The Linguistic Fabric of Joe Biden's Speech

Kulchytska D. The Linguistic Fabric of Joe Biden's Speech : bachelor’s thesis : 035 Philology / supervised by N. V. Skybytska. Kyiv, 2025. 68 р.

This Bachelor's thesis examines Joe Biden's language profile and its role in shaping his identity, with a primary focus on his accent and idiolect. Considerable attention is given to the features of political discourse and their manifestation in Biden's language, as well as to the face-saving strategies he employs. Biden’s individuality is analyzed through his unique coinages, while the perception of his public political persona is explored alongside the evolution of his language from his tenure as a senator to his presidency of the United States. The relevance of this thesis lies in its examination of the relationship between language use, political discourse, and public perception, highlighting the broader significance of individual language profiles.
The object of this study is the language profile of Joe Biden. Accordingly, the research centers on his phonetic features, pronunciation, lexical choices, grammatical structures, syntax, and rhetorical strategies as the primary subject of analysis. The study aims to examine the key components of Biden’s language profile by defining the concept of a language profile and its relation to identity, thereby shedding light on two aspects of Biden’s identity: ethnolinguistic and political.
Employing a combination of descriptive, analytical, and empirical methods, the study utilizes literature and media review, survey research, and comprehensive linguistic analysis across multiple levels. The corpus consists of twelve of Biden’s monologues and dialogues from both formal and informal contexts, spanning a diverse time frame.
The study reveals that Biden’s idiolect predominantly aligns with General American English, exhibiting minor influences from the Delaware Valley and Midland dialect regions, and reflects key features of political discourse. Additionally, his speech is characterized by storytelling, humor, empathy, and a folksy tone, which contribute to the distinctiveness of his idiolect.