A micro structural level of analysis of discourse on an American Senator Barack Obama’s political speeches

Language is produced intentionally by human beings for particular goals in communication. It functions as a means to seek for self-interest and it is related to power relations among people. They, therefore, use strategies and tactics to influence other people in order their goals can be realized. It is very interesting to investigate and analyze the ways Barack Obama as the presidential nomination from Democratic Party in the United States uses discursive tactics to influence the audiences. How does Barack Obama use Micro structural level strategies of discourse in his political speeches? What are the tactics on word structure used by Barack Obama? What are the tactics on phrasal structure used by Barack Obama? What are the tactics on expression or oral structure used by Barack Obama? What are the tactics on sentential structure used by Barack Obama?

To answer the problems, the researcher adopts Critical Discourse Analysis introduced by Teun A. van Dijk about discourse structures as macro structure, super structure, and micro structure. The researcher, then, focuses on Micro structure. Methodologically, the researcher exerts descriptive qualitative study as his research design. The data are collected by skimming reading and analyzed by applying intensive reading.

From all three studied speeches, the findings show that Barack Obama uses Micro structural level strategies of discourse to enhance the cohesion and coherence of his political speeches. In the tactics on word structure, he uses pronoun, generalization, intensifiers, trivializing words, discourse markers, and sensory words. The tactics on phrasal structure consist of noun phrase, adjective phrase, and verb phrase. In the tactics on oral structure, there are oral discourse markers and ungrammatical sentence. At last, in the tactics on sentential structure, he chooses temporal sentence, passive voice, rhetorical question, and repetition.

Barack Obama frequently applies pronoun in word structure to induce the cohesion and coherence of the discourse. In phrasal structure, he often uses noun phrase combined with articles, possessive pronouns, and adjectives. He, furthermore, frequently stimulates his audiences to think of certain time through temporal sentences. This study supports van Dijk’s discourse structures that are divided into macro structure, super structure, and micro structure.