奥巴马矿难演讲修辞学分析

Logos—logical reasoning
Nearly half of the speech is covered by true stories of the miners, which is a very logical and persuasive way to reason the audience.
Personal Pronouns
The plural form of the first person and relative phrases are used as the subjects featuring ‘we’, ‘our church’, ‘our home’, ‘our school’, ‘our office’, ‘our country’, ‘the world’, ‘the American dream’, etc.
Parallelism in Phrase
The electricity that lights up a convention center; that lights up our church or our home, our school, our office;（paragraph 4) --- To emphasize the contributions made by miners. Our task, here on Earth, is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy; to do what must do, individually and collectively, to assure safe conditions underground -- to treat our miners like they treat each other -- like a family. (paragraph 13) --- The four indefinitive structures indicate the strong determination of protecting lives and lessening disasters.
All of these can closely associate the speaker with the audience, which shortens the distance between them psychologically. And the speech can be easily accepted and supported. Besides, the plural form of the first person can evoke the consciousness of collective and arouse the patriotic feelings of the public.
Parallelism
Through the well-balanced construction, parallelism gives emphasis, clarity and coherence of ideas as well as rhythm of the language. By making these parallel statements, which are quite emotional for the audience, Obama tries to emphasize the grief of the government and make the speech more convincing and appreciative.
There’s a psalm that comes to mind today -– a psalm that comes to mind，a psalm we often turn to in times of heartache. (paragraph 14) --- Using the religious word-psalm to unite all the people together.
Pathos—human emotions
In the speech, many rhetorical devices are adopted by Obama to narrow the gap between the government and the audiences and resonate with them. The most striking devices are as follows: Parallelism (平行) Personal pronouns（人称代词） Double negation（双重否定） Repetition（重复） Quotation （引用）
Quotation
They often began the same way: ―I am proud to be from a family of miners.‖ ―I am the son of a coal miner.‖ ―I am proud to be a coal miner s daughter.‖ (paragraph 11) --- The direct speech shows that even though they are in different positions, they send the same message that they are proud to be the families or the friends of miners. Obama’s speech expresses the government’s respect for miners, leading to the government’s call for safety.
Parallelism in Sentences
And most days they’d emerge from the dark mine, squinting at the light. Most days, they’d emerge, sweaty and dirty and dusted from coal. Most days, they’d come home. (paragraph 5) --- To emphasize the hardship of life God bless our miners. God bless their families. God bless West Virginia. And God bless the United States of America. （paragraph14） --- To boost the morale, and make the common people empathize with each other.
The Analysis of the Obama’s Speech from the Perspective of Aristotle’s Three Artistic Proofs
Introduction
·About Aristotelian rhetoric
The Three Artistic Proofs: Logos ― logical reasoning （晓之以理） Pathos ― human emotions（动之以情） Ethos ― human character（人格魅力）
Pathos—human emotions
According to Aristotle, Pathos refers to the appeal to people’s emotional feelings and values.
The stimulus of emotions can promote many of our actions. In some cases, emotions in persuasion are more powerful than bring numbers and statistics.
Logos—logical reasoning
He also emphasized the significance of safety assurance for all sorts of occupations, for sake of every family in the country.--- ―Our task, here on Earth, is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy; to do what must do, individually and collectively, to assure safe conditions underground — (applause) — to treat our miners like they treat each other — like a family.ble Negation
They did not take on their job unaware of the perils. (paragraph 6) --- Here is a double negation, which is better than stating directly in showing the miners’ spirits of dedication.
·About Obama’s speeches Logical & cohesive Empathetic & resonant Trustworthy & sincere
Logos—logical reasoning
In the very beginning, Obama introduced the names of the lost miners and expressed the deep condolence from every sector of American society--―Nothing I, or the Vice President, or the Governor, none of the speakers here today, nothing we say can fill the hole they leave in your hearts, or the absence that they leave in your lives.‖ (paragraph 2) Then he recalled the miners’ working and living conditions, expressing his understanding of those ordinary people’s difficulties and his gratitude for the miners’ great contributions to the whole nation.