A GENRE-BASED ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL SPEECHES IN THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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Muruj B. Issa, Nawal F. Abbas

Abstract

The study of genre has recently attracted the interest of scholars from various disciplines. This ‎interest comes from learning how individuals use language to comprehend and respond to ‎communicative situations and how these uses develop over time. This research paper deals with the analysis of two speeches by Barack Obama and Donald Trump at the UN general assembly following Bhatia’s (1993) model of genre analysis. This paper aims to investigate the cognitive structuring of political speeches so as to examine the ‎typical strategies politicians choose to convey their communicative purposes and uncover the ‎linguistic realizations of moves and strategies‎.It is argued that there are certain conventions governing the political speeches at the UN generally assembly making it a special political sub-genre by its own. The analysis shows that both presidents are adherent to this genre-structuring to serve their political agenda. Furthermore, it is revealed that both speakers utilize the same strategies for the argumentative ‎move. Each strategy is chosen based on the communicative goals of the two speakers. ‎It is also revealed that through carrying out genre analysis, there will be a clearer view of the political ends, and the underlined image of America as the superhero of the world.

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