Pronouns, Agency, and References in US State of the Union Speeches: A CDA-Inspired Study

Abstract: This essay examines the use of pronouns, agency and a few chosen references in US State of the Union addresses. The material consists of a corpus of a total of eight speeches, four of which are from recent presidents Obama and G.W. Bush, and four from presidents of earlier periods, Kennedy and Nixon. The results are compared with respect to political parties, and a sample examination of how the discourse may have changed with time is performed. Drawing on methodology influenced by Fairclough's ideas of Critical Discourse Analysis and Van Leeuwen's Social Actor Theory, the study finds certain patterns in how actors are presented in the material, such as the presentation of fictionalized accounts of individuals in newer speeches, and attempts to explain these as well as expand understanding of what may be important areas to research further.