US Presidents’ Political Speeches as a Means of Manipulation in 21st Century Society

Abstract

This article comprehensively analyses the potential for politicians’ speeches to influence the public, taking into account the main linguistic and pragmatic factors: political, social, and cultural context, the communication occasion, the personality of the politician, and the structural features of the text that determine the psycholinguistic effectiveness of the speech. The purpose of the research is to study the functional and pragmatic opportunities of well-known US presidents’ public speeches as a political tool and as part of a political strategy. It is a socio- and psycholinguistic study; its goal is not only to demonstrate the features of different types of communication strategies and tactics but also to explain how this variety arises, how society contributes to it and what complicates the emergence of productive social communications. Political speeches use both purely lingual and extra-lingual means that determine the conceptual content and ways of verbalising meanings, explicable through specific strategies and tactics. The communication situation includes a chronotope and a format for political public speech The personality of the politician, his or her image and status, social and political experience, and degree of eloquence - all play an important role in the preparation and implementation of the speech.