Persuasion inspirational speech

1. Persuasion.
A football coach’s inspirational speech
Ursu Manuela Maria
Master, 1st year
Course: Interpreting texts. A linguistic approach

2. Any GivenSunday
DirectedbyOliverStone(1999)
Plot summary
An aging football coach (Tony D’Amato) finds himself struggling
with his personal and professional life while trying to hold his
team together.
Excerpt context & plot
• Before the big game, after a series of lost games; in the locker room;
• Tony, the coach, is giving last-minute instructions to his team.
• Tony, the coach, is trying to motivate his team.
Goal of project
• to identify the coach’s persuasive strategies

3. Text
• I don't know what to say really. Three minutes to the biggest battle of
our professional lives […]. Either we heal as a team or we are going to
crumble. […] We are in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me, and we
can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way
back into the light. We can climb out of hell. One inch, at a time. […] You
find out that life is just a game of inches. So is football. Because in
either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small. I mean one
half step too late or to early you don't quite make it. One half second
too slow or too fast and you don't quite catch it. […] On this team, we
fight for that inch. […] We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know when we add up all those inches that's going to make
the fucking difference between WINNING and LOSING between LIVING
and DYING. I'll tell you this: in any fight it is the guy who is willing to die
who is going to win that inch. […] Now I can't make you do it. You gotta
look at the guy next to you. […] Now I think you are going to see a guy
who will go that inch with you. That's a team, gentlemen and either we
heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. […] Now, whatcha
gonna do?
https://www.slideshare.net/Vizental/3apersuasion-inspirational-speech

4. 1. Language
Word choice
• simple words:
• minutes, battle, team, hell…
Connotations: of equality: we, team
of war: fight, winning, crumble,
Figurative speech & rhetorical devices
• Metaphor:
• nominal: We are in hell; life = game; every success = an inch;
• sentential: … life is just a game of inches …
• Inch by inch play by play till we're finished
• … it is the guy who is willing to die who is going to win that inch
• Antithesis
• too late or too early; too slow or too fast; heal or crumble;
• …the difference between WINNING and LOSING; between LIVING and DYING
• Rhetorical repetition – inch by inch, play by play
• Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. You
are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team.
• Rhetorical question: Now, whatcha gonna do?

5. Grammar: simple, coordinated sentences:
• “We are in hell right now, gentlemen believe me and we can stay
here and get the shit kicked out of us or we can fight our way back
into the light.”
Style: informal, colloquial
Paralanguage & body language
• positive, encouraging, but not overconfident
• he looks the players in the eyes
• he makes wide gestures
• he points at them
• his tone of voice is calm and equal,
• except when he wants to emphasize something,
• then he raises his voice
• he raises his eyebrows
• he walks around
• when he talks about himself he looks down, ashamed of his failures

6. Textness
Type of text
• Written (a script) meant to be spoken (a speech in a film)
Coherence
• The coach tells his players that, in order to win, they have to fight, to
give all they’ve got, to support each other, and to be the best they can
in any given moment.
Cohesion
• Personal, pronominal substitutions:
• I don't know; We can climb out; You find out; They are in ever break;
• Deictic words: we can stay here, Now I can't make you
• Link words: and, so, because, for, either….or
• Lexical chains: team, play, football, catch, game; battle, winning, losing
• Repetition of a word:
• we heal as a team, On this team, for this team, That's a team

7. Context: before a football game,
“the biggest battle of our professional lives”
Illocutionary force
• The coach tries to inspire his team, to make them understand the
importance of every victory and of team work
Strategies for reducing social distance (D)
• he uses 1st person plural we to include himself in the team
• he uses colloquial style
• he uses slang to “wake them up”
• get the shit kicked out of us; the fucking difference
• he ends his speech with a rhetorical question, to urge them indirectly
into action
• Now, whatcha gonna do?
Indirectness
• Tony’s approach is direct
• I don't know what to say really. Three minutes to the biggest battle of our
professional lives …
• but his language is indirect
2. Language in use

8. Strategies of indirectness
- a tentative approach:
• I don't know what to say really;
• Now I think you are going to …
- indirect reference to the subject (metaphor):
• life = game; victory = inch; we heal;
• we are in hell (=we have been losing lately)
• a game of inches (= during the game, every little step matters)
• we fight for that inch (= stay focus and miss no step)
Strategies of politeness
• Tony calls the players gentlemen
• he does not use imperative verbs, does not tell them what to do
• he gives them a chance to choose, to make their own decisions
• we can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back
• Now I can't make you do it. …You gotta look at …
• The players show signs of politeness and respect by keeping quiet through
the whole speech.

9. Negotiating meaning
• Tony speaks indirectly, i.e. he uses the metaphor of the inch to refer to the
importance of every step in life/of that game
• the players’ reaction shows that they have made the correct inferences and
understood his meaning
Negotiating power position (P)
• Tony presents himself as part of the team (equal P):
- we (includes himself); as a team
• as coach, he is still the powerful one (high P):
I'll tell you …
• as non-playing coach, he is powerless in the field; nor can he impose his will
on them (low P):
• Now I can't make you do it; Now, whatcha gonna do?
Conclusion: Tony acquires power position through
- the strength of his words and the relevance of his message to the players
- persuading the players of the importance of the game and of team work
- motivating the players to win the game

10. Conclusion
How does Tony manage to inspire and motivate his team?
Tony manages to inspire his team by:
- his personal involvement in their struggle
We can climb out of hell. (1st person reference)
- his acceptance of his own insecurity and personal failure
I don't know what to say really.
- his colloquial style, his slangy vocabulary
…we can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us or we can fight our way back into the
light.
- his warm voice, friendly paralanguage
- his emphasis on the tremendous importance of the moment
Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives all comes down to today
- his inspired parallel between life and the game, his metaphor of the inches
… life is just a game of inches. So is football. Because in either game life or football the
margin for error is so small.
- his insistence on the importance of team work and trust in one another
That's a team, gentlemen and either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals.
- the rhetoric gradation of his speech
… those inches that's going to make the fucking difference between WINNING and LOSING
between LIVING and DYING.
- his final rhetorical question
Now, whatcha gonna do?

11. Bibliography
• Books:
• Vizental, Adriana. 2008. Phonetics and Phonology. An Introduction.
3rd edition. Arad: “Aurel Vlaicu” University Press.
• Vizental, Adriana. 2009. Meaning and Communication, From
Semantic Meaning to Pragmatic Meaning. Arad: “Aurel Vlaicu”
University Press.
• On-line sources:
• https://www.slideshare.net/Vizental/3apersuasion-inspirational-speech
• https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=al+pacino+inspirational+speech+
with+english+subtitles
• http://essaysfromexodus.scripting.com/stories/storyReader$1492