Rhetorical devices

Rhetorical devices are language strategies designed to capture and maintain the audience’s attention, or to make the language more convincing. In Donald Trump’s speech, we can identify rhetorical devices like hyperbole, humor and irony, repetition, and rhetorical questions. Out of these, the most dominant device is repetit…

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Hyperbole

The speaker often makes overstatements (uses hyperbole) to describe himself and his campaign: “I have a bigger heart than anybody” (ll. 427-428); “They've never seen anything like it.” (ll. 284).

Sometimes, the hyperbole can also be considered propaganda, since it serves to …

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Humor and irony

On a couple of occasions, the speaker uses humor and irony to relax the atmosphere while also conveying criticism: “But now they're moving from here -- (LAUGHTER) -- not that many people are leaving New Jersey.” (ll. 92-94); “I only want to use Caterpillar, if you want to know the truth, or John Deere.” (ll. 383-384)

At one point in the speech, he mo…

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Repetition

Repetition is a key rhetorical device in the speech. However, more often than not, the repetitions the speaker uses come across as improvised:

“It's really been -- it's really been great” (l. 8);

“He worked hard on he -- I know how hard he worked actually…” (ll. 9-11);

“I'm going to be really good for women. I'm going to be good for women's health issues. It's very important to me, very important to me.” (ll. 222-225)

Other time…