Features of Political Euphemisms in President Donald Trump’s Speeches ()
1. Introduction
This template, created the person-centered concept in modern linguistics requires an in-depth and detailed study of linguistic phenomena from a multidisciplinary perspective (Nouri, 2015) . In Mongolia, there is a social need not only to learn English, but also to widen the scope and use of research. Mongolian university teachers are required to write articles and give presentations that will be published internationally, and all professional teachers need to read articles in English. Often, we view politicians as the center of the political realm; in particular, politicians’ use of official language and body language, as well as euphemisms, in international negotiations, agreements, and treaties has an important impact on international unity and peace. Recently, political researchers and scientists have seriously endeavored to examine the use of specific language for developing/stating policy and other various socio-political ends. Indeed, many allege that such use of language attenuates the pernicious form of communication and dampens the effrontery of political reality, by means of replacing offensive terms with allegedly impartial ones. From a pragmatic view, this common strategy is referred to as “Political Euphemism”. (Infoot-Ham, 2005)
2. Methodology and Data Collections
The goal of this study was to collect and analyze the euphemisms of Donald Trump, which were extracted from his remarks and speeches in 2020. In particular, those euphemisms regard war, Coronavirus, remarks on the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the State of the Union Address, remarks after his acquittal, etc. In our opinion, Donald Trump speaks directly and avoids euphemisms generally, which differs from previous standards set by former presidents. We chose President Trump in this study because his speech is well-known for being direct and clear. First, we read numerous speeches throughout his presidency, using sources such as the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, and counted the euphemisms in each speech concerning topics such as immigration, religion, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and Trump’s progress within the United States. Then, we highlighted ten political speeches as research subjects, whose words amount to around 50,844 in total. From these digital sources and read them very carefully to select the euphemisms present. Next, we drew upon three features: 1) Greater Degree of Deviation from its Signified Meaning, 2) More Vague Meaning, and 3) Strong Characteristics of the Times.
1) When Donald Trump makes a speech, does he say it in a convoluted or indirect way, obscuring the words that cannot be stated directly?
2) Does he use more vague meaning in his speech?
3) What euphemisms were used, how are they used and created, and are they meant as idioms?
3. Definitions and Purposes of Euphemisms
Burchfield (Burchfield, 1985) points out that the term euphemism was first registered in English in Thomas Blount’s Glossographia in 1656. It originated from the Greek word Euphemia, meaning “auspicious/good/fortunate speech/kind”, which in turn is derived from the Greek root words eu (ευ), “good/well” + pheme (φήμη) “speech/speaking”, and literary implies “to speak with good words or in a pleasant manner” (Neaman & Silver, 1990) .
However, researchers often disagree on the exact definition of euphemism in applied speech or situations. For example, Rawson states euphemisms are: “powerful linguistic tools that are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us, even those who pride themselves on being plainspoken, never get through a day without using them”. Rawson argues that euphemisms are omnipresent in our daily speech and lives, and are embedded in a native speaker’s ability to speak properly or, for a lack of better terms, “correctly”. Even dictionaries tend to disagree on key features of euphemisms. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines euphemisms as “the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant”. On the other hand, the Oxford Dictionary states that a euphemism “is a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing” (Holder, 2005) . Despite all of the minor nuances and disagreements, euphemisms can best be understood as polite, indirect speech that avoids unpleasant emotional reactions, offensive comments, or virtually any sort of communication that can cause discomfort on the receiver’s end. Essentially, euphemisms are a way to avoid ‘negative’ communication. (Allan & Kate, 1991)
On the same topic, taboo expressions or words exist in practically all languages and cultures, although these words and phrases may differ between two given languages or cultures. For instance, Larson postulates that “euphemisms will often need to be translated by a comparable euphemism in the receptor language. The important thing is for the translator to recognize the euphemistic nature of the source language expression and then translate with an appropriate and acceptable expression of the receptor language whether euphemistic or not.” Larson is not arguing about the functionality of euphemisms, but instead about how to compare or translate a euphemism between two languages. In our research, English (specifically, the American dialect of English) may not translate directly into other languages. (Algeo, 2005) However, it is possible to find potential equivalents in other languages with similar connotations. Our team recognizes that euphemisms are complex across different cultures, and takes into consideration that many of these euphemistic words and expressions would not have a direct translation into different languages. (Hornby, 2005)
Euphemisms are also not monolithic. They can take different forms depending on the appropriate situation, meaning they can be classified and categorized. A number of linguists have attempted to create classifications of euphemisms, as well as the variables that can form euphemisms. For example, Halliday classified the context of a situation with respect to discourse into three categories: field, tenor, and mode. According to Halliday, field indicates the nature of the social action taking place, the tenor of discourse indicates the nature of the participants, along with their status and role, while mode indicates how language provides and achieves the participants’ goals and interests in a specific situation. Our research analyzes the factors that affect President Trump’s usage of euphemisms, specifically regarding his intention or reasoning for using such euphemisms. As aforementioned, euphemisms can dramatically alter the meaning or reception of certain ideas being presented in front of an audience. To illustrate, the reception or emotional impact of “five soldiers were shot yesterday” differs significantly from “five soldiers died yesterday”, which sounds potentially crass or insensitive compared to “five war heroes were lethally harmed yesterday”. The first two are without euphemisms and are examples of direct speech, while the third demonstrates two euphemisms (“war heroes” and “lethally harmed”). It can be understood that the euphemistic example above is more socially acceptable to be said in front of large audiences, and is far less likely to be misinterpreted or received with negative connotations or reactions. (Francis, 2005)
4. Political Euphemism
Political euphemisms play a very important role in avoiding the use of direct and taboo words, expressions, and phrases that are offensive to those who are listening to the speech and reading it. Politicians use euphemisms as a valuable tool and strategy to gain popularity in front of the public and audience by alleviating and reducing the use of vulgar language that is used literally in the political context.
The main function of political speech is to distort or conceal potentially disturbing information in its delivery, in order to keep up a positive appearance for the politician and their agenda or policies. Politicians from all over the world skillfully use this strategy in their speeches to achieve the desired results for their ideologically based interests or the wishes of their constituents. In other words, politicians deliberately use political strategies and rhetoric for increased prestige, attitude, and position.
5. Features of Political Euphemism
Euphemism is defined in different ways, according to various perspectives of style and pragmatics. Linguist Hongrui Wen once quoted several representative definitions, which have it in common that euphemism is a replacement of ordinary expressions with propitious or exaggerated ones. (Althawabeyeh, 2017) He said that Political Euphemism is vital to political rhetoric and used for political purposes or objectives. (He, 2003) Generally speaking, it is a tool for political participants to hide slander, disguise the truth, and guide public thoughts when discussing social issues or events. In our view, political euphemism, in accordance with Hongrui Wen, is used to hide the truth in order to suppress scandals and to direct public opinion to a positive attitude. It is especially used in important events such as wars, negotiations, international cooperation, etc. We aimed our study to focus on political euphemism. However, we do recognize some common features political euphemisms share with others, thus making it overlap with euphemisms that aren’t exclusive to political jargon. Because of this, we categorized the political euphemisms we were able to identify as falling within one of these three categories: (Zhao & Dong, 2010) .
Greater Degree of Deviation from its Signified: In the manner of Swiss linguist Saussure, language signs are a combination of the indication, the phonetic forms of language and the signified, objects in continuation represented by linguistic forms.
Due to the lack of direct or logical relations between the two, they have a discretionary relationship with each other, making it possible to create euphemisms by replacing the signifier. Because euphemism is only created by transforming the signifier to enlarge the association distance between the signifier and the signified, euphemism meanings stay relative to their former zero-degree ones. Although euphemism and its former zero-degree signifier refer to the same signified, political euphemism is different from those commonly used euphemistic forms in order to avoid death and other physical phenomena in that it deviates greatly from the meaning expressed by its former signifier, or even a complete distortion. For example, Former US President Donald Trump said to “protect the unborn” instead of “abortion”. Furthermore, US President Reagan once named the ten-warhead intermediate-range missile a “peacekeeper”; some later political participants named their attack as “active defense”. These political participants even replaced “recession” with “negative growth” because the former sounded offensive to the ear. From this, the literal meaning does not change, but the opposite is expressed. It is quite obvious that these expressions are not a simple replacement of the former zero-degree signifier, but quite opposite meanings to their literal meanings, just like replacing “black” with “white”. The deviation of the word spun can be marked from 1 to 10, with higher numbers indicating greater deviation. In this case, above mentioned political euphemism expressions should be marked with 10 while some ordinary expressions such as “passed away” and “die” can only be marked as 1.
More Vague Meanings: More Vague Meanings: George Orwell emphasizes two characteristics of political discourse in Politics and the English Language, that is, the obsolescence and vagueness of figures of speech. Euphemism, indicated by replacing direct expressions with latent, obscure and vague ones, plays a quite essential role in unraveling the connotation of political discourse when serving political purposes. It means, that in the political use of euphemisms, it plays a very important role in replacing the meaning of the speech with hidden and ambiguous words. Some techniques commonly used in political euphemisms include substituting a specific meaning for a generic meaning, substituting a hyponym for a superordinate meaning, and substituting a derogatory meaning for a neutral or even complimentary one.
For example, people refer to the atomic bomb used in Hiroshima as a “gadget,” “device,” “thing,” or other vague meaning. In 1983, when talking about the US military invasion of Grenada, President Reagan was quite displeased with the use of the word “invasion” by journalists, but instead described it as a “rescue mission” and glorified their military invasion as an offer to help other countries. Similarly, US airstrikes in Vietnam and Libya were called “air operations”; President Bush also praised the military invasion of Iraq in neutral, general terms such as “military operation” or “a disarming mission” in a speech that same day they made war against Iraq in 2003.
Strong Characteristics of Times: Euphemism is a reflection of the language of the social culture. (Peng, 1999) Therefore, changes in social development will engage or stimulate people who are utilizing the language. In every international crisis, political euphemisms will intensify or diminish the scale of the crisis. The important role of the United States in international politics and the rapid development of domestic politics and economic issues have provided free range for the creation of political euphemisms. For example, the U.S. 2007 Recession has necessitated terms like “recession,” “disinflation” and “negative growth,”, and due to political rhetoric, has given birth to some euphemistic expressions such as “downsize” or “workforce adjustment”. In the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal, quite a few euphemisms emerged to cover up such political scandals. In addition, military action is an extension of the political sphere. It has been said that war has not only created death and destruction but also introduced new euphemistic expressions to make death less frightening. The U.S. Department of Defense called its airstrikes in Vietnam “air support” and “protective action”, the destruction of Vietnamese villages a “pacification program”, and homeless refugees as “ambient non-combat personnel”. (Jačková, 2010)
Similarly, the loss of life and injury caused by the bombing of other nations is described as “collateral damage”. Considering this, it is no wonder the American Council of Teachers of English gave the Department of Defense the Best Political Euphemism Award. In addition, its temporal characteristics are reflected in the temporal change of the signifier of the same objective phenomenon. Consider the various euphemisms for military attacks from different eras as examples. In the 1950s, Truman described the Korean War as a “police operation”; in the 1960s and 1970s, the Vietnam War was referred to by the United States as the “Vietnam Conflict”. The US invasion of Grenada in 1983 was said to be a “rescue mission” rather than an “incursion”; The invasion of Panama was also called “Operation Just Cause” and the Bush administration called the Iraq War, which began in March 2003, “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. Within a language system, such constant changes in time are modified by the relationship between signifier and signified as discussed in 2.1. Although there is no relationship between linguistic symbols and their signifiers, people tend to associate euphemisms with their expressions after using them for a period of time. As a result, the previous sense of vagueness and distance disappears, and euphemistic color fades away. So politicians will rack their brains for other expressions. However, the production of numerous political euphemisms can find its roots in deep social causes, which will be analyzed in the following two areas. (Alkire, 2002)
6. Data Analysis
6.1. Purpose of Using Greater Degree of Deviation from Its Signified
Donald Trump (January 3, 2020: Remarks on the Killing of Qasem Soleimani) in his speech once said “We have destroyed ISIS”. He even replaced “to kill” because it sounded offensive and inappropriate to the ear. The verb “destroy” also adds a sense of urgency and aggression that would instill pride in those who opposed ISIS’s actions or purpose.
In full sentences: “Under my leadership, we have destroyed the ISIS territorial caliphate, and recently, American Special Operations Forces killed the terrorist leader known as al-Baghdadi.
· Last night, at my direction, the United States military successfully executed a flawless precision strike that killed the number-one terrorist anywhere in the world, Qasem Soleimani. (January 3, 2020: Remarks on the Killing of Qasem Soleimani) (Military situation. Instead of directly using the words ‘kill’ or ‘assassinate’, due to their negative definitions, he uses the positive term ‘flawless strike’ for a more neutralized or proper connotation).
· These are not acts of peaceful protest. These are acts of domestic terror. The destruction of innocent life and the spilling of innocent blood is an offense to humanity and a crime against God. (June 1, 2020: Statement on Protests Against Police Brutality) (Trump is using this euphemism because it invokes a religious connotation, and adds a Christian-based sentiment in his speech).
For example, Former US President Donald Trump said to “protect the unborn” instead of “abortion”. Furthermore, US President Reagan once named the ten-warhead intermediate-range missile a “peacekeeper”; some later political participants named their attack as “active defense”. These political participants even replaced “recession” with “negative growth” because the former sounded offensive to the ear. From this, the literal meaning does not change, but the opposite is expressed. It is quite obvious that these expressions are not a simple replacement of the former zero-degree signifier, but quite opposite meanings to their literal meanings, just like replacing “black” with “white”.
6.2. Purpose of Using More Vague Meanings
Euphemism, characterized by replacing direct expressions with implicative, obscure and vague ones, plays quite essential role in demystifying the connotation of political discourse when serving political purposes. Some commonly employed demystifying methods in political euphemism include replacing specific meanings with general ones, replacing hyponyms with superordinates and replacing derogatory meanings with neutral or even commendatory ones. Therefore, our research shows that Donald Trump uses more vague meaning in his speech. To give some examples, “strategic priorities” is an adjective that should always put us on the alert. It means according to a plan but more often seeks to indicate failure or an action taken under compulsion. Therefore, our research shows that Donald Trump uses caution in his speech.
“These historic accomplishments changed our strategic priorities. These are accomplishments that nobody thought were possible. (January 3, 2020: Remarks on the Killing of Qasem Soleimani)”
· To succeed, we must integrate every dimension of our national strength, and we must compete with every instrument of our national power. Under the Trump administration, America is gaining wealth, leading to enhanced power—faster than anyone thought—with $6 trillion more in the stock market alone since the election—$6 trillion. With the strategy I am announcing today, we are declaring that America is in the game and America is going to win. (Applause.) Thank you. (December 18, 2017: Remarks on National Security Strategy) (Trump uses this euphemism to give a more vague meaning to obscure the situation. “Enhance” means “to alter or increase in a taboo or surreptitious way”. Public bodies that put up taxes speak of enhanced revenue. An “enhanced radiation” weapon is a “neutron bomb”. A politician may improperly use “enhanced procedures” to do a favor to another).
· For the receiving countries, the substantial costs of uncontrolled migration are borne overwhelmingly by low-income citizens whose concerns are often ignored by both media and the government. (September 19, 2017: Address to the United Nations General Assembly) (Trump uses this euphemism to give a more vague meaning to obscure the situation. “low-income” word used to replace the direct expression of the word “the poor”).
For example, people refer to the atomic bomb used in Hiroshima as a “gadget,” “device,” “thing,” or other vague meaning. In 1983, when talking about the US military invasion of Grenada, President Reagan was quite displeased with the use of the word “invasion” by journalists, but instead described it as a “rescue mission” and glorified their military invasion as an offer to help other countries. Similarly, US airstrikes in Vietnam and Libya were called “air operations”; President Bush also praised the military invasion of Iraq in neutral, general terms such as “military operation” or “a disarming mission” in a speech that same day they made war against Iraq in 2003.
6.3. Purpose of Using Strong Characteristic of Times
Politicians need to use political euphemisms in their speeches in accordance with the times, so it is necessary to use them in some cases. Trump attaches great importance to poverty alleviation and repeatedly mentions the need to solve this problem in his speeches, so he would inevitably refer to the word “poor” in his speeches. However, in order to avoid mentioning the word “poor”, as it could embarrass, offend, or demean those within lower socio-economic classes, Trump uses different terms to avoid any harm and to show respect for them. (Miller Center, 2023) Trump constructs relevant euphemisms by metonymy to replace the direct expression of “poor people”. In his speeches, euphemistic phrases like “forgotten men and women’’ in Trump’s speeches. The use of euphemisms about lower socio-economic classes can not only show Trump’s courtesy to the poor but also maintain the self-esteem of the targeted group, in order to make his speeches inoffensive and to win public support from them.
“The recent Supreme Court cases prove that if Joe Biden is elected, he will stack the court with extremists, the forgotten men and women, together with everyone else. We’ll lose everything. The forgotten men and women, I campaigned on the forgotten. These are great people. These are substantial people. These are the elite. (June 20, 2020: Campaign Rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma)
· Biden is a very willing Trojan horse for socialism. When Biden first ran for president over 33 years ago, remember I used to call him 1% Joe, he never got more than 1% until Obama took him off the trash heap. (June 20, 2020: Campaign Rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma) (Trump is referencing the “Trojan Horse” of Ancient Greece, which was used to infiltrate and sack the city of Troy. He is calling Joseph Biden this to reference that he believes Biden is sneaky and dangerous to the country).
· The more you lie, the more you slander, the more you try to demean and divide, the more we will work hard to tell the truth. And we will win. The more you lie and demean and collude, the more credibility you lose. We want to bring the country together, and a free and open media will make this task a very easy one. (July 4, 2020: Remarks at Salute to America) (Trump uses this euphemism to give more vague meaning to obscure the situation. The extent to which you are thought to be lying or, if more honorable, reluctant to come to terms with unpalatable truth. The phrase comes from US strategic analysis in the 1950s and was used in this sense by Gerald Ford in 1966 when questioning President Johnson’s statements about the extent of American involvement in Vietnam. “Serious credibility gap” means that “everyone thinks that you are a liar”).
In every international crisis, political euphemisms will intensify or diminish the scale of the crisis. The important role of the United States in international politics and the rapid development of domestic politics and economic issues have provided free range for the creation of political euphemisms. For example, the U.S. 2007 Recession has necessitated terms like “recession,” “disinflation” and “negative growth,”, and due to political rhetoric, has given birth to some euphemistic expressions such as “downsize” or “workforce adjustment”.
6.4. Classification of Euphemisms Features
In this section, we explain the euphemisms in Trump’s speeches following three typical features in political speech. In reference to war, COVID-19, Remarks on the Killing of Qasem Soleimani, State of the Union Address, Remarks after His Acquittal, 178 euphemisms are collected from the ten selected political speeches made by Trump in 2020. On the basis of the previous theories presented and the data collected, the distribution of euphemisms used in Trump’s political speeches is shown in the following table.
We can see from Table 1, that among the categories of Greater Degree, there are 30 euphemisms, accounting for 17% of the total, 51 euphemisms classify to More Vague Meaning, accounting for 29% of the total, and 71 euphemisms formed by the Social Culture, accounting for 40% of the total.
The sampled euphemisms can be classified in combinations by two features. “Greater Degree, Social Culture”, there are 13 euphemisms, accounting for 7%, 4 euphemisms range into “Greater Degree, More Vague Meaning”, accounting for 2%, “Social Culture, More Vague Meaning” there are 9 euphemisms, accounting for 5% of the total.
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Table 1. The classification of euphemisms features in trump’s speeches.
7. Conclusions
Recently, linguistics has become an increasingly studied field, and it is highly necessary to study euphemisms in depth. Specifically, political euphemisms help maintain politicians’ reputations, earn votes, and appease the general public. Furthermore, it is necessary in regard to all aspects of society and diplomacy, such as successful negotiations between countries and brokering peace amidst conflicts. Along with this, it is imperative that researchers study political euphemisms from many angles instead of from one specific paradigm. Our thesis collects, classifies, and analyzes the euphemisms in President Trump’s political speeches, and studies the euphemisms’ intentions of usage in Trump’s political speeches. The following are the major findings of the study:
1) Our first goal in this study was to examine how often President Donald Trump uses euphemisms in his speeches. From his ten speeches about war, the COVID-19 Pandemic, the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the State of the Union Address, remarks after his acquittal, and other events occurring in 2020, we collected the political euphemisms and examined them thoroughly. During the study of his speeches, it was noted that he used less positive words and often used vulgar language. As we predicted, Donald Trump used a relatively low number of euphemisms when compared to more euphemism-friendly Americans, such as President Obama or President Biden; in other words, Trump is a direct speaker to his audience. But in the case of necessity, euphemisms are used. For example, instead of the word “poor”, he uses “forgotten men and women’’. By saying this, it is meant to be softened, not insulting.
2) After examining the frequency of euphemisms in his speech, we classified the selected euphemisms into three main political features. First, we wanted to distinguish the opposite uses of “Greater Degree” and “vague meaning” euphemisms, as the former exaggerates one’s speech, and the latter minimizes or obscures the direct meaning. By analyzing the frequency of use of each type of euphemism, we can determine whether (and in which situations) President Trump tends to exaggerate or diminish word and phrase meanings in his speech. The third type of euphemism classification we used, which is “Strong Characteristics of the Times’’, is special and unrelated to the other classifications. Strong Characteristics of the Times is used specifically in the cultural and social setting in the United States during the specific time of President Trump’s tenure. For example, many of his euphemisms during this period of time would change meanings or make little sense to Americans during other periods of time. Because of this, we thought it important to classify Strong Characteristics of the Times as its own classification, which in turn could be combined with either of the other two classifications as well.