A Study of Metonymy in Barack Obama's Presidential Speeches

Abstract: This thesis discusses the use of metonymy in Barack Obama’s presidential speeches. The purposes of this research are to identify the kinds of metonymy that appear in the Barack Obama’s presidential speeches and to explain why metonymy is used by Barack Obama in his presidential speeches. The design of this study is qualitative design. The result of this study shows that there are five types of metonymy that are used by Barack Obama; (1) producer for product, (2) institution for people responsible, (3) place for institution, (4) time for event, and (5) controller for the controlled metonymy. There are three reasons why metonymy is used by Barack Obama; (1) breaking up any awkwardness of repeating the same phrase or word, (2) changing the words to make the sentence more interesting, and (3) avoiding emotional turmoil due to the use of sensitive term