A Study On 2016 American Presidential Debates From The Perspective Of Stasis Theory

The TV debate is a crucial part in the process of the presidential election in the United States.It is one of the most important political events before the polling day.In 2016,the TV debate between the two candidates,Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton,is particularly notable.In the three TV debates,the two candidates make full use of various means of discourse to show their personal charm and leadership to gain more support from voters.In view of this,this study conducts an in-depth analysis of the three TV debates in the 2016 U.S.presidential campaign from the angle of rhetorical stasis,sorts out the strategies of stases involved in the two candidates' debates to make a more comprehensive analysis of the US presidential TV debate from the perspective of rhetoric.Stasis Theory,as an important part of Western rhetoric,plays an important role in the study of Western discourse.The thesis attempts to analyze the three TV debates in the 2016 US presidential election under the guidance of Stasis Theory,aiming to reveal the characteristics of stases involved in the two candidates' debates,their preference of applying stases,factors influencing the choice of stases and discuss the main rhetorical effect of these stases in the two candidates' debates.To be specific,this thesis first attempts to find out the two candidates' preference of applying stases by counting the frequency of stases used in their debates.Then,the author selects some typical examples as case studies,and summarizes the factors which influence the choice of stases and explores the main rhetorical effects of these stases involved in their debates.The study finds that the use of stases makes their debates extremely appealing and persuasive,which helps to shorten the emotional distance with the audience and win their support.The statistics shows that the two candidates employ stases differently in the three debates.In the first debate,according to the data analysis in Table 4.1 and Table 4.2,“issue of fact” and “issue of quality” are used the most frequently,accounting for 73.34% of the total number of stases used in Hillary's debates and 67.71% of the total number of stases used in Trump's.In the second debate,according to Table 4.3 and Table 4.4,“issue of fact”,“issue of quality” and “issue of action” are the most frequently employed,taking up 87.5% of the total number of stases used in Hillary's debates and 86.44% of the total number of stases in Trump.In the third debate,according to Table 4.5 and Table 4.6,“issue of fact” and “issue of action” are the most frequently used,occupying 72.72% of the total number of stases used in Hillary's debates and 65.63% of the total number of stases used in Trump's.The two candidates are more inclined to adopt the strategy of “issue of fact”,“issue of quality” and “issue of action” to realize their purposes.The case study shows that the ideologies and policies of the two parties can influence the choice of stases in the two candidates' debates.It also finds that the main rhetorical effects of these stases involved in their debates are to praise themselves,attack their opponents and defend themselves.