TITLE:
Discourse Analysis: Ronald Reagan’s Evil Empire Speech
AUTHORS:
Juliana Vianna da Nobrega
KEYWORDS:
Discourse Analysis; Ronald Reagan; Speech; Persuasion
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.4 No.1,
March
3,
2014
ABSTRACT: Language can be a powerful tool to convince others and
make them cooperative. Cialdini
(2007) has worked out several principles along which it is
possible to analyze discourses in terms of their persuasiveness. Others also
have contributed with tools to analyzing discourses such as Fairclough (2003). These tools are used to
analyze the “Evil Empire Speech” of the US President Ronald Reagan that he held
at the National Association of Evangelicals, 1983, in Orlando Florida. His historical
speech was aimed at convincing the nation about the righteousness of his
nuclear policy. He partly rewrote the already prepared script and included the “evil empire” part. The
analysis supports that his speech was an exceptionally effective one. Reagan
made his speech an example of the following principles of
persuasiveness such as reciprocity, authority, commitment, liking, scarcity and
social proof. He wanted support for belligerent intentions from a faithful
community, which was already problematic, but he got the audience on his side
through emphasizing his similarities with them, his own faithfulness, the
presentation of strong examples and balancing humor and seriousness.
Additionally, he introduced the striking metaphor “evil empire”, which stuck to
the peoples’ minds and had an impact on them. He also appealed to the people
through implicitly distinguishing the evil from the ones who were not evil—the US citizens. Thus, he made the American people
feel better, to ensure them that they do the right thing when following him. He
ranked religious people above him when he was joking about clergy men and
politicians. To reinforce his authority, he borrowed the
authority of various respected men through citing them. He improved his
position and the power of his arguments using the philosophical wisdom of
others.