A Study of Discourse Strategies from the Perspective of Critical Analysis

Abstract

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a form of reflective inspection of how discourses shape and influence us. It has been applied widely especially in political discourses which analyzes the potential characteristics of language and the social and cultural background generated in the text, committed to exposing the complex relationship between language, power and ideology with the aid of critical thinking. Generally, the theoretical framework of CDA is based on Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics. Halliday believes that language has three metafunctions, namely ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function. These three achievements meet the needs of language users in three aspects including the description of the experience of objective world, the construction of social relations and the organization of discourse. As an important theory in systemic functional grammar, transitive system embodies the ideational function of language, which expresses people’s real world experiences and the inner world in several processes. In addition, this kind of theory is based on the semantic configuration of Actor+Process. Therefore, this paper will make a critical discourse analysis of Donald Trump’s inauguration speech in 2017 from the aspect of linguistic transitive system. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the language skills used by Mr.Trump and the discourse generating patterns of his presidential image, so that we can explore the ideology reflected behind the language and dig into the process of building the image of the president of the United States in Donald Trump’s inauguration speech.