Obama democratic election victory speech.

"Hello, Chicago. "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. "It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference. "It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. "We are, and always will be, the United States of America. "It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day. "It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America. "A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Senator McCain. "Senator McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. "I congratulate him; I congratulate Governor (Sarah) Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead. "I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden. "And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years, the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady Michelle Obama. "Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the new White House. "And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure. "To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I am grateful to them. "And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe, the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best - the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America. "To my chief strategist David Axelrod who's been a partner with me every step of the way. To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics, you made this happen and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done. "But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you. "I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. "We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. "Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. "It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give 5 and 10 and 20 to the cause. "It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy, who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep. "It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organised and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth. "This is your victory. "And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me. "You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. "Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. "There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education. "There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair. "The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. "I promise you, we as a people will get there. "There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem. "But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand. "What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night. "This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. "It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice. "So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other. "Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers. "In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. "Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity. "Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. "As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. "And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too. "And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. "To those - to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope. "That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. "This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old. "She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the colour of her skin. "And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can. "At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can. "When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can. "When the bombs fell on our harbour and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can. "She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that 'We Shall Overcome'. Yes we can. "A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. "And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. "Yes we can. "America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made? "This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. "This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can. "Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America."

Action plan.

For my investigation all of the data that is requires is pre-existing and therefore isn't susceptible to many of the ethical and validity issues of an investigation that requires me to physically record my data using participants. This therefore means my data won't be affected by the "observers paradox" making the idea redundant for my investigation.
However there are certain steps I can take to ensure my data is ethically sourced and also representative.
As the bulk of my data will be compromised of transcripts of speeches that I will watch on the internet it will be vital to include all my sources in a bibliography as to not take credit for anyone's work. I will also have to name all theories and the theorists who developed them when using them for analytical purposes. For example I plan to read the book "While black" which explores Barrack Obama, language, and race in the U.S, which I am hoping will provide insight into the topic I am investigating. When using ideas from this book I will have to state the ideas origins as well as the theorist behind it.
While trying to remain representative I will have to watch many speeches and choose one that is typical of the speaker in question. If I chose for example a speech by martin Luther king that didn't contain key characteristics of one of his speeches, this could be considered an untrue representation and there for make the data either invalid or unreliable.

My investigation requires the use of a methodology that isn't like any in the "doing the investigation" book. It will require analysing transcripts of speeches and then using the knowledge gathered by the analysations to come to a conclusion on why investigation. The analysations them selves will include both qualitative and quantitative data as i feel combining the two give a better data yield. In regards to secondary research I have already aqauired a book focusing on my investigation which will no doubt bring up ideas that I my self can then develop.

Tweet blog language change conculsions

After reading the "Words of the decade" article I realised that newly coined words can provide a great insight to the mood of the time, and also what people were thinking about in the period. The methodology of actually acquiring this data of the most used words of the decade was done by "The Global Language Monitor" an American company who use mathematical formulas to track the frequency of words and phrases in print and electronic media. They compiled a list of the most used words and found some interesting discoveries.
"Global warming" and "9/11" turned out to be the most used words of the decade suggesting English speaking countries (of which we can assume predominantly includes the US and the UK) fears of both terrorism and the increasing threat of global warming as we make further advancements into the area. Also interesting is the American use of 9/11 as in Britain this would constitute as being the November 9th rather than the actual date of its intended meaning September the 11th. Obviously this indicates the obvious that America has a larger population and therefore more mouths or fingers to use there method. However when thinking of how I personally refer to the attack on the twin towers I to adopt the American order saying "9/11". This perhaps suggests or rather shows how American culture is and has become more so over the recent decades a dominant culture.
Also making it in third place is the proper noun "Obama"referring to the now president of the US. This is extremely telling as before Obama's rise in popularity and prominence,largely due to the fact of being the first black president, Obama was an almost unheard of name within the English language. Also interesting is how "Obama" its self became a word stem, producing new words such as Obamalicious. This again is also a tell tale sign of the US being a dominant and for all intensive purposes a popular culture at least with in English speaking countries.
Another incident we can tell was very impacting on many of us during the start of the 21st century was the financial crisis inserting word into our vocabulary such as "bailout" coming in at 4th place. This again allows us to infer that the financial crisis was big news. In fact if we look at the top 4 words most used, all derive from events or stories that were covered almost religiously by the news as well as appearing on social media. This also suggests that our main influences are these two forms of media. Another clear example of events adapting our language through the media would be 2004's tsunami after the Indian ocean earth quake. Which indeed did vastly increase our use of the term tsunami.
However this idea that the media is largely responsible, at least for a most used words, could be exaggerated by the method in which the data is collected in the first place. All of the data is collated from print and electronic media. Quite simply of the  data is written langue rather than spoken. This of  course  has an effect on the order  of  most used words and could instead be considered a list of most written words.
Another area which has spawned the creation of new and most used words is that of technology. with the 21st century being the age of technology this is no surprise with words like Google being added to the dictionary and also going under functional shifts, in Google's case from proper noun to verb. also within the technology sub-category are "Twitter" also becoming another stem word e.g "twitterholic". All this again shows how technology and social media have had a profound impact on our lives. We also see the use of affixation to create new meaning for words deriving from the world of social media such as the term "unfriend" which is interesting again as it shows a functional shift in friend turning it from a noun to a dynamic verb.
Also portrayed by the data collated us our love of films and all things Hollywood, or at least how it effects us. For instance 2005's Oscar nominated film "Brokeback mountain" has resulted in the term "brokeback" meaning gay.
All these new words and phrases clearly paint a picture of the time we live in and what our minds are thinking at the time, with the most used or long lasting showing us the stories of the decade. The words also suggest however what emotions take precedent in our minds and by looking at our top two "9/11" and "globalwarming" it would seem that fear and concern seem to dominate our speech and language, with perhaps "Obama" being a solution to these problems.

Course work investigation

What my investigation is hoping to find out?


My investigation will focus on the rhetoric devices used by Barrack Obama and whether he takes any linguistic features from other prominent black speakers from different time periods such as martin Luther king, also exploring whether if any features were taken, if this was a conscious decision.



Why I decided to choose this?


I decided to choose this topic because the way in which political speeches are constructed for maximum effect has always interested me and studying the language and power module last year only gave me further insight into the techniques employed in such speeches. Barrack Obama is also considered one of the greatest speakers of all time and is also one that has come to be prominent in my time making him an obvious subject for my investigation. Barrack Obama also brings up other areas on interest that may lead to interesting routes of investigation such as him being the first black president. This is just one contextual factor that must have impacted some variables in his speech. A key part of this investigation is to see whether any devices used by other prominent black speakers can be found in Barrack Obama's speeches, the most famous speech of all time was delivered by Martin Luther King and it will be interesting to see whether any similarities can be found between the two and if so the reasons for there existence.

What aspects of the course does this investigation involve?


The language area I will be focusing on is political speeches and the rhetorical devices used. This will mostly draw from material within the language and power module from last year.Whether I will use one speech from each political speaker I choose to analyse or multiple, I will select those that I feel are most impacting and highlight, if any are found, patterns and similarities that are present.

The data I will need to collect with be transcripts of speeches made by both Barrack Obama and the speaker I choose to compare him to. These will probably be attained by watching speeches found on the internet probably from sites such as YouTube and then transcribing them. I will then have to analyse and annotate the speeches looking for rhetoric devices and any other language features that i consider to be relevant. I will also collect information produced by other individuals as I will be able to use their ideas to form a more in depth investigation. These too will often be found online and also in the library which may offer valuable information from books that focus on similar ideas.


What data I will need to collet and how I am going to collect it?


I plan to watch some of Barrack Obama's speeches in order to determine which one I feel will offer the most information after I analyse it. I will find this speech online probably off of a site such as YouTube. Once I have found the speech I want will transcribe it and then annotate it for rhetoric devices as well as identifying if it employs or complies with any theorist's work that I know of, an example which I'm sure will be of use is Max Atkins clap trap. To annotate and analyse the speech properly I will probably have to revise both theories and knowledge of rhetoric and other language and power modules so I am able to produce a thorough analysis of the speech. I will also be looking at the phonetics of the speech focusing on if how he pronounces words has any specific reason behind it. For example if pronouncing words in what is considered a "black" accent helps him converge will other black listeners. Studying the phonology of this will also help with the comparison of Barrack Obama's speeches to that of another prominent black speaker. Other areas of investigation will include the context of the speech that is being analysed. For example a Barrack Obama speaking when he won the democratic election would probably sound different to that of a Barrack Obama at the end of his term as president. Collecting the data for the other speaker will follow the same path. Once both are finished I will begin my in depth comparison.


What theorists do you think will be valuable to my investigation in respects to both what am hoping to achieve and also in relation to the methodology I am going to use to gather the data in the first place?


As my investigation will include many topics covered in the language and power topic it would make sense to read over those theorist also covered in the topic. Fairclough 's theory of synthetic personalisation is sure to come up within the speeches I listen to so will be an obvious choice to include in my investigation. He also brings to light different methods of analysing discourse structure which is sure to help when doing my analysis. Max Atkins also published several works relating to the use of rhetoric devices used within speeches, most notably the "Clap trap" which includes the techniques speakers use to induce clapping from the audience.