Words as powerful weapons: dysphemism in Trump’s Covid-19 speeches

Covid-19 pandemic constitutes the greatest threat to the worldwide population and countries nowadays. Donald Trump, the president of the greatest country in the world, has frequently received heavy criticism as a result of his language use in the period of Covid-19. Therefore, the present paper ex...

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Main Author: Olimat, Sameer Naser
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2020
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15799/1/40231-138155-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15799/
http://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1326
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spelling my-ukm.journal.157992020-11-22T15:42:32Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15799/ Words as powerful weapons: dysphemism in Trump’s Covid-19 speeches Olimat, Sameer Naser Covid-19 pandemic constitutes the greatest threat to the worldwide population and countries nowadays. Donald Trump, the president of the greatest country in the world, has frequently received heavy criticism as a result of his language use in the period of Covid-19. Therefore, the present paper examines dysphemistic expressions used in Trump’s discourse on Covid-19. A sample of dysphemistic examples adopted in Trump’s daily speeches in a crucial week of 11th till 18th of March 2020 was analysed. The researcher relied on the Critical-political Discourse Analysis by Van Dijk (1997; 2001), Conceptual Metaphor theory by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), and the concept of dysphemism by Allan and Burridge (2006). It has been found that Trump referred to strong language and war metaphors to defend himself and his point of view, to shape Americans’ thoughts and views, or to attack other countries or institutions. Several conceptual metaphors, including Covid-19 is a) an invisible enemy, b) a foreign enemy, c) a dangerous threat, and d) a global battle, were commonly used. The data analysis shows that Trump has a linguistic mastery of eloquent and persuasive devices in political discourse which permitted him to make a shift in Americans’ thoughts and opinions. For future research, the current paper suggests investigating Trump’s paralinguistic features in speeches, such as body language, facial expressions, tone and pitch of voice, eye movements, and hand gestures. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2020 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15799/1/40231-138155-1-PB.pdf Olimat, Sameer Naser (2020) Words as powerful weapons: dysphemism in Trump’s Covid-19 speeches. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 26 (3). pp. 17-29. ISSN 0128-5157 http://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1326
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
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continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
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url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description Covid-19 pandemic constitutes the greatest threat to the worldwide population and countries nowadays. Donald Trump, the president of the greatest country in the world, has frequently received heavy criticism as a result of his language use in the period of Covid-19. Therefore, the present paper examines dysphemistic expressions used in Trump’s discourse on Covid-19. A sample of dysphemistic examples adopted in Trump’s daily speeches in a crucial week of 11th till 18th of March 2020 was analysed. The researcher relied on the Critical-political Discourse Analysis by Van Dijk (1997; 2001), Conceptual Metaphor theory by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), and the concept of dysphemism by Allan and Burridge (2006). It has been found that Trump referred to strong language and war metaphors to defend himself and his point of view, to shape Americans’ thoughts and views, or to attack other countries or institutions. Several conceptual metaphors, including Covid-19 is a) an invisible enemy, b) a foreign enemy, c) a dangerous threat, and d) a global battle, were commonly used. The data analysis shows that Trump has a linguistic mastery of eloquent and persuasive devices in political discourse which permitted him to make a shift in Americans’ thoughts and opinions. For future research, the current paper suggests investigating Trump’s paralinguistic features in speeches, such as body language, facial expressions, tone and pitch of voice, eye movements, and hand gestures.
format Article
author Olimat, Sameer Naser
spellingShingle Olimat, Sameer Naser
Words as powerful weapons: dysphemism in Trump’s Covid-19 speeches
author_facet Olimat, Sameer Naser
author_sort Olimat, Sameer Naser
title Words as powerful weapons: dysphemism in Trump’s Covid-19 speeches
title_short Words as powerful weapons: dysphemism in Trump’s Covid-19 speeches
title_full Words as powerful weapons: dysphemism in Trump’s Covid-19 speeches
title_fullStr Words as powerful weapons: dysphemism in Trump’s Covid-19 speeches
title_full_unstemmed Words as powerful weapons: dysphemism in Trump’s Covid-19 speeches
title_sort words as powerful weapons: dysphemism in trump’s covid-19 speeches
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2020
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15799/1/40231-138155-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15799/
http://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1326
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score 13.211869