Notes

After the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after its take off killing all seven people aboard it including one civilian, Christa McAuliffe, the president at the time Ronald Reagan delivered a speech to console the nation as many of them wathed as it occured. He employs many language devices to do this.
Reagan constantly repeats the word "We", "we mourn seven heroes","we mourn their loss as a nation together".The repetition of the word "we" shows that he is reaching out to the whole nation as they faced the tragedy together and will overcome it together. The highlights the fact that Reagan believes that the event that occured will make them more unified as a nation.
In addition, Reagan uses a lot of emotive language the console the nation.He uses language such as "we've forgotten the courage" or "daring and brave". These show that Reagan is trying to connect with his Nation on an emotional level rather than just a stoic report showing that he has compassion and symptahy for what has occured. The phase "we mourn seven heroes" shoes the elevated status of the seven crew members who died as the name "hero" is just given to anyone. It can only be given to people who loved by all, brae and courageous, which Reagan seems to think fits the description of the seven crew members showing that he cares about his people.Furthermore, he describes the crew members as having a "special grace" and "special spirit". The repetition of the word "special" indicates that the crew have been held very highly in respect and how dearly they were loved and would be missed.
Moreover, Reagan personally adresses the families of the victims saying that no one could bear as much as they did"the full impact of the tragedy". Here Reagan is admitting to weakness as there was nothing he could do to save them. He is also showing a lot of empathy for the families. fuurthermore, he is acknowledging the fact that he cannot fully comprehend what the families are going through making him seem more sincere and trustworthy to the Nation.
Additionally, Reagan also adresses the schoolchildren of America "who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's take-off." . Here he simplifies the language he is using "I know its hard to understand,","paniful things happen,". He is using casual vocabulary to come down to their level so as to connect with them more. Furthermore, he also adresses them because he knows that they are next generation of workers of the country and he wants to give them hope for when it is their time to work. Also by adressing them he creates a sense of comfort to the audience. In general, the vocabulary that Reagan uses is not overly complex as he adressing the whole nation and some of them will not be as understanding when it comes to complicated vocabulary as others. Therefore, this makes sure tht the full effect of the speech is recieved.