Analysis of Schematic Figures in Martin Luther King, Jr.’S I’ve Been To The Mountaintop.

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ABSTRACT

Dalam skripsi ini saya membahas penggunaan gaya bahasa dalam sebuah pidato yang disampaikan oleh Martin Luther King Jr. yang berjudul I’ve Been to the Mountaintop. Pidato tersebut merupakan pidato terakhir Martin Luther King Jr. di hadapan publik pada 3 April 1968, di Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) Memphis, Tennessee, sebelum akhirnya ia dibunuh keesokan harinya. Pidato ini merupakan seruan yang berpengaruh besar dalam kesetaraan ras warga negara kulit hitam terutama di Amerika.

Saya menggunakan teori Stilistika yang menitikberatkan penggunaan gaya bahasa dalam menganalisis data. Dalam analisis yang lebih rinci saya menggunakan Schematic Figures yang merupakan salah satu bidang kajian Stilistika. Fokus utama dalam Schematic Figures adalah repetition (pengulangan), yang terdiri atas dua jenis, yaitu Grammatical Schemes (pengulangan struktur) dan Lexical Schemes (pengulangan kata).

Dalam analisis data, ditemukan keseluruhan data berjumlah 48 data. Ada pengelompokan 2 kategori berdasarkan jumlah kombinasi penggunaan pengulangan yaitu Single-featured yang berjumlah 42 data dan Double-featured yang berjumlah 6 data. Secara keseluruhan, Anaphora (pengulangan kata di depan) merupakan pengulangan yang paling dominan yang digunakan.

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Maranatha Christian University Selain itu, ditemukan juga bahwa penggunaan repetition dapat menjadi strategi efektif dalam mendapatkan perhatian pendengar. Saya menyimpulkan bahwa penggunaan repetition ini merupakan ciri khas dari gaya penyampaian bahasa Martin Luther King Jr.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ii

ABSTRACT ... iii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Background of the Study ... 1

Statement of the Problem ... 4

Purpose of the Study ... 5

Method of Research ... 5

Organization of the Thesis ... 5

CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 6

CHAPER THREE: ANALYSIS OF SCHEMATIC FIGURES IN MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.’S I’VE BEEN TO THE MOUNTAINTOP ... 13

CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ... 51

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 56

APPENDICES: The Text of I’ve Been to the Mountaintop ... 58

Table 1. List of Single-featured figures ... 73

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Humans are social creatures who need to interact with others. The basic thing needed for this is communication. That is why communication is very essential in human’s life. Communication can only be effective when there is a speaker who delivers and a hearer receives a message. Moreover, communication occurs when the speaker creates an effect on the hearer.

A medium to exchange the message in communication is language. The message can be delivered either in written or spoken form. Moreover, the message delivered depends on what the speaker says. A speaker may use various styles in using language while communicating. Language is defined as a means to convey feelings, needs, intentions, and thoughts (Thomas & Carmack, 1990, p. 19) and “style is the type of language and phrasing a speaker uses and the effect it creates” (Speaking in public, n.d.). Hence, in communication, a speaker may use various styles of language to deliver the message.

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Maranatha Christian University In this thesis I am interested in analysing a speech. A speech is defined as “a formal talk given to an audience” (Hornby, 2010, p. 1431). As I have already stated before, a speaker may use various styles either in written or spoken forms including a formal talk. That is why I would like to know what styles are used in a speech.

In this thesis, the speech that I would like to analyze is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech. King delivered a lot of influential speeches which are mostly about claiming equality and social justice. Believing in nonviolence, he was said to be the first person in the Western world to fight for equality in peace with words and reason. Unfortunately, on many occasions, he was imprisoned; he wanted African Americans to have equal rights (“Martin Luther King, Jr.”, 1964).

In 1964 King was the youngest person and the third black ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. A year after receiving the prize, he led the Selma‐to Montgomery Freedom March for voting rights bill that passed into law and became the new voting rights for African Americans. Moreover, US Congress established ‘Martin Luther King Day’ on the third Monday of January to appreciate him as one of America’s greatest leaders (Jones, 2006). Hence, he was considered one of the most influential civil rights activists in the twentieth century.

Regarding King’s great influence as one of the Western history’s significant figures, I am interested in analyzing one of his prominent speeches entitled I’ve Been to the Mountaintop. It was his last speech delivered a day before his assassination. King delivered the speech on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) in Memphis, Tennessee. The speech is about the issue of Memphis sanitation workers who were going on

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Maranatha Christian University strike because of inequitable pay and treatment of employees of African Americans (“I’ve been to the mountaintop”, n.d.).

Moreover, Jones (2010, pp. 3-4) states King’s final speech is one of the most prominent speeches and the fifteenth most significant American Speech of the twentieth century, according to “American Rhetoric”, a list compiled by one hundred and thirty-seven rhetoric scholars. Furthermore, the most important thing is the fruition of his survival that can be seen clearly nowadays where Americans of every colour begin to accept and understand each other. It is also marked by the appointment of Obama that represents all African Americans as the first African American President in the United States.

I chose this speech because I was attracted by the title that resembled the title of the story of Moses in the Bible and I believe whoever reads the title might also feel the same. After I had read the speech, I found out that King used Biblical stories and others as analogies that are familiar to the hearer, and those resemble the current situation they were facing at that time. The use of schemes which are frequently revealed in this speech are under the scope of linguistic features. Therefore, I assume, these linguistic features can be said to be King’s style in delivering this speech. In this thesis, I would like to elaborate the schematic figures used in the speech.

This analysis of the style in this speech will be conducted under the study of stylistics. Leech (1981) defines style as the “dress of thought” (p. 15). It is the way of how the writer conveys the message. Furthermore, stylistics is defined as “a linguistic approach which explains the relation between language and artistic function” (Leech, 1981, p. 13). The analysis of schemes belongs to the study of stylistics. Specifically, the stylistic category of these forms is figures

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Maranatha Christian University of speech. The use of figures of speech as stylistic category will be very useful and helpful for me to analyse the linguistic features that King used in his speech.

The study of stylistics is significant because by studying stylistics, the hearers or the readers know that the how is as important as the what. The hearers or the readers commonly tend to focus on the what rather than the how whereas in fact the how is also crucial for the how is able to give the impact of the speech. The message may be important but if the how is uninteresting, the hearers or the readers will feel bored.

The hearers or the readers are also encouraged to appreciate a person’s style as an ability in delivering a speech that is not easy to compose. The points and the contents in a speech can be the same whoever delivers it. However, the way of delivering a speech may be different for everyone as they have different styles. The difference is not about what is conveyed in a message but how the message is conveyed. King’s style is able to drive the message well so that the speech becomes extraordinary.

(Word count: 973)

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The problems that are going to be analysed in this thesis are:

1. What are the schematic figures that Martin Luther King, Jr. uses in the speech I’ve Been to the Mountaintop?

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1.3 Purpose of the Study

In this thesis, I would like to:

1. Find out the schematic figures that Martin Luther King, Jr. uses in the speech I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.

2. Explain King’s purposes of using the schematic figures in this speech.

1.4 Method of Research

The first thing that I did is selecting one speech to be the source of data. I chose the speech of Martin Luther King, Jr. entitled I’ve Been to the Mountaintop, and then I decided the suitable approaches for the analysis. After that, I collected the data and analysed them. Finally, I wrote the research report.

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

This thesis is organized into four chapters. Chapter One is Introduction, which consists of Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is Theoretical Framework, which includes the approaches that are going to be used in the thesis. Chapter Three contains the data analysis. Finally, Chapter Four the Conclusion contains my personal comments and opinion of my findings. It is followed by Bibliography, which presents the list of references I use in analysing this thesis. This thesis ends with Appendices.

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter I would like to present a conclusion based on my findings in the previous chapter after analysing the use of schematic figures in Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech I’ve Been to the Mountaintop. The analysis focuses on the use of repetition as a type of schematic figures.

From the analysis, I find that repetition is the most frequent figure in the speech. Besides, the words selected that are said more than once represent an important point. In my opinion, King uses repetition to show to the audience that an important point is being emphasized. The important point is emphasized to make it clearer, more memorable and interesting. Therefore, repetition as a schematic figure can be considered King’s style, which is an effective strategy to catch the audience’s attention.

Moreover, it is found out that the types of repetition King uses are exact and approximate repetition. In this speech, the exact repetition is more dominantly used. Through these types, I notice that the exact repetition emphasizes identical words or phrases which convey ideas of equal importance.

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Maranatha Christian University On the other hand, the approximate repetition, such as scesis onomaton, tends to repeat and link the same idea in the forms of different words or synonyms. Another thing worth noticing is that most of the approximate repetition in the data increase the weightiness of tone and mood of the important point so that they sound more crucial and serious. In this case, I think the words used in the approximate repetition mutually support each other.

The most dominant schematic figures used is lexical schemes or word repetition. A word is a single unit of language that is directly heard and received by the audience rather than structure. I think in receiving structure, the audience should go through a process of what the word means first. Besides, in my perspective, repeating words gives obvious repetition and it is more effective than repeating structure. In some cases, however, parallelism can create a balanced order of the structure and repeat the important idea at the same time. Such parallelism is not only in the structures but also in the words. Even though the structures and the words repeated are the same, I assume that the repeated

word spontaneously and unconsciously comes up first in the audience’s mind

rather than the repeated structure. Hence, I can see that King tends to use more lexical schemes than grammatical schemes in order to make the important point catchier and more memorable.

In this analysis, it is shown that King uses variation of figures which are also categorized into single-featured schematic figures and double-featured schematic figures. He uses the simple figures and complicated ones. A single-featured schematic figure only requires one figure while a double-single-featured schematic figures requires a combination of two figures. From my analysis of the use of these varied figures, it is obvious that King wants to create a variation in his speech so that the content will not be monotonous and boring. There are 42 data of single-featured schematic figures and only 6 data of double-featured

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Maranatha Christian University schematic figures. Hence, it is clear that the single-featured schematic figures are most frequently used. This is so because I think a single-featured schematic figures is simpler and easier to understand and deal with than a double-featured one.

Furthermore, out of the 42 data of single-featured schematic figures, there are 2 data of parallelism, 19 data of anaphora, 6 of anadiplosis, 4 of epistrophe, 3 of scesis onomaton, 2 of conduplicatio, 2 of polyptoton, 1 of epizeuxis, 1 of symploce, 1 of epanalepsis, and 1 of antistasis. In addition, out of the 6 data of double-featured figures, there are 4 data of parallelism-anaphora, 1 of anadiplosis-anaphora, and 1 of anaphora-antistasis. Through this distribution of data, we can see that the most dominant repetition is anaphora, both in the single-featured schematic figures and in the double-featured schematic figures, whereas the most infrequently used are polyptoton, epizeuxis, symploce, epanalepsis and antistasis.

Anaphora repeats an important point at the beginning of a clause or sentence as a start. Besides, it is the most familiar and popular term among them. The audience are directly given what is important as the opening. What has been emphasized at the beginning is said again in the following lines at the beginning to remind the audience, especially when they are given long information after the repeated word is emphasized. I can imagine in certain situations King emphasizes an important idea with a certain intonation, and this enables the audience to predict what is coming next. In my opinion, any kind of repetition King uses has the same and basic purpose, which is to make an important point clearer, catchier and more memorable so that his purpose of using it can be achieved and fulfilled.

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Maranatha Christian University Out of the 6 data of parallelism, 5 of them are in the form of conditional clauses. These 5 data occur in the single-featured schematic figures and the double-featured schematic figures. Moreover, the 4 data of conditional clauses are combined with anaphora. Through this finding, I consider King is very skilful in using any kinds of repetitions and in merging them into a combination of words and structure repetition all at once. I can also see that he is thoughtful and

competent in engaging the audience’s attention. He is able to choose words that

are going to be used and arranged into a certain position and structure repeatedly. This combination can heighten the emphasis of the message that is going to be conveyed. Therefore, it can be a more effective strategy to appeal to the audience’s emotion.

Through the analysis, it is obvious that King has three purposes of using schematic figures, namely emphasizing an important point, giving motivation or encouragement, and persuading the audience. All the data certainly have the function of emphasizing the important point. In addition, some data have the function of giving motivation or encouragement and persuading the audience. Hence, giving motivation or encouragement and persuading the audience can be said to be an additional purpose while emphasizing the important point is the major and basic purpose.

Several data only provide a single purpose, which is the basic and major purpose, namely emphasizing an important point. However, the other data have several purposes at once. From my point of view, the purpose of emphasizing important points is more crucial than the other purposes. Emphasizing important points is the first requirement needed in order that the audience can interpret what King intends to convey. When the audience can understand what King wants to say, it means he successfully shares the same important point with the audience. Afterwards, the other purposes can be

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Maranatha Christian University achieved and accepted, especially in the combination of several purposes. Therefore, this creates an interdependent relation among the purposes as they complete each other.

One of the issues of King’s purposes that is worth noticing is the

nonviolent struggle. I regard this issue as King’s fundamental principle. Through the overall analysis, I can point out that King’s way of trying to emphasize his commitment to fight without violence is the best and right way to do. He obviously wants to reflect a peaceful protest not only in the external physical form but also in the internal spiritual form. I think this leads to the reason for him to use a theological approach of the Christian belief which he completely relies on to motivate the audience. It is also supported by King’s background as a pastor. Besides, I think the majority of the audience at that time are Christian so that the strategy is indeed very effective.

Last but not least, those who are interested in doing further researches on Stylistics and who want to take this topic to analyse, can still analyse the same speech as there are many other figures that have not been analysed yet. In my analysis, I only analyse the use of schematic figures and its purposes, while actually there are Tropic figures that can be analysed further. After doing the stylistics analysis, I realize that Stylistics is an interdisciplinary study which needs other supporting theories in order to make the analysis of schematic figures become clearer, more comprehensive, specific and complete.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Text

King, M. L. (1968, April 3). I've been to the mountaintop. Retrieved from http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemoutaintop. htm

References

Glossary of rhetorical terms – AP English language and composition. (2011). Retrieved 9 September 2015, from http://www.powayusd.com/pusdwvhs /AP/2010-2011/Docs/Summer%20Assignments/Rhetorical TermsList.pdf Harris, R. A. (2013). A handbook of rhetorical devices. Retrieved from

http://neville.mcschools.net/UserFiles/Servers/Server_3699/File/Ronald %20Donn/rhetorical-devices.pdf

Hornby, A. S. (Ed.). (2010). Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary (8th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

I’ve been to the mountaintop. (n.d.). Retrieved 27 September 2015, from http://www.mlkonline.net/promised.html

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Maranatha Christian University Jones, T. (2010). A relevant ministry: Ideology in Martin Luther King's “I've been to the mountaintop” (Bachelors thesis, California State Polytechnic University, California). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/ cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=comssp

Leech, G. N., & Short, M. N. (1981). Style in fiction. London and New York: Longman.

LiteraryDevices Editors. (Eds.). (2013). Literary devices. Retrieved 9 September 2015, from http://literary-devices.com/

Martin Luther King, Jr. receives the Nobel peace prize. (1964). Retrieved 27 September 2015, from http://westerville.k12.oh.us/userfiles/42255/Class es/8688/MLK%2Article%20and%20Questions.pdf

Miklowitz, G. D. (1997). Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Pendulum Press. Speaking in public: speech delivery. (n.d.). Retrieved 28 September 2015, from

https://catalogue.pearsoned.co.uk/assets/hip/gb/hip_gb_pearsonhighere d/samplechapter/0205627870.pdf

Thomas, P. J., & Carmack, F. F. (1990). Speech and language. Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.

On the other hand, the approximate repetition, such as scesis onomaton, tends to repeat and link the same idea in the forms of different words or synonyms. Another thing worth noticing is that most of the approximate repetition in the data increase the weightiness of tone and mood of the important point so that they sound more crucial and serious. In this case, I think the words used in the approximate repetition mutually support each other.

The most dominant schematic figures used is lexical schemes or word repetition. A word is a single unit of language that is directly heard and received by the audience rather than structure. I think in receiving structure, the audience should go through a process of what the word means first. Besides, in my perspective, repeating words gives obvious repetition and it is more effective than repeating structure. In some cases, however, parallelism can create a balanced order of the structure and repeat the important idea at the same time. Such parallelism is not only in the structures but also in the words. Even though the structures and the words repeated are the same, I assume that the repeated word spontaneously and unconsciously comes up first in the audience’s mind rather than the repeated structure. Hence, I can see that King tends to use more lexical schemes than grammatical schemes in order to make the important point catchier and more memorable.

In this analysis, it is shown that King uses variation of figures which are also categorized into single-featured schematic figures and double-featured schematic figures. He uses the simple figures and complicated ones. A single-featured schematic figure only requires one figure while a double-single-featured schematic figures requires a combination of two figures. From my analysis of the use of these varied figures, it is obvious that King wants to create a variation in his speech so that the content will not be monotonous and boring. There are 42 data of single-featured schematic figures and only 6 data of double-featured

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schematic figures. Hence, it is clear that the single-featured schematic figures are most frequently used. This is so because I think a single-featured schematic figures is simpler and easier to understand and deal with than a double-featured one.

Furthermore, out of the 42 data of single-featured schematic figures, there are 2 data of parallelism, 19 data of anaphora, 6 of anadiplosis, 4 of epistrophe, 3 of scesis onomaton, 2 of conduplicatio, 2 of polyptoton, 1 of epizeuxis, 1 of symploce, 1 of epanalepsis, and 1 of antistasis. In addition, out of the 6 data of double-featured figures, there are 4 data of parallelism-anaphora, 1 of anadiplosis-anaphora, and 1 of anaphora-antistasis. Through this distribution of data, we can see that the most dominant repetition is anaphora, both in the single-featured schematic figures and in the double-featured schematic figures, whereas the most infrequently used are polyptoton, epizeuxis, symploce, epanalepsis and antistasis.

Anaphora repeats an important point at the beginning of a clause or sentence as a start. Besides, it is the most familiar and popular term among them. The audience are directly given what is important as the opening. What has been emphasized at the beginning is said again in the following lines at the beginning to remind the audience, especially when they are given long information after the repeated word is emphasized. I can imagine in certain situations King emphasizes an important idea with a certain intonation, and this enables the audience to predict what is coming next. In my opinion, any kind of repetition King uses has the same and basic purpose, which is to make an important point clearer, catchier and more memorable so that his purpose of using it can be achieved and fulfilled.

Out of the 6 data of parallelism, 5 of them are in the form of conditional clauses. These 5 data occur in the single-featured schematic figures and the double-featured schematic figures. Moreover, the 4 data of conditional clauses are combined with anaphora. Through this finding, I consider King is very skilful in using any kinds of repetitions and in merging them into a combination of words and structure repetition all at once. I can also see that he is thoughtful and competent in engaging the audience’s attention. He is able to choose words that are going to be used and arranged into a certain position and structure repeatedly. This combination can heighten the emphasis of the message that is going to be conveyed. Therefore, it can be a more effective strategy to appeal to the audience’s emotion.

Through the analysis, it is obvious that King has three purposes of using schematic figures, namely emphasizing an important point, giving motivation or encouragement, and persuading the audience. All the data certainly have the function of emphasizing the important point. In addition, some data have the function of giving motivation or encouragement and persuading the audience. Hence, giving motivation or encouragement and persuading the audience can be said to be an additional purpose while emphasizing the important point is the major and basic purpose.

Several data only provide a single purpose, which is the basic and major purpose, namely emphasizing an important point. However, the other data have several purposes at once. From my point of view, the purpose of emphasizing important points is more crucial than the other purposes. Emphasizing important points is the first requirement needed in order that the audience can interpret what King intends to convey. When the audience can understand what King wants to say, it means he successfully shares the same important point with the audience. Afterwards, the other purposes can be

55

achieved and accepted, especially in the combination of several purposes. Therefore, this creates an interdependent relation among the purposes as they complete each other.

One of the issues of King’s purposes that is worth noticing is the nonviolent struggle. I regard this issue as King’s fundamental principle. Through the overall analysis, I can point out that King’s way of trying to emphasize his commitment to fight without violence is the best and right way to do. He obviously wants to reflect a peaceful protest not only in the external physical form but also in the internal spiritual form. I think this leads to the reason for him to use a theological approach of the Christian belief which he completely relies on to motivate the audience. It is also supported by King’s background as a pastor. Besides, I think the majority of the audience at that time are Christian so that the strategy is indeed very effective.

Last but not least, those who are interested in doing further researches on Stylistics and who want to take this topic to analyse, can still analyse the same speech as there are many other figures that have not been analysed yet. In my analysis, I only analyse the use of schematic figures and its purposes, while actually there are Tropic figures that can be analysed further. After doing the stylistics analysis, I realize that Stylistics is an interdisciplinary study which needs other supporting theories in order to make the analysis of schematic figures become clearer, more comprehensive, specific and complete.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Text

King, M. L. (1968, April 3). I've been to the mountaintop. Retrieved from http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemoutaintop. htm

References

Glossary of rhetorical terms – AP English language and composition. (2011). Retrieved 9 September 2015, from http://www.powayusd.com/pusdwvhs /AP/2010-2011/Docs/Summer%20Assignments/Rhetorical TermsList.pdf Harris, R. A. (2013). A handbook of rhetorical devices. Retrieved from

http://neville.mcschools.net/UserFiles/Servers/Server_3699/File/Ronald %20Donn/rhetorical-devices.pdf

Hornby, A. S. (Ed.). (2010). Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary (8th ed.).

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

I’ve been to the mountaintop. (n.d.). Retrieved 27 September 2015, from

http://www.mlkonline.net/promised.html

57

Jones, T. (2010). A relevant ministry: Ideology in Martin Luther King's “I've been to the mountaintop” (Bachelors thesis, California State Polytechnic University, California). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/ cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=comssp

Leech, G. N., & Short, M. N. (1981). Style in fiction. London and New York: Longman.

LiteraryDevices Editors. (Eds.). (2013). Literary devices. Retrieved 9 September 2015, from http://literary-devices.com/

Martin Luther King, Jr. receives the Nobel peace prize. (1964). Retrieved 27 September 2015, from http://westerville.k12.oh.us/userfiles/42255/Class es/8688/MLK%2Article%20and%20Questions.pdf

Miklowitz, G. D. (1997). Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Pendulum Press. Speaking in public: speech delivery. (n.d.). Retrieved 28 September 2015, from

https://catalogue.pearsoned.co.uk/assets/hip/gb/hip_gb_pearsonhighere d/samplechapter/0205627870.pdf

Thomas, P. J., & Carmack, F. F. (1990). Speech and language. Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.