US Presidential Debates

A debate is composed of four components, namely, subject of a debate, advocates, (oral or written) style and audience. As to US televised presidential debates, the four components are subject matter of presidential debates, presidential candidates, oral style and voters. The purposes of presidential debates are first to win more votes and then win the presidential campaign. This thesis is to analyze how those candidates try to realize this purpose through the subject matter of presidential debates. Since rhetorical repetition is frequently used in the three U.S. presidential debates, I will focus on the utilization of rhetorical repetition and study the important role it plays in such political debates.Televised presidential debates have a time limit and both candidates should try their best to present their party guidelines and policies as much as possible during the precious time period. However, they use repetition in their debates. Of course, they use the rhetorical repetition on purpose instead of stumbling. After analyzing the different kinds of repetition, I find rhetorical repetition has the following effects: clarify the positions and policies of presidential candidates; beautify candidates themselves and attack their opponents; and leave the audience with a deeper impression. I also find that U.S. presidential debates are highly politically oriented and a lot of factors other than linguistic and rhetorical skills are also important.