An Analysis Of Tenor On Some World’s Influencing Women Speeches

  CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

  1.1 Background of the Study Language has a very important function for every human being in this world, that is to express their thought, intention, feelings and so on in the form of oral and written communication or gestures. Many factors influence the use of language, and one of them is a social factor. The social factor that involves is called register, genre and ideology.

  Register or context of situation is one of language varieties. Register " is the set of meanings, the configuration of semantic patterns, that are typically drawn upon under the specific conditions, along with the words and structures that are used in the realization of these meanings" (Halliday, 1978:23). Register analysis is concerned with the variables of field, tenor, and mode. In considering these three variables, Halliday is making a claim that-of all the things going on in a situation at a time of language use-only these three variables have a direct and significant impact on the type of language that will be produced.

  Field refers to "what is happening, to the nature of the social action that is taking place," mode concerns "what it is that the participants [of a transaction] are expecting language to do for them in that situation," and tenor has to do with who are taking part in the transaction as well as the "nature of the participants, their status and roles” (Hasan and Halliday,

  1985:12). These three register variables delineate the relationships between language function and language form. In other words, a register is constituted by "the linguistic features which are typically associated with a configuration of situational features—with particular values of the field, mode and tenor" (Halliday, 1976:22). For example, the tenor of a text, which concerns the relationship between the addresser and the addressee, can "be analysed in terms of basic distinctions such as polite-colloquial-intimate, on a scale of categories which range from formal to informal.”

  Genre or context of culture is "a set of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes". Genre can be thought of as the general framework that gives purpose to interactions of particular types, adaptable to the many specific contexts of situation that they get used in" (Eggins, 1994:32). It provides "a precise index and catalogue of the relevant social occasions of a community at a given time" (Kress, 1985:20).

  Ideology is "basic systems of fundamental social cognitions and organising the attitudes and other social representations shared by members of groups" (Van Dijk in Eggins). As "a more abstract contextual dimension" of the systemic approach, ideology denotes "the positions of power, the political biases and assumptions that all social interactants bring with them to their texts" (Eggins and Martin, 1997:237).

  This paper attempts to apply one of the three types of register system of analysis, it is tenor. In this analysis, tenor will be discussed through the scripts of Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice’s Speeches.

  The writer chose the mentioned speeches of texts due to two reasons. Firstly, their speeches can make a vast difference in human’s ability to influence decisions in speaking in the public sectors. In a public speaking, a person has the opportunity to deliver an interrupted message to a few individuals or a few million individuals. The ability to communicate effectively is essential both to individuals and society. The value of effective communication extends into the political arena. The second is that their speeches are interesting because they are the best female communicators in public speaking that can be learned by women all over the world especially as their necessary speaking skills and insights of women natural communication.

  As has been stated formerly that tenor analysis has been placed under the discussion of the interpersonal meaning which is concerned with the interaction between the speaker and addressee; influence the speakers’ behaviour and their expression of their viewpoint. In this case of the two speakers mentioned above as the data source are relevant to be analyzed to prove people’s strong beliefs in the truth of their message. Tenor analysis is also suitable to be applied to explore the communication process in order to reach the objective of this analysis in women’s speech performances. The writer plans to describe three parts of tenor analysis, namely status or power, contact and affective involvement (Cate Poynton in Eggins 1994 : 100).

  Based on public perception, women have less knowledge or ability to address political topics than men. This is a real dilemma and reason enough to consider developing women public speaking skills. Women are regarded have generally experienced difficulty in accommodating to the argumentative, or adversial, style of speaking. (Elizabeth J. Natalie and Fritzie R. Bodenheimer, 2004)

  So that in this thesis the writer will bring some world’s prominent women who essentially influence people. Through their thoughts, their charisma, and their grace attitude people praise them. Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice are world’s most influencing women (based on polling in a famous site in www.forbes.com/power-women/ in 2010, 2011 and 2012).

  Hillary Clinton was born on October 26, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois. Hillary was the eldest daughter of Hugh Ellsworth Rodham, a prosperous fabric store owner and Dorothy Emma Howell Rodham. Hillary had two younger brothers, including Hugh E. Rodham (born in 1950) and Anthony Rodham (born in 1954).

  As a young woman, Hillary Rodham was active in young Republican groups and campaigned for Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater in 1964. She was inspired to work in some form of public service after hearing a speech in Chicago by the Reverend Martin Luther King and became a Democrat in 1968.

  Rodham attended Wellesley College; she was active in student politics and was elected Senior Class president before she graduated in 1969. She then attended Yale Law School, where she met Bill Clinton. Graduating with honors in 1973, she also attended one post-graduate year of study on children and medicine at Yale Child Study Center.

  Hillary worked at various jobs during her summers as a college student. In 1971, she first came to Washington, D.C to work on U.S. Senator Walter Mondale's subcommittee on migrant workers. In the summer of 1972, she worked in the western states for the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern.

  In the spring of 1974, Rodham became a member of the presidential impeachment inquiry staff, advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives during the Watergate Scandal. After President Richard M. Nixon resigned in August, she became a faculty member of the University of Arkansas Law School in Fayetteville, where her Yale Law School classmate and boyfriend Bill Clinton was teaching as well.

  Rodham married Bill Clinton on October 11, 1975, at their home in Fayetteville. In 1976, she worked on Jimmy Carter's successful campaign for president while husband Bill was elected Attorney General. He was elected governor in 1978 at age 32, lost re-election in 1980, but came back to win in 1982, 1984, 1986 (when the term of office was expanded from two to four years) and 1990.

  Hillary joined the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock and in 1977 was appointed to part-time chairman of the Legal Services Corporation by President Carter. As First Lady of Arkansas for a dozen years (1979-1981,

  1983-1992), she chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee, co- founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and served on the boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital, Legal Services and the Children's Defense Fund. She also served on the boards of TCBY and Wal-Mart. In 1988 and 1991, The National Law Journal named her one of the 100 most powerful lawyers in America. During the 1992 presidential campaign, she emerged as a dynamic and valued partner of her husband, and as president he named her to head the Task Force on National Health Reform (1993). The controversial commission produced a complicated plan which never came to the floor of either house. It was abandoned in September 1994.

  th

  In January of 2009, Hillary Clinton became the 67 Secretary of State, the third woman and the only former First Lady to serve in this capacity. The position’s duties are to serves as the primary advisor on foreign affairs to the President and also enact presidential policy decisions through her department, which also includes the U.S. Foreign Service. She is also responsible for negotiating with foreign leaders on policy and treaties, granting passports, suggesting and advising the President on individuals for the posts of ambassador, consul and minister, and on which foreign . government representatives to receive or dismiss

  Hillary Clinton has continued to enjoy a diverse and unprecedented career in public service. In a 15 July 2009 speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, she offered her forecast of the challenges and opportunities of the

  st

  U.S. as it entered the second decade of the 21 Century: "We are determined to channel the currents of change toward a world free of violent extremism, nuclear weapons, global warming, poverty, and abuses of human rights, and above all, a world in which more people in more places can live up to their God-given potential.”

  Not only the press and public of the U.S. but much of the world continued its avid interest in the life of Hillary Clinton, from her career to the July 2010 wedding of her only child, daughter Chelsea.

  Concoleezza rice is a woman of force and character, beauty and charm who has reached the highest level of power in the United States Government. Rice was born in 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her parents, John Wesley Rice Jr. And Angelena were both educators. Angelena loved opera and she named her only child after an Italian-language term, con dolcezza. It is used in musical notation and means “to play with sweetness”.

  Condoleezza began her education home-schooled by her mother during her first year. The program included learning the piano. At second grade she was placed in a segregated school. Eventually her father got a job at the University of Denver in Colorado, and Condoleezza attended high-school at a private Catholic school there. She graduated at a very young age and attended Denver University even as she finished her last year of high-school.

  She would go on to receive her Masters (Notre Dame) and Doctorate (Denver University) in Soviet Studies.

  Her early career is marked by stunning and rapid advancement. She was hired at Stanford as an assistant professor and soon got tenure. Because of her expertise in the Soviet Union she came to the attention of Brent Scowcroft who hired her on at the National Security Council as an adviser to President Bush where she helped greatly in forming U.S. policy in response to the fall of the Soviet Union and the re-unification of Germany.

  After a two year stint at the NSC. Condoleezza returned to Stanford to become provost (the person in charge of the internal running of the university). Yet in 1999, the younger George Bush asked her to help with his presidential campaign. Soon she became involved in politics and was a great help, especially in foreign policy matters. When Bush won the election she was appointed his national security adviser.

  During her time at NSC the United States was attacked on September 11, 2001. The U.S. responded by invading Afghanistan and subsequently engaged in the Iraq War. Condoleezza Rice helped to coordinate efforts to bring democracy to Iraq once the war was won. In recognition of her knowledge and abilities Condoleezza Rice became Secretary of State in George W. Bush's second term.

  Condoleezza Rice became one of the most influential women in the world of global politics when President George W. Bush named her as his national security adviser in December of 2000. Her role became extremely important after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and the Pentagon in Washington. Rice has played a crucial part in shaping the most aggressive U.S. foreign policy in modern history, with wars launched against Afghanistan and Iraq during her time in office.

  Each has excellent public speaking skills, but those skills are complemented by a persona that helps the speaker obtain her goals. They can effect many people to do what they want, what they are thinking about, their persuation or opinion about what happened in their country or other countries. They use their intelligence to gather belief’s society of them and make them have a big power and respected by a lot of people although they are women.

  1.2 Problems of the Study Based on the research background above, the problems of this study can be divided as the following : a. How is the configuration status in the speech of Hillary Clinton and

  Condoleeza Rice?

  b. How is the configuration contact in the speech of Hillary Clinton and Condoleeza Rice?

  c. How is affective involvement stated in the speech of Hillary Clinton and Condoleeza Rice?

  1.3 Objectives of the Study The objectives of the study are :

  a. To find out and explain the status that are used in Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton’s speeches.

  b. To find out and explain the contact that are used in Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton’s speeches. c. To find out and explain the affective involvement that are used in Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton’s speeches.

  1.4 Scope of the Study The scope of the study is limited to the analyzing of aspects of tenor in some world’s influencing women speeches in context of situation in discourse analysis study because tenor is concerned more with the interaction between the speaker and addressee; influence the speakers’ behaviour and their expression of their viewpoint, and their strong beliefs in the truth of their message.

  1.5 Significance of the Study The study is expected to share and give knowledge about how to analyze speech with tenor in context of situation to the reader and what the correlation between the speech and the speaker; how women’s speech can influence many people.

  1.6 Method of the Study In analyzing tenor on some world’s influencing women speeches, I apply descriptive qualitative research. The findings in this research are not gained through statistics procedure or other counting. The purpose of this research is to describe the correlation between the dimensions of status or power, contact and affective involvement in some world’s influencing women speeches.