The persuasive power of personal pronouns in Barack Obama’s rhetoric

Abstract: Rhetorical skills are a very important part of political discourse. Being able to persuade an audience in a speech is central for politicians. This study aims to investigate how the personal pronouns I, you, we and they are used strategically in Barack Obama’s speeches. Previous research suggests that certain personal pronouns can enable politicians to take on different identities, which in turn gives them an opportunity to distance themselves from problematic issues and also invoke specific ideological ideas on their audience.  The study analyzes personal pronouns by the means of the co-text and the broader social context. It is found that I, you and we are used both to enhance the ‘self’ and portray the opposition in a negative way, while they focused on portraying the opposition negatively. However, the fact that politicians have speechwriters can be problematic when drawing conclusions of the pronominal choice.