Ideological Differences between America and China from Perspectives of Transitivity System —Illustrated by Trump’s and Xi Jinping’s Presidential Inaugural Addresses

Abstract

Taking Systemic Functional Grammar proposed by M.A.K. Halliday as theoretical framework, this paper is set to quantitatively analyze Donald Trump’s inaugural address and Xi Jinping’s first public speech as president of China in the distribution and functions of six processes from perspectives of transitivity system. Having done this, ideological differences between America and China beneath the textual discourse of their speeches will be qualitatively illustrated. It finds that material, mental and relational processes predominate both speeches and Xi’s speech mainly takes the overall lead in spiritual guidance and inclines to generally control the economic and social development in China. For Trump, he needs to employ all his skill to induce and gain the supports from American people, objectively depicting American mediocre situations by material process, trying to narrow down the psychological distance between his governance and the people by mental process and increasing the belonging of American people by relational process.