PHÂN TÍCH bài DIỄN văn của MARTIN LUTHER KING ‘BEYOND VIETNAM – a TIME TO BREAK SILENCE’ từ góc độ

PART A: INTRODUCTION

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1. Rationale

There has been much written in recent years about Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA for

short). It appears to be quite difficult to define CDA in simple terms. However, CDA is my

choice for the MA thesis because first and foremost, CDA regards language as a social

practice – language is a part of society, language is a social process, and language is a

socially conditioned process. These implications have been discussed in details by Norman

Fairclough (1989).

Then, it can be inferred from above implications that doing discourse analysis involves in

not merely analyzing texts, processes of production and interpretation, but also analyzing

the relationship between texts, processes, and their social conditions – or in other terms,

the relationship between texts, interactions, and contexts. And CDA is critical in the sense

that it shows connections and causes which are hidden – such as the connection between

language, power and ideology, the problems of inequality and racism – through discourse

analysis. More clearly stated, CDA is critical when it explicitly addresses social problems

and seeks to solve social problems through the analysis and accompanying social and

political action. The intention of the analysts in this view of ‘critical’ is explicitly oriented

toward locating social problems and analyzing how discourse operates to construct and

historically constructed by such issues. They must work from the analysis of texts to the

social and political context in which the texts emerge. CDA thus can be said a very

practical form of discourse analysis. It seeks not only to describe language but also to offer

critical resources to those wishing to resist various forms of power.

For those mentioned reasons, a speech by Martin Luther King “Beyond Vietnam – A Time

to Break Silence” is to be analyzed from the CAD viewpoint together with the hope that

this study may vice versa help illustrate and clarify CDA concepts. Despite being delivered

in 1967, this speech was especially mentioned by many Americans when the U.S.

government decided to attack Iraq in 2003. It is the ideological and topical features of this

speech that “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence” by Martin Luther King has been

chosen. During the course of analyzing the speech, the way power and ideology embedded

in texts and coded in language use will be gradually manifested. Although I am a supporter

of Martin Luther King, I will try to be objective towards political issues in the speech – a

crucial demand in CDA – as a base for critical reading of any text and developing scientific

and objective standpoint towards any discourse where power relations may exist.

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Another reason for choosing CDA comes from my own personal interest. In general, when

any theory or approach in linguistics appears, it will be studied and, through researches,

practically applied to teaching and leaning. CDA has shown its role in social sciences, but I

am really interested in the fact that whether CDA viewpoint is of some help in language

teaching and learning. I hope to find the answer during the application of CDA approach in

the analysis of the speech “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence” by Martin Luther

King.

2. Scope of the study

The analysis of Martin Luther King’s speech is confined to verbal aspects of the speech

and the social context when the speech was delivered. Because of some reasons,

paralinguistic (intonation, speed, loudness, etc.) and extralinguistic (facial expression, eye

contact, etc.) factors are not taken into account though they are important in the discourse.

This is a pure linguistic study and for academic purpose only. I will not express my own

political view. And this study is not for or against any party or to change anyone’s political

viewpoint.

3. Objectives and aims of the study

The objectives of the study in analyzing Martin Luther King’s speech “Beyond Vietnam –

A Time to Break Silence” from CDA standpoint include:

- Providing a theoretical background of CDA – its concepts, its analysis procedures

as well as its role in social scientific research and in general in linguistics in

particular.

- Finding out hidden power/struggle and ideology from linguistic elements of the

text. In order to realize this aim, the study is supposed to answer the following

research questions:

• How are power and ideology realized lexically and

grammatically?

• How are power and ideology realized in terms of transitivity

and thematic structures?

• How are power and ideology realized macro structurally?

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Besides, this study also aims at:

- Providing an objective view as a linguist when approaching texts, especially those

addressing power and ideology.

- Trying to develop the ability in critical thinking.

- Finding the application of CAD approach in language teaching and learning.

4. Design of the study

The study consists of three parts. They are:

Part A: Introduction: This part presents the rationale, scope, aims, methodology, and

design of the study.

Part B: Development: This is the main part and it consists of three chapters.

Chapter 1: Theoretical background.

This chapter gives an overview of CDA – its history, role, concepts, and procedure.

Systemic-functional theory is also concerned in this chapter.

Chapter 2: A critical discourse analysis of Martin Luther King’s speech: ‘Beyond

Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence’.

The CDA procedure addressed by Fairclough and systemic-functional theory are applied to

analyze the speech to find out the connection between power/struggle, ideology and the

language.

Chapter 3: Implications

Some implications of applying CDA in developing critical thinking, in language teaching

and learning.

Part C: Conclusion

This part summarizes the main findings of the study, draws important conclusion and

offers suggestions for further research.

References

Appendices

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5. Methodology

To carry out this study, the following procedures and techniques involving both qualitative

and quantitative research method will be employed.

Approach

CDA as an approach will be applied in the speech analysis to uncover hidden

power/struggle and ideology. The three stages of CDA given by Norman Fairclough

(2001) will be used. The three stages are the text analysis, interpretation and explanation.

To put it more specifically, following are techniques involving in the analysis.

Techniques

In terms of data collection, number of books and articles about CDA will be collected and

thoroughly studied so that I can build the theoretical background of CDA for the anlysis.

There may be of course different viewpoints of CDA, so I will read and take those that are

most suitable for my analysis of the speech. Besides, as suggested by Norman Fairclough

in his paper (1991) in Discourse & Society : ‘Systemic-functional linguistics also has a

view of texts which is a potentially powerful basis not only for analysis of what is in texts,

but also for analysis of what is absent or omitted from texts”, Halliday’s functional

grammar is also my focus. Besides, documents for a panorama of the social context are

also needed.

In terms of text analysis, the linguistic features (lexicology and grammar) of the text will

be described to see how power/struggle and ideological position of the speaker are encoded

in the text. I will analyze vocabulary with attention to formal words, classification

schemes, synonyms and antonyms. Then, as suggested by Fairclough (2001), grammar

features will be analyzed including personal pronoun, voice, modes of the sentence,

modality and connective values of the text.

Apart from that, the text is also analyzed in terms of transitivity, thematization, and

macrostructure. I will look at the dominant processes in clauses of the speech how

ideology and power are hidden in transitivity. The text will be also broken into information

units (Halliday, 1994) so that I can identify them theme and rheme in sentence structure to

interpret their structural role in the introduction of new information. Regarding

macrostructure or overall idea of the speech, the text will be divided into major sections

and then four procedures namely attributive deletion, predictive deletion, simple

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generalization, and integration suggested by Van Dijk (1977, 144-146) will be applied. In

this part, my aim is to uncover power and ideology hidden behind words.

The next step is interpreting the relationship between the processes of text production and

interpretation. There are two domains here: interpretation of situation context and

interpretation of intertextual context. In the interpretation of situation, I follow questions

given by Fairclough (2001): what’s going on, who’s involve, what relationships are at

issue, and what’s the role of language. In interpretation of intertextual context,

presuppositions are in focus.

And then, explanation concerned with the relationship between those processes and social

context – how the discourse change or sustain certain social relationship in social structure

– is needed. The speech will be looked at as a social practice in relation with other social

practices.

Finally, implications will deduced from my understanding in CDA, in language teaching

and learning methodologies as well as my own experience.

6. Significance

Theoretically, this study provides a support to CDA theories. From an objective view as a

linguist 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 Linguistics. Moreover, it may provide me another approach to

language teaching and learning: looking at language teaching and learning from CDA

viewpoint.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT

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