MA in Linguistics Speech of the Dissertation: “A Pragma-Stylistic Analysis of US Presidential Elections’ Concession Speeches From 2000 to 2016” at the University of Manouba, Tunisia delivered by Salah Mhamdi

1. A PRAGMA-STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF US
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS’ CONCESSION SPEECHES
FROM 2000 TO 2016
Student: Salah Mhamdi
Supervisor: Dr. Asma Ben Abdallah
Faculty of Letters, Arts and Humanities
University of Manouba
9 February 2023

2. OUTLINE
• Background to the Study
• Statement of the Problem
• Research Questions
• Research Objectives
• Research Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
2

3. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
• Speeches are part of political discourse.
• In the US, presidential candidates deliver victory
speeches and concession speeches.
• CSs have become a staple of American
presidential elections.
• In CSs, the defeated candidates call for: unity and
express gratitude (Weaver (1982) + Corcoran (1994))
• The present dissertation studies concession
speeches from a pragma-stylistic viewpoint.

4. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
• The present study:
– Focuses on the different uses of the deictic
pronouns in the concession speeches of five
American presidential candidates:
• Gore
• Kerry
• McCain
• Romney
• Clinton
– Centers on the different manifestations of the
speech acts
– Investigates the candidates' different styles.

5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• How are the indexicals used in the concession
speeches to achieve unity?
• How are the speech acts used in the concession
speeches to achieve unity?
• How does the expressive speech act serve as a
carrier of the discourse of gratitude and
appreciation?
• How do the stylistic features deployed in the
concession speeches denote the candidates'
attitudes towards defeat?

6. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
• To investigate the discourse of unity through
studying deixis.
• To investigate the discourse of unity through
analyzing speech acts.
• To detect the discourse of gratitude and
appreciation through examining the expressive
speech acts.
• To explore the attitudes of the defeated
candidates towards defeat through analyzing
style.

7. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Corpus Description
• 5 CSs in the United States' presidential elections
(2000 – 2016):
Al Gore (2000), John Kerry (2004), John McCain
(2008), Mitt Romney (2012) & Hillary Clinton (2016).
• Gore, Kerry & Romney: The New York Times
• McCain: National Public Radio (NPR)
• Clinton: The Wall Street Journal.

8. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Tools
• Mixed method: quantitative and qualitative
methods.

9. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Theoretical Framework
Author Theory
Austin (1962)
Searle (1969)
Speech acts
Brown and Gilman (1972)
Levinson (1983)
Lakoff (2001)
Person deixis
Weaver (1982)
Corcoran (1995)
Ritter and Howell (2001)
Howell (2011)
Concession speech taxonomy

10. RESULTS
Discourse of Unity
• Deictic Analysis of the Discourse of Unity
- Distribution of the exclusive “we” and the
inclusive “we”.
- The exclusive "we" communicates distance
- The inclusive "we" conveys closeness and
proximity

11. RESULTS
Distribution of the Pronouns “I” vs. “We”
Speech “I” “We”
Gore 40 11
Kerry 56 25
McCain 33 17
Romney 19 12
Clinton 30 32
• "I" is used more than "we" in
the speeches.
• Overreliance on "I“:
Acknowledgment of full
responsibility for their defeat.
The distribution of "I" &
"we" does not give us an insight
on how unity is conveyed in the
speeches.

12. RESULTS
Distribution of the Exclusive “We” and the Inclusive “We”
• The use of the inclusive “we” far outnumbers the use of the exclusive
“we”.
• The distribution of the exclusive "we" and the inclusive "we" reflects the
attempt of the candidates to seek unity.
Speech Exclusive “We” Inclusive “We”
Number Percentage Number Percentage
Gore 2 18.18% 9 81.81%
Kerry 4 16% 21 84%
McCain 2 11.67% 15 88.23%
Romney 3 25% 9 75%
Clinton - - 32 100%

13. RESULTS
Distribution of “Our” & “My”
Speech “My” “Our”
Gore 6 20
Kerry 19 23
McCain 19 17
Romney 4 15
Clinton 6 26
• Overwhelming use of "our"
compared to "my" in the
speeches by Gore, Romney &
Clinton.
The candidates aimed to
project unity.
• More use of the determiner
"our" than the determiner "my"
in all speeches except for one.

14. RESULTS
Speech-Acts Analysis of the Discourse of Unity
• Gore used the urging function of the directive
speech act:
– "I call on all Americans -- I particularly urge all who
stood with us to unite behind our next president".
• Kerry used the statement category of the
representative speech act:
– "we talked about the danger of division in our country
and the need, the desperate need, for unity for finding
the common ground, coming together".

15. RESULTS
Speech-Acts Analysis of the Discourse of Unity
• McCain used the urging function of the directive speech
act:
– "I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not
just congratulating him, but offering our next president our
goodwill and earnest effort to find ways to come together, to
find the necessary compromises, to bridge our differences".
• Romney used the function of refusing of the commissive
speech act:
– "we can't risk partisan bickering and political posturing".
• Clinton used the obligation function of the directive
speech act:
– "we must accept this result".

16. RESULTS
Discourse of Gratitude & Appreciation
• Gore used the expressive speech act and the
congratulation function:
– "I spoke with George W. Bush and congratulated him on
becoming the 43rd president of the United States.“
• Kerry opted for the thanking function of the expressive
speech act:
– "I thank him for everything he did".
• McCain used the thanking function of the expressive
speech act:
– "I am also, of course, very thankful to Governor Sarah
Palin".

17. RESULTS
Discourse of Gratitude & Appreciation
• Romney used the function of congratulating of
the expressive SA:
– "I have just called President Obama to
congratulate him on his victory".
• Clinton expressed her gratitude using the
expressive SA:
– "I am so grateful to stand with all of you".

18. RESULTS
Stylistic Analysis of Defeat: Size of the Speeches
Speech Number
of
Words
Duration
Gore 1050 6:52
Kerry 1593 16:45
McCain 1210 10:03
Romney 652 5:25
Clinton 1175 12:38
• Although Gore's speech consists
of more than 1000 words, it was
delivered in less than 7 mns.
• Clinton's speech is made up of
1175 words, it took Clinton more
than 12 mns to deliver it.
• It was the second longest speech
in terms of duration and its size
reflects Clinton's struggle to
accept defeat.
• Romney's speech was the
shortest speech in terms of text
size with less than 700 words.

19. RESULTS
Style of Delivery
• Delivery style mirrored the candidates' reactions towards defeat.
• Gore delivered his concession speech with a relaxed tone and a
smiling face.
• Kerry was proud of his achievement: making a tight election results in
a race against an incumbent president as it is rare in American history
to beat a sitting president
• McCain accepted defeat and his voice was strong and confident.
• Romney delivered his speech confidently.
Speech Al Gore John Kerry John
McCain
Mitt
Romney
Hillary
Clinton
Attitude gracious gracious gracious gracious conciliatory
but defiant
Style formal formal formal formal formal

20. RESULTS
Style of Delivery
• Clinton delivered her speech with a bitter tone and
a grim face as she struggled to accept defeat.
• Her concession speech was a personal apologia:
she is the only presidential candidate in American
political history to utter the phrase of apology “I’m
sorry”.
• She was a heavy favorite who lost the election to a
political outsider who defied pre-election opinion
polls.

21. RESULTS
Style of Addressing the Winning Candidate
Candidate Form of Address
Al Gore George W. Bush
the 43rd president of
the United States.
Mr. President
President-elect Bush
the new president-
elect
the next president
our new president
our next president
John Kerry President Bush
John McCain Senator Barack Obama
the next president
our next president
my president
Mitt Romney President Obama
the president
Hillary Clinton Donald Trump
our president
• Most candidates used
formal forms of
address for either the
president-elect or the
incumbent president.
• Hillary Clinton was the
only candidate who
flouted the protocol
and addressed the
winner without any
honorific title reflecting
her deep agony for the
unexpected defeat.

22. DISCUSSION
• Corcoran (1994) stated that grace in defeat is a staple
in concession speeches.
• Clinton's concession speech was defiant unlike the
speeches of Gore, Kerry, McCain and Romney.
• Although Ritter and Howell (2001) outlined the six
themes of the concession speeches and the CS of
Hillary Clinton conformed to the description stated by
them, her speech was different from the other 4
speeches as it focussed heavily on the discourse of
feminism. (a feminist political manifesto)

23. DISCUSSION
• Brown and Gilman (1972) stated that the inclusive
"we" conveys solidarity and social proximity.
The speakers want to share the burden of defeat.
• However, unlike the other four candidates, Hillary
Clinton used more instances of the deictic "I" than the
deictic "we" as she considered defeat her personal
responsibility.
• Discourse of gratitude and appreciation is central to
the concession speeches, but the scholars (Putri and
Yanti (2021) ) did not devise other pragmatic tools -
apart from studying the expressive speech acts - to
dissect the discourse of gratitude and appreciation.

24. CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE STUDY
• Combining the two approaches, the pragmatic and the
stylistic.
• Period studied: 2000 – 2016 (Marked by high political
polarization)
• Studying the discourse of unity through a deictic analysis
of the indexicals and a speech-acts analysis.
• Revealing the candidates' attitudes towards defeat
through analyzing certain stylistic features.
• Making a stylistic analysis of the discourse of defeat using
three stylistic features: the size of the speech, the style of
delivery and the style of addressing the winning
candidate.
• Providing a comprehensive analysis of the speeches
adding a socio-linguistic description of the concession
speeches.

25. IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY
• Using the two combined pragmatic tools: deictic and
speech-acts analyses to analyze other types of political
speeches like victory speeches.
• Using the pragmatic approaches of analyzing person
deixis and speech acts to investigate other discourses
in concession speeches
• Expanding the scope of the indexicals used to
encompass other deictic elements like place deixis and
time deixis to investigate the discourse of unity.
• Investigating the discourse of defeat using a speech-
acts analysis of the concession speeches.
• Investigating the discourse of defeat using other
stylistic features.

26. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
• Finding neat versions of the speeches with no
verbal tics and hesitations.
• Skipping the 2020 de-facto concession speech
of Donald Trump. (the American Presidency
Project at the University of California at Santa
Barbara does not recognize it as a concession
speech.)

27. RECOMMENDATIONS
• Investigating the speech acts used to boost
intra-party unity.
• Using other aspects of style to study the
discourse of defeat. They can study in detail
the manipulation of paralinguistic features in
the concession speeches.
• Enlarging the corpus of studying the
candidates' reactions towards defeat.

28. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION