Exploration Into The Lexical Features Of American Presidents' Inaugural Addresses

American presidents' inaugural addresses (APIAs for short) are an important section in the inauguration ceremonies and an essential type in public political speaking as well. American presidents are elected every four years, and from George Washington to Donald Trump, 45 presidents have been elected and they have delivered 58 inaugural addresses altogether. In these addresses, American presidents convey their governing policies and give promises in order to win public support. The language of inaugural addresses, formal and exact, elegant and powerful, not only symbolizes loyalty, wisdom and ambition, but also reveals the evolution of American politics, economy, society and history. All these have endowed APIAs great significance of research.Currently, plenty of researches have been carried out concerning APIAs, but few have been done to explore the lexical features and still few try to give explanations for the features. This study aims at exploring the lexical features of APIAs from such angles as word number, word length, type/token ratio, part of speech and frequent words. On the one hand, some words are commonly used by all presidents, which constitute the main lexical features of APIAs. On the other hand, some words, though not commonly used by all presidents, are frequently used by particular presidents,namely the personalized frequent words. As to the commonly used words, this paper tries to give explanations from the angle of American ideology and the nature of APIAs. As to the personalized frequent words, explanations will be given from historical backgrounds.This paper is aimed at helping readers better understand the lexical style and features of APIAs, better appreciate these addresses and have a more profound understanding of American society,politics,economy,culture and history.