‘One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world!’ A study of personal pronouns, modality and rhetorical devices in a selection of Malala Yousafzai’s speeches.

Abstract

15 year old Malala Yousafzai caught the world's attention when she was shot in the head on a school bus in Pakistan by members from the terrorist group known as the Taliban. Since that day in 2012, Malala has built a national career as a global youth activist, who works hard to empower children’s rights to an education. Her work has focused on empowering especially girls’ rights and their role in world society. This thesis aims to analyse the vocabulary in speeches given by Yousafzai after she was shot. The investigation is based on nine speeches, which form The Malala Corpus. The study consists of an analysis of personal pronouns, modal auxiliaries and rhetorical devices. This has been done to figure out what kind of devices Yousafzai has applied to enhance the persuasive effect of her speeches, and create a strong appeal to the audience which has resulted in her political impact. The findings revealed that personal pronouns, modal auxiliaries and figurative language play an important role in her persuasive discourse, and the rhetorical elements that most frequently have been applied are a combination of appealing by the use of ethos and pathos.