Complete analysis

 

ANALYSIS - T. S. ELIOT'S SPEECH TO GERMANY
The speaker proceeds his talk with another specification about the thesis, reconfirming the thesis itself. He says that he "simply says that the English language is the most remarkable medium for the poet to play with", thus moving away all the possible misunderstandings. The pronoun "I" implies again that he too agrees with the thesis, while the adverb "simply" underlines that he wants to prevent any misconstruction.
After that the speaker provides an argumentation and a proof about it immediately after. He says that English has the largest vocabulary, so large that no poet has been able to command it entirely. The colon between "vocabulary" and "so large" has an explanatory function.
Then the speaker proceeds with another specification, which clarifies that there are several argumentations that support his thesis. The conjunction "but" is used both to persuade the listener of this and to keep his attention alert. In this sentence, he says that the previous argumentation was a consequence of the main one.
Afterwards, the speaker advances the main argumentation: the English language is various because it is made up by several elements. The expressions "this" and "in my opinion" underline that the speaker agrees with the argumentation.
To support the main argumentation, he states a series of secondary ones which justify the variety of the English language. They are:

• The German element
• The Scandinavian element
• The Norman French element
• The French influences
• The Latin influences and the subsequent selection of Latin words
• The Celtic element.

Each secondary argumentation is introduced by a conjunction which expresses a sequence (first, after this, then, after this, and there). They are used to ease the listener the memorization of the elements. All the argumentations are disposed in chronological order, except for the one referring to Celtic culture. Probably, it is distinguished to underline its importance, which is on the contrary often unevaluated. This derives from a personal consideration of the speaker, as the phrase "I think" underpins. Furthermore, most of them are followed by a minor argumentation (the Danish conquest, the Norman conquest, the traceability of the French influences) which justify them.
Notably, the speaker varies the subject from the generic impersonal to "you" and "we" when speaking about the German and the Danish elements. This is used to create a climate of interaction and to find a common element between the speaker and the listeners. Moreover, the semicolon in the argumentation about Latin influences (s. 24) is employed to unite two independent argumentations about the same topic.