This dissertation, "Language and Politics: Use and Abuse of Language in Political Rhetoric" by Maggie, Lam, 林美琪, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract This paper attempts to look into the above question in the following sequence. I shall first start with a discussion of the nature of rhetoric. It is then followed by a study of the rhetoric of members of political "elites," that is, of politicians and presidents; whose rhetoric marks the great occasions of history. They are Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address," selections from the rhetoric of former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair and George W. Bush's "war on terror." Attempts will be made to analyze the organization, themes and rhetorical strategies of the spoken discourse. My attempt is to illustrate that, in a piece of political rhetoric which inspires people towards common good, strikingly similar strategies can be found in another; in which language can steer people away from their logical thinking in order to achieve one's political motives. In this sense, one can argue that language moves away from its normal informative function, to one that is inherently deceiving, or even 'sheer cloudy vagueness.' (Orwell, 1946: 152) The aim of this paper is to explore the nature of political rhetoric through analyzing examples of political discourse, with the hope that these analyses can contribute to distinguishing defensible and indefensible rhetoric, pinning down the diverse aims of rhetors. The aims range from striving to inform, inspire and encourage to confuse, mislead and distort. By doing so, it would then give ideas on how rhetoric works to establish ideologies and create myths, and how these principles become more prevalent in the centuries to come. DOI: 10.5353/th_b3842949 Subjects: Rhetoric - Political aspects English language - Rhetoric