Abstract
The study explored the strategies used for representing the two social actors, DonaldTrump and Hillary Clinton as a case-study. Data was the transcript of the speech delivered at the 2016Democratic National Convention (DNC) by President Obama. Grounded in the view that an actor isdefined in terms of who he is and what he does, the study adopted a combined approach drawn on vanLeeuwen’s social actor representation framework (SAR) and Halliday’s transitivity analysis. Findingsreveal the speaker deployed selected strategies to support, to identify with Clinton, and to other Trumpat the same time. The use of van Dijk’s ideological square showed how the Us vs. Them characterizationfunctioned as a strategy to further legitimation or de-legitimation of social actors. The study suggeststhat representations are potentially biased. However, it implicitly recognizes a more powerful role ofnon-discursive social practices. Implications and suggestions for future research are offered.
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