A Pragmatic Study of the Use of Personal Pronouns in Joe Biden's Victory Speech

Abstract

      In fact, every word said by the politicians in their public speech cannot be chosen randomly. There are always different interpretations behind their choice of words.      This paper is a pragmatic study that analyzes the use of personal pronouns by the politicians in general, and in Joe Biden’s, the president of the United States, victory speech after winning the presidential election, in particular. It tries to clarify the different purposes of the politicians, particularly Biden, behind their choice of the personal pronouns.      In the introduction of this study, the researcher tries to present, define and clarify pragmatics and pronouns, with its types, more specifically the personal pronoun. Furthermore, the use of the personal pronouns in the political speech is explained followed by its pragmatic dimension. Then, some examples of the use of the personal pronoun, specifically I, we, you and they, in the American president's speech are presented and analyzed pragmatically. This study hypothesizes that any change of the use of personal pronouns by politicians change the connotation of that speech. The conclusion of this study proves this hypothesis.