THE INTENDED MEANING OF THE IDIOMATIC UTTERANCES USED IN THE SELECTED SPEECH OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA IN ADDRESSING BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MUSLIM COUNTRIES

Abstract

The aims of this research are to examine Obama’s communicative purposes and implied meanings based on idiomatic expressions used in his selected speech. Further, this research discusses more about the use of idiom in metaphorical concept. Such concept is used to treat Obama’s intentions related to his perceptual system and experience with the real world. The primary data in this research is transcripts of Obama’s speech addressing between the United States and Muslim Countries. The theory of conceptual metaphor (Kövecses, 2002) is applied to describe Obama’s idiomatic expressions to address the relationship between those countries. Since idioms generate intended meanings, the observations of supporting studies of indirect speech acts and maxims violation are required to get the further interpretation. The study of indirect speech acts is used to achieve the aims of Obama performing speeches in Muslim Countries. Further, violating maxims are used to explore the implied meanings of Obama’s idiomatic expressions. This study employs qualitative research to describe and to interpret the idiomatic utterances in Obama’s speeches. The result of this research proved that Obama uses many idiomatic expressions in his speeches. The idiomatic expressions are used not only to refine the rhetorical style in his speeches, but also to imply Obama’s communicative purposes in delivering speech in Muslim Countries.