%0 Journal Article
%T A Corpus-Based Study of Hillary Clinton¡¯s and Donald Trump¡¯s Linguistic Styles | Chen | International Journal of English Linguistics | CCSE
%A Jie Hu
%A Xueliang Chen
%A Yuanle Yan
%J Home | International Journal of English Linguistics | CCSE
%D 2019
%R 10.5539/ijel.v9n3p13
%X Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, research on Hillary Clinton¡¯s and Donald Trump¡¯s linguistic styles has witnessed an exponential increase, with a lopsided focus on Trump in particular. This study compared Clinton¡¯s and Trumps¡¯ campaign speeches during the general election using a corpus-based approach. Discourse analysis of the corpora was conducted using the textual analysis software AntConc 3.2.4. The results showed that Clinton used a more diverse vocabulary compared with Trump, and that both candidates stuck to their core campaign messages in their speeches. Three major differences between Clinton¡¯s and Trump¡¯s linguistic styles were identified: 1) Clinton was inclined towards rational discussions of public policy, while Trump was adept at appealing to voters¡¯ emotions; 2) Clinton was more positive and focused on her vision of the future, while Trump was more negative and fixated at depicting a dystopian reality; 3) Clinton aimed to find commonalities with the American people, while Trump aimed to highlight differences between himself and his opponents. By putting Clinton¡¯s rhetoric on a par with Trump¡¯s, this study highlighted their linguistic style differences as part of their grand campaign strategy, which could contribute to current understanding of the two candidates¡¯ rhetorical preferences, political beliefs and strategies in their 2016 campaigns
%U http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijel/article/view/0/39048