International Journal of Literature and Arts

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Transitivity Analysis of American President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address

Received: Apr. 13, 2018    Accepted: May 08, 2018    Published: May 31, 2018
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Abstract

Political public speeches cause a large amount of attention, due to their political, economic and cultural influence. This thesis adopts Systemic-Functional Grammar as its theoretical framework to conduct a transitivity analysis in American President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address. The aim of this thesis is to find the political motivation hidden by the form of language. At the same time, this thesis tries to explore the deep social significance via transitivity analysis of the ideational function. In Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address, the material process is the most frequently used process. The relational process and the mental process take the second and the third respectively. In transferring power to the people, material process is strongly involved. In advocating for U.S. interests in international contacts -- America first, relational process top the list of all the six processes. In recovering the audience’s confidence and looking forward to a better future, American President Donald Trump applied different mental processes. On the basis of the study, the researchers can better understand the thinking manner and cultural features of Westerners. Besides, it is a worthy study to uncover more differences of language expression between the East and the West.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.20180602.11
Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts ( Volume 6, Issue 2, March 2018 )
Page(s) 28-34
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Process, Transitivity, Functional Linguistics, Trump’s Inaugural Address

References
[1] Abne M. Eisenberg & Teri Kwal Gamble. Painless Public Speaking. Lanham Md.: University Press of America, 1991.
[2] Bloor, T. and M. Bloor. The Functional Analysis of English: A Hallidayan Approach [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.
[3] Brown, G, Yule, G Discourse Analysis [M] Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.
[4] Halliday, M. A. k. An Introduction to Functional Gramma r(second edition.) [M] Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.
[5] Lucas, S. E. The Art of Public Speaking (eighth edition.) [M] Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.
[6] Thompson, G. Introducing Functional Grammar [M] Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.
[7] Hu Zhuanglin. The System and function of Language [M] Beijing: Peking University Press, 1990.
[8] Xin Bin. A Critical Analysis of English Discourse [J]. Sichuan Journal of Foreign Language, 1997, 4.
[9] Xiong Li. The Stylistic Style of Kennedy’s Speech from the Inaugural Speech [J] Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities, 2004, 12.
[10] Zhang Huisong. The Exploration of the Transitivity System in English [J]. Journal of Hunan Normal College, 1996, 2.
[11] Hu Zhiying. Analysis of Obama’s Victory Speech in 2012 from Halliday’s Three Meta-function. Master Thesis. Human: Hunan Agriculture University, 2014, 6.
[12] Zhang Mingming. Transitivity Analysis of Hillary Clinton’s Speech [J]. Literature of Times 23(2), 20-24, 2013.
[13] Zhangping, Halliday’s Transitivity and Translation. Master Thesis. Changsha: Hunan Normal University, 2013.
[14] Laya, H. D. Persuasive Style and its Realization Through Transitivity Analysis: A SFL Perspective [J]. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Science (118):172-175, 2014.
[15] Huang Guowen. Text Analysis Summary [M]. Changsha: Hunan Education Press, 2003.
[16] Zhangting. Ideational Function Analysis of the English translation of the Songs of Chu. Journal of Hubei University For Nationalities. 2016, 34.
[17] Wu Jianguo, Chen Congying. Review of Critical Discourse Research 2015 [J]. Guangzhou: Journal of Tianjin Foreign Studies University. 2016, 3.
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  • APA Style

    Zhu Yujie, Li Fengjie. (2018). Transitivity Analysis of American President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 6(2), 28-34. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20180602.11

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    ACS Style

    Zhu Yujie; Li Fengjie. Transitivity Analysis of American President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2018, 6(2), 28-34. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20180602.11

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    AMA Style

    Zhu Yujie, Li Fengjie. Transitivity Analysis of American President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address. Int J Lit Arts. 2018;6(2):28-34. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20180602.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.20180602.11,
      author = {Zhu Yujie and Li Fengjie},
      title = {Transitivity Analysis of American President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address},
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {6},
      number = {2},
      pages = {28-34},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20180602.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20180602.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20180602.11},
      abstract = {Political public speeches cause a large amount of attention, due to their political, economic and cultural influence. This thesis adopts Systemic-Functional Grammar as its theoretical framework to conduct a transitivity analysis in American President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address. The aim of this thesis is to find the political motivation hidden by the form of language. At the same time, this thesis tries to explore the deep social significance via transitivity analysis of the ideational function. In Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address, the material process is the most frequently used process. The relational process and the mental process take the second and the third respectively. In transferring power to the people, material process is strongly involved. In advocating for U.S. interests in international contacts -- America first, relational process top the list of all the six processes. In recovering the audience’s confidence and looking forward to a better future, American President Donald Trump applied different mental processes. On the basis of the study, the researchers can better understand the thinking manner and cultural features of Westerners. Besides, it is a worthy study to uncover more differences of language expression between the East and the West.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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    SN  - 2331-057X
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    AB  - Political public speeches cause a large amount of attention, due to their political, economic and cultural influence. This thesis adopts Systemic-Functional Grammar as its theoretical framework to conduct a transitivity analysis in American President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address. The aim of this thesis is to find the political motivation hidden by the form of language. At the same time, this thesis tries to explore the deep social significance via transitivity analysis of the ideational function. In Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address, the material process is the most frequently used process. The relational process and the mental process take the second and the third respectively. In transferring power to the people, material process is strongly involved. In advocating for U.S. interests in international contacts -- America first, relational process top the list of all the six processes. In recovering the audience’s confidence and looking forward to a better future, American President Donald Trump applied different mental processes. On the basis of the study, the researchers can better understand the thinking manner and cultural features of Westerners. Besides, it is a worthy study to uncover more differences of language expression between the East and the West.
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Author Information
  • Foreign Languages Department, School of Humanities, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China

  • Foreign Languages Department, School of Humanities, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China

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