Thursday, January 21, 2021

Linguistic Analysis of Biden's Inaugural Address

Joe Biden's inaugural address was inspiring and a marked change from the one last delivered four years ago. There has been much commentary on it, of course, including this annotated version from the New York Times. 

However, I found this article from the Wall Street Journal more interesting as it looks in detail at Biden's word choices, many of which were unique in the history of inaugural addresses: extremism, pandemic, systemic, and uncivil. His most repeated words were more hopeful: America, unity, and love. 

It didn't have the rhetorical power of the greatest inaugural addresses but it fit the moment perfectly. 

No comments: