TY - JOUR T1 - Person Deixis in 2019 UK General Election Campaign: Analysis on the Use of We and They in Jeremy Corbyn’s and Boris Johnson’s Rally Speeches AU - Binici, Buse PY - 2023 DA - December DO - 10.26650/jol.2023.1316311 JF - Dilbilim PB - İstanbul Üniversitesi WT - DergiPark SN - 0255-674X SP - 51 EP - 60 IS - 40 LA - en AB - Personal deixis is frequently employed and occasionally used discursively in political speeches. This article explores the use of the person deixes we and they in the 2019 rally speeches of Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson. Drawing on Huang’s (2014), Arroyo’s (2015), Vladimirou’s (2007), and Halliday’s (2004) taxonomies, the study investigates person deixes to understand their rhetorical roles. The study utilizes a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze a self-compiled corpus. The objectives of the study are as follows: to identify instances of personal deixis, specifically the pronouns we and they; to calculate their frequency; to categorize and analyze the identified instances; and to compare the rhetorical styles of the two former candidates. The results indicate that both candidates employ persuasive discourse. They opt for the exclusive we to emphasize their plans and objects and for the inclusive we to foster a sense of unity with the British people. Johnson favors the opponent they to refer to opponents, distinguishing his approach from Corbyn’s. The research contributes to the understanding of person deixis used discursively and rhetorical strategies employed in rally speeches. KW - Person deixis KW - Jeremy Corbyn KW - Boris Johnson KW - rally speeches KW - deixis CR - Arroyo, J. B. (2000). Mire usted Sr. Goıızâlez... Personal deixis in Spanish political-electoral debate. Journal of Pragmatics, 32(1), 1-27. google scholar CR - Boris Johnson - 2019 Speech at Conservative Manifesto Launch. (2019, November 26). [Web Post]. Retrieved from https://www.ukpol.co.uk/boris-johnson-2019-speech-at-conservative-manifesto-launch/ google scholar CR - Boris Johnson - 2019 Speech Launching General Election. (2019, November 11). [Web Post]. Retrieved from https://www.ukpol.co.uk/boris-johnson-2019-speech-launching-general-election/ google scholar CR - Halliday, M.A.K. (2004). An Introduction to functional grammar. London: Arnold. google scholar CR - Hamdaoui, M. (2015). The Persuasive Power of Person Deixis in Political Discourse: The Pronoun ‘We’ in Obama’s Speeches About the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis as an Example. The European Conference on Arts & Humanities 2015 Official Conference Proceedings. Tunisia: University of Sfax. google scholar CR - Huang, Y. (2014). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. google scholar CR - Ivanova, A. (2016). Deixis and its role in defining rhetorical space. Revista Signos, 49(92), 329-349. google scholar CR - Jeremy Corbyn - 2019 Speech Launching General Election Campaign. (2019, November 11). [Web Post]. Retrieved from https://www.ukpol.co.uk/jeremy-corbyn-2019-speech-launching-general-election-campaign/ google scholar CR - Jeremy Corbyn’s speech at the Confederation of British Industry. (2019, November 18). [Web Post]. Retrieved from https://labour.org.uk/press/jeremy-corbyns-speech-at-the-confederation-of-british-industry/ google scholar CR - Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP. google scholar CR - Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics. Cambridge: CUP. 637. google scholar CR - Putri, N. A. & Kurniawan, E. (2015). Person deixis in USA presidential campaign speeches. English Review: Journal ofEnglish Education, 3(2), 190-200. google scholar CR - READ IN FULL: Boris Johnson’s speech to the 2019 Conservative Party conference. (2019, October 2). [Web Post]. Retrieved from https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/read-in-full-boris-johnsons-speech-to-the-2019-conservative-party-conference google scholar CR - Van de Putte, T. (2016). European citizenship policy between building collectives and appealing to individuals: A study of person deixis. Bulletin VALS-ASLA, 104, 105-123. google scholar CR - Van Dijk, T. A. (1997). What is political discourse analysis. Belgian Journal of Linguistics, 11(1), 11-52. google scholar CR - Vladimirou, D. (2007). ‘I suggest that we need more research’ personal reference in linguistics journal articles. Lancaster University Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics and Language Teaching, 1, 139-157. google scholar CR - Wilson, K. (2019, December 9). General Election 2019: Jeremy Corbyn’s speech to Bristol Labour supporters in full. [Web post]. Retrieved from www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/general-election-2019-jeremy-corbyn-3625405 google scholar CR - Zupnik, Y. J. (1994). A pragmatic analysis of the use of person deixis in political discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 21(4), 339-383. google scholar UR - https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2023.1316311 L1 - http://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/3217321 ER -