Rhetorical devices in President Donald Trump’s speeches
Abstract
This is a study of rhetorical devices (RDs) in President Donald Trump (PDT)’s speeches. The analytical framework of the study is adapted from the theory of RDs by McGuigan (2007). Both qualitative and quantitative methods are mainly used to analyze the data. The aim of the study is to work out the frequency of occurrence of RDs in five PDT’s speeches in the first two years of presidency from 2017 to 2019 and then to discuss the underlying usage patterns of these RDs. The findings show that there are 16 RDs in all four groups being employed in PDT’s speeches. Regarding Strategy RDs, Trump frequently used metaphor, hyperbole, antithesis, simile, and rhetorical question. With regard to Organization RDs, Trump utilized anadiplosis/conduplicatio, enumeration, parallelism, and antanagoge. Considering Style RDs, Trump tended to apply epithet, synecdoche/metonymy, polysyndeton, and hyperbaton. In terms of Analysis of Reading RDs, Trump was more likely to employ anaphora/epistrophe/symploce, personification, and parataxis. Another interesting finding found in the study is that in comparison with the other three groups of devices, Trump had a strong tendency towards Style RDs which preferred with the predominance of epithet.