The purpose of my research project was to examine Barack Obama's use of and pronunciation of the indefinite article /a/ during his speeches for the 2008 presidential campaign. I examined this element because I wanted to find out if there was any correlation between Obama's use of the indefinite article /a/ and the location of his speech, the phrase, and the order it was used in. Overall, I examined sixteen speeches from different locations across the United States from 2007 and 2008 and collected 463 tokens. The data I have collected from these speeches is organized in a chart labeled Chart A. which shows the location, date, and length of each speech. Chart A. also displays the number and percentage of the tokens collected at the given location. I have compiled all this data into another chart labeled Chart B. which displays the percentages of each location on a bar graph next to each other in order to draw any comparisons. Chart C. is a map of the United States with the red dots representing locations where I have examined a speech. I have also included additional individual data in an appendix attached at the end of the document.
[...] Barack Obama's total use of the indefinite article in the Emphatic Form and the Normal Reduced Form during his 2007 and 2008 Presidential campaign Location/date/length of speech Emphatic Form Normal Reduced Total Des Moines, IA Des Moines, IA Charlestown, SC San Antonio, TX Philadelphia, PA Fayetteville, NC Fort Wayne, IN St. Paul, MN Washington, DC Denver, CO Manchester, NH Las Vegas, NV Toledo, OH Palm Beach, FL Prince William County, VA Chicago, IL Chart B. Barack Obama's Percentages of Use of the Indefinite Article during 2007 and 2008 Speeches Chart C. [...]
[...] After all the data was collected and organized I began to look for correlations and instances that seemed to stick out in my data such as the speeches where the Emphatic Form was used more than the Normal Reduced Form or large clusters were used of either form. I also began to look at the context of when each form was used and began to uncover some striking similarities between the speeches and how the indefinite article was pronounced. The final factor to observe was when and where the speech took place and what kind of audience Barack Obama was speaking to and examine if any correlation exists between them. III. [...]
[...] The next step was to make a determination between the two different ways of pronouncing the indefinite article The first way is called the Emphatic Form which is pronounced The second way is called the Normal Reduced Form and is pronounced I conducted this research project to essentially look for any correlations between Barack Obama's use of and pronunciation of the indefinite article and the phrase, the cluster, and the audience in which it was used. I began by downloading speeches made by Barack Obama during the years 2007 and 2008 from the websites YouTube and BarackObamadotcom. [...]
[...] Next, I would like to examine the context in which the Emphatic Form of the indefinite article was used. As I mentioned above, Barack Obama tended to use the Emphatic Form during his loud narrations as he described his main points of the campaign and attempted to reach an emotional level of the audience. I would like to examine a few individual speeches from the appendix to offer further discussion of this subject. The first speech to which I will refer is Philadelphia, PA (Appendix, Speech 5). [...]
[...] Obama, Barack H. Speech. Denver, CO Aug BarackObamadotcom. < http:>. Obama, Barack H. Speech. Fayetteville, NC March 2008. BarackObamadotcom. < http:>. Obama, Barack H. Speech. “Fired Up, Ready To Prince William County, VA Nov BarackObamadotcom. < http: e="channel">. Obama, Barack H. Speech. Fort Wayne, IN April 2008. BarackObamadotcom. < http:>. [...]
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