Cultivating critical language awareness: unraveling populism in Trump’s inaugural address

IF 0.9 3区社会学 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Semiotica Pub Date : 2024-07-11 DOI:10.1515/sem-2023-0162

Junling Zhu

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Recent literature has revealed the upsurge of populism in political and media discourses across the world. However, few studies have acknowledged the importance of cultivating critical language awareness among citizens in democracies. Drawing on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics and Fairclough’s Critical Discourse, this study critically analyzes Trump’s populist meaning-making choices in his inaugural address through both genre and register analysis to raise the urgency of cultivating citizens’ critical language awareness through language education. To better illustrate Trump’s genre moves and rhetorical strategies, this study sometimes analyzes Trump’s inaugural address in comparison with other presidents’ inaugural addresses. The findings indicate that Trump employs a combination of populist rhetorical style, which includes anti-establishment, anti-elitism rhetoric; collectivist rhetoric; pro-nationalist sentiments; and linguistic choices of simplicity and repetition to appeal to both supporters and opponents in an attempt to build solidarity. The implications of this study center on raising educators’ and social scientists’ awareness of the urgency to cultivate critical language awareness among citizens through language education. Equipped with critical language awareness, citizens can understand how politicians use linguistic resources to engage, persuade, and manipulate their audiences to achieve their political goals, and thereby can make informed choices about political leaders in the future.

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培养批判性语言意识：解读特朗普就职演说中的民粹主义

最近的文献显示，世界各地的政治和媒体言论中民粹主义抬头。然而，很少有研究承认在民主国家培养公民批判性语言意识的重要性。本研究借鉴 Halliday 的系统功能语言学和 Fairclough 的批判性话语，通过体裁和语域分析，批判性地分析了特朗普在就职演说中的民粹主义意义选择，从而提出了通过语言教育培养公民批判性语言意识的紧迫性。为了更好地说明特朗普的体裁动作和修辞策略，本研究有时会将特朗普的就职演说与其他总统的就职演说进行对比分析。研究结果表明，特朗普综合运用了民粹主义修辞风格，其中包括反建制、反精英主义修辞；集体主义修辞；亲民族主义情绪；以及简洁和重复的语言选择，以吸引支持者和反对者，试图建立团结。本研究的意义在于提高教育工作者和社会科学家对通过语言教育培养公民批判性语言意识紧迫性的认识。具备了批判性语言意识，公民就能理解政治家是如何利用语言资源来吸引、说服和操纵受众以实现其政治目标的，从而在未来对政治领导人做出明智的选择。

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来源期刊

Semiotica Multiple-

CiteScore

1.30

自引率

37.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： Semiotica, the Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, founded in 1969, appears in five volumes of four issues per year, in two languages (English and French), and occasionally in German. Semiotica features articles reporting results of research in all branches of semiotic studies, in-depth reviews of selected current literature in this field, and occasional guest editorials and reports. From time to time, Special Issues, devoted to topics of particular interest, are assembled by Guest Editors. The publishers of Semiotica offer an annual prize, the Mouton d"Or, to the author of the best article each year. The article is selected by an independent international jury.