A Study Of The Trumps' Campaign Speeches From The Perspective Of CDA

Critical Discourse Analysis is developed from the critical linguistics which was proposed by linguists Fowler in the early 1980s.In recent years,scholars at home and abroad have analyzed the ideology in all kinds of political speech discourses by using the method of Critical Discourse Analysis.In particular,the leaders' speeches of different countries or the U.S.presidents' speeches are the main research data in previous studies.Therefore,this study selects Trump's campaign speech,his daughter Ivanka's and his son Eric's speeches as the research data.Employing Fairclough's Three-Dimensional Model as the theoretical framework and Halliday's Systemic-Functional Grammar as the analysis tool of the linguistic features,the author makes a critical discourse analysis of the Trumps' campaign speeches through a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches.First,based on the three metafunctions of language,this study analyzes the linguistic features in the speeches.Second,the author further explores the relationship between language and ideology and reveals how the three speakers achieve their political aims and convey their opinions and ideologies to the audience through different linguistic strategies.Through a detailed analysis of the Trumps' three speeches,it is concluded that at the level of description and interpretation,the three speakers use material processes most frequently in order to persuade the audience that Trump is of value to be elected as the new president.In terms of the mood system,declarative mood is dominant which is followed by imperative mood in the speeches.The three speakers adopt a large number of declarative mood to indicate their political opinions and stance,and enhance the speaker's status as authority by the using of imperative mood.In terms of the choice of Subject,all three speakers use a large number of first-person pronouns we and our to construct a harmonious relationship with the audience.Ivanka and Eric also use singular third-person pronouns to express their admiration for Trump and confidence in Trump's ability to make America great again.From the aspect of modality,the medium modal verbs dominate the speeches to indicate that Trump aims to increase his support by demonstrating his own policies which will be implemented.In addition,the speakers employ the combination of marked themes and unmarked themes to emphasize Trump's value and persuade the audience to vote for Trump.At the level of explanation,the author dissects the relationship between discourse and social factors and reveals the power relations and ideology in the discourse through an analysis of the presidential election system in the United States and the problems of the Obama's government which are pointed out in the Trumps'campaign speeches.By describing,interpreting and explaining these linguistic features in the Trumps'campaign speeches,this study finds out that the speakers' ideology can be embodied by the linguistic features,and the choice of language is determined by Trump 's authority and persuasive and agitative effect of Ivanka's and Eric's speeches.At the same time,the three speakers,although sharing the same political aims,show some differences in the choice of language because of different gender,stance and identity.This study expands the former researches of critical political discourse analysis,and it is also helpful to improve the English learners' critical thinking and critical reading awareness.