Styles of Communication (Aug 2020)
2016 Clinton’s and Trump’s US Presidential Campaign Texts: Adaptable Discourse for Global Political Players
Abstract
This study analyzes campaign resources that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump deployed to persuade the American electorate during the 2016 US Presidential Campaigns. The researcher considers eighteen advertisements as well as selected critical speeches representing their expansive campaign substances. Halliday’s Ideational Metafunction serves as the device for processing the texts. A combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches is adopted to illuminate textual discourse features. The study demonstrates the extensive deployment of Material Processes for getting things done and Mental Processes to influence voters’ psychological perspectives on issues to avoid any turbulent incitements. Further revelations exhibit the greatness of America as prime and sacred, outweighing personal interest of Hillary or Donald, becoming the next American President. That seems the reason for utilizing discourse materials negating enmity. As linguistic choices are great communicative tools in political domains, such strategies, the study suggests, might be employed to inspire peaceful co-existence in our world.
