DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST JAPANESE EMPIRE: BUILDING HEROES THROUGH PASSIVIZATION AND LEXICALIZATION

Abstract

The substantial attention of the analysis on the use of passive sentences has generally been paid to the style. Although grammatical categories can be seen as an interesting area for stylistic analysis, the focus usually circles around the grammatical phenomena of the roles of the actor, action, patient, location, and so on. Similarly, in the analysis of lexical choice, diction is generally defined as choosing the right words in a speech or writing that should be accurate, appropriate, and understandable so that nothing will confuse an audience. Applying the method of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and the theory of ideology proposed by van Dijk (1995; 2000) and drawing on the theory of passivization and political diction, it is argued that when combined tactfully, grammatical phenomena of passive voice and thoughtful diction related to the naming can produce fruitful rhetorical ideological effects in building heroes in the people’s minds to obtain political assent in a speech. Specifically, purposive passive construction and the insightful diction by naming and labelling the actor in some certain expressions will be highlighted. It is found that that the way FDR makes use of both passives combined with political dictions have been effective in his Declaration of War against Japanese Empire. Further linguistic analyses by applying the same method using other theories are also recommended