Stylistic devices as means of enhancing the pragmatic effect of public speaking (on the materials of pre - election speeches of Donald Trump)

Abstract

Tliis article describes the stylistic techniques as a means of enhancing the pragmatic effect of public speech on the material of the election speeches of Donald Trump. The main purpose of the article was to prove that stylistic devices enhance the pragmatic effect on the public speaking. During the analysis such methods were used: analysis of scientific Iiterahire on the problem under study; generalization, content analysis, identifying rhetorical means on the example of speech texts and their subsequent analysis. During the analysis of speeches, it was revealed that such lexical stylistic methods as: metaphor, epithet, metony my and sy ntactic methods as: rhetorical question, parallelism, repetition and morphological as 1^st person pronouns, adverbs, adjectives in a comparative degree and introductory words contributed to achieving the maximum pragmatic effect. The results of the study can be applied in scientific linguistic journals, and can also be used for lectures on stylistics at the faculties of philology.

Introduction

Language plays a key role in public speaking. The ultimate goal of any speaker or author of the article, his communicative intention is to convince the addressee of his rightness, to encourage him to any action. It is obvious that the achievement of this goal is feasible to a large extent through the use of emotionally - rich speech, which, of course, has the greatest impact on the audience [1].

Rhetoric is the theory of oratory. It is no secret to anyone that any public speech will not be successful without a rhetorical aspect, that's why these two words are closely interrelated. Going back into history, it seems appropriate to note that the homeland of oratory is ancient Greece which arose in the 5^th century BC in Athens and spread to Rome in the first century BC [2]. The ancient Greeks valued in public speeches the idea, the sequence of presentation of the material. For them, the thought that the speaker wanted to convey was important. That is how Aristotle understood the rhetoric - the theorist of oratory. Therefore, ancient thinkers considered rhetoric as a science. Aristotle created the theory of building public speaking, developed forms and methods of communicating thoughts to the audience. The philosopher argued that good speech - one that ends with catharsis - it should convince, evoke sympathy, agreement, sympathy [3].

Over time, the understanding of the essence of rhetoric has changed. In ancient Rome, oratory was considered as art, something akin to acting. In the speeches, it was not content that was welcomed, but form - color, the temperament of the speech, particular style and form of presentation of thought. The speech was supposed to be replete with lush, ornate statements, quotes, examples. A special syllable and rhythm of pronouncing phrases were appreciated [1]. In modem understanding, rhetoric is a science and art. The scientific fundamentals of public speaking need to be known in order to construct a speech correctly in composition. The theory of rhetorical mastery teaches how to formulate the main idea, how to break it up into brief theses; how to arrange parts of the presentation, in what sequence; what kind of examples to use; what type of words, phrases to pick up, how to grammatically correctly construct sentences [4].

It is a recognized fact that speech effects should be considered in line with the pragmatists. As we know, pragmatics considers those linguistic means and patterns of speech that are used to influence thoughts, feelings, as a consequence, the behavior of communication partners. For linguistic pragmatics, considering speech communication as one of the forms of purposeful activity, it is natural to seek to identify the mechanisms that ensure the success of speech influence, that is, the achievement of certain goals by the speaker. It is known that public speech may be aimed at the transfer of new information. However, the transmission of speech messages is never the ultimate goal of public speech, it is the ultimate goal of public speech, it's only a means to achieve other goals, the ultimate of which is the goal of managing the activities, thinking of the listener. This is the pragmatic aspect of speech [5]. Pragmatics is a field of research in semiotics and linguistics, which studies the functioning of linguistic signs in speech. Researchers in the field of linguistic pragmatists were engaged in such scientists as N.D. Arutyunova, D. Vanderveken, H.P. Grice, T.A. van Dyck, V.I. Zabotkina, TM. Kobozeva, S. Levinson, E.V. Paducheva, G.G. Pocheptsov, I.P. Susov, Yu.S.R.C. Stolneyker, D.Heims and etc. As synonymous with the concept of «pragmatics» in linguistics, the concepts of «pragmalinguistics» and «linguistic pragmatics» are also used. Behind these definitions lies the field Oflinguistic research, the object of which is the relationship between linguistic units and the conditions of their use in a certain communicative and pragmatic context in which the addressee and the addressee of the message interact. To characterize this relationship, the spatial - temporal context is of great importance, within which speech interaction takes place, as well as the goals and expectations of communicants. V. Dressier believes that a pragmatist of a text should have an extra - linguistic status and writes that «pragmatics does not belong to linguistics at all». However, the author notes the pragmatic meaning of individual linguistic elements. In addition, he notes the relationship Oflinguistic features and extralinguistic conditions [6].

Thus, by enhancing the pragmatic effect of a text, we will mean an increase in the impact of the content of the text on the perceiver through linguistic and extralinguistic means. In this case, stylistic devices will act as such means.

The main stylistic means that are common in political discourse and reinforce the pragmatic impact of the text include metaphor, epithet, hyperbole, repetition, anaphora, antithesis, rhetorical questions, polysendethon and etc.

A textual analysis of Donald Trump's pre - election speeches for 2016 allowed to determine the dominant language means reflecting his style. These tools can be divided into 3 categories: lexical, syntactic and morphological.

The lexical features in D. Trump's speech are represented by the wide use of such a stylistic device as metaphor («open your heart», «to dissipate over the horizon, flush with cash», «rusted out factories»), epithets («righteous people and a righteous public», «gracious aid», «struggling families»), hyperboles («We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the earth from the miseries of disease and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow», «You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement the likes of which the world has never seen before»).

The syntactical features of Donald Trump's speeches are in the simple syntactic organization of sentences. Basically, the President’s Speech is organized with simple sentences that provide an understanding of the information addressed. Also, in the inaugural speech of the American leader, the frequency of the change in the traditional word - order in the sentence is noted. («Now arrives the hour of action», «I will end the special interest monopoly in Washington».)

Also, in Trump's pre - election speeches, can be found such syntactical stylistic devices as repetition («From this day forward, it's going to be опІуЛтепсл first - America first One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind»), parallelism («JVe will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth, and we will bring back our dreams. We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation. We will get our people off of welfare and back to work rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor. We will follow two simple rules - buy American and hire American».) and polysendethon («And the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential».). These stylistic devices enhance the expressiveness of speech, give Trump's speech emotional and visual impressionability.

The morphological features of Donald Trump's speeches consist in the frequent use of a personal pronoun «We» instead of «I». Trump often uses personal pronouns to express his love for the motherland. Also, Donald Trump, using this technique, by including himself among the people, aimed at creating a confidence tone of conversation with an audience. In the second context, where the presence of this stylistic device is noted, the formation of a powerful emotionally charged conceptual image of the unity of the nation, called to convey to the recipient information about equality and fraternity, which is a means of manipulation and the formation of public opinion. Donald Trump abundantly uses the auxiliary verb of the future tense «will» in his speeches, it allows to the speaker manipulate the opinions of people through their faith in a bright future. For example: «We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth, and we will bring back our dreams. We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation. We will gel our people off of welfare and back to work rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor. We will follow two simple rules - buy American and hire American».

Conclusion

Enhancing the pragmatic impact in Donald Trump's pre - election speeches is achieved by attracting the attention of listeners to the necessary information by repeating the same phrase many times, carefully selecting vocabulary and linguistic and stylistic means, and also appealing to the feelings and emotions of the audience. Such an appeal appears in the speeches of D.Trump as the main argument and is formed by selecting a specific, often stylistically colored, vocabulary and including in the message text information reflecting the system of values of the audience - religious, national - cultural and social. Thus, Donald Trump appears in the eyes of the audience as a competent person, wise, eloquent, capable of evoking emotions in the public and attracting their attention. Textual analysis of the language personality of Donald Trump allows us to conclude that the public speeches of the American politician are built on the convergence of stylistic techniques (lexical, syntactic and morphological), which allow to appeal to both the consciousness and the emotional sphere of the audience, thereby enhancing the pragmatic effect of speeches. Lexical means of forming Trump's style are metaphors, epithets and hyperboles. Syntactic means of organizing the president’s public speeches are repetitions, parallelism, and polysendeton.

References:

1. «Public speaking». I. Medvedev and L.Yu. Mironov. 2014.
2. «Oratory RHETORIC». A. Craig Baird. 2009.
3. «Rhetoric as science and art». Dovzhenko Natalia 2013.
4. «The Art OfPublic Speaking», Emma Pomfret. 2008.
5. «Pragmatic orientation of the texts of public speeches». Dyakova M.L. 1993.
6. «Pragmatic foundations of the interpretation of statements»,Demyankov V.Z. 2002.
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8. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/1 l/10/us/politics/trump-speech-transcript.html.
9. https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/transcript-trump-speech-on-the-stakes-of-the-election- 224654.
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