The Critical Discourse Analysis of Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address: A Social-cognitive Perspective

In terms of the social cognition, namely, mental model as well as socially shared representations (knowledge, opinions, attitudes, common sense), the present study is a socio-cognitive interpretation on how President Barack·Obama controls the recipients and imposes his power from the macro-textual level as well as from the micro-textual level in the Inaugural Address.In the light of the theoretical framework of Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model and his theories, the present study firstly focuses on cognitive dimension of Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address. Obama’s mental model is hinted by the current situation that U.S and Americans are facing. In the process of Obama’s and the group’s knowledge, opinions and attitudes, as well as the common sense, his mental model is represented and produced in the discourse.In the second place, the present thesis investigates the social dimension of the Inaugural Address. Since social cognition is influenced in a certain social group, Obama identifies himself not merely as a single politician but also as a member of the in-group, not only as an individual but also as a Christian, not only as a comforter and healer, but also as a Warner, which vary in different contexts and positions.In addition, this paper is also involved in the discursive analysis at the micro-level. It shows that Obama is inclined to explicitly and implicitly portrait “our” good characteristics with which “we” can realize the work of remarking America to recover the public’s confidence by adopting various devices, such as topics, local meanings, rhetoric, context constraints. Meanwhile, we can not forget “their” negative behaviors, which help the recipients get a clear image of those who confront or hate America as well as reach a consensus with the new president.