Utilization of speech acts in Obama's (2013)‎ and Trump's(2017)‎ inaugural speeches

Abstract EN

American politicians in general, and Obama and Trump in particular, often utilize various speech acts to attain several communicative functions associated with their governmental plans and political policies, for example, exhorting people to perform certain actions, indulging them in their political issues, ideas and opinions and significantly persuading them to accept and agree to what they intend to do (i.e.

complying with their agendas and programs).

As such, Obama and Trump manipulate different types of speech acts: assertives, directives, commissives, expressives and declaratives, but with different rates, i.e.

they are not deployed alike due to the messages they wish to convey.

Thus, this paper aims to pragma-discoursally identify and analyze the numerous speech acts used in Obama's and Trump's Inaugural Addresses, to determine the most predominant speech acts in these speeches and to elicit the purposes behind this use.

Two American Inaugural Addresses (Obama 2013 and Trump 2017) have been chosen and analyzed in terms of the dissemination and function of speech act categories (of Searle's 1969, 1976 and 1979).

This paper reveals that both Obama and Trump manipulate various types of speech acts to attain various communicative functions associated with their governmental agendas and programs.

In their addresses, through the utilization of these speech acts, they assert their viewpoints, salute the audience, request them to take an action, commit themselves to doing things… etc.