Logos, pathos and ethos in Mahathir Mohamad’s speeches during his come back as prime minister of Malaysia
Abstract
The study examined rhetorical appeals in Mahathir Mohamad’s speeches delivered during his come back as the seventh prime minister of Malaysia. The specific aspects investigated were: (1) the extent to which the logos, pathos and ethos appeals were used; (2) the use of the active and passive voice in attribution of responsibility; and (3) the use of personal pronouns in the appeals. Six of Mahathir Mohamad’s political speeches in Malay language delivered in 2018-2020 with a word-count of 13,000 words were analysed using Aristotle’s rhetorical proofs. The results show that Mahathir Mohamad relied on logos (56.17%) and pathos (39.63%) but not ethos (4.20%). Mahathir Mohamad came across as a political leader who relied on argumentation and the positioning of himself as a spokesperson for the ruling coalition and the government, reflected in “kita” (we-inclusive) accounting for 50.26% of personal pronouns used. However, in the context of a distressing situation, he resorted to the pathos appeal and the frequent use of “I” to show personal interpretations. The passive voice and circumstantial referents were strategically used in disparaging remarks without identifying the doer. The study indicated that seasoned political leaders have a stable rhetorical style with flexibility to suit situations and audiences.
References
Ab Rashid, R., Jamal, S. N., Ibrahim, N. S. N., Yunus, K., Azmi, N. J., Anas, M. & Mohamed, S. B. (2016). Rhetoric and health: How fitness trainers persuade public on social networking site. Man In India, 96(11), 4673-4679.
Abdulhamid, A. (2015). Retorik: Yang indah itu bahasa. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Alkhirbash, A. (2010). Persuasive language in selected speeches of Tun Mahathir Mohamad. (Disertasi doctor falsafah yang tidak diterbit). Serdang: Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Al-Momani, K. R. (2014). Strategies of persuasion in letter of complaint in academic context: The case of Jordanian Univesity students’ complaint. Discourse Studies. 16(6), 705-728. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445614546257
Androniciuc, A.I. (2016). Using social media in political campaigns. Evidence from Romania. SEA: Practical Application of Science, 4(1), 51-57. https://seaopenresearch.eu/Journals/articles/SPAS_10_7.pdf
Bakar, M. M. A., & Hamzah, Z. A. Z. (2015). Retorik pembangunan sosioekonomi masyarakat dalam laporan media. Jurnal Linguistik, 20(2), 10-25.
Brooks, C., & Warren, R. P. (1970). Modern rhetoric (3rd ed.). Harcourt, Brace & World.
Brummett, B. (2000). Reading rhetorical theory. Oriando, FL: Harcourt College Publishers.
Chakorn, O. O. (2006). Persuasive and politeness strategies in cross-cultural letters of request in the Thai business context. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 16(1), 103-146. https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.16.1.06cha
Choong, K. F. (2002). Analisis strategi retorik Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III tentang isu-isu perlembangaan Negeri Brunei dan Rancangan Malaysia 1959-1963. [PhD Dissertation]. Kuala Lumpur: Universiti Malaya.
Dehan, A. A. M., & Yaakob, H. N. A. (2015). Teknik retorik dalam novel Salina karya A. Samad Said. International Journal of Language Education and Applied Lingistik, 2(4), 49-59.
Demirdogen, U. D. (2010). The root of research in political persuasion: Ethos, pathos, logos and the yale studies of persuasive communications. International Journal of Social Inquiry, 3(1), 189-201.
Emanuel, B., Rodrigues, C., & Martins, M. (2015). Rhetoric of interaction: Analysis of pathos. In A. Marcus (Ed.), Design, user experience, and usability: Design discourse (pp. 417-427). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20886-2_39
Enos, T., & Brown, S. C. (1993). Defining the new rhetoric. New York: Sage Publications.
Fatmawati, N., Amin, M., & Nawawi, N. (2020, August). Spoken discourse analysis verbal rhetoric and leadership style: A comparative study of Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad and Dato’Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak. Proceedings of 1st Annual Conference on Education and Social Sciences (ACCESS 2019) (pp. 274-278). Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200827.069
Feez, S. (1998). Text-based syllabus design. Sydney, Australia: Macquarie University.
Gabrielsen, J., & Christiansen, T. J. (2010). The power of speech. Denmark: Glydendal.
Gagich, M., & Zickel, E. (2018). A guide to rhetoric, genre and success in first year writing. Cleveland, US: MSL Academic Endeavors.
Gaiman, N. (1998). Neverwhere. New York, US: Avon.
Grimes, J. (1975). The thread of discourse. The Hague: Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110886474
Higgins, C., & Walker, R. (2012). Ethos, logos, pathos: Strategies of persuasion in social/environmental reports. Accounting Forum, 36(1), 194-208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2012.02.003
Lee, A. C. (2001). Analisis teks ucapan politik bahasa Melayu dari segi retorik: Satu kajian kes terhadap ucapan Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. (Sarjana tesis). Universiti Malaya, Malaysia.
Mansor, H. H., Yaakob, N. A., & Hamzah, Z. A. Z. (2018). Retorik pamerian dalam ceramah agama. International Journal of the Malay World and Civilisation, 6(2), 29-38.
Mori, K. (2016, November 14-15). Analysis of the discourse of diplomatic conflict at the UN: Application of ethos, pathos, logos. Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Humanities & Social Sciences 2016 (IC-HUSO 2016), Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Thailand.
Mshvenieradze, T. (2013). Logos, ethos dan pathos in political discourse. Theory and Practice in Language Studies. 3(11), 19-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2012.02.003
Mua’ti, A. (2007). Pemikiran Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad. Penerbit Universiti Malaya.
Nair, S. R. & Ndubisi, N. O. (2013). Entrepreneurial values, environmental marketing and customer satisfaction: Conceptualization and propositions. In N. O. Ndubisi & S. Nwankwo (Eds.), Enterprise Development in SMEs and Entrepreneurial Firms: Dynamic Processes (pp. 257-269). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-2952-3.ch013
Osman, Z., & Yusoff, N. (2019). Retorik penulisan ilmiah: Penilaian berdasarkan prinsip kerjasama Grice. International Journal of Language Education and Applied Linguistik, 9(1), 69-83. https://doi.org/10.15282/ijleal.v9.1196
Osman, Z., Ismail, S. F. S., & Yusoff, N. (2017). Retorik dalam pengucapan Strategik Lautan Biru. Journal on Leadership and Policy, 2(1), 108-125.
Razak, N. A., Salleh, C. I., & Musa, H. (2016). Titah ucapan pembukaan Dewan Undangan Negeri Kelantan oleh Sultan Muhammad V: Satu analisis retorik. Journal Pertanika, 3(1), 85-93.
Robberson, M. R. & Rogers, R. W. (1988). Beyond fear appeals: Negative and positive persuasive appeals to health and self‐esteem. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 18(3), 277-287. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1988.tb00017.x
Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language (Vol. 626). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173438
Shahrill Ramli, A. M. A., & Hasan, H. A. (in press). Conceptual paper on the rhetorical analysis of Tun Mahathir’s speeches. Human Communication, 2(2), 58-70.
Ting, S. H. (2018). Ethos, logos and pathos in university students’ informal request. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 18(1), 234-251. http://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2018-1801-14
Uysal, H. H. (2012). Argumentation across L1 and L2 writing: Exploring cultural influences and transfer issues. Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics (VIAL), 9, 133-159.
Yaakob, N. A., Hamzah, Z. A. Z., Zain, N. M., & Adullah, S. N. (2018). Penerapan retorik dalam penyampaian ceramah agama. Jurnal Linguistik, 22(2), 54-67.
Copyright (c) 2022 UNIMAS Publisher
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.
2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) For subscription articles, the author(s) agree that UNIMAS Publisher holds copyright, or an exclusive license to publish. Readers or users may view, download, print, and copy the content, for academic purposes, subject to the following conditions of use: (a) any reuse of materials is subject to permission from UNIMAS Publisher; (b) archived materials may only be used for academic research; (c) archived materials may not be used for commercial purposes, which include but not limited to monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, license, transfer of copyright, loan, etc.; and (d) archived materials may not be re-published in any part, either in print or online.
4) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.
5) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
6) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
