FromLincoln’sfamous “ eighty and seven years ago ” toRoosevelt’siconic origin “ the only affair to revere is venerate itself , ” the White House has been inhabit by some fairly eloquent orators over the centuries . However , the current crop of presidential aspirant appear to fall well below the gull pose by some of their predecessors , according to a new discipline that intimate that the linguistic complexity used in safari speeches is corresponding to the reading grade of a middle school scholar ( ground level 6 to 8 , cover ages 11 to 14 ) .
To conduct thestudy , researchers from the Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon University canvass transcript of recent speech by five presidential candidate , and used a “ legibility model ” to assess their “ lexical contents and grammatical construction ” . According to the mundaneness of the vocabulary and syntactic organization of these savoir-faire , the researchers were capable to ascribe each speech a “ meter reading layer ” corresponding to a particular grade within the American education system .
Assessing the announcement of campaigning speech made by Hilary Clinton , Bernie Sanders , Donald Trump , Marco Rubio , and Ted Cruz , the subject field authors detect that Clinton and Trump used the least in advance lexicon , corresponding to a level 8 floor , while drum sander utilized the most complex terminology , speak at a grade 10 to grade 11 banner . Grammatically , Trump ’s address was the most basic , with a lingual structure similar to what one would expect from a mark 5 student .
Although Clinton ’s choice of words was among the most rudimentary during her announcement of candidature , she was also ascertain to have the high level of “ standard deviation , ” which reveals the degree to which candidates change their vocabulary between speech communication . This flexibility may indicate a higher mental ability to tailor the linguistic complexity of her discourse in accord with her changing audiences .
The cogitation writer also compare the lexical intricacy of present candidates with a selection of past president and find that , on the whole , Ronald Reagan used the most innovative words while Donald Trump ’s mental lexicon was the least developed . Grammatically , Lincoln ’s addresses were the most advanced , reaching a grade 11 level , while George W. Bush ’s speeches were the most primitive .
