Rhetoric Performativities of Pronouns: A Reading of Campaign Speeches

Abstract

This study examined rhetorical performativities of pronouns; a reading of campaign speeches of Bola Ahmed Tinubu (Nigeria) and Joe Biden (United States of America). The paper organized in segments including introduction, statement of the problem, conceptual review, method, discussion and conclusion. The main focus of the study is on determining whom the two presidents refer to when they use the pronouns I, you and we and to compare the differences in pronominal usage by the two presidents. The results suggest that the pronominal choices of the presidents do not differ significantly. The results also indicate that the pronoun I is used when the speaker wants to speak as an individual rather than as a representative of a group. You is used both as generic pronoun as well as in a particular sense. The pronoun we is used to invoke a sense of collectivity and to share responsibility, referring to the campaigner and the audience/people. Overall, it is important to note that the choices of pronoun and whom the pronouns refer to vary greatly depending on the context of the speech.