‘Today I offer you, and we offer the country a new vision’: The strategic use of first person pronouns in party conference speeches of the Third Way

Kranert, Michael

doi:10.1177/0957926516685463

Cited by 17 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(32 reference statements)

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“…While previous work on the discursive construction of leadership in political discourse has shown how political actors use the first person and related verb constructions (Fetzer and Bull 2012;Kranert 2017) to enact their political selves, this paper shifts the focus on how politicians interact with various 'others'. I delve into how parliamentarians "'do' competence and responsiveness" (Fetzer and Bull 2012, 129) through the lens of narratives of dialogue.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Narratives of dialogue in parliamentary discourse

Truan

2020

JLP

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This paper puts forward an argument about the relation between narratives and constructed dialogue in political discourse. Narratives of dialogue are special cases of constructed dialogue that emphasize the embeddedness of the speaker, displayed as a discourse participant engaging in a conversation with an ordinary citizen or a public figure. Close analysis of British, German, and French parliamentary debates reveals how narratives of dialogue shape an image of the speaker involved in a dialogue. While being engaged in the activity of debating, parliamentarians simultaneously perform the act of debating. I argue that the main point of narratives of dialogue is not so much to report on a prior or hypothetical situation, but to create the ethos of a Member of Parliament receptive to their interlocutors.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Narratives of dialogue in parliamentary discourse

Truan

2020

JLP

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“…Harwood, 2005aHarwood, , 2005bHarwood, , 2006Harwood, , 2007Hyland, 2001Hyland, , 2002 and political discourse (e.g. Fetzer, 2014;Fetzer & Bull, 2012;Kranert, 2017). Mülhäusler & Harré (1990) argued that practically any pronoun can be used for any person: for instance in reporting direct speech, 'I' may index not only the speaker, but also other participants.…”

Section: Self-reference In Press Releasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“We are prepared to play our part…”: A case study of the use of first-person references in e-releases from two oil companies

Skorczynska

2020

Journal of Pragmatics

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This study looks into the meta-pragmatics of e-releases by providing corpus-based data on variations in the use of first-person references in e-releases from two oil companies: BP and Repsol. Previous research on corporate press releases had approached this particular feature (Jacobs, 1999a(Jacobs, , 1999b, but no further attempts have been made to look into their usage in press releases published on corporate websites of different organizations. Two corpora of nearly 100,000 tokens have been examined for first-person pronouns and determiners in order to identify their frequencies and their referents. The results reveal an interplay of multiple first-person voices that enhance the dialogic nature of e-releases and possibly their persuasive effectiveness. The variations detected show that BP uses first-person references far more frequently than Repsol, yet lower frequencies seem not to correlate with higher frequencies of third-person references. The range of referents identified is also broader for BP. The differences suggest distinct approaches to exploiting the communicative potential served by the use of first-person references, and thus different communication strategies applied by companies operating on a global scale but within the same industry.

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“…Language analysts have established that politicians use the first person plural pronoun “we” as “one of the most useful tools of persuasion” (Petersoo 2007, 420). Ruling elites use “we” in political addresses to convey a sense of communality with their audience, construct a common identity (Kranert 2017), and present themselves as “loyal members of the nation their imagined audiences presumably identify with” (Beldarrain‐Durandegui 2012, 62). By the same token, politicians seek to convey consensual representations of the world, credit themselves for social action, and impute or deny responsibility for harms (Bull and Fetzer 2006).…”

Section: Political Accents In Transition Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wandering identities in energy transition discourses: Political leaders’ use of the “we” pronoun in Ontario, 2009–2019

Mang‐Benza

Hunsberger

2020

Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes

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Analyzing discursive strategies helps demonstrate how power is exerted through politics. • Three ruling coalitions in Ontario strategically used universalizing language to promote very different energy policy regimes. • The "we" form in political discourse leaves room for ambiguous messages, implying benefits to all while obscuring differentiated impacts. This paper explores the use of universalizing language as a discursive strategy to promote shifts in energy policy. Building on scholarship that seeks to understand the political nature of energy transitions, including resistance to transitions, the role of the state, and implications for justice, we examine three phases of energy transition in Ontario in the period 2009-2019, focusing on the ways that three successive ruling coalitions used the first plural pronoun "we" to promote contrasting energy policy orientations. Our analysis of policy documents and government news releases confirms that all three coalitions used the "we" form as a strategic device to define priorities, prescribe courses of action, and broadcast achievements. However, they also used the ambiguity of the "we" form to obscure alternative perspectives, claim credit for rivals' accomplishments, and gloss over harmful and differentiated impacts of policy choices. The paper concludes by reflecting on broader questions about power and justice relevant to energy transition scholars.

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‘Today I offer you, and we offer the country a new vision’: The strategic use of first person pronouns in party conference speeches of the Third Way

Cited by 17 publications

References 30 publications

Narratives of dialogue in parliamentary discourse

Narratives of dialogue in parliamentary discourse

“We are prepared to play our part…”: A case study of the use of first-person references in e-releases from two oil companies

Wandering identities in energy transition discourses: Political leaders’ use of the “we” pronoun in Ontario, 2009–2019

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