A Study of Discourse Strategies from the Perspective of Critical Analysis Xinya Zuo Shanxi Normal University, China Abstract—Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a form of reflective inspection of how discourses shape and influence us. It has been applied widely especially in political discourses which analyzes the potential characteristics of language and the social and cultural background generated in the text, committed to exposing the complex relationship between language, power and ideology with the aid of critical thinking. Generally, the theoretical framework of CDA is based on Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics. Halliday believes that language has three metafunctions, namely ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function. These three achievements meet the needs of language users in three aspects including the description of the experience of objective world, the construction of social relations and the organization of discourse. As an important theory in systemic functional grammar, transitive system embodies the ideational function of language, which expresses people’s real world experiences and the inner world in several processes. In addition, this kind of theory is based on the semantic configuration of Actor+Process. Therefore, this paper will make a critical discourse analysis of Donald Trump’s inauguration speech in 2017 from the aspect of linguistic transitive system. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the language skills used by Mr.Trump and the discourse generating patterns of his presidential image, so that we can explore the ideology reflected behind the language and dig into the process of building the image of the president of the United States in Donald Trump’s inauguration speech. Index Term—critical discourse analysis, systemic functional grammar, transitive system, Donald Trump’s inauguration speech I. INTRODUCTION In 1989, Fairclough, a leader in CDA, has pointed out in Language and Power that language is not merely a transparent intermediary, but a tool for expressing ideology and power. The relationship among language, power and ideology is implicit, so the main purpose of discourse analysis should be to make the relationship between language, power and ideology clear and to reveal the hidden determinants in the system of social relations and their implicit influence on the system. (Ji Weining, Xin Bin, 2009, p.21) CDA has been increasingly and widely applied in the analysis and study of various discourses, and has achieved fruitful r esults. It has greatly deepened people’s understanding of the relationship between language and society. At the same time, the guiding theory of linguistics is mainly based on Halliday’ s systemic functional linguistics, which argues that language is socia l practice, the speaker is a social participant, the language system is regarded as a social symbol, and the use of language can be explained as a kind of social behavior. (Guo Zhiming, 2014, p.78) In other words, CDA can be regarded as a societal analysis from the linguistic perspective and a branch of critical theory in linguistics. It links the relevant historical and social context with appropriate linguistic methods, analyzes and reveals the power and dominion in the ideological field implied in the discourse, and studies the specific influence of discourse on reproduction and strengthening the power and dominion. (Chen Zhongzhu, 1995, p. 21). As a representative and also popular target discourse, political speech discourse is definitely the focus area of CDA. The inauguration speech of US president Donald Trump on January 20, 2017, was an influential political speech text and with distinctive language characteristics. In speech discourse, speakers use various skills to achieve the purpose of their speeches. As a result, Mr. Trump is actually using the language skills to build a good image of him, and even to show audience the ideology behind it through language. Meanwhile, CDA, as an important way to expose the complex relationship among language, power and ideology, plays an extremely important role in the disclosure and presentation of this hidden purpose in political speech. Therefore, from the perspective of meta-function of systemic functional linguistics, this paper will analyze and discuss the transitive system of Trump’s inauguration speech, with a purpose to study the linguistic characteristics of the presidential image building in the speech. In addition, the paper can also provide readers with a research idea and method to interpret political speech discourse, so as to improve readers’ sensitivity to comprehend political speech language. The sourse of the data of this study is from Guancha Syndicate (https://www. guancha.cn/ america/2017_01_21_390488_2.shtml). II. THEORETIC FOUNDATION A. The Connotation and Research Path of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 9, No. 8, pp. 996-1000, August 2019 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0908.16 © 2019 ACADEMY PUBLICATION