CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Study
That how a person uses language his choice of words, his composing the wording of his message, intonation, etc shows his morality is something which is
widely believed by our society. Our society believes that one whose language is polite is that whose morality is good, while one who has a bad language, has a bad
character. This belief may be difficult to qualify as acceptable, but at least there is an implication of it that people can agree on: that there is a strong connection between
the language a person uses in responding to something and his feeling about that something.
Appraisal Theory AT departs from a thesis somewhat similar to the last statement above. AT claims that the language a person uses describes both his stances
towards the issues he discusses and the person with whom he communicate Martin White, 2005: 1. In other words, in the view of AT, a text is a presentation of how the
speaker or presenter of the text responds to the matters discussed in the text viz. his subjective opinion about it and the persons he speaks with. In short, AT is about
showing the appraisal of the speaker. To cast off confusion as to which is which, it is useful to tell appraisal from
Appraisal. Appraisal is derived from the word appraise, which, in daily usage, is what the Pocket Oxford Dictionary defines as: “1. estimate the value or quality of. 2 set a
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price on esp. officially.” In short, appraisal is about making estimation or approximation of the value of things. On the other hand, Appraisal is the linguistic
elements in a text that show the stances of the speakerwriter concerning the issues he discusses in the text. And, last, Appraisal Theory is the linguistics theory that
discusses Appraisal in a language. Since this thesis discusses Appraisal using Appraisal Theory, the use of appraisal must be regarded as to mean the Appraisal i.e.
the linguistic elements and not the appraisal i.e. the estimation of value in the first meaning above. In other words, the appraisal meant in the title of this thesis is the
appraising elements or the evaluating elements in the texts. As has been observed in the works on AT, the issue of speaker’s emotion in
text has been an interest for researchers using functionally and semiotically oriented approaches and for those whose concern is with discourse, rhetoric and
communicative effect ibid. AT can be considered a full-blown theory that provides those linguists with a systematic and thorough approach in doing the research on the
issue of speaker’s emotion in any text. Inaugural Address is the speech delivered by an elected president of the
United States of America at his Inauguration. The inauguration is usually held on January 20
th
of the year subsequent to a presidential election year. Before 1933, the inauguration is held on March 4
th
, the beginning day of a presidents term. But the twentieth amendment to the American constitution changed the date to January 20
th
because:
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“… it was felt that there was just too much time between an election and the
swearing-in of the new president, and the Twentieth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, passed in 1933, shortened the gap and the time a sitting
president served in a “lame duck” capacity” Genovese Han, 2009: 626.
As an example of this, the current president of America, Barrack Hussein Obama, won the presidential election of 2008 and delivered his Inaugural Address on
the day of Tuesday, January 20, 2009. The Inaugural Address of the President of the United States of America has
always been a momentous event in the politics of the world. The world sees the Inaugural Address as the sneak preview, a kind of ‘abstract’ of the actions that the
new president will take in his presidency. Therefore, the Inaugural Address has always been anticipated with great interest by nations across the world. The writer
may need to add that the last Inaugural Address viz. the one delivered by Barrack Hussein Obama, the 44
th
President of America, was watched by roughly 10 million people across the globe. This is a factor that motivates the writer to perform a study
on the Inaugural Address of the President of America. In an Inaugural Address, a president usually evaluates things around and
pertaining to their speeches. Due to this evaluative nature, Inaugural Addresses of the presidents of the United States of America are also the objects of study for Appraisal
Theory. Inaugural Address is a political speech. It is basically a formal self-
introduction by an elected president to his people. As with other political speeches, the most important aspect of this inauguration speech is creating good image: making
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the president looks agreeable to and likened by his people in the very first formal meeting between him and the people. Therefore, Inaugural Speeches have their own
forms and characteristics. It is hoped that this study will bring out some of the characteristics of Inaugural Addresses that will help to understand the nature of them
and how they function to convey the messages of the presidents. Another factor that makes researches on political speeches interesting is the
common presumption that the language used in politics is devoid of emotional touches and subjective assumption, as well as being highly complicated. Political
language is thought to be objectiveunbiased, scientific, and far from being overt in showing emotion. This is a challenging assumption that needs to be dealt with using
AT. It is hoped that this research will show the effectiveness of the systematic approach that makes up the whole body of AT in uncovering the elements of emotion
in any text. Last, the choosing of the last four presidents of America is because other than
their ‘currentness’ of the ‘dark’ images that overshadow the presidency of the three of them: Bush Senior is overshadowed by the 1991 Gulf War, Clinton the sex
scandal, and Bush Junior war on terrorism. Barrack Obama, on the other hand, is a major turning point in the foreign diplomacy of America. Being a Democrat, he
stands as the monument of the will of the majority of American voters to change the international image of America, to transform from the haughty, know-it-all ‘Globo
Cop’ to a friendlier image.
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1.2. The Scope of the Study