VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES
*********************

PHẠM THỊ TUẤN

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF TWO SPEECHES
ON WOMEN BY HILLARY CLINTON IN 1995 AND 2013
Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán hai bài phát biểu về
phụ nữ của Hillary Clinton vào các năm 1995 và 2013

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field:

English Linguistics

Code:

60220201

Hanoi, 2016


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES
*********************

PHẠM THỊ TUẤN


Phạm Thị Tuấn

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Associate
Professor Dr. Ngô Hữu Hoàng for helping me complete this study. This paper
would not have been accomplished without his expert, constant and valuable
guidance and encouragement. His patience and helpful criticism helped me
confidently express my ideas into this paper.

I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of
Graduate and Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International
Studies for their valuable lectures which have helped me a great deal in gaining a
lot of theoretical background as well as practical knowledge.

My special thanks also go to my friends and colleagues for their enthusiastic
help and support with my teaching schedule at school which gave me precious time
to deal with my thesis.
Finally, I would also like to express my deep gratitude and love to my
family who gave me time and encouragement to overcome all obstacles during the
completion of this study.

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Tables

Page

Table 1: Frequency of pronoun “I” and “We” in 1995 and 2013 Speech

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Table 2: Frequency of active and passive voice in 1993 and 1995 Speech

24

Figures
Figure 1: Interpretation (Fairclough, 2001: 119)

11

Figure 2: Explanation (Fairclough, 2001: 136)

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT ..................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER

1:

THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND

AND

LITERATURE

REVIEW........................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.

An overview of CDA .......................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

1.1 The development of CDA ...................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.2 Definitions of CDA ................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.3

Some main directions in CDA ........................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

1.3.1. Van Dijk’s ....................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.3.2. Wodak’s ........................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.3.3. Fairclough’s ..................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.3.3.1. Description of the text ............................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.3.3.2. Interpretation of the text ........................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

2.3.1. Interpretation of vocabulary use ................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.3.2

Interpretation of grammatical features .. Error! Bookmark not defined.

2.3.2.1. The use of pronouns “I” and “we”........ Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.3.2.2. The use of voice ...................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.3.3. Interpretation of macro-structures ............. Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.3.3.1. Macrostructures in 1995 speech............ Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.3.3.2. Macrostructures in 2013 speech............ Error! Bookmark not defined.
3. Explanation............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.1

Explanation of 1995 speech ............................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.2

Explanation of 2013 speech ............................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

PART C: CONCLUSION.......................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.

Summary of findings .......................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

2.

Limitations of the study and Recommendations for further studyError! Bookmark no

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show power. Generally speaking, as a speech is given, not only are the messages
delivered, but the speaker’s ideology and power are also embedded.
CDA approaches the study and critique of social inequality by focusing on the role
of discourse in the production and reproduction of dominance, which is defined as
the exercise of social power by elites, institutions or groups, that results in social
inequality, including political, cultural, class, ethic, racial, and gender inequality
(van Dijk, 1993, p. 249-250). One important social issue that be examined in any
given culture in terms of dominance and inequality is gender.

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That women rights violation is a pressing world problem leads to the delivery of
numerous speeches. The speaker, Hillary Clinton, also made a number of remarks
on the issue, in which 1995 speech is the most outstanding ever. 2013 speech is also
chosen for analysis for it is the review of 1995 one and also gains some important
popularity.
To my best knowledge, there have been quite a variety of researchers working on
language and power connection through the analysis of political speech. However,
most of them tended to study a single speech, and this remains a slot for me to fill
here. Hence, in this thesis, I maybe have a look at the same matter, yet with the
investigation of two speeches at the same time.
All reasons mentioned above lead me to the choice of these two speeches on women
by Hillary Clinton as the data of the study for analysis from the viewpoint of CDA.
2. Aims of the study and Research Questions
2.1. Aims of the study
The study aims to:
-

aims, methodology, and design of the study.
Part B is the DEVELOPMENT which is made up of three chapters.
Chapter 1: Theoretical background and literature review.
This chapter gives an overview of CDA – its history, role, concepts, and procedure.
Chapter 2: Methodology of the study
This chapter provides a detailed description of the methodology, which includes
research methods applied for data collection, the types of the data, and the analysis
procedure of the study.
Chapter 3: A critical discourse analysis of two speeches on women by Hillary
Clinton in 1995 and 2013
The CDA procedure addressed by Fairclough (2001) is applied to analyze two
speeches to find out the relationship between power, ideology and language, and
simultaneously explore the similarities and differences in how power and ideology
are reflected in two speeches.
Part C is the CONCLUSION which summarizes the major findings of the study,
draws important conclusions, and offers suggestions for further research.
5. Significance of the study

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Theoretically, this study provides a support to CDA theories. From an objective
view as linguists when approaching texts, CDA analysts can find out ideology and
power hidden behind words. Practically, this study is submitted in partial fulfillment
of requirements of my degree of Master in English Linguistics. Moreover, with the
investigation of two speeches at the same time, it may provide the researcher
another approach to political speech analysis from CDA viewpoint.


Mahawah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
12. van Dijk T. A. (1985). Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Orlando: Academic
Press.

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13. van Dijk. T. A. (1987b). News analysis: Case studies in international and
tuitional news. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
14. van Dijk, T. (1988). News as discourse. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
15. van Dijk, T.A. (1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. In: Discourse &
Society, 4 (2), 249-83.
16. van Dijk, T.A. (1998). Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Study. London: SAGE
Publications.
17. van Leeuwen, Theo. (1993). Genre and field in critical discourse analysis.
Discourse and Society, 4 (2), 193-223.
18. Wodak, R. & Ludwig, Ch. (Eds.). (1999). Challenges in a changing world:
Issues in Critical Discourse Analysis. Vienna: Passagenverlag.
19. Wodak, R., and Meyer, M. (2001). Methods of Critical Analysis. London:
SAGE Publications.
20. Wodak, R. (2002). Aspects of Critical Discourse Analysis. Zeitschrift fur
Angewandte Linguistik, 36, 5-31.
Websites
1. Hillary Rodham Clinton: Remarks to the U.N. 4th World Conference on Women
Plenary Session. Retrieved from
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/hillaryclintonbeijingspeech.htm.
2. Hillary Clinton: Helping women isn’t a “nice” thing to do . Retrieved from
http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/04/05/hillary-clinton-helpingwomen-isn-t-just-a-nice-thing-to-do.html.