Dynamism and participant identification in the discursive construction of the American nation

Abstract

This article analyzes the linguistic choices used in political discourse to represent social actors and their role in the construction of national storylines. We focus on Donald Trump’s and Joseph Biden’s inaugural speeches as a critical exploratory context. The analytical approach involves contrasting their choices for assigning dynamism to social actors through transitivity roles and for identifying participants through direct, indirect, and pronominal strategies. Our findings show that Trump assigns Actor + Goal roles that construe citizens as agents impinging on material reality, while Biden assigns them Actor – Goal roles that represent citizens as participants in happenings. Trump’s identification of participants shows a higher proportion of indirect strategies linked with possessive qualification, whereas Biden stands out for his frequent use of the singular first person. The findings suggest connections between the strategies identified and the construction of national identities and storylines, both permeated by political leaders’ ideological orientations.

Keywords

• dynamism
• inaugural address
• nation
• participant identification