Verbalization of Basic Concepts in President Joe Biden’s 2021 State of the Union Address: a Constructional Perspective

Abstract

The article claims that basic concepts of President Biden’s 2021 State of the Union address are actualised by key constructions, i.e. pairings of form, meaning and function fixed in long-term memory. In speech, constructions are implemented via constructs, combining several constructions to verbalise various objects, events and phenomena. The purpose of this paper is to identify constructions verbalising the basic concepts in President Biden’s 2021 State of the Union address. It has been established that the basic concepts of the State of the Union address are TIME, represented in the introduction to the speech by the constructions ‘in history’ and ‘throughout our history’, CRISIS, actualised by ‘in crisis’, and OPPORTUNITY, embodied by the opportunity-construction. In the main body of the analysed speech, the basic concepts are represented in the segments about the pandemic, employment, family, medicine, finance, environment, violence, immigration and politics. The concept TIME is embodied by constructs indicating exclusivity of the event and uniqueness of the measures taken by the administration, recurrence of the phenomenon over time and the urgent need for change in the society. The concepts CRISIS and OPPORTUNITY are used together in the main body of the address, since CRISIS as a dangerous situation precedes OPPORTUNITY viewed as a probability of eliminating threat. The concept CRISIS is actualised by constructs indicating downward movement, counterforce to the tax system, obstacles to the family or democracy, and the possibility of illegal actions by the rich in financial sphere. The concept OPPORTUNITY is presented as preventing crises: creating a blockage to danger, counteracting a threat, removing obstacles for ordinary Americans in the perspective of employment and taxes, forward movement or renewal in environmental protection.