COHESION IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE: A CASE STUDY OF PRESIDENT TRUMP'S INAUGURAL SPEECH

Abstract

This article provides a detailed linguistic study of President Trump's January 20, 2017, inaugural address, focusing particularly on his skillful utilization of cohesive devices. The study's overarching goal is to identify the most crucial coherent devices used in Trump's inaugural speech in order to determine which ones are most characteristic of his political discourse as a whole. The study uses Halliday and Hasan's seminal cohesion model (1976) as its analytical framework and looks at a number of cohesive devices. These include lexical devices like repetition, reiteration, and synonyms, as well as grammatical devices like referencing and conjunctions. These linking mechanisms were crucial in putting together a coherent and convincing argument.  The findings emphasize the extensive use of these cohesive techniques in Trump's inaugural address, illuminating their central significance in stressing the need of togetherness and, by extension, defining the overall tone for the new government's course. Insight into the complex ways in which cohesive devices are strategically used to emphasize themes of unity and collective purpose is provided by this study. The results of this research provide new light on the complex relationship between language, rhetoric, and political message, which will be useful to academics, linguists, and political analysts. This study makes a contribution to the area of discourse analysis by highlighting the importance of coherent devices in molding the language of political leaders and communicating convincing messages to the public.