Comparison of Speech Acts in Trump and Biden Campaign Speeches

This article aimed to compare the speech acts used by two prominent political figures, DonaldTrump and Joe Biden, during their respective presidential campaigns in the United States. To doso, a qualitative content analysis approach was used to identify and compare the speech acts usedby both candidates in their campaign speeches. The analysis included identifying various types ofspeech acts, such as declarative, representative, directive, expressive, and commissive. To this aim,the script of two famous political speeches by each Candidate were analyzed, i.e., “Make AmericaGreat Again” and “America First” by Trump and “We Are in a Battle for the Soul of This Nation”and “Build Back Better” by Biden. The model of the paper was Searle’s Theory of Speech Act(۱۹۶۹). The frequency of each category was counted and compared with other categories in orderto find the most frequent types of speech acts in each political speech. The findings of the studyshowed that Trump frequently used assertive speech acts to assert his belief in his ability toprioritize American interests and his confidence in the potential of the American people. WhileBiden employed various speech acts in a relatively balanced manner, without one beingsignificantly more frequent than the others. As a result, Biden's use of a range of speech actscreated a multi-dimensional message that appealed to voters' emotions, sense of patriotism, anddesire for positive change. As implications of the study, it should be mentioned that the studyhighlights the importance of understanding the role of speech acts in shaping public opinion andvoter behavior. Political leaders must carefully consider the types of speech acts they use in theirspeeches, as they can have a significant impact on how their messages are received by the public

کلیدواژه ها:

Speech Act ، Campaign Speech ، Trump ، Biden ، Searle’s Theory of Speech Act.