Question

President Obama says, "It's no secret that those of us here tonight have had our differences over the last two years. The debates have been contentious; we have fought fiercely for our beliefs." The line above contains an example of a(n)

Answer 1

The line is an example of a direct quotation. That is when a quotation by someone is unchanged and presented in its entirety. Of course, it's a part of a larger speech, but it's unchanged and can be as such analyzed for various things that the linguists would be searching for.