I would like to talk about unit 3 and the political speeches.
First of all, a Politician for the Brewer’s dictionary of politics is a practitioner of the art of politics,
essential to the working of human society but frequently despised by those who are outside the
political arena.
The word politician has negative connotations, another word is required for those few politicians
who achieve and sustain almost universal popularity like Mandela, Gandhi. One word often used for
describe them is statesman, a word which carries connotations of wisdom and also maleness.
The French president Georges Pompidou summary the different connotations of the word politician
and statesman:
- Statesman is a politician who places himself at the head of the nation;
- politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service.
Connotation refers to the level of meaning based on associations we attach to words.
Denotation is the referential meaning, the barest core of a word’s meaning.
In a democratic nation, to gain power and lead the nation, you must win elections.
Making speeches is a vital part of the politician’s role, announcing policy and persuading people to
agree with it.
Rhetoric is defined by Cockcroft and Cockcroft in their book “persuading people” as the art of
persuasive discourse, using the word “discourse” here to refer to both spoken and written
communication.
Rhetorical skills, in the sense of persuasive public speaking, have always had emphasis in the
American education system, and they are present in the British system too. Debating societies are a
common feature in many schools, colleges and universities and also debating competitions are
popular.
Politicians nowadays tend to make most of their public speeches to invited audiences of their own
supporters – at event such as party conferences and party rallies.
These days, although the audience in the hall is very important to the whole process, the real
audience are the millions who will either read about the speeches in newspapers or hear/see them on
radio and television.
Political speeches are often written for the politicians by teams of speech writers who prepare their
material for them.
Speeches are distributed in advance to the press and to broadcasters.
However the broadcasters won’t transmit the whole speech but only the highlights, also called
soundbites.
Soundbites are short extracts from a recorded speech or interview, which are chosen because of their
impact.
Atkinson notes from his survey of speeches that, one of the most common means of eliciting
approval is the use of what he calls a “list of three”.
The three-part list contains three parts which essentially complement each other and it’s attractive to
the speaker and listener because it is embedded in certain cultures as giving a sense of unity and
completeness. An example is the traditional way to start a race: “on your marks, get set, go!”
