Mid Sweden University

In conclusion, the aim of this research paper was to find out how language is used in a sample of political speeches by Barack Obama Nicolas Maduro in terms of rhetorical strategies. By analysing the selected speeches of these two presidents, the main questions to answer were: what rhetorical strategies are used and evident in the speeches, and what their intended effect was. Also, the purpose was to see if there are differences in the use of rhetorical strategies in Obama and Maduro’s speeches, where the hypothesis was that they are, since these two presidents’ level of accumulation of power differs. I analyzed four speeches in total (two of Obama and two of Maduro), approximately 3,000 words for each politician, by applying both quantitative and qualitative approaches. For the quantitative approach a corpus software Antconc (Anthony 2019) was used and a qualitative approach was performed though a close reading of speeches. The main finding of the study is that there is no great difference in the number of times the rhetorical strategies analysed were used by the two presidents in these speeches, however, the main difference seems to be connected with the ideas and concepts introduced to the audience through the use of these rhetorical strategies.

In order to limit the research paper, only five rhetorical strategies were analysed. However, for further research, it would be interesting to analyse the language of Obama and Maduro, in terms of other linguistic features, such as vocabulary, speech acts. Also, it would be interesting to analyse a higher sample of materials corresponding to different political moments and to different politicians.