A Corpus-Based Analysis of the Pervasive and Effective Metaphor Use in Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential Campaign

Authors

  • Sarah Sifton WWU M.A. NTS

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17879/satura-2019-3061

Keywords:

linguistics, corpus linguistics, trump, critical discourse analysis

Abstract

The language of U.S. President Donald Trump has been the subject of myriad discussions. Many have deliberated on his syntax, lexicon, and oration. Yet, there has been little discussion regarding his use of figurative language,especially metaphors. Therefore, the present study takes a mixed method approach, specifically one of corpus linguistics, concordancing, and critical discourse analysis to analyze the metaphors used in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign speeches. Furthermore, an investigation into the implications of his metaphor use will also be conducted in order to highlight his underlying ideologies and attitudes.

Author Biography

Sarah Sifton, WWU M.A. NTS

Sarah Sifton is a 27-year-old Master student at the University of Münster, Germany. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, she moved to Germany in 2016 to complete a study abroad program at the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg: Bad Mergentheim in German Language and Culture. She attended the University of North Florida and completed her B.A. in European Studies graduating Magna Cum Laude. Shortly after, she moved to Stuttgart to begin her six-month internship at the United States European Command. She helped in developing and promoting the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, an executive order instituted by former President Barack Obama, also known as U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325. She is a Linguistics student and her research interests include sociolinguistics, language use in social media, reverse cross linguistic influence, and postcolonial Englishes. Currently, she is working on her thesis on reverse cross linguistic influence, focusing
specifically on the influence German as a second language has on U.S. speakers’ native English speech production.

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Published

2020-09-03

How to Cite

Sifton, S. (2020). A Corpus-Based Analysis of the Pervasive and Effective Metaphor Use in Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential Campaign. Satura, 2, 2–12. https://doi.org/10.17879/satura-2019-3061

Issue

Vol. 2 (2019)

Section

Linguistics

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Sarah Stifton

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.