Most candidates in the 2016 election engage voters with language at a 6th to 8th grade lower. Vocabulary scores ranged from the 7th grade to 10th grade level. Looking at grammar, this year's candidates hovered around the 6th to 7th grade level.
Trump, currently the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination, spoke at the least advanced level, according to the study's results. Trump and Clinton also showed the greatest variation in the level of language used in their campaign appearances, suggesting that they tailor their speeches to different constituencies, the researchers explain.
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Turning to historical candidates, Lincoln sets the high-water mark, with grammar usage around the 11th grade level. Bush, widely known for his "Bushisms," a combination of verbal slip-ups that include unconventional phrasing, unusual pronunciations and occasional malapropisms, scored the lowest at around a 5th grade level.
In terms of vocabulary, Reagan leads the pack, scoring around the 11th grade level. Here, Bush makes up ground, employing language around the 10th grade level, similar to that of his successor, Obama.
In fairness to all of the candidates, REAP is meant to parse written text, though the study used campaign speeches. "When we speak, we usually use less structured language with shorter sentences," said study co-author Maxine Eskenazi.
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