about its truth, and what perspective they are taking. Take closer look in this following example:
1 Obama:
“Since health care represents one-sixth of our economy, I believe it makes more sense to build on what works and fix what doesnt,
rather than try to build an entirely new system from scratch. Applause And that is precisely what those of you in Congress have tried to do over
the past several months.” P3, L142 Clinton:
“I believe it because of the conversations I have had with
thousands of health care professionals around the country, with people who are outside this city but are inside experts on the way this system
works and wastes money.” P3, 153
These expressions show that both Obama and Clinton were certain about their ideas about health care issues. In Obama’s side, he was certain that his
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decision not to rebuild new system from scratch but to fix the old system makes more sense. In Clinton’s side, he was certain about his idea after having a
conversation with many professionals. From table 1, it shows that Obama was more certain that Clinton. The comparison is Obama used eleven times adverbs of
stance, and Clinton only used six times. And Obama’s speech has larger varieties of adverbs of stance. It has eight different expressions. On the other hand,
Clinton’s speech only has three types of expressions showing certainty. However, both of them had similarity in some expressions. They used the expressions of “I
believe” and “indeed”. The expression of “I believe” is frequently used by both speakers.
Second, both of Obama and Clinton also used adverbs of stance expressing doubt. Unlike adverbs of stance showing certainty, these adverbs show doubt or
uncertainty towards their ideas. It makes sense if both speaker used adverbs of stance showing doubt since in real life, it is possible to be less certain or even
doubtful about something. The examples are presented as follows.
2 Obama:
“applause I know that the Bush administration considered authorizing demonstration projects in individual states to test
these ideas. I think its a good idea, and Im directing my Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on this initiative t
oday.” P8, L533
Clinton: “That is, children a year. I think we can save money in
this system if we simplify it. And we can make the doctors and the nurses and the people that are giving their lives to help us all be healthier a
whole lot happier, too, on their jobs. Under our proposal there would be one standard insurance form, not hundreds of them.
” P6, L335 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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These sentences contain adverbs of stance showing doubt. The expression of “I think” signals the attitude of uncertainty or doubt Biber, 1999, p. 89. Even
though they were doing public speaking and trying to convey their ideas, they felt necessary to put such adverbs. Obama’s line shows that he was uncertain whether
or not his idea was good enough in his action to overcome health care issue. Clinton’s line also has similar attitude. He was also uncertain about his idea to
simplify health care program. He was uncertain that such idea could actually reduce the cost of health care and make it even more available to most Americans.
His attitude was pictured by his adverbs of stance. Furthermore, it gives the audience more information about what he really felt.
According to Biber 1999 actuality and reality adverbs comment on the status of the proposition as real life fact. It means that these adverbs indicate
someone’s perspective about something as a fact or thing that usually happens. The examples are as follows.
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Obama: “So tonight, I return to speak to all of you about an issue
that is central to that future -- and that is the issue of health care. Obviously, I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am
determined to be the last. Applause It has now been nearly a century since Theodore Roosevelt first called for health care reform and ever
since, nearly every President and Congress, whether Democrat or
Republican, has attempted to meet this challenge in some way.”P1, L33 Clinton:
“At the same time, our plan will track quality indicators, so that doctors can make better and smarter choices of the kind of care
they provide. We have evidence that more efficient delivery of health care doesnt decrease quality. Basically, it may enhance it.
” P9, L574 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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Those examples contain Adverbs of stance expressing actuality. The expressions of “obviously” and “basically” are categorized as actuality adverbs. It
shows what Obama and Clinton thought about the situation as a fact. Obama saw the fact as he was not the first president who tried to solve health care problems.
Surely he was not the first president struggling to solve the issues. By using that expression, Obama showed that he was aware of that and he saw those
phenomena as real life fact. Clinton had different attitude. He saw the increase of health care did not decrease the quality. Instead, it would enhance the
development. By using such expression, Clinton tried to convey his idea that it would be the beginning or the foundation of the development. Table 1 shows that
Obama’s speech contains more varieties of the expression compared to Clinton’s. Obama’s speech contains four different types and Clinton’s only contains one
type. Obama saw this problem as something more personal and factual more than Clinton did.
Next, the adverb of stance showing limitation. Epistemic stance adverbs can mark the limitation of the proposition Biber 1999. It means that adverbs of
stance can indicate how the speakers limit their prepositions. The expression shows what their perspectives are. The examples are as follows.
4 Obama:
“Well do this by creating a new insurance exchange – a marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to shop for
health insurance at competitive prices. Insurance companies will generally have an incentive to participate in this exchange because it lets them compete for
millions of new customers.” P5, L251 Clinton:
“This health care system of ours is badly broken, and it is time to
fix it. Despite the dedication of generally millions of talented health care professionals, our health care is too uncertain and too expensive, too
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bureaucratic and too wasteful. It has too much fraud and too much greed. At long last, after decades of false starts, we must make this our most urgent priority,
giving every American health security, health care that can never be taken away” P1, L43
In the speeches above both contain the similar expressions indicating adverb of stance showing limitation. Both Obama and Clinton used the expression
of “generally”. Obama’s line is about insurance companies that take part in the exchange. The preposition
“to participate” is limited as something usual or common to be done. Adverb of stance sets a limitation towards the preposition. In
other words, Obama assumed that participation from insurance companies was something common to be done in order to get cust
omers. Clinton’s line tells about how uncertain and expensive health care service was. The adverbs of stance limit
the preposition of “millions of talented professionals”. It shows that Clinton referred to many people who were considered as professionals.
He didn’t refer to specific professionals in a specific place or time. It means that he referred to all of
them. The last classification is adverb of stance expressing attitude. Attitudinal
adverbs convey speaker’s personal attitudes or feelings towards the proposition. It can be pictured as likes and dislikes, evaluations of events, personal experiences,
value judgment, or assessment of expectations Biber et al., 1999 and Biber ,2000. The examples found in their speeches are as follows.
5 Obama:
“Unfortunately, It happens every day. One man from
Illinois lost his coverage in the middle of chemotherapy because his insurer found that he hadnt reported gallstones that he didnt even know
about .”P2, L83
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Clinton:
“Luckily for me and for our Nation, I didnt have to look
very far. Over the last months, Hillary and those working with her have talked to literally thousands of Americans to understand the strengths and
the frailties of this system of ours.” P2, L70 Even though both of the sentences contain adverbs of stance showing
attitude, Obama and Clinton showed different attitude. Obama’s line shows the feeling of disappointment expressed by the adverb. He used the expression of
“unfortunately”. It shows his personal feelings about the issues. Obama saw this particular issue as something bad. The expression gives us bigger picture of what
he felt at that time. In other hand, Clinton’s line shows his positive attitude towards the issue. He used the expression of “luckily”. It is immediately followed
by preposition. In this case, he also gave bigger picture of what he and Americans thought at that time. He believed that he was in an advantageous position because
of what happened recently. Based on the table, it shows that Clinton put more of his feelings or judgmental values towards the health care issues than Obama did.
In total there are eight times Clinton used adverbs of stance showing attitude and Obama only used five times. Clinton used six types of adverb of stance and
Obama only used three types of adverb of stance showing attitude. In conclusion, both Obama and Clinton had different approach in their
speeches. In a matter of discourse distribution, from Table 1 it shows that adverbs of stance are located almost in every paragraph. The most frequent adverb of
stance used by Obama based on the table is adverbs of stance showing certainty. It means that he is certain and sure about his ideas and thoughts. Compared to
adverb of stance showing doubt, we can conclude that Obama felt less uncertain about his ideas. It makes perfect sense since in his speech he mentioned that he
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determined to be the man who solved the issues. Despite Obama’s certainty, Clinton had different approach. He used Adverbs of stance showing attitude more
frequently. It means that Clinton put more his judgmental value towards the issue. It shows how meaningful this issue for him. Even though he used adverbs of
stance showing attitude more frequently, he also used adverbs of stance showing certainty. Both speakers were actually similar in terms of using adverbs of stance
to describe their personal judgments. But Obama is more certain than Clinton and Clinton put more of his feelings compared to Obama. Adverbs of stance showing
source of knowledge is not found. It is because both Obama and Clinton deliver their very own ideas, so they didn’t feel necessary to quote from someone’s idea
or maybe books.
B. Sentential Distributions of Adverbs of Stance
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