Jennifer Wenzlawski

Words at War - The pragmatic rhetoric of war speeches: A comparison of war speeches by Winston Churchill and George W. Bush Jennifer Wenzlawski

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Englisches Seminar), course: Pragmatics: An Introduction, 5 entries in the bibliography, language: English, comment: Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Vergleich der politischen Redestile von George W. Bush und Winston Churchill in Kriegszeiten. Spezielle Betonung finden hier die pragmatische Anwendung von Pronomen, aber auch andere Techniken der Überzeugung (metaphorization, nominalization). Wenige Quellen, die Arbeit befasst sich größtenteils mit einer großen Auswahl von Einzelbeispielen aus jeweils einer Rede der Politiker ("President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat - Remarks by the President on Iraq", "Their Finest Hour") , abstract: Within the fields of linguistics, political language and discourse, especially its use and performance defenitely show and comprise a lot of special characteristic features which have become the subject of political linguistics. No doubt, political power mainly is established not only by his actions and consequent outcomes, but by a politician´s use of language. On the level of political conversation, which includes debates, election campaigns, statements, announcements or declarations, linguistic concepts play an important role. A political speech is not just a simple and sheer enumeration and presentation of aims, attitudes and demands, but a consciously constructed framework consisting of many linguistic devices to achieve a certain effect on the listeners. For a politician, a speech is a vessel to depict problems and necessities as well as achievements; it is a tool to persuade, to explain or even to manipulate. Especially in times of crisis, when facing the need of renewal and action, and particularly in times of war, announcements and speeches gain significance and are a challenging task since they have to fulfil several functions: by his speech, a politician has to define and to creat