This study attempted to explore the relationship between the language tendencies of two U.S. presidents in their inaugural addresses and their personalities and how their word choices revealed their personality traits. Two inaugural speeches given by Donald Trump and Joe Biden during their presidency were collected and examined via a set of corpus-processing software called WordSmith Tools 5.0. From the comparison and analysis of the collected data, the study found that Donald Trump was more concrete, positive, formal and distant, aggressive and pointed and paid more attention to the future; Joe Biden was more personal, dynamic, detailed, and censored himself more. In addition, the two presidents were the same social and talked almost the same to the audience/nation.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump was born on June 14, 1946 in a wealthy family in Queens, New York City. His father is of German descent, and his mother is from Scotland. His grandfather, Frederick Trump, went to New York to earn a living at the age of 16 in 1885. After obtaining a citizenship, he changed his surname from "Drumpf" to "Trump" because the English " Trump" means trump card. The Trump family was therefore born. After graduating from the New York Military Academy in 1964, Trump first studied at Fordham University for two years. Then he entered the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and received a bachelor's degree in economics in 1968. After that, he joined his father’s real estate company and eventually inherited his father’s business and became a successful real estate agent. He was famous for several skyscrapers named after him located in the center of New York. In more than ten cities around the world, including Miami, Las Vegas, Chicago, Toronto, Panama, and even Seoul, South Korea, there were luxury hotels named by Trump. Trump was not satisfied with his development in the real estate business. He often appeared in numerous talk shows, beauty contests, and other media. He usually interpreted himself as a humorous image in TV series or movies and had played different roles in "Home Alone 2", "Sex and the City" and "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." However, Trump’s success in the media world was nothing more than becoming the producer and host of the NBC reality television show "The Apprentice" in 2004.
Since 1988, Trump had repeatedly expressed his desire to run for the president of the United States. From 2001 to 2009, Trump registered himself as a Democrat and rejoined the Republican Party in 2009. The 2016 U.S. presidential election started in mid-2015. Trump announced his candidacy on June 16, 2015, and defeated 16 Republican contenders to win the party nomination. The general election had gone through 595 days of ups and downs. From the initial 22 candidates, only Trump and Hillary were left to compete for the presidential throne. In the end, Trump was elected as the 45th president of the United States [1].
Joe Biden
Joe Biden, an American Democratic politician, is the current (46th) president of the United States. Prior to this, Biden served as a U.S. senator in his hometown of Delaware from 1973 to 2009 and served as the 47th vice president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He is a senior political figure in American politics. Biden grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania and New Castle County, Delaware, and studied at the University of Delaware before earning a law degree from Syracuse University in 1968. In 1970, he was elected to the New Castle County Council. In 1972, at the age of 29, he was elected to the Delaware Senate, becoming the sixth youngest senator in American history. Biden was a long-term member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and eventually became the chairperson of the committee. Biden served as a member of the Senate six times. After winning the 2008 presidential election, he resigned to serve as the vice president of Barack Obama. Obama and Biden were re-elected in the 2012 presidential election. As vice president, Biden oversaw infrastructure spending in 2009 to impede the Great Recession. His negotiations with Republicans in Congress helped pass legislation including the 2010 Tax Relief Act, the Budget Control Act of 2011, and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. In January 2017, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Biden ran for the Democratic presidential nomination twice in 1988 and 2008, but he failed. In April 2019, Biden announced his candidacy in the US presidential election the following year and successfully won the party's nomination. In November 2020, Biden and Kamala Harris defeated incumbent president Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence by a large margin in the general election. They officially took office on January 20, 2021 [2].
Language Tendency, Personality, and Presidential Inaugural Address
The language tendencies of political figures can usually tell us a lot about them, including their leadership style [3]. Dönges [4] stated that what a person writes or speaks is undoubtedly an expression of his/her inner thoughts and personality. According to Dönges, when people try to present themselves in a certain way, they tend to choose the nouns and verbs that they think are appropriate, but they are less likely to control their use of articles and pronouns. These small words create a style of writing that is less subject to conscious manipulation.
Most presidents use inaugural speeches to express their vision for their own country and put forward their goals for the nation. These presidential inaugural speeches can often reveal the personality and character of the presidents. Rubenzer and Faschingbauer [5] provided unique insights into each American president and introduced 21 of them in detail. In their work, they also described the similarities among these presidents. For instance, they stated that George W. Bush seems to combine certain characteristics of the personality type as a president and has strong similarities with Andrew Jackson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.Therefore, the inaugural speech of the president of a country is also an important source for analyzing the ruler’s personality, goals, style, etc.
The Current Study
Considering that Donald Trump is the 45th president of the United States and Joe Biden is the 46th president and that they are from different political parties, whether the personalities of these two presidents have been reflected in the wording of their inaugural addresses is worthy of investigation and discussion. Thus, the researcher of the current study attempted to adopt a corpus-based approach to compare and analyze how these two American presidents’ language tendencies in inaugural speech and their personalities were related and how their word choices revealed their personality traits.
This study was done by analyzing and comparing the inaugural addresses of two US presidents, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The research design consisted of three stages of the research process. The first step was to create a specialized inaugural speech corpus for each of the presidents. The second step was to elicit the top 100 frequently occurring words in each corpus. The third stage was to compare the top 100 words of the two corpora and see how the use of these words was consistent with their personalities.
Instrument
This research adopted a corpus-based approach and used WordSmith Tools 5.0 program as its main instrument. The WordSmith software contains three text analysis tools. One is called Concord, which is a monolingual concordancer. The other two are wordlist extractors, called WordList and KeyWords respectively. The integrated software suite can handle .html, .xml, and .txt files.
Concord is a program that uses plain text or web text files to make a concordance. To use it, a search term must be specified, and Concord will search for that term in all the text files that have been selected. Then, a concordance display will be presented, which allows you access to information about collocates of the search word.
WordList produces word lists based upon one or more plain text or Web text files. The word lists are displayed in alphabetical order and frequency order. They can be saved for later use, edited, printed, copied to your word processor or saved as a text file.
KeyWords aims to discover and identify key words in a given text. To achieve the goal, the program compares the words in the text with a reference set of words usually taken from a large corpus of text [6].
From the above introduction of the main function of the three tools, the WordList tool is mainly to display the frequency of words. Hence, it helped to find the most frequently occurring words from the collected inaugural speeches of the former and current American presidents (i.e., Donald Trump and Joe Biden) in this study.
Corpora Building
The material analyzed in this study is composed of two American presidents’ inaugural addresses. One was given by Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2017, and the other was given by Joe Biden on Jan. 20, 2021. These two speeches were each built as a corpus. The corpus for Trump’s inaugural address contains 1,454 tokens; the one for Biden’s consists of 2,414 tokens. Both speeches were obtained from the website of Miller US Presidential Research Center of University of Virginia [7].
Data Analysis
This research was conducted in four steps, and these four steps followed the steps of Hung [8]. The data analysis was carried out primarily through WordSmith Tools 5.0 software. First, raw data of Donald Trump’s and Joe Biden’s inaugural addresses were collected and made in MS-Word documents (.doc). Second, the MS-Word documents were converted into plain text files (.txt) respectively with WordSmith Tools 5.0. Third, via the tool of WordList, the WordSmith program generated a word frequency list for each corpus from the plain text files. The list displayed the most frequent words in alphabetical order and frequency order. In the last step, based on the word frequency lists, the top 100 most frequently occurring words from each corpus were manually elicited, analyzed and compared.
The Top 100 Frequently Occurring Words in the Corpus of Trump’s Inaugural Address
In an attempt to analyze the corpus built for Donald Trump’s inaugural speech, this study initially sought the top 100 frequently occurring words via the WordList tool of WordSmith Tools 5.0 program. The raw data of the most frequent 100 words in the corpus is displayed in Table 1.
As Table 1 shows, the word and reoccurred the most often. It is used as a function word and has the highest ranking with 74 occurrences. The other most frequently occurring words are the 70, of 48, our 48, we 48, will 40, to 37, is 21, America 17, a 15, for 15, are 14, in 14.
Table 1: The Word Frequency List of Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address (1~100)
Rank | Word | Freq. | Rank | Word | Freq. | Rank | Word | Freq. | Rank | Word | Freq. |
1 | and | 74 | 26 | country | 9 | 51 | president | 5 | 76 | do | 3 |
2 | the | 70 | 27 | nation | 9 | 52 | protected | 5 | 77 | factories | 3 |
3 | of | 48 | 28 | people | 9 | 53 | right | 5 | 78 | families | 3 |
4 | our | 48 | 29 | one | 8 | 54 | they | 5 | 79 | first | 3 |
5 | we | 48 | 30 | that | 8 | 55 | today | 5 | 80 | foreign | 3 |
6 | will | 40 | 31 | with | 8 | 56 | Americans | 4 | 81 | government | 3 |
7 | to | 37 | 32 | every | 7 | 57 | as | 4 | 82 | I | 3 |
8 | is | 21 | 33 | on | 7 | 58 | been | 4 | 83 | its | 3 |
9 | America | 17 | 34 | back | 6 | 59 | bring | 4 | 84 | left | 3 |
10 | a | 15 | 35 | by | 6 | 60 | citizens | 4 | 85 | let | 3 |
11 | for | 15 | 36 | great | 6 | 61 | everyone | 4 | 86 | many | 3 |
12 | are | 14 | 37 | has | 6 | 62 | god | 4 | 87 | millions | 3 |
13 | in | 14 | 38 | never | 6 | 63 | heart | 4 | 88 | moment | 3 |
14 | but | 13 | 39 | new | 6 | 64 | here | 4 | 89 | must | 3 |
15 | all | 12 | 40 | no | 6 | 65 | jobs | 4 | 90 | Obama | 3 |
16 | American | 12 | 41 | now | 6 | 66 | or | 4 | 91 | so | 3 |
17 | be | 12 | 42 | same | 6 | 67 | power | 4 | 92 | there | 3 |
18 | you | 12 | 43 | while | 6 | 68 | together | 4 | 93 | these | 3 |
19 | from | 11 | 44 | would | 6 | 69 | wealth | 4 | 94 | too | 3 |
20 | it | 11 | 45 | across | 5 | 70 | which | 4 | 95 | united | 3 |
21 | their | 11 | 46 | at | 5 | 71 | an | 3 | 96 | when | 3 |
22 | your | 11 | 47 | dreams | 5 | 72 | borders | 3 | 97 | whether | 3 |
23 | not | 10 | 48 | have | 5 | 73 | capital | 3 | 98 | About | 2 |
24 | this | 10 | 49 | make | 5 | 74 | countries | 3 | 99 | action | 2 |
25 | again | 9 | 50 | other | 5 | 75 | day | 3 | 100 | allegiance | 2 |
Table 2: The Word Frequency List of Joe Biden’s Inaugural Address (1~100)
Rank | Word | Freq. | Rank | Word | Freq. | Rank | Word | Freq. | Rank | Word | Freq. |
1 | the | 101 | 26 | one | 15 | 51 | know | 8 | 76 | fellow | 5 |
2 | and | 96 | 27 | are | 14 | 52 | more | 8 | 77 | just | 5 |
3 | we | 91 | 28 | nation | 14 | 53 | much | 8 | 78 | justice | 5 |
4 | of | 77 | 29 | it | 12 | 54 | their | 8 | 79 | may | 5 |
5 | to | 65 | 30 | on | 12 | 55 | there | 8 | 80 | moment | 5 |
6 | a | 47 | 31 | with | 12 | 56 | they | 8 | 81 | no | 5 |
7 | in | 44 | 32 | democracy | 11 | 57 | unity | 8 | 82 | now | 5 |
8 | our | 43 | 33 | do | 11 | 58 | when | 8 | 83 | once | 5 |
9 | this | 39 | 34 | me | 11 | 59 | world | 8 | 84 | other | 5 |
10 | for | 33 | 35 | who | 11 | 60 | history | 7 | 85 | out | 5 |
11 | I | 33 | 36 | must | 10 | 61 | president | 7 | 86 | power | 5 |
12 | will | 33 | 37 | those | 10 | 62 | war | 7 | 87 | some | 5 |
13 | is | 29 | 38 | American | 9 | 63 | what | 7 | 88 | truth | 5 |
14 | us | 27 | 39 | Americans | 9 | 64 | children | 6 | 89 | way | 5 |
15 | that | 26 | 40 | another | 9 | 65 | day | 6 | 90 | where | 5 |
16 | not | 23 | 41 | has | 9 | 66 | days | 6 | 91 | about | 4 |
17 | be | 21 | 42 | people | 9 | 67 | did | 6 | 92 | again | 4 |
18 | America | 20 | 43 | so | 9 | 68 | each | 6 | 93 | an | 4 |
19 | have | 20 | 44 | story | 9 | 69 | from | 6 | 94 | any | 4 |
20 | my | 20 | 45 | through | 9 | 70 | let | 6 | 95 | better | 4 |
21 | as | 19 | 46 | today | 9 | 71 | stand | 6 | 96 | cause | 4 |
22 | can | 18 | 47 | been | 8 | 72 | than | 6 | 97 | centuries | 4 |
23 | all | 17 | 48 | by | 8 | 73 | together | 6 | 98 | come | 4 |
24 | you | 17 | 49 | here | 8 | 74 | work | 6 | 99 | country | 4 |
25 | but | 16 | 50 | if | 8 | 75 | at | 5 | 100 | defend | 4 |
The Top 100 Frequently Occurring Words in the Corpus of Biden’s Inaugural Address
Through the use of the WordList tool of WordSmith Tools 5.0 software, the most frequent 100 words used in Joe Biden’s inaugural speech are shown in Table 2. The top 12 words are all function words, and they include the (101 times), which is utilized generally as a determiner. Moreover, and 96, we 91, of 77, to 65, a 47, in 44, our 43, this 39, for 33, I 33, and will 33 are the next most common (function) words. Then the word is 29 as a verb appears in rank 13.
This study used the WordSmith Tools 5.0 program, a set of corpus-processing software, to compare and analyze the 100 most frequently occurring words in the word lists of inaugural speeches delivered by two US presidents, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and to find out the compatible personality traits accordingly. From the results of Table 1 and Table 2, the following analysis and comparison can be performed.
Judging from the use of 1st person singular pronouns, I appeared 3 times in Donald Trump’s inaugural speech. In Joe Biden’s inaugural speech, I appeared 33 times, my 20 times, and me 11 times. Obviously, Biden was a lot more personal than Trump in personality. In the use of 1st person plural pronouns, Trump used we 48 times and our 48 times. Biden used we 91 times, our 43 times, and us 27 times. Biden used more 1st person plural pronouns than Trump. This suggests that Trump was more formal and distant than Biden. In addition, you occurred 12 times in Trump’s address and your 11 times. In Biden’s address, you occurred 17 times. This finding indicates that Trump seemed more aggressive and pointed than Biden.Regarding the use of 3rd person plural pronouns, they appeared 5 times in Trump's speech and their 11 times. The same pronouns appeared 8 times respectively in Biden's. These frequency numbers tell us that Trump and Biden might be the same social in personality.
From the use of the words addressed to the audience/nation, America, American, and Americans occurred 17,12, and 4 times respectively in Trump’s inaugural address. In Biden’s, America occurred 20 times, American 9 times, and Americans 9 times. Moreover, people and citizens were mentioned 9 and 4 times respectively in Trump’s speech. In Biden’s, people was used 9 times. These numbers denote that the two U.S. presidents talked almost the same to the audience/nation.
The use of indefinite pronouns can also reveal something about the personality of a speaker. In Trump’s inaugural speech, all appeared 12 times, one 8 times, the other 5 times, everyone 4 times, and many 3 times. In Biden’s, all appeared 17 times, one 15 times, another 9 times, each 6 times, the other 5 times, some 5 times, and any 4 times. It seems that Trump was more concrete and less abstract than Biden. Furthermore, the data of Table 1 and Table 2 show that Biden used more verb types than Trump, and it connotes that Biden was more dynamic than Trump.
The auxiliary verb for future tense will was mentioned 40 times in Trump's speech and 33 times in Biden’s. This suggests that Trump paid more attention to the future than Biden. In terms of the use of prepositions, Biden’s inaugural address contained much more prepositions than Trump’s address did (Biden: 240 times; Trump: 125 times), which signifies that Biden was more detailed than Trump.
In terms of the use of negative words, not, never, and no occurred 10, 6, and 6 times respectively in Trump’s inaugural address. In Biden’s address, not occurred 23 times and no 5 times. The results indicate that Biden censored himself more than Trump. Moreover, the use of positive adjectives by these two U.S. presidents tells us that Trump was more positive in personality than Biden: great was used 6 times, new 6 times, and right 5 times in Trump’s speech; in Biden’s, only better was used 4 times.
In conclusion, current study found that from the comparison and analysis of the words in their inaugural addresses, Donald Trump was more concrete, positive, formal and distant, aggressive and pointed and paid more attention to the future; Joe Biden was more personal, dynamic, detailed, and censored himself more. In addition, the two presidents were the same social and talked almost the same to the audience/nation.
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