A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE USE OF RHETORICAL DEVICES IN HILLARY CLINTON’S SPEECHES

Abstract

In this paper, attempts are made to analyze the use of rhetorical devices in Hillary Clinton’s speeches. The analytical framework of the study is adapted from So (2005) which synthesizes Tribble’s (2002) framework with the SFL’s notion of metafunction of language. The data of the research contain ten Hillary Clinton’s speeches from 2010 to 2016. Both the quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted to analyze the data. The results show that in certain contextual factors, five rhetorical devices including metonymy, repetition, irony, metaphor, and parallelism are exerted; and two last listed devices are employed the most frequently. The use of five rhetorical devices not only contributes to creative expression of message, but also boosts up persuasive effects on the audience.