CORPUS-BASED LEXICAL BUNDLES IN AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURAL SPEECHES

Mouna Ayadi(1*),

(1) University of Gabes, Tunisia
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


The aim of this paper was to investigate the use of lexical bundles in the inaugural speeches of Democratic and Republican presidents in the United States in order to identify linguistic differences associated with lexical bundles. Drawing on Biber et al. (2004) framework, the study used AntConc software (version 3.5.9; Anthony, 2020) to analyse the lexical bundles used in the speeches. The study found that noun phrase (NP) fragments were the common structural pattern in all speeches. Democratic presidents tended to use NP + of phrase fragments, whereas Republican presidents used prepositional phrase (PP) + of fragments. In terms of the functional classification, both political parties showed a strong priority for referential expressions. These findings point to different linguistic styles associated with each political party, influencing their communication styles in public discourse. Future research is encouraged to look into how linguistic patterns influence political communication and persuasive strategies.


Keywords


functional taxonomy, inaugural speech, lexical bundles, political discourse, structural taxonomy

Full Text:

PDF

References


Akinwotu, S. A. (2018). Language and style in political inaugurals: A study of inaugural speeches of Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, Nigeria. British Journal of English Linguistics, 6(5), 1–5.

Anthony, L. (2012). Laurence Anthony’s website. Retrieved from https://www.laurenceanthony.net/software/antconc/

Anthony, L. (2020). AntConc (Version 3.5.9) [Computer software]. Retrieved from https://laurenceanthony.net/software.html

Bal, B. (2010). Analysis of four-word lexical bundles in published research articles written by Turkish scholars (Thesis, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia).

Beard, A. (2000). The language of politics. London & New York: Routledge.

Biber, D., & Barbieri, F. (2007). Lexical bundles in university spoken and written registers. English for Specific Purposes, 26(3), 263–286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2006.08.003

Biber, D., & Conrad, S. (1999). Lexical bundles in conversation and academic prose. In H. Hasselgård & S. Oksefjell (Eds.), Out of corpora (pp. 181–190). Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Biber, D., Cortes, V., & Conrad, S. (2004). If you look at...: Lexical bundles in university teaching and textbooks. Applied Linguistics, 25(3), 371–405. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/25.3.371

Darweesh, A. D., & Ali, A. A. (2017). Discoursal analysis of lexical bundles in political speeches. Kufa Journal of Arts, 1(30), 51-64. https://doi.org/10.36317/kaj/2016/v1.i30.6060

Dragojević, L. (2023). Analysis of conceptual metaphors in inaugural addresses of American presidents (Undergraduate thesis, University of Split, Split, Croatia).

Ewata, T. (2024). Analysis of lexical bundles in university inaugural lectures. Ilorin Journal of Linguistics, Literature & Culture, 14, 68–90.

Flowerdew, L. (2015). Corpus-based research and pedagogy in EAP: From lexis to genre. Language Teaching, 48(1), 99–116. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444813000037

Granger, S. (2018). Formulaic sequences in learner corpora: Collocations and lexical bundles. In A. Siyanova-Chanturia & A. Pellicer-Sánchez (Eds.), Understanding formulaic language: A second language acquisition perspective (pp. 228–247). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315206615

Hyland, K. (2008). As can be seen: Lexical bundles and disciplinary variation. English for Specific Purposes, 27(1), 4–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2007.06.001

Jablonkai, R. (2010). English in the context of European integration: A corpus-driven analysis of lexical bundles in English EU documents. English for Specific Purposes, 29(4), 253–267. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2010.04.006

Jegede, O. O. (2020). Syntactic analysis of Donald Trump’s inaugural speech. ELS Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 3(3), 317–327. https://doi.org/10.34050/elsjish.v3i3.11068

Nesi, H., & Basturkmen, H. (2006). Lexical bundles and discourse signalling in academic lectures. Lexical Cohesion and Corpus Linguistics, 11(3), 283-304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.11.3.04nes

Partington, A., & Morley, J. (2004). From frequency to ideology: Investigating word and cluster/bundle frequency in political debate. Practical Applications in Language and Computers, 179–192.

Phokanoey, T. (2018). An analysis of the elements, language use, and lexical bundles in political apology speeches (Unpublished dissertation, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand).

Pojanapunya, P., & Watson Todd, R. (2011). Log-likelihood and effect size calculator.

Rakang, Y. (2021). Structural and functional analysis of four-word lexical bundles in public debate (Unpublished master thesis, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand).

Tepavčević, M. (2014). Political discourse – A syntactic and semantic analysis. LOGOS & LITTERA: Journal of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Text, (1), 93–120.

Uba, D. M., Ibrahim, S., & Ahmed, U. A. (2016). A comparative analysis of lexical bundles in Nigerian presidential inaugural speeches. International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research, 4(4), 50–65.

Xue, J., Mao, Z., & Li, N. (2013). Conceptual metaphor in American presidential inaugural addresses. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(4), 678-683. https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.3.4.678-683

Zughyyir, S. K. (2011). Functional analysis of anticipatory it lexical bundles in political speeches. كلية التربية – صفي الدين الحلي العلوم الإنسانية, 1(8), 37–53.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/uc.v6i1.11117

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2025 Mouna Ayadi

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

 

UC Journal is indexed in:

     

 

UC Journal Sinta 4 Certificate (S4 = Level 4)

We would like to inform you that UC Journal: ELT, Linguistics and Literature Journal, or UC Journal has been nationally accredited Sinta 4 by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia based on the decree  No. Surat Keputusan 152/E/KPT/2023. Validity for 5 years: Vol 2 No 1, 2021 till Vol 6 No 2, 2025

 

 

 

 

Flag Counter

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/uc

e-ISSN (validity starting Vol 1, No 2, November 2020): 2774-9401

 

This work is licensed under CC BY-SA.

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

 

 UC Journal: ELT, Linguistics and Literature Journal, a scientific peer-reviewed journal, was established in 20 May 2020 and is published twice a year, namely in May and November, by the English Language Education Study Programme (S1/Sarjana PBI) in collaboration with the English Education Master's Programme (S2/Magister PBI) of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.