Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump's Inaugural Speech

Assist Prof Nagham Ali Hassan

doi:10.36473/ujhss.v226i1.176

Abstract

Political speeches are represented in different shapes as political forum, events or as inaugural speech. This research critically analyzes the inaugural Speech of the President Donald Trump which was delivered on 20th ,January, 2017 from the site<www.cnn.com> retrieved on 10th ,May,2017. The objectives of the study are: First: classifying and discussing well known micro structures (linguistic feature) of the speech, and second: classifying the macro structures i.e. the delivered political inaugural speech in which he includes social structures. To reach to the objectives of the study, the researcher will adopt Norman Fairclough’s three dimensional Analytical Model(1989). Tracing the model, the speech was submitted to description (text analysis), interpretation (processing/ analysis) and explanation (social practice and analysis). The results of the analysis have shown that Trump uses colourful language devices to address Americans. He uses future tense in his speech more than the other tenses to talk about America's future. He creatively repeats certain expressions to show his point of view. The pronoun 'we' is used to talk about the state of America and to show a mutual correlation between Trump and the hearers. Moreover, Trump relays on active voice to get all the hearers active not passive, which reflects the social relations. However, in some instances, he uses passive voice to assure Americans that he will be with them

Highlights

This target was followed by developing critical linguists such as: (Fowler et al, 1979:55and Fowler, 1991:89) to produce analytical devices based on Systemic Functional Linguistics. 1.3 The Origins of CDA
The study reaches to the following conclusions: 1. Trump has used different relational and experiential values in his inaugural speech
He wants to highlight different meanings, intentions and thoughts to the audience. He heavily relays on modal auxiliary verbs as shown in the analysis

Summary

Introduction

The researcher will present a wide spectrum about critical discourse analysis ( CDA) : 1.1CDA. 1.4 Objectives of CDA One of the major objectives of CDA is to tackle the reasons of the contradiction and downtrodden in a society It alludes to declare non- clear method in which language is indulged in social relations of power and solidarity, and in ideology (Fairclough, 2001: 229). Depending on Fairclough (1995: 7), discourse is realized as the use of known language like form of social method, and discourse analysis is a way of analyzing how text works within sociocultural method. According to this definition, analyzing speech should not be taken out from the surrounding context in which texts are presented.

Experiential Values

Conclusions