Transitivity and evaluation in American and Spanish parliamentary discourse: the 2015 State of the Union Address in the US vs. the 2015 State of the Nation Address in Spain

The present study explores the interplay of evaluation and transitivity in an American Spanish parliamentary debate by President Obama PM Rajoy aiming at legitimizing their actions convincing candidates to vote for them upcoming elections. A further objective is investigate whether appraisal analyses illustrate politicians’ ideological positions. Within general framework Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), we use results obtained Appraisal following Martin White’s scheme [Cabrejas-Peñuelas, A. B. (2020). Metaphor, metonymy as political devices discourse. Ibérica, 40, 75–99] add a with [Halliday, M. K., & Matthiessen, C. I. (2014). Halliday’s introduction functional grammar. Routledge]. reveal that both politicians used differently: mental desiderative processes expressing desires showed active role ‘us’ bring about positive changes. In contrast, preferred relational, verbal existential processes. These contribute his particular picture reality, which nature. Also, show were tool persuasion legitimization economic decisions.