The Speech Portrait of an American Politician as a Modus Operandi for Persuasive Communication

The present paper deals with speech characteristics of American politicians in the practically applicable aspect of interpreting political discourse from English. The material of the study is made up of speech portraits of Donald Trump and Joseph Biden taken in comparative aspect, which reflect the ways of persuading voters implemented in their political speeches in the period from 2020 to 2021. Relevance of the study is based on informativity and speech diversity of American political discourse for the sampled period which appears well-established for retrospective research to be possible and simultaneously acts as the logical precursor for the current social and political situation in the United States as a country wielding considerable influence on the global political arena. The features of that time period necessitate studying speech portraits of American politicians, reflecting the methods of persuasion used by them when sending targeted persuasive messages as seen in the practical aspect of political interpretation. The paper deals with the emotional and theatrical nature of American political discourse observed through the prism of speech portraits of Donald Trump and Joseph Biden. The tactics and methods of targeted persuasive influence on the addressees of messages used by speakers are analyzed, as well as the perlocutive effect resulting from the joint implementation of the categories of persuasiveness and expressiveness in the course of their use in the discourse of political addresses. The work is based on the provisions of the classification of speech strategies proposed in 2005 by O.N. Parshina Parshina 2005, p. 48. The study shows that the mutual layering of persuasiveness as a factor of persuasion and expressiveness as a factor of influence on the emotional mood of the listener of political speech helps to achieve a perlocutionary effect, while maintaining the independence of those language categories.