A Discourse Analysis of the 2016 United States Presidential Debates Through the Application of the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse

Politics can be defined as a struggle for power in order to put some specific ideas into practice. In the process of transforming ideas into action and getting politically relevant messages across to the addressees, language plays a critical role. Presidential debates have long been considered as one of the most influential political campaign message forms. According to the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse, in order to increase their desirability, presidential candidates involve in performing three important functions including attacks, acclaims, and defends on two major topics namely policy and character. In the present study, the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse has been applied in order to investigate the 2016 Clinton-Trump presidential debates. As revealed by the results, all three kinds of utterances (acclaims, attacks, and defenses) were produced by the candidates supporting the usefulness of the theory for the analysis of the presidential debates as a type of political discourse. Attacks comprised 45% of the candidates’ utterances, followed by acclaims at 33%; defenses were the least common function at 22%. The candidate from the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, acclaimed more, whereas the Republican Party candidate, Donald Trump, attacked more. Both candidates directed more of their utterances to policy (past deeds, future plans, and general goals) than character (personal qualities, leadership abilities, and ideals). The results were in line with the major claim of the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse that presidential candidates draw on three essential message types (claims, attacks, and defends) on two topics (policy and character) in order to achieve their desired ends. Results of this study can contribute to the enhancement of our understanding of presidential debates and other forms of political discourse and equip presidential candidates with an awareness of the major tools of gaining desirability and persuasiveness in political campaign discourse.