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President Donald Trump’s inaugural speech analysis
President Donald Trump has remained vocal about his policies throughout his election campaign. He criticized the policy plans put forwarded by Hillary Clinton bluntly. His victory speech was also not an exception to this. It showed the bluntness and the populist narrative that brought him into the office. The inaugural speech of him was not conforming in any way the image of the President of a global power, rather it was more inward driven. The speech was also much different compared to the policy priority of the past administration of the White House. Throughout his speech he has remained unfair with the citizens of the United States, who voted for Hillary, as he remained bluntly opposed to the policy priories of her in his inaugural address to. Experts believe that the speech contained less thankful remarks for the people of the United Sates who voted him. They opine that normally the Presidents pay much regard to their voters in the inaugural address. Considering the popular academic discourse about his speech, and the political commentaries made over it, one may opine that the inaugural address reflected more the tone of confrontation rather cooperation. This shows the extent of his political powers after becoming the President. People opine that he has deliberately used to avoid such conciliatory tone in order to kick start the Presidential term in kind of confrontational manner.
Social and situational context: After beating Hillary Clinton after a scorched campaign, the {resident started his speech in a more a kind of conciliatory manner. people have written many times that before his inaugural speech, the president was of the view that the speech must contain the elements of uniting the people of the America ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"3Keqju2c","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Chilton)","plainCitation":"(Chilton)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":153,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/pCT5fGyt/items/I44Y4XLU"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/pCT5fGyt/items/I44Y4XLU"],"itemData":{"id":153,"type":"article-journal","title":"“The people” in populist discourse","container-title":"Journal of Language and Politics","page":"582–594","volume":"16","issue":"4","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Chilton","given":"Paul"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Chilton). He actually wanted that the speech of him might be a step toward reconciliation the people of America. He believed before that the election campaign has ideologically divided the people of America. Therefore he made the supporters of Hilary stunned by mentioning her with the good reward. There are linguistics experts who opine that there was nothing much in the speech of the 45th President at his inaugural that could be called as remarkable. They base their opinion on the pre- text that during his campaign he has remained so vocal on the issues that were talked about much differently throughout the history of the United States. Although he has talked about the unity and changing the people’s attitude toward the politics of America, but he has too vaguely done so. There were other things which doesn’t conformed the societal aspect of the United Sates. For example, a country that has remained the best host to the immigrants around the world, but is now being presided over by a President who consider the Mexican people a threat to their country.
There has been a tradition set by the previous Presidents of the United Sates about their inaugural speeches. At the start of the speeches, they usually honor the services of the previous Presidents and quotes them in a very welcoming way. Similarly the upcoming President talks about the same priorities which he will be taking more forward. At the inaugural of the President Trump, it looked that he will also be following the same footsteps, but he later on changed the perception. When he criticized the past Presidents (not being directly) but by criticizing the policies they introduced. Not every time it is that an opponent is treated like an opponent. It remains in the values of the United States that every incoming President at his inaugural speech appreciates the policies introduced by the previous administrations. This speech has also challenged this tradition of the United States too. At the very right time, when the incoming President Trump must have been appreciating the efforts of the Obama administration for their valuable inputs to the country’s decision making, he quoted
We, are now joined in a great national effort to re- build our country.
This shows that the President appeared nil prepared in admiring the past administrations. Rather, he opined that the past governments have caused damage in sense of the unity of the country. There are people who believe that at this very right time when the United States is facing an emerging threat of China, which is giving tough time at every sphere, the President must have refrained himself while talking about unity of the country. For them it reveals a sense of division of the country. The whole speech was like a show off about populism in the worst way possible ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"o9PDWVDn","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Suhadi and Baluqiah)","plainCitation":"(Suhadi and Baluqiah)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":154,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/pCT5fGyt/items/V2HRXEZZ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/pCT5fGyt/items/V2HRXEZZ"],"itemData":{"id":154,"type":"article-journal","title":"DONALD TRUMP AND BARRACK OBAMA’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS: STYLISTIC ANALYSIS","container-title":"Proceedings of ISELT FBS Universitas Negeri Padang","page":"169–177","volume":"5","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"DONALD TRUMP AND BARRACK OBAMA’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS","author":[{"family":"Suhadi","given":"Agung"},{"family":"Baluqiah","given":"Kiagus"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Suhadi and Baluqiah).
The textual features: The speech was delivered by the President in a very general and cohesive way. There appeared no textual flaws or lack of understandings. There were points during the speech when the President was clearer and more precise. He spoked about the policies in a more accurate way. Although many of his policies are subject to wide criticism, despite passing of a considerable time, but he conveyed that more clearly. He used throughout the speech, short sentences. These short sentences helped him remain specific. His tone was confident, and throughout he remained stick to the primary cause of him. Throughout his speech he used not more than 1500 words, which shows that how Mr. Trump dispersed what he had in his mind in a more concise manner. Before President Trump, President Bush used to utter short sentences, which is a sign of conceptual clarity of the thig being talked about.
Coherence and cohesiveness: The inaugural speech falls on the definition of both coherence and cohesiveness. He started from being thankful to some notable, and ended up calling to the people of America, to stand again and work once more for the betterment of their country. If this inaugural address is compared to the previous ones, it shows that it was like that of any previous address. It is one of the qualities of the speeches to employ both cohesiveness and coherence. Cohesiveness is inculcating many phenomena’s in a one go. It then helps in taking out understanding of the things from a similar address ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"jIjCF6HM","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Suhadi and Baluqiah)","plainCitation":"(Suhadi and Baluqiah)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":154,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/pCT5fGyt/items/V2HRXEZZ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/pCT5fGyt/items/V2HRXEZZ"],"itemData":{"id":154,"type":"article-journal","title":"DONALD TRUMP AND BARRACK OBAMA’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS: STYLISTIC ANALYSIS","container-title":"Proceedings of ISELT FBS Universitas Negeri Padang","page":"169–177","volume":"5","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"DONALD TRUMP AND BARRACK OBAMA’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS","author":[{"family":"Suhadi","given":"Agung"},{"family":"Baluqiah","given":"Kiagus"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Suhadi and Baluqiah). Coherence is being too fluent. Thus, inaugural address was coherent too. Nowhere throughout the speech, the President disconnected any sentence or remained too narrow toward any aspect of his speech. This shows that he was ready to convey what he had in his mind.
Inter- textual aspects: The inaugural address lacked nowhere any aspect which showed that the speech lack the grammatical sense. The use of nouns, verbs and adjectives were quite at the right place. There was no sweeping statement and there remained no such mistake which showed that anywhere the President had been confusing and had went out of the way. He remained also focused on iterating what he was thinking. This helped him being fluent and being free from the grammatical errors. In his speech, he highlighted both the Americans and the America. Often this had been noticed in the past, that the Presidents remains understandable in their definitions of relevant concepts, but President Trump remained much clear on his use of such connotations. There were other aspects of his speech, that made him stand different ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"AN1fPoRD","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Blake)","plainCitation":"(Blake)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":155,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/pCT5fGyt/items/E5UL2HXA"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/pCT5fGyt/items/E5UL2HXA"],"itemData":{"id":155,"type":"article-journal","title":"Donald Trump’s full inauguration speech transcript, annotated","container-title":"The Washington Post","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Blake","given":"Aaron"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Blake). He used the word Islamic while referring toward the Muslims, compared to his predecessor. They used to call this community as Muslims or immigrants. This is worth noting that the use of word Islamic broadened the scope of what he had in his minds about Muslims. Also, the word Islamic helped him being broader and being acceptable to his Muslim voters.
Representation of the other actors: It is very right about Donald Trump that he is self-focused person. Nothing at anywhere he compared his self or his priorities with any of his contemporaries or past Presidents. This was the reason he avoided using other actors as representation. Experts opine that doing so also limits the scope of the speech. If in case the President had used any comparison, it might had led him towards narrowness. As it is a general phenomenon that when a thing is compared with another thing, the scope shifts towards narrowness. He had many options throughout his speech to use a comparative analysis of contrasting analysis, but he avoided using that. There are some personal reasons for the President for not using the technique of comparison or contrast. As doing so also undermines the priorities set by the incoming authorities. In some cases, it also diminishes the importance of the national cause, worked upon by the previous administrations. There were other areas where he could have used the comparison or contrast. For example, where he was describing about the policy priorities of his administration. He could have criticized Hillary’s policy programs, but ha again avoided doing so. Thus, he remained centric over what he thought suits his policy preferences.
Use of conceptual metaphors: This must be called the quality of Mr. President’s inaugural address that he nowhere used conceptual metaphors. Doing so would have caused complications in the understanding of his message. He could have used some sweeping words while talking about the sensitive issues, but he avoided doing so. I helped him being clear headed and focused. The use of metaphors confuses the audience and they remain in the confusion of interpretation. The metaphors are used where anyone wants to make the audience think. Since it was his first interaction with the public after being elected as the President, this could have been the reason that he avoided using metaphors. Also, in the Presidential address, it remains too vague and wired if one uses metaphors. The reason is that it deviates the supporters, which are there to listen about the policy preferences of the new administrations. It causes misunderstandings also. As far this speech is concern, the President avoided using the metaphors. He was very clear headed in his words. He uttered very clearly what he had in his mind and avoided using the help of metaphors or any such clauses to lengthen his words. This also helped him being more specific and understandable.
Modality: It is among one of the qualities of the President that he stresses upon the words he used for conveying his message. He stresses upon every of his word that helps him being more projective. It is not just the inaugural address of him that he stressed upon the words, but it is the kind of habit or Donald Trump that he stresses upon the words for being too focused. He referred to many areas throughout his speech ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"gQ1FRZOr","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Blake)","plainCitation":"(Blake)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":155,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/pCT5fGyt/items/E5UL2HXA"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/pCT5fGyt/items/E5UL2HXA"],"itemData":{"id":155,"type":"article-journal","title":"Donald Trump’s full inauguration speech transcript, annotated","container-title":"The Washington Post","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Blake","given":"Aaron"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Blake). Somewhere he used more iterations that Muslims or Immigrants. It helped him being more logically clear toward his concepts. It is a general understanding that if someone modals any word, it means that he is being more concentrative toward that thing. Same is true with his inaugural address. While referring toward the re- building of his nation, and the re- building of his country he modeled upon such words. It served him in two ways. He remained clear at first and secondly, he made it clear to his fellow humans that he values this thing. Many previous Presidents had also used such techniques to focus over their words, but in the case of Mr. Trump, it is very right to say that he naturally had this habit of stressing upon the words, and not just in this case.
Conclusion: A complete analysis of the inaugural address of the 45thh President of the United States suggest that he remained confrontational throughout his speech. There is reason that have been explained above also. For example, he stressed upon his policy priorities, it is a kind of an attitude which shows that there are many changes in his policies. Along with this it shows that such differences are important and are relevant to just his specific Presidential term. For example, Mr. Trump remarks about the Muslim community or Islam are much different from the of the previous Presidents. He also stressed upon many such areas that remain important in understanding his policy priorities. The confrontational aspect was also evident from the fact that he avoided talking about the most acclaimed accomplishments of the previous Presidents. Such is not the custom of the inaugural addresses. Rather it is considered against the democratic norms of the country. There is an understandable thing that the incoming administration will be different toward many things, but this was also quite evident in his address too. The above-mentioned aspects also show that despite being fulfilling toward the grammatical rules and the syntax, the speech employed all the features of being confrontational.
Work Cited:
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Blake, Aaron. “Donald Trump’s Full Inauguration Speech Transcript, Annotated.” The Washington Post, 2017.
Chilton, Paul. “‘The People’ in Populist Discourse.” Journal of Language and Politics, vol. 16, no. 4, 2017, pp. 582–594.
Suhadi, Agung, and Kiagus Baluqiah. “DONALD TRUMP AND BARRACK OBAMA’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS: STYLISTIC ANALYSIS.” Proceedings of ISELT FBS Universitas Negeri Padang, vol. 5, 2017, pp. 169–177.
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