Rhetorical Devices in Political Speeches: Nigel Farage’s Speeches at the European Parliament

Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz Hussein

doi:10.47577/tssj.v7i1.190

Abstract

Nigel Farage’s speeches and rhetoric have been instrumental and effective in the British voters’ decision to withdraw from the European Union. This paper aims to study rhetorical devices in the speeches of Nigel Farage at the European Parliament: list constructions, contrastive pairs etc. Having identified and classified the rhetorical devices, I proceed to perform a frequency analysis with the purpose of determining the number of times each device occurs. Thus the research questions are: (a) what rhetorical devices permeate the speeches? and (b) what is their frequency of occurrence? In order to achieve these objectives, I have studied twenty speeches Farage delivered at the European Parliament during the period from 2010 to 2017. I examine rhetorical devices that were previously treated as nonessential in Farage’s speeches (cf. Hädicke 2012) and I present arguments against the claim that the three-part list is the most common strategy in political speeches.

Highlights

Politicians employ rhetorical devices in order to deliver persuasive speeches
It has often been claimed that rhetorical devices such as three-part lists and contrastive pairs are the most effective strategies that prominent politicians depend on
Atkinson 1983, 1984a, 1984b cited in Atkinson 1984a, pp. 33-34 cited in Bull & Noordhuizen 2000, p. 275 and Lin 2011, Uvehammer 2005) that threepart lists and contrastive pairs are predicted to permeate successful political speeches, because these devices are the most effective strategies that prominent politicians depend on

Summary

Introduction

Politicians employ rhetorical devices in order to deliver persuasive speeches (cf. Jefferson 1990). It has often been claimed that rhetorical devices such as three-part lists and contrastive pairs are the most effective strategies that prominent politicians depend on (cf Atkinson 1983, 1984a, 1984b as cited in Lin 2011; Uvehammer 2005). Such three-part lists and contrasts are claimed An attempt is made to perform a frequency analysis of the rhetorical devices used in the twenty speeches, that is , the number of times each device occurs is counted

Objectives

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion