Stylistic analysis of adjectives in selected political and religious speeches

Abstract EN

Politicians and religious figures usually rely heavily on their linguistic abilities to persuade their audience with their allegations because only through language can they shape their audience thoughts.

Since adjectives play an important role in enriching the text, the current study is an attempt to explore their usage in selected political and religious speeches.

It tackles three main aspects: first, whether the adjectives occupy attributive or predicative position.

Second, whether they describe concrete or abstract nouns.

Third, whether comparative or superlative degrees are used or not.

The first speech was delivered by the American president John F.

Kennedy in Rice stadium on September 12, 1962.

The second speech was delivered by an eminent religious American figure, Dr.

Carl F.

H.

Henry, at the closing banquet of the world Journalism Institute in Asheville on August 20,1999.

Data analysis shows that attributive adjectives are used more than predicatives in the speeches under study.

As far as the concrete and abstract adjectives are concerned, the abstract adjectives are more common than concrete adjectives in both speeches but Kennedy prefers concrete adjectives more than Dr.

Carl.

Concerning the comparative and the superlatives degrees, Kennedy uses more the comparatives and superlatives than Dr.

Carl.

Keywords: Stylistics, Style, Political Discourse, Religious Discourse, Adjectives,