Logico-Semantic Relation in Presidential Debate Between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

Halliday holds that all cultures reflect some universal metafunctions in the languages and proposes three such
metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal, and textual. This study employs the logical function theory in Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics to analyze the presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Specifically, through a qualitative descriptive analysis, this study aims at finding out the types of taxis and logico-semantic relation and analyzing the meanings represented in clause complexes. The analysis of taxis and logico-semantic relation is necessary in order to present a pattern of the complexity of the two candidates. The finding in the study shows that the clause complexity of the candidates’ speeches in the presidential debate is varied. In Hillary and Trump’s speeches, all types of taxis and logico-semantic relation are found in their debate. From both candidates’ speeches, the type of taxis and logico-semantic relation mostly arises is paratactic extension.
The analysis of meaning reveals that the dominant meaning is
addition which appears from extension. The result of analysis
indicates that two candidates prove the strength of their verbal language to influence the audience’s minds in supporting their policies.