Critical Discourse Analysis of Ivanka Trump’s Speech at the World Assembly for Women

Abstract

As a type of discourse analytic tool, critical discourse analysis takes the research on the way that how social power abuse, dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted as the main object. It is a popular method to study political speech. Taking Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework as analytical framework and employing systemic functional grammar, the study adopts the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyze meaning construction in Ivanka Trump’s Speech to the World Assembly for Women. At the stage of description, transitivity, use of modal verbs and personal pronouns are examined. At the stage of interpretation, genre, framing and topicalization are analyzed. At explanation stage, the text and social environment is considered. Based on the analysis, the study found out that Ivanka expressed her concern about the status quo of women’s lives, which resonated with feminists, and expressed the government’s determination to make changes. The study unearthed power relations and ideologies concealed in the speech, which means that she intends to strengthen the audience’s understanding of their political ideas and consolidate their political position through this speech. Meanwhile, the analysis of political speech by means of critical discourse analysis is helpful to improve readers’ critical thinking ability of discourse.