Disclaim resources in Donald Trump’s inaugural speeches: A corpus-based approach
This study employs a corpus-based mixed-methods approach to analyze the deployment of Disclaim resources – specifically the Deny and Counter subcategories of the Engagement subsystem – Donald Trump’s 2017 and 2025 inaugural speeches. The analysis reveals an increase in the total number of Disclaim instances from 39 in 2017 to 56 in 2025, with Deny expressions rising from 23 (59.0%) to 39 (69.6%) and Counter expressions showing a slight increase in absolute terms from 16 to 17 but a proportional decrease from 41.0% to 30.4%. This shift reflects a more assertive rhetorical style in the 2025 speech, characterized by an intensified rejection of alternative viewpoints and reduced engagement with contrasting perspectives. The 2025 speech also demonstrates a broader lexical range of Counter resources, despite their lower relative frequency, indicating a sophisticated strategic variation. The findings of this study have significant implications for political discourse analysis by illustrating how political figures employ appraisal resources to construct ideological identities, manage intersubjective positioning, and guide audience alignment. Beyond linguistics, the findings inform political communication, media literacy, and English language education by elucidating the mechanisms, through which political actors influence public perception and discourse dynamics. This research thus advances understanding of Dialogic Contraction’s evolving role in political rhetoric and underscores the functions of Disclaim resources in articulating and contesting meaning in contemporary political communication.