摘 要

亚里士多德修辞理论中的三诉求原则从创建以来一直被用作各种政治演讲及政治演讲修辞的研究。本文援引亚里士多德的修辞理论，从人品诉求，情感诉求和理性诉求三个方面对两位英国历史上的两位女首相特蕾莎.梅和撒切尔夫人的辞职演讲进行了对比分析并得出了如下结论：首先，为了实现各自的演讲中的人品诉求，特蕾莎.梅主要使用了第一人称单数表达自己工作的态度，但是撒切尔夫人主要使用第一人称复数，表明了与听众同一立场的决心；其次，为了实现理性诉求，两人都使用了举例和引用的方法，但是撒切尔夫人使用了具体数据让演讲文本更有逻辑性和说服力；最后，为了实现情感诉求，特蕾莎梅和撒切尔夫人都使用了排比和反复的修辞手法，但是由于撒切尔夫人使用了大段的排比使得演讲更有画面感从而引起听众的共鸣。两者虽然都是离职演讲，由于在诉求上采取的方式有所不同，导致了效果也有了差异。

关键词：修辞理论; 特蕾莎.梅; 撒切尔夫人; 离职演讲

Abstract

Aristotle's rhetorical theory of “Three Appeals” has been widely used in the study of political speech and rhetoric since its establishment. Based on Aristotle's rhetorical theory, this paper makes a comparative analysis of the resignation speeches of Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher, two female Prime Ministers in British history, from three aspects of personal appeal, emotional appeal and rational appeal, and draws the following conclusions. First of all, in order to realize the credibility appeal in their speeches, Theresa May mainly used the first person singular to express her work attitude, while Margaret Thatcher mainly used the first person plural, indicating her determination to take the same position with the audience. Second, both women used examples and quotations in order to achieve their rational appeal, but Thatcher May used concrete figures to make her speech more logical and persuasive. Finally, in order to achieve emotional appeal, Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher both used parallelism and repeated rhetorical devices. However, Margaret Thatcher used a large parallelism to make her speech more pictorial and thus strike a chord with the audience. Although both speeches are resignation speeches, they have different effects due to the different ways of appeals.

Key words: Rhetoric Theory; Theresa May; Margaret Thatcher; Resignation Speeches

Contents

Introduction 1

1. Literature Review 2

1.1 Definition of political speeches 2

1.2 Aristotle's“Three Appeals” studies at home and abroad 2

2. Theresa May’s and Margaret Thatcher’s Resignation Speeches 3

2.1 Background of the speeches 3

2.2 Effects of the speeches 4

2.3 Outcomes of the speeches 5

3. Aristotle’s “Three Appeals” and Theresa May’s Speech 5

3.1Credibility appeal……………………………. 5

3.2 Logical appeal 8

3.3 Emotional appeal 9

4. Aristotle’s “Three Appeals” and Margaret Thatcher’s Speech 11

4.1 Credibility appeal……………………………. 11

4.2 Logical appeal 14

4.3 Emotional appeal 15

4.4 Different appeals’ expressions between the two speeches 17

5. Conclusions 18

References 19

Acknowledgements 20

Introduction

Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May are the only two female conservative Prime Ministers in British history. As the two Prime Ministers of the unity party, they played an indispensable role in their political field, and both left a profound mark on the history of Britain. Outside 10 Downing Street in 1985, Britain's first "Iron Lady", Margaret Thatcher, gave her resignation speech. Theresa May, Britain's second "Iron Lady" after 35 years, delivers her resignation speech outside 10 Downing Street in London on May 24, 2019.Although they both known as the "Iron Ladies", they are vastly different, as can be seen in their resignation speeches. Due to the different background, the two famous "Iron Ladies" also show different effects in political speeches. As the last political speech in their political career, the resignation speech plays an important role. Based on the three elements of Aristotle, this paper will make a comparative analysis of the resignation speeches of Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May from rhetorical language, rhetorical devices, rhetorical situations and audiences. Through the comparative analysis of their political speeches, we can deepen our understanding of these two respectable "Iron Ladies".

1. Literature review
   1. Definition of political speeches

English political speech is a kind of speech that indicates the internal affairs and foreign relations of a country, makes clear the position, clarifies the viewpoint, propagandizes the proposition, and is an important weapon in political struggle. Zhang Yutong (2016) once said that political speech is an important linguistic phenomenon as well as a way of political discourse. It clearly shows political views and propositions, plays an important role in political life, and is regarded as a powerful weapon for politicians. At the same time, public political speech is an important embodiment of a country's active integration into the international community, and an effective way to build a country's image. In public political speech, the speaker usually adopts some rhetoric to realize his or her speech purpose or achieve the effect of speech. Moreover, rhetoric comes from the Greek word “rhetorike”. In Greek, "rhetorike" is used as a verb meaning "speech" and as a noun meaning "speaker". Aristotle developed it as a separate discipline. The purpose of rhetoric, he thought, was to persuade. According to Aristotle, rhetoric divided into three elements: credibility appeal, emotional appeal, and logical appeal. Credibility appeal correspond to the speaker or the author, which requires the speaker to have a high character; emotional appeal correspond to the audience or the reader, which requires that the content can meet the emotional needs of the audience and arouse the audience's resonance. Logical appeal corresponds to the content, which requires the content to be clear, clear and logical. In simple terms, the three elements are the speaker, the audience, and the topic. So rhetoric comes from speech, it guides speech; it embodies the essence of rhetoric. Political speeches contain three elements of Aristotle's rhetoric in order to achieve the purpose and effect of the speech.

• 1. Aristotle's “Three Appeals” studies at home and abroad

Rhetoric is one of the earliest works in the west that systematically elucidates the principles of rhetoric. In fact, ancient Greek rhetoric was the study of the art of oratory. As early as ancient Greece, speech has become a powerful political weapon. In his book (Kennedy, 1991), Aristotle showed people how to prepare a speech, thus successfully establishing credibility among the audience. It also describes how to channel your audience into an emotion so that they believe what you are saying. In addition, it describes some methods of logical argument, such as enthymemes and examples.  In speech, "rhetoric is a resource of political power" (Herrick, 2013:17). So the three appeals of Aristotle's rhetoric are widely used in political speeches. Thus, many authors will analyze the political rhetoric of political speeches, to find out how the three appeals of Aristotle used in speeches. For example, Zulvy Alivia Hanim(2018) wrote an article aims to study how rhetorical devices constructed by Glenn Beck’s speech. Groenendijk, J. and Joost. A. D. (2017) used political rhetoric to analyze Trump's speeches.

At home, Wang Mengya (2019) also analyzed the effects of the three appeals in political speeches through Aristotle's rhetoric. Yang Jihang (2018) in A study of the application of the three rhetorical appeals in Trump’s speeches in use of Aristotle's three principles for theoretical framework to analyze how to Trump in his speech, with the model of three appeals. Similarly, Zheng Lingling (2014) explored the role of Aristotle's rhetoric in Obama's political speeches. Du Caiheng (2012) introduced the effect of rhetoric on Obama's speech and the three appeals it expressed.

2. Theresa May’s and Margaret Thatcher’s Resignation Speeches

2.1 Background of the speeches

In 2016, Prime Minister Cameron resigned in the face of a huge Brexit, and Theresa May, who took over, as leader of the Conservative Party, became the second female British Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher. The determined, hard-working and tough woman has attracted the world's attention. She has been dubbed the "Iron Lady Number Two" and is seen as the perfect candidate to lead Britain's Exit from the European Union. But just three years later, with the Brexit plan once again deadlocked, Theresa May's plan has also sparked debate. So British Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation as leader of the conservative party on June 7, 2019.On May 24, she delivered her resignation speech outside 10 Downing Street in London. Theresa May's speech from the content can be divided into four parts, the first part describes her efforts to Brexit and her frustration and regret that she failed to complete the process. In the second part, she would step down as Prime Minister and expectation to express the successor, the third part summarizes the contribution which she during his tenure. The fourth part is said her appreciate the opportunity to serve the country

Margaret Thatcher was the first female Prime Minister in British history. The bold and enterprising, calm and strong Margaret Thatcher led her conservative party to three consecutive election victories, holding office for a total of 11 years -- from May 1979 to November 1990 -- longer than any 20th-century British politician. She marked Britain's entire 1980s with the Thatcher Era. In 1985, also in front of 10 Downing Street, Thatcher gave her resignation speech, ending her 11-year reign. Mrs. Thatcher's speech can also be divided into three parts. The first part points out that everyone is responsible for the country. The second part gives a rosy picture of the country's future. The third part describes the progress and achievements of Britain in the past eight years and hopes that Britain will continue to prosper in the future

2.2 Effects of the speeches