A Proximization Study of Critical Discourse Analysis: A Case Study of President Joe Biden’s 2022 State of the Union Address

Haiyue You

doi:10.54691/bcpssh.v17i.674

Authors

Haiyue You

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54691/bcpssh.v17i.674

Keywords:

State of the Union Address, Joe Biden: Proximization Theory, Legitimization

Abstract

This paper analyzes Biden’s 2022 State of the Union Address using proximization theory to investigate how Biden legitimized his policies in his State of the Union Address. The study finds that Biden fully utilized temporal, spatial and axiological proximization theories in his State of the Union Address. In terms of spatial proximization, Biden mainly mentioned numerous entities that might bring threats to America to create fear in the minds of the audience, thus achieving the purpose of policy legitimization. On temporal proximization, Biden proximzed the events that happened in the past or the events in the future to the present to cause the panics. The axiological proximization was mainly manifested in the construction of positive values for America and in emphasizing harms and negative values of the entities that threaten America. This study provides insights into the application of the spatial-temporal-axiological model of proximization theory to the State of the Union Address.

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