Critical Discourse Analysis Of Trump's Television Debate

The four-year U.S.presidential election influences not only the future development of the United States,but also the trend of the world's politics,economy and international relations.U.S.presidential television debate,as an important part of the campaign,provides an opportunity for swing voters to decide whom they will support.Its crucial influence is obvious.During the debate,the candidates' polices and values vision and position are articulated.They acclaim themselves,attack their opponent,and defend themselves.In the 2016 U.S.presidential election,Trump defeated Hillary and became the U.S.president.Therefore,Trump became the focus of attention and attracted researchers from different fields.Among them,linguists have analyzed Trump's language from different perspectives.In order to have a better understanding of Trump's language,the thesis takes Trump first presidential television debate as research data by combining Fairclough's Three-Dimensional Model and Wodak's Discourse-Historical Approaches as a theoretical framework.As a result,the research finds that Donald Trump has skillful debating techniques.Donald Trump subconsciously or consciously adjusted his language strategies accordingly.Referential strategies are used to shorten the distance and win the voters.Specific processes and topoi are used to label in-groups positive and commendatory,out-groups negative and deprecatory.At the same time,modal operators are deployed by Donald Trump to express his ideas and attitude towards different groups,such as his criticism towards Hillary campaign and the Obama administration,his determination to wipe out ISIS,and his demand for NATO to equally share their fairs.In summary,without any prior political or military experience,Donald Trump takes fully advantage of his social position to stand by the ordinary people.These are also the reasons for him to included those white blue-collar voters and voters without college degrees into his group.The thesis combines two approaches together,which enriched the analytical tools in CDA that may be of help to explore the possible ideology hidden behind thelanguage.The thesis may also help people improve their critical awareness and their language skills.