U.S. Presidential Speeches

Presidential speeches fulfill essential roles—communicating policies, inspiring citizens, and addressing crises. Whether fostering unity or navigating international relations, they are a powerful tool for leaders to shape public perception, provide direction, and address the nation's pressing concerns.

Has the linguistic style and topics in the US presidential speech changed over time?

Data Description

Data collected from the Miller Center's official website, an impartial affiliate of the University of Virginia, offers public access to U.S. presidential speeches spanning from George Washington in 1789 to Joe Biden's 2023 addresses. These encompass various formats, including formal national addresses, press conferences, and informal remarks, which total in 1037 transcripts. It provides comprehensive resource for analyzing the evolution of presidential communication over the years.

Data Sources

Miller Center: https://millercenter.org/thepresidency/presidential-speeches

Miller Center gathered the transcripts from variety of sources:

• George W. Bush to Joe Biden (whitehouse.gov)

• Older speeches from presidential library (such as Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library)

• Presidency.ucsb.edu (digitized version of Public Papers of the Presidents)

• Many Presidential papers and records had been lost, destroyed, sold for profit, or ruined by poor storage conditions. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought a better alternative. (archive.org)

Quality of Sources

In our project, we analyzed transcripts of speeches delivered by 45 presidents throughout history. These transcripts encompassed various mediums, including audio and video recordings, as well as pre-audio transcripts. Notably, the transcripts before Warren Harding are classified as pre-audio, as Harding became the first president to be heard on the radio (History.com Editors, 2020). We acknowledge that our 1037 transcripts have different qualities because the choice of medium for these transcripts may influence the quality and accuracy of the linguistic style portrayed.

Transcripts based on audio and video mediums offer a better analysis opportunity as they capture not only the words spoken but also the tone, emphasis, and other vocal cues. These cues provide invaluable insights into the president's speech style.

Before the development of audio recording technology, capturing what people said in speeches relied solely on on-the-spot transcriptions and field notes (Jones, 2021). These pre-audio transcripts heavily depended on the accuracy and interpretation of the persons taking notes, which could introduce errors and omissions of the speaker's intended words and speech style. As a result, these transcripts offered a limited representation of the speeches and lacked the depth that audio or video transcripts provide.

To ensure the reliability and credibility of our data, we sourced the transcripts from the Miller Center, a reputable institution dedicated to the study of the United States presidency. The Miller Center diligently gathers transcripts from reputable and authoritative sources. For recent speeches, ranging from George W. Bush to Joe Biden, the transcripts are generally obtained from the official White House website. Older speeches are often sourced from the relevant presidential library, such as the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library or the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library. Additionally, the Public Papers of the Presidents serve as another valuable resource for obtaining transcripts. The Miller Center employs a process of cross-referencing and validating the accuracy and completeness of the transcripts by comparing them to multiple sources and mediums.

References:

1. History.com Editors (June 11, 2020). Warren G. Harding becomes the first president to be heard on the radio. HISTORY. Retrieved January 13, 2024, from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/harding-becomes-first-president-to-be-heard-on-the-radio
   
2. Jones, R. H. (2021). Data collection and transcription in discourse analysis: A technological history. The Bloomsbury handbook of discourse analysis, 9-20.
   

The First Part

Analyzing the General Trend

Tool: Gephi

THE GOAL

THe findings

THe findings

THe SETTINGS

THe findings

THe findings

THe findings

The Second Part

Analyzing the Stylistic Change

Tool: Voyant

THE GOAL

THe SETTINGS

THe findings

In the later period, the linguistic style became more concise, and the diversity decreased.

• Ratio: The ratio in an article represents word diversity – a higher ratio indicates a richer vocabulary and broader use of terms in the text.
  

• Words/Sentence: Words/Sentence indicates the number of words in each sentence, reflecting sentence length. A higher value suggests longer, potentially more complex sentences, while a lower value indicates shorter, more concise structures.
  

Analyzing the Stylistic Change

THe findings

Analyzing the Stylistic Change

The use of speech language shifted from formal towards informal

• ‘shall’: In the Cambridge Dictionary's explanation, 'shall' are considered a somewhat outdated modal verb in English. From the word frequency statistics, it can be observed that the mention of 'shall' and ‘said’ significantly decreases in later speeches
  

• ‘the said’& ‘I said’: Also, when the term “said” serves as an adjective, it tends to be used in formal contexts. Presidents after Roosevelt were prone to use “said” as a verb, and the frequency of “I said” increased from 30 times in the first corpus
  

In the later period, the language of the speeches became more colloquial.

‘let’s’&’right now’: Phrases like 'let's' convey informality and suggest collaboration, while 'right now' adds urgency to the conversation. Both are commonly used in casual spoken English, contributing to a friendly and approachable tone.

Presidents are increasingly focused on people

‘People’ & ‘Government’

• We put all the corpus into Voyant, the words appear most are ‘people’, and ‘government’.
  
• References to people increased, but references to government decreased, And people were eventually mentioned more than government in general. And what’s more interesting is that the turning point was Franklin Roosevelt.

People

Government

law*

work*

need*

duty*

• The surge in terms associated with 'jobs,' 'families,' and 'welfare' can be attributed to initiatives reminiscent of the New Deal. Historically, the New Deal prioritized the '3 R's': providing relief for the unemployed and the impoverished, facilitating the recovery of the economy to pre-depression levels, and instituting reforms in the financial system to avert future economic downturns. This transformative era has left a lasting impact on succeeding generations.

“Fire” in Cold War

• Same Tendency between ‘Soviet*’ and ‘Military*’. may be related to the fact that the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union was one of the focal points of this period, and the main policy of the United States was to use the arms race to contain communism.

• When the 'soviet' and 'military' indicators hit a low point, 'Vietnam' reached its peak. This could be attributed to the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, causing damage to its reputation, economy, and leading to complications in arms agreements. Upon withdrawal, the U.S. opted to enhance relations with both China and the Soviet Union.

Conclusion

Limitation

the

team