A critical discourse analysis of donald trump’s 2015 presidential campaign announcement speech

ABSTRACT The study aimed to investigate how the language used in Donald Trump‟s Announcement Speech positions various actors.. It not only attempted to reveal how the language used serve

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01

Hanoi, 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Linguistics Code : 8220201.01

Supervisor : Prof Dr Nguyễn Hòa

Hanoi, 2019

Lê Thị Yến

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Professor Nguyễn Hòa for helping me complete this study This paper would not have been accomplished without his expert, constant and valuable guidance and encouragement His patience and helpful criticism helped me confidently express my ideas into this paper

I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable lectures which have helped me a great deal in gaining a lot of theoretical background as well as practical knowledge

My special thanks also go to my friends and colleagues for their enthusiastic help and support with my teaching schedule at school which gave me precious time to deal with my thesis

Finally, I would also like to express my deep gratitude and love to my family who gave me time and encouragement to overcome all obstacles during the completion of this study

ABSTRACT

The study aimed to investigate how the language used in Donald Trump‟s Announcement Speech positions various actors It not only attempted to reveal how the language used serves ideology and power but also how it provided a better understanding

of the political purpose of the speech Data was chosen from selected representative excerpts resident in Donald Trump‟s Announcement Speech The study was oriented on the theoretical basis of Critical Discourse Analysis It used Systemic Functional Linguistics

as an adjunct theory and employs Fairclough‟s (1989, 2010) three tier model of description, interpretation and explanation for the analysis The study approached qualitative research design The findings shown that linguistic representation helped bring out power imbalance among the participants involved Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Terrorists were portrayed as having the capacity to act upon the others while USA was cast as lacking the ability or capacity to perform certain duties or tasks The study also shown that Donald Trump positions himself in the first place of the sentence with biggest emphasis, which, in my opinion, describes him as arrogant and divisive

Key words: Discourse analysis, Critical discourse analysis, political speech, Donald

Trump‟s speech, systemic functional grammar, ideology

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

DA : Discourse Analysis CDA : Critical Discourse Analysis SFL : Systemic Functional Linguistic ISIS : Islamic State in Iraq and Syria

Pr : Process Rel : Relational Circ : Circumstance

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Frequency of process types in the selected text 27 Table 4.2 Frequency of modals in the selected text 39 Table 4.3 Deontic modals by sub-category in the texts 41 Table 4.4 Frequency of counts of modals of desirability 41 Table 4.5 Frequency count of modals of obligation in the selected data 44

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… ii

ABSTRACT……… ……… iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ……… ……….… iv

LIST OF TABLES ……….…… v

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… vi

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1.1 Rationale……… 1

1.2 Research Objectives ……… ……… 2

1.3 Research Questions ……….……… 2

1.4 Scope of the Study……….………… ……… 2

1.5 Significance of the Study……… 3

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND……… 4

2.1 Literature Review……… … 4

2.1.1 An overview of DA ……… … 4

2.1.2 An overview of CDA……… ………… … 4

2.2 Key Concept to the study……… 5

2.2.1 CDA……… ……… 5

2.2.2 Discourse……… ……….6

2.2.2.1 Discourse as social practice……….… 7

2.2.2.2 Discourse and Power Relations……… 8

2.2.3 Ideology……… 8

2.2.3.1 Main views of ideology……….8

2.2.3.2 Implicit or explicit ideology……… 9

2.2.4 CDA and SFL……….……… ………… 10

2.2.4.1 Transitivity Systems as a Framework of Experiential Meaning………… ….11

2.2.4.2 Modality System as A Framework of Interpersonal Meaning……… 12

2.3 Main approaches to CDA ……….…….…14

2.4 Review of previous studies on political discourse……… …15

2.5 Chapter summary……….……… ….16

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY……… 18

3.1 Research Method……… ……… 18

3.2 Research Design……… 18

3.3 Data and its social context……… 18

3.4 Data analysis procedure……….……… 20

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISSCUSSION……… …… 23

4.1 Ideology realized in the recurring themes………… ……… ….… 23

4.1.1 Ideology of self- promotion and other- rejection……….…….23

4.1.2 Ideology as a tool of Persuasion……… 24

4.1.3 Ideology as a tool of Negotiation……… 26

4.2 Transitivity systems realizing the recurring themes……… ……… 27

4.2.1 Process Types and Participant Roles in the Theme of Immigration…… 28

4.2.1.1 Material processes……… 28

4.2.1.2 Mental processes……… 29

4.2.1.3 Relational processes……… 30

4.2.1.4 Verbal processes……….… 31

4.2.1.5 Existential processes……… 31

4.2.1.6 Behavioral processes……… 31

4.2.2 Process Types and Participants roles in the Theme of National Security 32

4.2.2.1 Material processes……… ….32

4.2.2.2 Mental processes……….…… 36

4.3.2.2 Relational processes……… 37

4.3 Modality types realizing the recurring themes……… 39

4.3.1 Epistemic Modality………40

4.3.2 Deontic Modality………….………… ……….….……… 40

4.3.2.1 Modal of Desirability in the selected text……… 41

4.3.2.2 Modal of Obligation in the selected text……… 43

4.3.2.3 Modal of Permission in the selected text……… 45

4.4 Chapter Summary……… ……… 46

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION ……… 47

5.1 Main findings of the study……….……….………… 47

5.2 Conclusion……… 48

5.3 Implications ……… 49

5.4 Limitations and Recommendations for Further Research………… 49

REFERENCES……… 51 APPENDICES……… ……… I

Appendix : Donald Trump‟s Presidential Announcement Speech.………….… I

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

This chapter highlights the statement of the problem, the objectives of the study, the research questions, the scope of the study as well as the significance of the study

1.1 Rationale

Political discourse just like any other genre of discourse has its own unique structures of language and an investigation on the particular nature of such a structure is an important academic pursuit According to Fairclough, political discourses are decision and action oriented He also added that such decisions are made in the context of uncertainty and disagreement as can be seen in campaign speeches where politicians not only use language

to express their ideas and feelings but also to re-shape the opinions of the electorate In this study, we attempted to bring out some descriptive and interpretive aspects of Donald Trump‟s Announcement Speech

I chose Trump‟s Speech for the following reasons First, it is easy to see that so far there have been many research papers on political speeches of famous and influential people like Barrack Obama, John McCain, Tony Blair, etc However, little attention has been given to seemingly banal speech such as Donald Trump‟s Announcement Speech Secondly, as a representative of the most powerful country in the world, his political ideologies, if any, may have implications for the rest of the world

This study therefore intends to fill this gap by investigating how the experiential and the interpersonal meanings are realized through the systems of transitivity and modality choices Since representations in texts are socially, politically and economically motivated and since they are increasingly becoming influential, it is important to try and find out how these hidden meanings should be understood

1.2 Research Objectives

The current study utilizes Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) model to unmask the use of power and hidden strategies through language use Also the study analyzes and uncovers the experiential, interpersonal meanings of the wordings and grammatical structures of Trump‟s language use

In summary, the specific objectives are to provide a critical analysis of Donald Trump‟s political discourse based on Fairclough‟s framework to find out the way hidden power and ideologies are shown in the speech and to study Donald Trump‟s use of language to win favor with his audience

1.3 Research Questions

To obtain the aims of the study, the following research questions have been posed:

1 How is ideology represented in Donald Trump‟s Campaign Announcement speech?

2 How does Donald Trump use language to achieve his goals?

2.1 How do the choices of Process Types and Participant Roles made in the Announcement Speech realize experiential meaning?

2.2 How do the Modality choices made in the Announcement Speech realize the interpersonal meaning?

1.4 Scope of the Study

The study adopted Fairclough‟s (1989, 1995, 2010) tenets of CDA as well as the works of the CDA theorists such as Van Dijk (195, 2001) and Wodak (1997) It only concerned itself with the principles of CDA in sync with the research questions It also employed Systemic Functional Linguistics by Halliday (1985, 1994, 2004) to provide analytic tools

It similarly, made references to other theoretic studies on Systemic Functional Linguistics Specifically, reference was made to Halliday‟s model of transitivity and modality patterns

On this, the study analyzed the major process types: Material, Mental and Relational processes The other process types: behavioral, verbal and existential were only analyzed when their occurrence was salient in the selected text The study similarly, analyzed modality purely as contextually conceived in modal auxiliary

Within the Announcement Speech, the study only concerned itself with the transitivity systems and the modality choices within the themes of Immigration and National Security because they were the most salient The other themes: Obamacare, Economy, Education and Unemployment were only used to illustrate the concepts: Ideology and Power

1.5 Significance of the study

This is one of the newest attempts to explore and discover interrelation of discourse structures and ideological structures of Donald Trump‟s Presidential Campaign Announcement speech in the United States Presidential Election, 2016 as a good sample of

his language use in presidential campaign

Theoretically, this study provides a support to CDA theories From an objective view as linguists when approaching discourses, CDA analysts can find out ideology and power hidden behind words

Practically, this study is submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements of my degree of Master in English Linguistics Moreover, with the investigation of Donald Trump‟s speech

it may provide the researcher another approach to political speech analysis from CDA viewpoint

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter presents literature review which includes an overview of DA and CDA Then

it goes to introduce some key concepts for the study which focuses on both CDA and SFL

2.1 Literature Review

2.1.1 An overview of DA

Discourse analysis is a broad field which is related to use of language in context According to Tistcher (2000, p 42), ''discourse is a broad term with different definitions, which 'integrate a whole palette of meanings'' Discourse analysis takes into account different theoretical and methodological approaches such as linguistic, anthropology, philosophy, psychology and sociology The nature of language is closely related to the demands that we make on it and the functions it has to serve In the most concrete terms, these functions are specific to a culture ''The particular form has taken by the grammatical system of language is closely related to the social and personal need that language is required to serve'' (Halliday, 1978, p 142)

One of the important features of DA is to study authentic texts and conversations in the social context The early DA was concerned with the internal structure of texts Halliday's systematic functional linguistics is a new evolution against internal structure of texts According to Halliday (1978), texts should encode both personal and social processes In other words, texts should be generated, comprehended and put into a social context Discourse analysis is based on micro and macro levels Therefore, both linguistic and social analyses are important Discourses are interpreted as communicative events because discourses between people convey messages beyond that of what is said at directly What

is important in such discourse is the social information which is transferred allusively

2.1.2 An overview of CDA

At the end the 1970s, CDA was established as one of the domains of research in discourse studies It is known as an approach that is based on the union of language studies and social theory (Fairclough, 1992) CDA investigates how social power is misused and how

text and talk represent, procreate, and resist dominance and inequality in the social and political context The most notable figure in this domain is Norman Fairclough, who has developed a three dimensional framework for studying discourse The aim of this framework is to integrate three dimensions into another analysis of language text In other words, it refers to analysis of discourse practice (processes of text production, distribution and consumption) and analysis of discourse events

Critical Discourse Analysis is not merely analytic It is critical in the sense that it sets out

to discern the relationship between language and other hidden elements in the social strata These elements include: (a) how language figures social relations of power and dominance; (b) how language works ideologically; (c) how language negotiates personal and social identities

One of the most important linguistic theories used as a basis for a critical discourse approach is that of Halliday's systematic functional grammar It is supported by some linguists such as (Chouliaraki and Fairclough 1999, Fairclough, 1992, 1995 a and b, Kress, 1985) who used it for analyzing the text because systematic functional grammar has a significant role in critical interpretation of linguistic expression in various discourses As a matter of fact, systematic functional linguistic (SFL) model has been applied as a tool for analyzing the texts

In short, according to many scholars, the main difference between DA and CDA is that DA mainly concerns with communication and information sharing while CDA is problem- oriented, which considers discourse as a social practice

2.2 Key concepts to the study

2.2.1 CDA

CDA can be viewed as an analytic approach whose major concern is the way dominance, social power and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted in a text, social and political contexts (Van Dijk 2001: 352, 2003: Fairclough: 2010) According to Young and Harrison (2004: 3), CDA focuses on espousing ideologies hidden in language Such ideologies naturalize the unequal power relations but once they are brought to the fore, they can be contested The primary concern of CDA, therefore, is to show the relationship

between language, power and ideology on the one hand and that of social change and social identity on the other CDA does this by looking at the role discourse plays in the production and maintenance of unequal power relations and dominance (Weiss and Wodak 2003; Mr Gregor 2011:4) These roles are summarized by Wodak and Fairclough into seven principles namely: (a) the role of discourse in social problems; (b) the relationships between power and discourse; (c) how discourse constitutes culture and society; (d) how discourse is ideologically marked; (d) the historical nature of discourse; (e) the mediated relationship that exists between text and society; (f) the interpretive and explanatory orientation

of CDA

Although significant variations exist in CDA‟s approaches, Haig (2011) argues that two key facets of CDA still remain consistent; the relationship between language and power on the one hand and the way language creates and maintains an unequal power relations on the other hand

CDA is used in this study to find out how transitivity patterns and modality choices construct experiential and interpersonal meanings in Donald Trump‟s Announcement Speech These choices will then be subjected to Fairclough‟s (1989, 1995, 2010) three tier framework of doing CDA: description, interpretation and explanation

It is a product of its environment and it functions in that environment through the process

of interaction and semantic choice Text is the realization of such environment It treats discourse as a type of social practice including visual images, music, gestures, and the like that represent and endorse it On the other hand, texts are produced by socially situated speakers and writers For participants in discourse, their relations in producing texts are not always equal: there will be a range from complete solidarity to complete inequality Meanings come about through interaction between readers and receivers and linguistic

features come about as a result of social processes, which are never arbitrary In most interactions, users of language bring with them different dispositions toward language, which are closely related to social status (Fairclough, 1989) In CDA, discourse is defined

in terms of social practice

2.2.2.1 Discourse as Social Practice

In CDA, discourse is defined as a type of social practice and the context of language is crucial (Fairclough, 1989, 1993, 2003; van Dijk 1993, 1997, 2001;; Wodak, 1996, 2000, 2001) Discourse involves both written and spoken language as a form of social practice (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997, p 35) Following Fairclough (1995), Reisigl and Wodak (2000) consider discourse as "a way of signifying a particular domain of social practice from a particular perspective" In seeing discourse as a social practice, Fairclough (1989) shows that a critical analyst is not only concerned with analyzing texts, but with analyzing the relationships between texts, processes, and their social conditions In doing so, three dimensions of critical discourse analysis arise accordingly: description that concerns the formal properties of the text that concerns with what a text says, interpretation that concerns the relationship between text and interaction, and explanation that concerns the relationship between interaction and social context, (Fairclough, 1989)

There is a dialectical relationship between particular discursive practices and the specific fields of action (including situations, institutional frames and social structures) in which they are embedded Social settings affect and are affected by discourse In other words, discourse shape social settings and it is shaped by them (Wodak, 2007) Social structures

as well as social events are parts of social reality and the relationship between social structures and social events depends upon mediating categories, which Fairclough called

„social practices‟, the forms of social activities, which are articulated together to constitute social fields, institutions, and organizations (Fairclough, 2003)

Van Dijk (1993, p 251) argues that CDA 'prefers to focus on the elites and their discursive strategies for the maintenance of inequality' through studying top down relations of dominance than to bottom-up relations of resistance, compliance and acceptance To him, this will often be effective and adequate, because it is easy to assume that directive speech

acts such as commands or orders may be used to enact power, and hence also to exercise and to reproduce dominance Similarly, it is easy to examine the style, rhetoric, or meaning

of texts for strategies that aim at the concealment of social power relations, for instance by playing down, leaving implicit or understating responsible agency of powerful social actors

in the events represented in the text CDA, hence, studies the relation between society, discourse and social cognition, which is the necessary theoretical and empirical interface that should be examined in detail Social cognition is the missing link between discourse

and dominance, a feature that distinguishes CDA from other non-critical approaches 2.2.2.2 Discourse and Power Relations

In this respect, Critical Discourse Analysis looks at the way elements of both spoken and written texts are organized It does this with the goal of trying to establish the salient political and ideological features resident in the texts

Van Dijk (1993:249: Fairclough 1989: Wodak 2001: Holmes 2005:33) agreed with the notion of power in CDA by pointing out that it is an integral part of it He added that discourse entails manifestations of power imbalances made worse and reinforced by either explicit or implicit references Similarly, Fowler and Kress (1979:188) posit that language

is a consolidation of the structures which shape it and it is not only used to manipulate people but also to establish and maintain the power of state agencies, corporations and institutions This is made possible by use of direct and indirect speech acts or by processes

in which the ideology of a culture or a group is linguistically marked, articulated and tacitly affirmed The present study hinges on these assertions because through transitivity choices some power relations are foregrounded while others are backgrounded An analysis of process types, for instance, may show the participants favoured by the power relations

2.2.3 Ideology

Ideology has been a central area of investigation in Critical Discourse Analysis (Kress and Hodge, 1979; Fairclough, 1989, 1992; Wodak 1989; Van Dijk, 1989) This is so because discourse or any other semiotic behaviour has been identified by major linguistic scholars

as a location of ideology

2.2.3.1 Main views of ideology

One major problem immediately noticeable to anyone attempting to study Ideology is the difficulty in trying to establish its specific definition To enable us proceed with the present study, two approaches to the definition Ideology are explored as follow

First is the view of Ideology as a „specific set of symbolic representations (Blommaert, 2005:158) These include: discourses, images, arguments and so forth Such symbolic representations Blommaert adds are operated by particular groups or actors who are identifiable by their use of such ideologies This view could involve reference to particular positions within a political system (factionalism) such as progressivism, conservatism, reactivism and so forth These Ideologies characterize participants who subscribe to them

as seen, for instance, in actors who exhibit socialist symbolic representations because they subscribe to the Ideology of Socialism

The second approach to the definition of Ideology relates to its view as a general phenomenon that characterizes the totality of a particular social or political system Such Systems are practiced by every member of the group that subscribes to it This view emphasizes that Ideology represents the „cultural,‟ Ideational aspects of a particular socio-political system Ideology relates to both the normal perceptions individuals have of the world as a system as well as natural activities involved in it Such activities sustain social relations, power structures and the patterns of thought which serve to reinforce the common sense

The present study adopts this latter view of Ideology as a common sense and defines it as a form of influence or manipulation in order to win acceptance

2.2.3.2 Implicit or explicit Ideologies

In texts, ideological notions can be implicit or explicit Explicit ideologies can be usually seen in the form of offensive and insensitive language to the institutional subjects such the use of the word „rapists‟ in reference to Mexican Immigrants by Donald Trump It can also entail the use of ingroup or outgroup depiction to refer to different participants in the selected text

Further, it can additionally contain the use of language that portrays „self‟ in a positive light while painting the „other‟ in a negative light Such a view is supported by van Dijk who considers that such method emphasizes the speaker‟s good things but de- emphasizes

the other participant‟s good things or backgrounds the speaker‟s bad things but foregrounds the bad things of the other actors

On the other hand, implicit ideologies take the form of promotion This can be illustrated

by the following example drawn from Donald Trump‟s Announcement Speech: I would build a wall and have Mexico pay for it Scholars of Critical Discourse Analysis concur

that dominant Ideologies are characterized by the following features:

 They are stabilized and legitimized by discourse such a manner that obscures the effects of power and Ideology

 They have the ability to naturalize discourse by making it appear „normal‟ or „common sense.‟

 They flourish and are sustained by hegemony

 They may be sustained by the dominated individuals albeit unawares Such dominated groups even if aware of the dominant Ideologies, may find it difficult to wriggle their way out

The present study employs the context of use to study how linguistic features bring out both implicit and explicit Ideologies in the selected text

2.2.4 CDA and SFL

The SFL model is anchored on the idea that language is a system of meaning which affords

a speaker a number of grammatical choices in the course of a communicative event The meaning of language, therefore, is configured through these choices which are also embodied in the structure of the clause As Bloor & Bloor (2013:3) point out, „SFL involves the idea that a language consists of a set of systems which offer speakers or writers unlimited choices and ways of creating meaning.‟ Halliday (as cited in Fontaine, 2013:22) agree with this view by pointing out that „the clause is a multifunctional unit of language.‟ This implies that the clause is an embodiment of different meanings at the same time The three meanings of the clause pointed out by Halliday (1985) as working together include (a) the experiential metafunction (which represents the human experience and corresponds to the view of the clause as representation); (b) the interpersonal metafunction (enacts personal and social relationship and corresponds to the view of clause as

exchange); (c) the textual metafunction (which relates to the discursive flow of the text and corresponds to the view of the clause as a message) (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014)

It can, thus, be seen that each metafunction is a distinct in its functions However, the present study focuses only on the experiential and interpersonal metafunctions Two systems are employed to realize them; Transitivity as an element to bring out the experiential meaning in the Announcement speech and Modality as a tool to reveal the relationship between Donald Trump as a speaker and his audience

2.2.4.1 Transitivity Systems as a Framework of Experiential Meaning

Transitivity system according to Halliday (1985:101-102) refers to the experiences of language structures as semantic arrangements comprising process types, participants and circumstantial elements Transitivity, thus, relates to how meanings are expressed in the clause and how processes are manifested in language (Simpson, 2004:22)

These experiences are expressed through six processes including material, mental, relational, verbal, existential and behavioral processes

Material process is known as process of doing and happening It expresses the notion that some entity „does‟ something which may be done „to‟ some other entity In this type of

process, there are two participants role, namely: Actor and Goal The actor is able to affect

the flow of events of another participant in the clause known as the Goal or Beneficiary Mental process is known as process of sensing It refers to the process of remembering, knowing, and other mental actions that involve the use of the mind There are two

participants, namely: Senser and Phenomenon An analysis of the mental process with

regards to the issue of immigration is important because through mental clauses that the speaker uses, his opinion, perception and his particular identity may be revealed

Relational process is known as process of being It can be differentiated into three types: Attributive process with Carrier and attribute participants, Identifying process with Token and Value participants and Possessive process with Possessor and Possessed participants According to Halliday and Simpson, these processes are key grammatical tools for classifying, assessing, identifying and evaluating people, concepts or objects (Halliday, 2004:214; Simpson, 2004:25-26) It is important to investigate relational processes in order

to find out how immigrants are classified based on the types of attributes attached to them and the meanings ascribed to those attributes

Verbal Process is known as process of „saying‟ (Halliday &Matthiessen, 2014:252) In the theme immigration, verbal processes involve the sayer, the verbiage and the target

Existential Process is known as process of existence and happening This type of process suggests that something exists (Simpson 2004:25)

Behavioral process is known as the process of behaving Grammatically they are intermediate between material and mental process This means that behavioral process includes the action process but the action is done with consciousness, for example: breathing, dreaming, smiling, waving, laughing, coughing, watching, listening etc The

majority of behavioral process clauses have one participant that is called as Behaver (the agent who behaves) If there is any second participant, it will be called as Behaviour

2.2.4.2 Modality System as A Framework of Interpersonal Meaning

Modality can be expressed through the mood of sentences, auxiliary verbs, modal adjuncts and tense (Kress and Fowler 1979; Halliday 1985; Faweet 2008:68-83) Its analysis is used

in the present study to attempt to bring out the interpersonal meaning and to express social roles between the speaker and the hearer Fowler and Kress (1979:200) define modality thus: Linguistic constructions which express speaker‟s and writer‟s attitudes towards themselves, towards their interlocutors, towards their subject matter, their social and economic relationships with the people they address; and the actions which are performed via language (ordering, accusing, promising and leading

It can thus, be inferred that the use of modality in the clause to establish the judgment and the opinion of the speaker towards his topic and hearers Modality, therefore, relates to the validity of what is being predicated, stated, questioned, commanded or offered It may also refer to social relationship within the clause (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014:177) Further,

it relates to the intermediate between the positive and negative poles (the gap between the choices of „yes‟ and „no‟ that allows speakers to attach expressions of attitude, belief and obligation to what they say (Simpson, 2004:123) This intermediacy varies in propositions and proposals In proposition, in between certainties of „it is‟ and „it isn‟t lie the relative probability of „it must be,‟ „it will be,‟ and „it may be.‟ Whereas in proposals, in between

the definitive „do‟ and „don‟t‟ lie the discretionary options „you must do.‟ „You should do‟ and „you may do.‟ Modals can help unpack the writer‟s standpoint to the reader by bringing out tentativeness or other aspects of interpersonal meaning Similarly, as Simpson (2004:23) posit, it can also be a significant part of establishing personal identity

Two main types of modality, epistemic modality and deontic modality, were chosen for the analysis in this study

Modalization known as epistemic modality is a sub-type of linguistic modality that deals with a speaker's evaluation/judgment of, degree of confidence in, or belief of the knowledge upon which a proposition is based In other words, epistemic modality refers

to the way speakers communicate their doubts, certainties, and guesses - their "modes of knowing" More technically, epistemic modality may be defined an evaluation of the chances that a certain hypothetical state of affairs under consideration (or some aspect of it) will occur, is occurring, or has occurred in a possible world which serves as the universe of interpretation for the evaluation process Downing and Locke (1992: 332) hold similar view and point out that the knowledge the speaker has about what he is saying; his knowledge of the world or simply his assessment of the truthfulness of the preposition in terms of possibility, probability and certainty The present study looks at Epistemic Modality along the same line

Deontic Modality also known as Modulation in Systemic Functional Linguistics, is also connotative in meaning Unlike Epistemic Modality, it entails obligation, permission, willingness, ability or appeal These expressions include „must‟, „should‟, „ought‟, „may‟, „can‟ and the like The deontic modal concepts, which these words are often used to express, are interesting in many ways First, there are logical connections between them – for example, they can be ordered in terms of strength That I must go home now entails that I ought to go home now, and that proposition furthermore entails that I may go home now Yet, the inferences in the other direction from „may‟ to „ought‟ and from „ought‟ to „must‟

The view of speaker involvement in deontic modality is supported by Halliday (1970:335) who posits that it is “a form of participation of the speaker in the speech event” which serves a crucial role in negotiating interpersonal meaning through language Halliday adds that it expresses wants, desires, commands, obligations, permission and undertakings This can be

exemplified as captured below:

Obligation/ necessity must, should, ought to, have to

Volitions – desirability should, would

2.3 Main approaches to CDA

Fairclough‟s (1989, 2000, 2010) approach to CDA is also the main base of this study, the

approach looks at language as a crucial element in constituting, maintaining and changing social relations of power Fairclough‟s interest is in not only trying to find out how language figures in everyday talk but also in how it constructs identity and portrays ideology and power He considers language as a part of the society That is, language shapes the society and the society shapes language in the sense that: (a) people communicate in ways that are socially conditioned (b) People‟s communication embodies social effects as seen in both conscious and private communicative events On the other hand, the society is shaped by language in the sense that language is an integral part of the social process Fairclough, further, adds a three-layered method of doing Critical Discourse Analysis which conforms to the implications mentioned above These include: description, interpretation and explanation

Besides the work of Fairclough, Van Dijk (1995, 2001, 2003) takes a socio cognitive perspective in his analysis of discourse He looks at what role discourse plays in the (re)

production and resistance of dominance Further, he views dominance as the exercise of institutional social power leading to social, cultural, political, ethnic, class, racial and ethnic inequality Van Dijk identifies mental control where those in control of discourse dominate the less powerful through mind control, as being used to actualize dominance This mental control, as Van Dijk points out, does not only involve the censure of information conveyed to the dominated but also the manner in which it is relayed Van Dijk further adds that it entails the control of discourse context such that: the communicative event,

time, place and the participants involved are defined

Wodak (2001) takes a historical perspective to the study of discourse Her approach,

similarly, sheds more light to the present study because just like Fairclough‟s approach, it acknowledges the dialectical relationship between discourse and society Besides, it views language as possessing the power and ideology which is used by the dominant participants

to convey their norms and values Further, Wodak‟s approach just like Fairclough‟s proffers that readers and participant‟s interpretation of texts differ not only on the basis of their background knowledge but also on the basis of their position This notion is used in the present study to account for the varied ideologies and power relations in the selected text

2.4 Review of previous Studies on Political discourse

CDA has been used widely by many researchers to analyze political speeches The following studies have been conducted on political discourses

Post (2009) employed CDA to analyze the selections of social actors and social actions from the 2008 campaign speeches of Barack Obama and John McCain He found that language was used to make salient the most notable linguistic images and socio- semantic features implemented by the texts‟ writers to facilitate not only the nominee‟s perceived societal values, but to also shape individual interaction within society through such perceived social values as articulated by representations of social actors and social actions He also showed how Obama shaped his identity through the manipulation of social actors and social actions to facilitate not only the ideological positions the nominees would strive to reproduce, but also the textual personas they have assiduously created for themselves via

their ideological positions and representations of meaning For Obama, meaning was

utilized to shape the majority of categories within his discourse

Similarly, Alvi and Abdul Baseer (2002) investigated how Obama used rhetorics and his linguistic ability to convince and persuade his listeners of his propositions They showed how he used story-telling, rhetorical questions and answers, appeal to authority, salutations

as emotion booster, free verbal repetitive constructions, verbal and syntactic parallelism They pointed out how he uses his linguistic artisanship to draw his credible image in the minds of his listeners, and to convince them that a war on Iraq is not a solution

Horvath (2009) examined Obama‟s inaugural speech using CDA He found that Obama employed persuasive strategies in his public speaking to support his covert ideology He also

found that the key ideologies expressed in Obama‟s speech are pragmatism, liberalism,

inclusiveness, acceptance of religious and ethnic diversity and unity

Similarly, Obaid and Fahad (2012) used CDA to analyze Obama‟s “historical” speech in Cairo (2009) They attempted to understand how language is used as part of the Obama‟s attempt to draw a new position and identity for America in the global community in general and in the Islamic community in particular They showed how Obama used language to convey the start of a new era of peace and consent, away of the discourse of

“coercion” during the eight years of the former administration

Wang (2010) analyze Obama‟s presidential speeches from the modality and transitivity perspective She explored how political discourse was used to convey the ideology of power Wang showed how Obama employed the simple language, transitivity and modality

to express his nearness to his people, and to arouse the American citizen‟s confidence in their president

Hoyer (2008) used CDA to analyze the British ex-prime minister; Tony Blair selected speeches, in regards to the war on Iraq Hoyer revealed how Blair employed discourse to convey his ideological stance, which tries to legitimize the war on Iraq Blair legitimized his supporting stance in regards to the war on Iraq by highlighting the security discourse in which he showed that Britain needs to defend herself This expresses Tony Blair‟s worldview Hoyer also found that media at that time played a role in supporting Blair‟s stance in regards to the war on Iraq

These studies largely focused on political discourses of Obama as manifested in his speeches and interviews However, there has been very little linguistic research on political discourse of Donald Trump and thus, the study intends to fill this gap

2.5 Chapter Summary

This chapter deals with the literature review and theoretical background of the study First, for the literature review it gives a brief overview on Discourse analysis and Critical

Discourse Analysis Then it provides key concepts which include CDA, Discourse, SFL and some main approaches to CDA Finally it reviews briefly on previous studies of political discourse These studies were anchored on the theoretic underpinnings of Critical Discourse Analysis Fairclough‟s (1989,2010) three tier model of description, interpretation and explanation was most employed for the analysis because it is text oriented approach

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides the method and design for the Research Then it goes to introduce the social context of the data Finally it describes in detail the analysis procedure of the data

3.1 Research Method

Qualitative research model was chosen as the research method of the present study It was directed on the view that qualitative research is on meaning Qualitative research was applied because in analyzing the selected text to find answers for the research questions a lot of explanation and interpretation of the text, its discursive practice and social practice was required

Afterwards, representative clauses were selected in order to realize the process types, participants and the circumstantial elements Further, the clauses were analyzed for modality as they form part of interpersonal meaning The data was subsequently tabulated

to capture the frequency of the transitivity systems and modality choices inherent in the clauses shown The data was narrowed down to percentages for ease of analysis Once this was done, the data was interpreted and a discussion on how transitivity patterns and modality choices brought out the identified themes established

3.3 Data and its social context

Purposive sampling method was adopted to select the data The data for this study is

Trump‟s Announcement Speech which is in the form of written texts collected from the

website: http://time.com/3923128/donald-trump-announcement-speech/

Trump formally announced his candidacy on June 16, 2015, with a campaign rally and speech at Trump Tower in New York City Trump declared that he would self-fund his presidential campaign, and would refuse any money from donors and lobbyists He majorly anchored his campaign on issues such: unemployment, illegal immigration, Islamic Terrorism, National Security and Obamacare Additionally, his campaign advocated for the reduction of corporate tax by 15% as well as the replacement of Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) with another free-market plan He also promised to renegotiate trade deals and create millions of jobs for American workers To push through his agenda, he built his campaign around the slogan, “Make America Great Again” which resonated well with many Americans, particularly male, young single middle class, white, blue-collar and those without college degrees

In the general election, Trump ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton, the first female presidential candidate from a major political party The race was divisive, in part due to a number of inflammatory remarks and tweets made by Trump about minorities and other groups While some members of the Republican establishment distanced themselves from the candidate, Trump‟s supporters admired his outspokenness and business success, along with the fact that he wasn‟t a politician

As the election neared, almost all national polls predicted a victory for the Democratic nominee However, on November 8, 2016, in what was viewed by many people as a stunning upset, Trump and his vice-presidential running mate, Governor Mike Pence

of Indiana, defeated Clinton and her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia Trump won reliably red states as well as important swing states including Florida and Ohio, and racked up 306 electoral votes to his rival‟s 232 votes Clinton won the popular vote

Though Trump was widely underestimated as a candidate, first by his opponents for the Republican nomination and later by Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival He finally was elected the 45th president of the United States Many observers considered it was a stunning political upset and blamed errors in polls, partially attributed to pollsters overestimating Clinton's support among well-educated and nonwhite voters, while underestimating Trump's support among white working-class voters The polls were

relatively accurate, but media outlets and pundits alike showed overconfidence in a Clinton victory despite a large number of undecided voters and a favorable concentration of Trump's core constituencies in competitive states It was a decisive demonstration of power

by a largely overlooked coalition of mostly blue-collar white and working-class voters who felt that the promise of the United States had slipped their grasp amid decades of globalization and multiculturalism

3.4 Data Analysis procedures

The study employed Fairclough‟s (1989, 1995, 2010) CDA as theoretical framework Halliday‟s (1985, 1994, 2004) framework of SFL was used as an adjunct theory to provide linguistic tools for analysis at the micro-linguistic level Specifically, transitivity patterns and modality choices were investigated The two were chosen because they were suitable for the present study whose objectives are to find out how the experiential and interpersonal meanings are brought out through discourse of the recurring themes

A qualitative approach based on Fairclough‟s three tier model of description, interpretation and explanation was adopted This implies the study was descriptive as it focused on both micro and macro discourse analysis At the micro-level, analysis was based on the description of the linguistic choices resident in the selected excerpts Similarly, it also involved interpretation of the identified linguistic choices At the macro-level, the explanation and assessment of how the transitivity systems and modality choices in the selected text brought out the experiential and interpersonal meanings was established Firstly, description focuses on the identification of the formal linguistic features resident in

a text Such features are subsequently labeled as per the descriptive framework In the course of this description, the researcher takes a position similar to that of the participants but uses an explicit interpretive framework

In order to describe the formal features in a text, an evaluation of potential choices is established This is done with the view of finding out the patterns of options in the discourse activity which actual properties of the text emanate from Key elements of grammar identified, and which are in line with the present study, include: (a) the nature of the experiential values grammatical features process; (b) whether there are important features of relational modality To answer the first question, the following must be born in

mind:

1) What types of processes and participants predominate?

2) Is agency clear?

3) Are processes what they seem?

4) Are nominalizations used?

5) Are sentences active or passive?

6) Are sentences positive or negative?

On the other hand, to answer the second question one has to consider the following:

i) The authority of one participant in relation to the other (relational modality)

ii) The strength with which a particular proposition is endorsed (expressive modality)

At the Interpretive stage, the manner in which participants draw from their ideological, social and cognitive endowments in their bid to better understand discourse is determined The researcher at the interpretive stage therefore, seeks to address three key concerns: (a) the kind of interpretation that participants are giving to intertextual and situational context; (b) the kind of discourse that is being drawn upon and which relates to the systems of phonology, vocabulary, grammar, pragmatics, schemata, frames and scripts; and (c) whether the answers to the concerns raised in (a) and (b) vary based on participants or change as the interaction goes on However, the present study will only concern itself with transitivity and modality patterns within the grammatical system The interpretive stage will be used to unpack the hidden meanings and to correct pretenses of independence on the part of discourse subjects Since interpretation primarily looks at which elements of the member recourses are relied upon in the production of discourse, there is need to account for the changes in social constitution which then necessitates the explanatory stage

The explanation stage aims at portraying discourse as ingrained in social processes which are based on social theory This helps to bring out covert ideologies invisible to lay interpretation as it avails a broader base upon which individual communicative events can

be placed and upon which their meanings can be drawn These bases relate to: (a) the interplay between social structures and discourse; (b) reproductive effects that discourses have on structures as in whether they change or sustain them

Key issues that the explanation phase addresses include: (a) the power relations at the

immediate, institutional and social level, that shape the discourse in question (b) the aspects of member resource relied on and which are ideological in nature (c) the position of discourse in relation to contestations at the situational, institution and societal levels As such, the explanatory phase gives grounds for overcoming the shortcomings of lay consciousness in dealing with the implicit aspects of discourse

CHAPTER FOUR

FINDINGS AND DISSCUSSION

This chapter provides the analyses and findings of three issues which relate to the Research questions: Ideology, Transitivity Systems and Modality within recurring themes of immigration and national security in the selected text

4.1 Ideology realized in the recurring themes

4.1.1 Ideology of self- promotion and other-rejection

Political candidates normally present themselves or their group in positive light while painting the other participant or group in negative light This notion is exemplified at the very first words in his speech as in the following excerpt

The speaker presents other candidates in negative light while figuring a positive image of him He uses ironical phrases such as „sweated like dogs,‟ didn‟t have anybody there‟ to talk about other candidates while using lexical items such as „thousands,‟ „no crowd like this‟ to project himself in positive light and this also shows the ideological representation between „us‟(in-group) and „them‟ (out-group)

The Ideology of positive representation of „self‟ and negative „other‟ representation is captured in the excerpt below:

Excerpt 2

Our country is in serious trouble We don‟t have victories anymore We used to have victories, but we don‟t have them When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let‟s say China in a trade deal? They kill us I beat China all the time All

By using expressions „serious trouble,‟ „killing us‟ and „no victories anymore, he implies that the current American administration is in a bad circumstance Then he projects himself

in positive light as in “I beat China all the time”

Another way of positive „self‟ representation and negative „other‟ representation is brought out in excerpt 3 below:

Excerpt 3

And remember the $ 5 billion website? $ 5 billion we spent on a website and to this day it doesn‟t work A $ 5 billion website I have so many Websites, I have them all over the place I hire people, they do a website It costs me $3 $ 5 billion website (Excerpt from Appendix clause 144-151)

Setting two opposite sides between him and Obama administration by repeating the phrase

A $ 5 billion website on one hand and stating his $ 3 website on the other hand, he wants voters to see that he is good at managing finance much more better than the current administration

Further example of Ideological enactment can be seen in excerpt 4 below:

Excerpt 4

We have people that aren‟t working We have people who have no incentive to work But they‟re going to have incentive to work, because the greatest social program is a job And they‟ll be proud, and they‟ll love it, and they‟ll make much more than they would they would‟ve ever made, and they‟ll be- they‟ll be doing so well, and we‟re going to be thriving as a country, thriving It can happen I will be the greatest jobs president God ever created I tell you that (Excerpt from Appendix clause 293 - 305)

The speaker blames the current administration led by the Democratic Party for the issue of unemployment and directly affirms that he is the gift that God brings to solve this problem

through the clause „I will be the greatest jobs president God ever created‟

This is perhaps meant to paint himself in a positive way in the eyes of the electorate and to blur any possibility of a positive conceptualization of his opponents

4.1.2 Ideology as a tool of Persuasion

In many excerpts below, the speaker has applied ideology as a tool so as to convince voters

to stand on his side

Excerpt 5

I watch the speeches of these people, and they say the sun will rise, the moon will set, and all sorts of wonderful things will happen And people are saying, what‟s going on? I just want a job I don‟t need the rhetoric I want a job And that‟s what

is happening And it‟s going to get worse…(Excerpt from Appendix clause 182-194)

The speaker uses the deictic expression „these‟ to refer to politicians generally Such deictic expressions are important as they draw the attention of the audience to the circumstance of the utterance In the above case, the speaker exploits the issue of

unemployment as seen in the repetition of clause: I want a job However, this is just an

avenue for the speaker to influence his audience to accept him The excerpt further provides the audience with two sets of leaders to choose from, that is, leadership full of rhetoric on the one hand and the other which is action oriented

Excerpt 6

But Obamacare kicks in in 2016 Really big league It is going to be amazingly destructive Doctors are quitting I have a friend who‟s a doctor, and he said to me the other day, „Donald, I never saw anything like it I have more accountants than I have nurses They have no plan now.‟‟ We have to repeal Obamacare and it can be- and it can be replaced with something much better for everybody Let it be for everybody But much better and much less expensive for people and the government And we can do it (Excerpt from Appendix clause 209-225)

The speaker expresses special concern for the American people in not being supplied a quality healthcare by talking about the current inadequate situation of the Obamacare program and giving some of his friend doctor‟s opinion about this issue Then he urges people to

abolish this program by using the electorates‟ power in the clause We have to repeal Obamacare The phrase much better and much less expensive is meant to show that their votes for the current

president were not really wise The speaker then is persuading his audience to stand on his side

and share his through the clause let it be for everybody The speaker is trying to draw himself as a

positive image in the eyes of his audience

In excerpt 7 below, the speaker tries to persuade listeners into his team by narrowing the power gap between them in an attempt to gain their support

Excerpt 7

China, you go there now, roads, bridges, schools, you never saw anything like that They have bridges that make the George Washington Bridge look like small potatoes And they‟re all over the place We have all the cards, but we don‟t know how to use them We don‟t even know that we have the cards, because our leaders don‟t understand the game We could turn off that spigot by charging them tax until they behave properly.(Excerpt from Appendix clause 425-437)

Take the example of a powerful image of a growing China in all aspects though in terms of power relationship, the United States is in a more dominant position, he implicitly show that the American people are being taken away lots of benefits and opportunities Then by using the inclusive pronominalWe in the clause We could turn off that spigot by charging them tax until they behave properly the speaker implies that he and the voters are the same,

he appeals everyone to end this situation together

4.1.3 Ideology as a Tool of Negotiation

The use of Ideology as a vehicle of negotiation is captured in the following excerpts:

Excerpt 8

Take a look at the deal he‟s making with Iran He makes that deal, Israel maybe won‟t exist very long It‟s a disaster, and we have to protect But… so we need people- I‟m a free trader But the problem with free trade is you need really talented people to negotiate for you If you don‟t have talented people, if you don‟t have great leadership, if you don‟t have people that know business, not just a political hack that got the job because he made a contribution to a campaign, which is the way all jobs, just about, are gotten, free trade is terrible.(Excerpt from Appendix clause 337-348)

The above excerpt is a good example of how the speaker uses ideology as a vehicle of negotiation He states the problem of free trade and projects himself as the only solution for that issue and then implicitly emphasizes that American citizens will have to wait until

he is elected into power to fix the issue

Another example of Ideology as a tool of negotiation is shown in the excerpt below:

and we‟re going to save it (Excerpt from Appendix clause 549-554)

Referring to Social Security- an essential source of livelihood to a vast majority of Americans, the speaker highly appreciates himself in contributing to save Social Security

He goes on to negotiate with the electorate as seen in the declarative clause I‟m going to bring money in which points to a personal commitment to deal with the issue at hand Moreover, to narrow the gap between him and his audience, he uses „we‟ as in We‟re going

to save it Again, the speaker does this to demonstrate to the audience that they are joined

together in a common destiny

4.2 Transitivity systems realizing the recurring themes

This part provides further analyses of the process types and participant roles in the selected data The analysis of the data is based on the tenets of SFL and relies on the theoretic foundations of CDA to describe the Transitivity Systems within the recurring themes The analysis is significant in answering the first sub question of the second research question which is: How is experiential meaning realized through the process types and participant roles within the recurring themes in the Announcement Speech?

A total of 225 processes are found in this presidential campaign announcement speech in which all six process types have occurred

Table 4.1: Frequency of process types in the selected text

Total count in both themes

Total count of all five themes in selected text

As shown in table 4.1, the material process is the most frequently used process type with a total count of 45 in both themes, followed by the relational process , the mental process, the existential, the verbal process and the behavioral process

4.2.1 Process Types and Participant Roles in the Theme of Immigration

The issue of Immigration is characterized by the use of six process types which are

explored in the section below:

Excerpt 2

When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best They are not sending you They are sending people that have lots of problems They are bringing drugs They are bringing crimes.(Excerpt from Appendix clause 42-49)

Trump describes Mexico as actor of „sending‟ and „bringing‟ process in which Mexico is portrayed as an agent violating the Americans‟ rights Similarly, the excerpt above brings out the ideology of negative „other‟ representation These are captured in material processes below:

Actor Pr:Material Circumstantial Example 2 They are sending people that have lots of problems

Example 3 They are bringing Drugs

Example 4 They are bringing Crime

Emphasizing on the goals that the actor brings, Donald Trump represents Mexican Immigrants in bad light and blames them for bringing „drugs‟ and „crimes‟ and impinging

on the interests of America

Excerpt 3

But I speak to the border guards and they tell us what we‟re getting And it only makes common sense It only makes common sense They‟re sending us not the right people (Excerpt from Appendix clause 52-56)

Actor Pr: Material Goal Example 5 I speak to the border guards and they

tell us what we are getting

In terms of transitivity, Trump is depicted in agentive position while the immigrants are cast as a target or victim of his actions In the clause, the speaker draws himself as a leader capable of ascertaining the truth from the border guards By this, he indirectly affirms his power then persuades the electorate to believe in his ability

Example 6 and 7 below reflect the ideology of negative „other‟ representation

Senser Pr: Cognition Phenomenon Example 6 We don‟t know

Example 7 We don‟t know what‟s happening

By using the negative form repeatedly in those above mental processes, the speaker expresses his personal feeling on the issue of immigration as a major threat to American citizens He then implicitly blames the present administration for not being capable of dealing with the issue of immigration which leads to the present unexpected situation

4.2.1.3 Relational Processes

These processes can be seen in the following examples drawn from the issue of

immigration

Excerpt 5

The U.S has become a dumping ground for other people‟s problems

(Excerpt from Appendix clause 39)

There is another example of negative „other‟ representation as following:

Carrier Pr; Relational Attributes Example 8 The U.S as become a dumping ground for other

people‟s problems

Assigning The U.S with a negative attribute – dumping ground, the speaker aims to ridicule the present state of affairs, thus, paints it in negative light in the eyes of the electorate Moreover, by using present perfect tense, he wants to emphasize the long duration of being taken advantage by others and this problem still exists at the moment By this, he implicitly urges the electorate to do something right to stop that situation

Excerpt 6

They are sending people that have lots of problems, and they‟re bringing those problems with us They are bringing crime They are rapists and some, I assume, are good people (Excerpt from Appendix clause 46-51)

The relational process in this excerpt is one again an example of the ideology of positive

„us‟ representation and negative „other‟ representation

Carrier Pr; Relational Attributes

The immigrants are portrayed as carriers of the negative attribute „rapists‟ This description