Deicitc use in political speeches. The effects of pronouns in Barack Obama's 2004 "Key Note Address" (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Würzburg, language: English, abstract: "Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." (Orwell 9). Orwell has a very critical view on the potential dangers of language that can lead to persuasion and deception. Political speeches in particular can be examined under certain pragmatic aspects in order to find out the speaker's intention.

With this in mind, the effect of pronouns in political speeches will be considered in the pages that follow. At first sight, the use of pronouns does not seem to suit to Orwell's radical and immoral understanding of political language. This paper will illustrate that the choice of single linguistic units as pronouns can have a great effect on the listeners and recipients. How can atmosphere be created, political groups compared and distinguished and how can ideas and ideologies be conveyed and intensified by the judicious use of pronouns?

There is a number of linguists who have already dealt with the topic of pronouns in political discourse. Among the first were Brown and Gilman with their famous article "The Pronouns of Power and Solidarity" (1960).

A newer approach was taken by John Wilson thirty years later when he linked pronouns to political language (Wilson 1990). Pennycook points out the difficulties and meaning of pronouns in a paper called "The Politics of Pronouns" (1994) which will be one of the basic resources of my investigations.

In this paper, the use of pronouns will be examined within the scope of Barack Obama's keynote address in 2004 since this speech made him famous far beyond Illinois, where he was senator during that time. His famous slogan "Yes we can" which he developed after that speech reflects the galvanizing power of the single pronoun "We" over a whole nation.