AN ANALYSIS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL LIVE DEBATES BETWEEN DONALD TRUMP AND JOE BIDEN: A CASE STUDY OF GRICE’S COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a study conducted with the aim of identifying the non-observance of Grice’s (1975) Cooperative Principle and finding out the underlying motives for this non-observance by two American presidential candidates namely Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, and Donald Trump, the nominee of the Republican Party. The data were collected from two downloaded videos of the presidential debates in 2020, and were then categorized and analysed using Grice's Cooperative Principle. The findings show that both Biden and Trump did not observe all the maxims, in which the rate of violation is much higher than that of flouting, and Trump more frequently failed to adhere to the maxims than Biden. The maxims of quantity and relation were the most frequently broken, whilst the maxim of manner was the most frequently observed. In conclusion, Donald Trump and Joe Biden consistently failed to observe Grice's conversational maxims and took use of this non-observance to portray themselves favorably and the other unfavorably in an effort to gain the audience's support.