Public discourse: Systemic functional analysis of Trump’s and Biden’s inaugural speeches

Abstract

This study critically analyzes the inaugural speeches of President Trump and President Biden using Critical Discourse Analysis and Systemic Functional Linguistics. The study focuses on transitivity, modality, and texture to identify the political purposes of the two speeches and how language serves ideology and power. Concerning transitivity, the analysis of the ideational function reveals Trump’s usage of ‘material process’ to portray himself as the ‘actor’ and the ‘doer’ with clear ‘goals’ (a strong leader) and Biden’s usage of ‘relational process’, ‘material process’ and ‘mental process’ to communicate vision, simplify abstract concepts and gain trust. Concerning modality, the investigation of the interpersonal function exposes that as Trump communicated his goals, vision, and manifesto directly through medium certainty and the future indicator ‘will’, Biden used high, medium, and low certainty modals to reflect on his vision, entrust the public and generate hope. Even though the structural perspective of low modality in Biden’s speech may suggest weak leadership and lack of confidence, the functional analysis reveals Biden’s fatherly-like approach to uplift morale and generate trust. The investigation of the thematic development and lexical cohesion in both speeches reveals Trump’s focus on concrete concepts (i.e., jobs, wealth, borders) and Biden’s focus on abstract concepts and American values (i.e., unity, democracy, racial justice). The textual analysis also demonstrates how ideologies are communicated through the usage of multiple synonymous references, excessive repetitions, and the conceptual use of ‘we’ and ‘others’.