Discourse-analytical perspectives of Donald Trump's communicative behavior
Journal Title: Науковий вісник Дрогобицького державного педагогічного університету імені Івана Франка. Серія: Філологічні науки (мовознавство) - Year 2017, Vol 8, Issue 2
Abstract
The study explores the issue of effectiveness of Trump's language and addresses linguistic means that contribute to making him appealing to his base. The authors work on a premise that the candidate appeals primarily to emotions over logic and thus examine instances where Trump persuades ‒ and manipulates – the public by generating a powerful emotional response in them. Although ways in which he exploits emotions can take many different forms, the paper limits its scope to Trump's use of repetitions, hyperbole and exaggeration and his propensity to pit his supporters against his critics, i.e. Us vs. Them. The corpus demonstrates that activating these (and other) affective components of communication is, for the most part, deliberate and strategic for Trump, although it is also true that appeal to emotions is natural and often intuitive on his part. Repetitions, our data suggest, make sure that certain ideas become permanent in the minds of prospective voters and that way it is easier to associate opponents with something negative. Hyperbole in Trump's discourse has been shown to take different forms and serve several functions. It is revealed that hyperbolic utterances contribute a sense of vagueness and underspecificity and that by resorting to hyperbolization, Trump safeguards his credibility although many of his statements are factually not accurate or even untrue. Finally, the paper shows that, as a demagogue, Trump appears to exploit the potential of the We vs. Them juxtaposition to the full. This strategy seems particularly useful for a politician who uses fear and anger to malign different minority groups in society. The methodological framework used in the study is critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, van Dijk, Wodak, van Leeuwen etc.)
Authors and Affiliations
У. О. Потятиник, Т. З. Оршинська
Keywords
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