TITLE:
Features of Political Euphemisms in President Donald Trump’s Speeches
AUTHORS:
Oyundash Begzjav, Khosbayar Nyamsuren
KEYWORDS:
Euphemism, Political Discourse, Greater Degree, Features, Social Culture, Donald Trump, Direct speaker, Sparingly
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.13 No.6,
December
29,
2023
ABSTRACT: Euphemisms are one of the most important rhetorical tools for politicians, and in the process of social communication, words used to help people communicate politely and comfortably are used at all levels of society. In particular, the study of political euphemisms is increasing, and a lot of researchers are still conducting research in each field from their own point of view. The fate of politicians is largely related to the support of voters, so politicians pay great attention to their wording in public speeches. We analyze ten official speeches from Donald Trump, who is known to be a direct speaker, and who uses euphemisms sparingly. Previous research on euphemism in Trump’s political discourse has been sparse. Because of this, our research focuses on a sample of ten speeches in 2020. These speeches have gained international attention due to sometimes being controversial in nature, and our study dissects Trump’s usage of euphemisms and their meanings within the context of his speech. We have read all of his speeches given during his presidency from 2017 to 2021. Then, we focused our research on Donald Trump’s speeches on war, death, poor people, unfinished political goals, COVID-19, Remarks on the Killing of Qasem Soleimani, State of the Union Address, Remarks after His Acquittal. We found that he used more euphemisms for these topics. The speeches were analyzed according to Features of Political Euphemisms classification, which states that the use of euphemisms involves three features, such as Greater Degree of Deviation from its Signified Use, More Vague Meaning, and Strong Characteristics of the Times.