Language in Politics

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2011 im Fachbereich Anglistik - Linguistik, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: 'Presidential power is the power to persuade.' (Neustadt 1980, 10) This is a sentence I came across during my research for this term paper. Even if the statement can be proved by many historical examples, like e.g. the Nazism, it does not explain how the persuasiveness of words works and can be achieved. How can words be used to persuade the audience and therefore be used in a supportive sense for the interests of the speaker? To what extend can political language be seductive and how can a speaker use language to seduce its audience or from the other perspective how can the audience be aware of the real intentions behind such a seductive speech? Within this termpaper I will analyse speeches of Bush (9/11 speeches) and Obama (speech concerning death of Osama bin Laden).