More on Political Discourse: Establishing Identity and Interacting with the Audience

Abstract

The pervasiveness of politics in modern society renders political discourse susceptible to linguistic analysis, especially pragmatic and discourse analysis. This paper aims to shed light on the talks delivered by presidential candidates during election campaigns. Its objective is to investigate how politicians gain power by establishing their identity and at the same time actively engaging the electorate within the argumentation presented in their pre-election political speeches, through the use of self-mentions and engagement markers as metadiscourse categories. More precisely, it sets out to explore the function and usage of self-mentions and engagement markers i.e. personal pronouns, directives and rhetorical questions in 12 pre-election speeches, delivered by 6 Macedonian and 6 American presidential candidates. It is essential for politicians to know how to balance the use of these markers in order to avoid being intrusive and appear more persuasive for the listeners i.e. potential voters. The research shows that there are differences in the use of the markers in both languages, as well as among the different politicians. The politicians’ discourse appears to change depending on whether they are addressing the audience as leaders of the ruling party or as leaders of the opposing party.