Critical Discourse Analysis Of President Trump's 2019 State Of The Union Address

Political discourse is an important research topic in the field of critical discourse analysis.Based on Fairclough's theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis and Qualitative&quantitative methods,this thesis analyzes US President Trump's State of the Union Address(SOUA)in2019 from the text,the discourse practice and the social practice dimensions.Through the description,interpretation,and explanation,We answer the main research question of “how does Trump construct American ideology and power(hegemony)by discourse in SOUA?” We find that the Trump's2019 the State of the Union address as the political discourse reflects and constructs the ideology and power(hegemony)of the United States.On the dimension of the text analysis,(1)The language expression strategies of the State of the Union address are mainly reflected on the vocabulary selection.In the State of the Union address,the keywords,such as "America","greatness","party","cooperation","immigrant",and "border",construct American unilateralism ideology and hegemonic thoughts,highlight the ideological differences between Democrats and Republicans on immigration and many other issues,and hint at the impact of the power struggles between the two parties on the division of American society.(2)At the level of grammatical analysis,through the analysis of the modal verbs in the State of the Union address,we find that the modal verb "can" conveys the firm determination of the United States to guarantee the stability and strength of the country and the wealth and happiness of the people,expressing that President Trump's confidence to give up the differences between the two parties.The modal verb "will" expresses his determined will to unite and fight for common goals.The modal verb "Must" expresses a firm attitude of calling on the Congress to go beyond bipartisan power struggles,keep America first,realize party cooperation at home and jointly deal with rivals abroad.Modal verbs not only express Trump's ability,determination and attitude,but also highlight the ideological differences and sharp power struggles between the democratic and Republican parties.(3)At the level of discourse structure,through the analysis of the thematic structure,we find that the use of the first-person plural in a single term indicates that,on the one hand,Trump wants to narrow the distance with members of Congress and the American public,and get voter support in order to pave the way for re-election in 2020.On the other hand,Trump wants the two parties unite to eliminate differences,and support the administration's measures.The first-person singular pronoun "I" as a single theme in thethematic structure plays an important role in strengthening the power of the president.On the discourse practice dimension,through the analysis of the intertextuality of the formulas in the State of the Union address,we find that Trump 's State of the Union is full of formulas such as "freedom",which highlights the so-called freedom and democracy of the United States and constructs the image of the United States as a world leader with universally recognized values in the West.Through the analysis of rhetorical intertextuality,we find that the method of comparison is fully used in the State of the Union address.The use of parallelism strengthens the ideological thinking in the State of the Union address,strengthens the momentum of the speech,and thus constructs American unilateralism and hegemony.On the social dimension,the State of the Union strengthens American ideology and hegemony.In the State of the Union address,the ideological relationship between President Trump and members of Congress has the same and different characteristics: on the one hand,Trump advocates American common values,on the other hand,it is revealed that the two parties have deep ideological differences.In international relations,the United States has been increasingly resort to economic and military "hard power".The words in the State of the Union address not only express this kind of economic and military hegemony,but also construct this kind of economic and military hegemony.The state of the Union address is an important political document in the United States.This study shows that the critical discourse analysis of Trump's 2019 state of the Union address is a correct research path,which indicates the basic trend of Trump's government's domestic and foreign affairs through the analysis of political discourse,and has an important enlightenment for future political discourse research.