An Appraisal Analysis on Joe Biden’s Rhetoric of Gun Control

https://doi.org/10.22146/rubikon.v9i2.77904

Bagas Al Fajri(1), Zanuwar Hakim Atmantika(2*), Galant Nanta Adhitya(3)

(1) English Literature, Faculty of Literature, Culture and Communication, Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, Yogyakarta
(2) Northeast Normal University, PRC China
(3) English Literature, Faculty of Social Sciences and Economics, Universitas Respati Yogyakarta
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


The recurring gun violence in the U.S. has been a prevailing issue for a long period. To tackle these, the government has implemented various policies and regulations. However, a transformation is nowhere to be seen. Having advocated for a change is Joe Biden, the president of the United States. In the light of recent unfortunate occurrences, Biden delivered a public speech that addressed this issue. This study aims to understand and thoroughly comprehend Biden’s speech using appraisal analysis, in which the elements of appraisal are used to classify the terms within Biden’s speech. This research uses qualitative methods, and it is concluded that it is clear from the performed research and supplementary data in the preceding sentence that Biden's speech contains a total of 37 evaluative items. 19 of these appraising items are positive, while 18 are negative. 19 of these appraising items are positive. This study found 12 findings for each of the appraisal parts of affect and appreciation, 7 findings of Judgment-social esteem and 6 findings of judgment-social sanction. Upon analyzing, it is found that Biden’s speech contains numerous meanings, some of which are how he is saddened by the unfortunate event, and subsequently advocates transformation on gun regulation in the future years. In conclusion, Biden’s position on gun issues as president of the U.S. is that the owner and the regulation, not the gun, are the issue.

Keywords


appraisal; gun control; gun law; POTUS, presidential speech

Full Text:

PDF


References

Chicago Police Department. (2020). Crime Statistics. Retrieved from https://home.chicagopolice.org/statistics-data/crime-statistics/

City News Service (2021). Shootings increase in LA in 2021 compared with 2020. Retrieved from https://abc7.com/los-angeles-shootings-crime-la-homicide/10391530/

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2020). NICS Firearm Background Checks: Month/Year. Retrieved from https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf/view

Gramlich, J. (2022). What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/

Martin, J. R. & White, P. R. R. (2005). The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Masters, J. (2015). U.S. Gun Policy: Global Comparisons. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/192077/U.S.%20Gun%20Policy_%20Global%20...pdf

McLean, R. M., Harris, P., Cullen, J., Maier, R. V., Yasuda, K. E., Schwartz, B. J., Benjamin, G. C. (2019). Firearm-Related Injury and Death in the United States: A Call to Action From the Nation's Leading Physician and Public Health Professional Organizations. Annals of Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.7326/M19-2441

Merriam, S. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Nasution, D. R. A. (2018). The Evaluation of Donald Trump’s Emotional Speech: Appraisal Analysis and Acoustic Phonetics. Retrieved from https://repositori.usu.ac.id/handle/123456789/9617

New York Police Department. (2020). Citywide Crime Statistics. Retrieved from https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/stats/crime-statistics/citywide-crime-stats.page

O’Brien, K., Forrest, W., Lynott, D., Daly, M. (2013). Racism, Gun Ownership and Gun Control: Biased Attitudes in US Whites May Influence Policy Decisions. PLOS ONE, 8(10). doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077552

Parkinson, G. & Drislane, R. (2011). Qualitative research. In Online dictionary of the social sciences. Retrieved from http://bitbucket.icaap.org/dict.pl

Pomeranz, J. L., Silver, D., Lieff, S. A. (2021). State Gun-Control, Gun-Rights, and Preemptive Firearm-Related Laws Across 50 US States for 2009–2018. American Journal of Public Health, 111, 1273-1280, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306287

Reeping, P. M., Cerda, M., Kalesan, B., Wiebe, D. J., Galea, S., Branas, C. C. (2019). State gun laws, gun ownership, and mass shootings in the US: cross sectional time series. British Medical Journal. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l542

Sanchez, C., Jaguan, D., Shaikh, S., McKenney, M., Elkbuli, A. (2020). A systematic review of the causes and prevention strategies in reducing gun violence in the United States. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 38(10). 2169-2178. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajem.2020.06.062

Spitzer, R. J. (2020). The Politics of Gun Control. New York, NY: Routledge.

Studdert, D. M., Zhang, Y., Swanson, S. A., Prince, L., Rodden, J. A., Holsinger, E. E., Spittal, M. J., … Miller, M. (2020). Handgun Ownership and Suicide in California. The New England Journal of Medicine. 382. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa1916744

The New York Times. (2022). Full Transcript: Biden’s Speech on Guns. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/02/us/politics/biden-speech-transcript-gun-control.html

Yamane, D. (2017). The Sociology of U.S. Gun Culture. Sociology Compass. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12497

Zebua, S. A. (2018). An Appraisal Analysis on Text of “I Have A Dream” by Martin Luther King. Retrieved from https://repositori.usu.ac.id/handle/123456789/12925



DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/rubikon.v9i2.77904

Article Metrics

Abstract views : 2013 | views : 860

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2022 Rubikon : Journal of Transnational American Studies

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Indexed by:

   Crossref Google Scholar JournalStories Main logo  OAI logo  

View My Stats

ISSN & E-ISSN