Full metadata
Title
Historical and close-reading analysis of state of the union addresses: examining two approaches in rhetorical analysis
Description
This research conducts two methods of rhetorical analysis of State of the Union Addresses: 1. Computational linguistic analysis of all State of the Union Addresses from 1790-2007, and 2. Close-readings and rhetorical analyses of two addresses: one by President Truman and one by President Reagan. This research shows the following key findings: 1. I am able to see general shifts in the authors' approaches to the State of the Union Address through historical computational analyses of the content of all speeches, and 2. Through close readings, I can understand the impact of the author's ethos and the historical context on the addresses, something that would not be readily revealed in a computational analysis. This study starts with a historical computational linguistic analysis of all State of the Union Addresses between 1790 and 2007. The study follows with close-readings of two State of the Union Addresses from the early and late Cold War period in-context: 1. Harry Truman's 1951 Address and 2. Ronald Reagan's 1986 Address. The main conclusions drawn from this research are that close-readings of State of the Union Addresses cannot be replaced by computational analyses, but can work in tandem with computerized text analysis to reveal shifts in rhetorical and topical features. This paper argues that there must be more close analyses in coordination with large-scale text analysis in order to understand the complexities of rhetorical situations.
Date Created
2013
Contributors
- Wegner, Peter (Author)
- Goggin, Maureen (Thesis advisor)
- Boyd, Patricia (Committee member)
- Goggin, Peter (Committee member)
- Arizona State University (Publisher)
Topical Subject
- Rhetoric
- Linguistics
- Political Science
- Addresses
- Analysis
- Linguistic
- Presidential
- Rhetoric
- Presidents--United States--Language--History.
- Presidents
- Presidents--United States--Messages.
- Political oratory--United States--History.
- Political oratory
- Rhetoric--Political aspects--United States--History.
- Rhetoric
- Speeches, addresses, etc., American--History and criticism.
Resource Type
Extent
viii, 189 p. : ill. (some col.)
Language
Copyright Statement
In Copyright
Primary Member of
Peer-reviewed
No
Open Access
No
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.17998
Statement of Responsibility
by Peter Wegner
Description Source
Viewed on Sept. 24, 2013
Level of coding
full
Note
Partial requirement for: Ph. D., Arizona State University, 2013
Note type
thesis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-189)
Note type
bibliography
Field of study: English
System Created
- 2013-07-12 06:26:25
System Modified
- 2021-08-30 01:41:06
- 2 years 8 months ago
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