الفهرس 
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Abstract
Faculty of Arts
English Department
Linguistics & Translation Section
The Trump-Clinton 2016 American Presidential Debates:
A Critical Discourse Analysis
A Thesis Submitted in the Fulfillment of the
masters Degree in Linguistics
By:
Aya Tarek El-Hawary
Under the Supervision of:
Dr. Amany Youssef Dr. Rania Hamdy
Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics Lecturer of Linguistics
Faculty of Arts Faculty of Arts
Helwan University Helwan University
2019
Chapter One
Introduction
Introduction
The present study analyzes selected extracts that have carefully been chosen from the transcripts of the three (2016) presidential debates that took place between the two nominees Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton to fully cover the scope of the study. The study aims at highlighting their political discourse in which they manifest to maintain dominance and power. The study is divided into five chapters that include the introduction, review of literature, methodology and data collection, data analysis, discussion and conclusion. The First Chapter is the introduction that contains the context, objective, research questions and significance. Chapter Two provides the review of literature which is split into two sections the first section gives an overview of the theoretical framework and the second section is a review of previous studies. The theoretical framework is going to give an overview on CDA, representation strategies and persuasion. Further elaboration using a number of references is given to cover what CDA is, its aims and its tenets. Besides, ideology in relation to CDA and its definition is covered. Moreover, using the framework of Machin and Mayr (2012) and Culpeper (2011), the researcher covers the representational strategies, lexical choices, modality and hedges, transitivity and verb processes, impoliteness, politeness and rhetorical devices. In the second section, a number of previous studies are given that use CDA in analyzing different data using different models and tools. The methodology in collecting the data, approach and tools of analyses will be clear in the third chapter. The fourth chapter, demonstrates the analysis of the data that answers my research question. The last chapter, chapter five is a discussion and my conclusion for the results of the data analyses.
Context of the Study
America has been suffering in the last few years from economic crises, unemployment and illegal immigration. American people are dissatisfied with high taxes, costly healthcare and America’s controversial foreign policies. This made them look forward to their savior new elected president to provide them with persuasive plans. The 2016 presidential election is the 58th presidential election. The elections were held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. It took place between the Republican Donald Trump and the Democrat, 67th former secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Trump was the first presidential candidate in the U.S. history to run for office without any prior experience in public service. On the other hand, Clinton was the first woman to be nominated for presidency by a major American party. Both Clinton and Trump used all tools of persuasion to promise the Americans a safer future that is prosperous and filled with rewarding job opportunities and better tax policies.
This study tackles selected extracts from the transcripts of the three debates that took place between Clinton and Trump. The first debate was on September 26, the second was on October 9 and the final was on October 19, 2016. In the three debates Clinton and Trump are facing off each other to persuade the Americans that only one of them is more qualified than the other to be the next US president. Each aimed to view himself/herself more powerful and persuasive than the other opponent who is weaker and does not worth people’s trust.
Objectives of the Study
This study aims at uncovering Clinton and Trump’s hidden ideologies and intentions behind language choices in the three presidential debates under study. In addition, the study seeks to show how each of them used language to express his/her thoughts and influence people. They employ language to persuade people to approve the fitness of one of them for presidency. All the analytical tools come under the strategy of persuasion, for instance; pragmatic, representational strategies, lexical choices of (power and identity), pronouns (Us versus Them), modality and hedges, transitivity and verb processes, impoliteness and rhetorical devices (metaphor).
The study aim is to achieve the following objectives:
1- Uncover Trump’s and Clinton’s power and hidden ideology through a critical discourse analysis of their language choices in the three presidential debates under study.
2- Show how Trump and Clinton have used positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation as well as a set of pragmatic tools and rhetorical devices in persuading the voters.
3- Reveal the nature of Trump’s and Clinton’s verbal aggressiveness on the scale of impoliteness strategies proposed by Culpeper (1996, 2011).
4- Formulate the basis for a creative model of persuasion.
Research Questions:
The main focus of the current study is to uncover the real hidden ideology of Clinton and Trump. Thus, this study poses the following questions:
1- To what extent would a critical discourse analysis of the three presidential debates under study reveal Trump’s and Clinton’s power and hidden ideology?
2- To what extent would Trump’s and Clinton’s use of pragmatic, representational strategies, lexical choices of (power and identity), pronouns (Us versus Them), modality and hedges, transitivity and verb processes, and rhetorical devices (metaphor) contribute to persuading the audience and gaining their support?
3- How can Trump’s verbal aggressiveness in the debates be analyzed through Culpeper’s model (2011) of impoliteness?
4- How far would the results of the current study contribute to the formulation of a creative model of persuasion in (presidential) debates?
Significance of the Study
It is hoped that this study would shed light on the role of CDA in uncovering the speaker’s ideology implicit in his linguistic choices. Also, the study draws attention to the importance of the language of persuasion, power and impoliteness. This study would help uncover hidden ideologies and intentions implicitly expressed through using specific linguistic strategies in the three presidential debates that took place between Clinton and Trump. It is also hoped that this study would highlight the influential role of the debates in affecting people’s thoughts and persuading them to choose between Clinton and Trump. The study aims to prove that some kinds of unexpected strategies (impoliteness) can be used by politicians to achieve their goal and to persuade the mob.