“In” or “Out”? An Analysis of the Use of Augmentals in U.S. Presidential Speeches on the Paris Climate Agreement

Abstract

Augmentals, as a type of verbal rule, have been used in political speeches either for establishing beneficial cultural values for the populace (Leigland, 2005) or for publicizing political points of view to exert control on public opinion through propaganda (Rakos, 1993). The current study conducted a functional content analysis on two presidential speeches about climate change and global warming regarding whether the United States should enter or exit the Paris Climate Agreement. The purposes of the study were to (a) examine the effects of two types of augmentals (reinforcer-establishing augmentals and punisher-establishing augmentals) on behavior change in the populace, (b) explore the effects of the types of relational frames that formed augmentals, and (c) provide guidance to the public on discriminating propaganda in media sources. The results showed different patterns in the use of augmentals in Donald Trump's speech, which attempted to persuade the populace to support exiting the agreement, compared to Barack Obama's speech, which attempted to persuade the populace to support entering the agreement. Several implications of the study are discussed.Keywords augmental . propaganda . relational frame . climate change . political speech . Paris Climate AgreementPolitical speech, as a persuasive and longstanding political genre, has received profound academic attention that has resulted in the development of various analytic methodologies in linguistic, rhetorical, semiotic, and psychological areas (Charteris-Black, 2014). However, these methodologies have primarily focused on the mechanical structure of each statement, rather than the function that the statement may have on listeners' behavior. In accordance with political science literature and from the point of view of functional contextualism, political speeches function to influence the behavior Behavior and Social Issues