A comparative appraisal analysis of engagement in Joe Biden’s and Donald Trump’s speeches
A comparative appraisal analysis of engagement in Joe Biden’s and Donald Trump’s speeches

Summary/Abstract: The present study analyzed Engagement strategies used in political discourse, examining how politicians construe certain stances relative to other voices and how they align or dis-align with their audience. To this end, the study employed Martin and White’s (2005) appraisal theory to examine the Engagement resources utilized in speeches delivered by the 46th US President Joe Biden and the 45th and 47th President Donald Trump during their campaigns for the 2024 US presidential election during their campaigns for the 2024 US presidential election. Instances of Engagement were identified, tallied, and classified into their respective sub-categories. The findings showed a consistent pattern in terms of the frequencies of the sub-categories of Engagement in the two speeches, with Heteroglossia being more frequent than Monoglossia. Results of the normalized frequencies indicated that contracted and expanded resources were more often employed by Trump than by Biden. However, a fine-grained analysis underscored distinct stylistic differences in the utilization of these resources by the two speakers. The study sheds light on the nuanced nature of political discourse and provides insights into how politicians use Engagement resources to construe certain stances and to communicate with their audience.

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