A Diachronic Corpus-assisted Discourse Study of the Linguistic Features of Fed Communication and its Impact on Market AudiencesPresident Woodrow Wilso

President Woodrow Wilson founded the American Federal Reserve System ("the Fed") in 1913 to
provide America with a stable and long-lasting monetary system, and since that time interaction
between the agency and the public has evolved greatly (Yang & Li, 2022). The Federal Open Market
Committee ("FOMC"), one of the branches of the Fed, currently determines the direction of
monetary policy by convening eight regular meetings annually. These meetings generally reveal how
the Fed will restrict or relax monetary supply, with a subsequent impact on interest rates. FOMC
statements also provide an essential perspective on future developments in monetary policy. Thus,
market investors closely monitor FOMC policy announcements not only to determine changes in
interest rates but also to study and interpret FOMC statements (Tsai, 2014).
Since Fed communication has a substantial impact on market reactions and the course of economic
events (Resche, 2004), studying the mechanisms of these statements is valuable. Understanding Fed
communication helps reveal the ways in which the Fed manipulates public perception and assists
investors in making wise decisions (Yang & Li, 2022). However, studies of Fed communication are
underrepresented in linguistic research. This study contributes to furthering the understanding of
Fed communication and filling a crucial research gap in understanding the impact of the Fed on
market conditions. Moreover, it investigates a genre which is undoubtedly of critical importance to
finance and the global economy, raising issues of importance to a wide audience both within
academia and the business world. As both researchers and the Fed view communication as pivotal
in the deliberation and implementation of monetary policies, it is worthwhile to investigate Fed
communication and "how" and "to what extent" it affects the market.