Presidential rhetoric as source of symbolic politics

Abstract

This article focuses on some essential questions concerning the features of the rhetoric of political actors and aims to identify the stylistic hallmarks prevalent utilized in presidential speeches. It was selected for analysis the Barack Obama speech on Remarks by the President Naturalization ceremony on the 4th of July 2012. The speech in question is particularly interesting because it provides a useful insight into how a presidential message can be presented on an issue, which it considers important and current. The discourse is analyzed from the perspective of its inclusion in the action of symbolic politics of the President, taking into account the increasingly pronounced process of symbolizing the political arena. The perception of the problem of immigration in the vision of President Obama is pursued. Particular attention is paid to the complexity of the factors that determine the rhetorical manifestations of the orator’s position as a mode of political influence. They are established the conceptual peculiarities of Barack Obama’s July 4, 2012 speech, discourse is analyzed through the prism of special syntactic features realized, which promote message transfer and reinforcement of the spirit of the nation, are elucidated the tasks promoted by these hallmarks in delivering the intended messages. The substance of Obama’s presidential rhetoric is exemplified by the elucidation of rhetorical means such as parallelism, repetition, metaphors, and so on.