Trump vs. Clinton: Word Choice

Hi everyone! Just wanted to update you on some of the research and findings this week. I was reading an array of articles revolving around the first presidential debate between Trump and Clinton, and found a couple of interesting linguistic analysis that I would like to mention here!

While researching this week, I focused more on the word choices and general themes grade to find the differences between Trump and Clinton’s use of language.

According to Huffington Post,

• First person pronouns and second person pronouns twice as often than Clinton

• Clinton used first person plural pronouns (we, us)

When looking at a blog source written by Kayla N. Jordan and James W. Pennebaker’s from the University of Texas at Austin, they pointed out that the use of singular personal pronouns link to the idea of “authenticity.” Trump used words that are associated with a very high rate of authenticity, showing that this is type of appeal. “He shoots from the hip and many people feel he is talking directly to him.”

Pennebaker has created a software program called The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a program that categorizes words into meaning categories. According to LIWC, Clinton focuses more on home, family, religion, and work, while Trump focuses more on death and numbers. It is likely that Clinton uses plural pronouns and words revolving around family and home because her very campaign was “Stronger Together.” It is both interesting and shocking to mention that Trump has never said the word “American” during this entire debate, except in the context of “African American.”

Last week I mentioned about how Trump tends to use very emphatic and high-level vocabulary at the end of his sentences—such as bedlam or problem. While talking to my advisor, Mr. Brady, an interesting topic came up. Trump’s use of language is identified as having an elementary school reading level, but those emphatic words are definitely not elementary level. There might be a pattern or reason behind this that I could possibly investigate.

Though on the other hand, I found a word cloud created by Martin Krzywinski that showcases the most adjectives used in the first presidential debate from both Clinton (blue) and Trump (red)!

That is all for this week—will update you soon!

--Gina