‘Going negative’: An APPRAISAL analysis of the rhetoric of Donald Trump on Twitter

Andrew S. Ross; David Caldwell

doi:10.1016/j.langcom.2019.09.003

‘Going negative’: An APPRAISAL analysis of the rhetoric of Donald Trump on Twitter

Andrew S. Ross, David Caldwell

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

75 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article explores a selection of the tweets of President Donald Trump, specifically in relation to his use of negativity as a rhetorical political strategy. The study is guided by a corpus-based comparative keyword analysis and the analytical framework of APPRAISAL, from Systemic Functional Linguistics, which is concerned with the language of evaluation. The study reveals that in order to carry out an approach of ‘going negative’, Trump utilises the APPRAISAL system in a variety of ways, with the ultimate aim to attack and undermine the character of his political opponent.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	13-27
Number of pages	15
Journal	Language and Communication
Volume	70
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2019.09.003
Publication status	Published - Jan 2020
Externally published	Yes

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10.1016/j.langcom.2019.09.003

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title = "{\textquoteleft}Going negative{\textquoteright}: An APPRAISAL analysis of the rhetoric of Donald Trump on Twitter",

abstract = "This article explores a selection of the tweets of President Donald Trump, specifically in relation to his use of negativity as a rhetorical political strategy. The study is guided by a corpus-based comparative keyword analysis and the analytical framework of APPRAISAL, from Systemic Functional Linguistics, which is concerned with the language of evaluation. The study reveals that in order to carry out an approach of {\textquoteleft}going negative{\textquoteright}, Trump utilises the APPRAISAL system in a variety of ways, with the ultimate aim to attack and undermine the character of his political opponent.",

keywords = "APPRAISAL, Negativity, Rhetoric, Systemic Functional Linguistics, Trump, Twitter",

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AB - This article explores a selection of the tweets of President Donald Trump, specifically in relation to his use of negativity as a rhetorical political strategy. The study is guided by a corpus-based comparative keyword analysis and the analytical framework of APPRAISAL, from Systemic Functional Linguistics, which is concerned with the language of evaluation. The study reveals that in order to carry out an approach of ‘going negative’, Trump utilises the APPRAISAL system in a variety of ways, with the ultimate aim to attack and undermine the character of his political opponent.

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KW - Negativity

KW - Rhetoric

KW - Systemic Functional Linguistics

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JO - Language and Communication

JF - Language and Communication

ER -

‘Going negative’: An APPRAISAL analysis of the rhetoric of Donald Trump on Twitter

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