Examination of Rhetorical Devices in President Kikwete's 2014 Constituent Assembly Inaugural Speech

Frolence Rutechura

Abstract


Language has been an important tool for politicians to get their messages perceived the way they prefer. This paper analyzed a text of the constituent assembly inaugural speech by President Jakaya Kikwete. It sought to examine the ways he appealed to linguistic techniques to amplify on the challenges of a proposed three-government union structure proposed by the Constitutional Review Commission. By using Fraiclough’s (1992) Text Oriented Discourse Analysis (TODA), the study examined linguistic features of the speech amplifying on the two major challenges of the proposed three-government union structure. The data show that President Kikwete relied on choice of words, reference to comments made by famous individuals about the union structure as well as rhetorical question as he amplified on the two challenges of a proposed three-government union structure.

Key words: critical discourse analysis, political discourse, persuasion, Constituent Assembly


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