From a linguistic point of view, how will Trump’s first speech as president be characterized? And, what are the primary differences compared to those of Presidents Bush and Obama?
To address these questions, Expert System used its cognitive Cogito technology to analyze Trump’s inaugural address in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2017, and compared it to those given by George W. Bush in 2001 and Barack Obama in 2009.
Trump’s speech was shorter than that of his two predecessors, and he also used shorter sentences.
In terms of other aspects of linguistic style, all three speeches showed a preference for shorter words, a common vocabulary and a greater use of nouns.
The speeches of Trump and Bush were easier to understand compared to that of Obama (Trump’s and Bush’s speeches were rated as medium-level difficulty for legibility, while Obama’s speech was rated at a higher level of difficulty). A striking feature in Trump’s speech was his use of adjectives, which was much higher compared to his predecessors.
