Semester of Graduation

Fall 2017

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The central discussion of this thesis concentrates on the uses of ‘we’ and ‘they’ within the corpus of six speeches given by Latin American political leaders in the mid-to-late 20th century. Existing research explains that one’s definition of self as well as a country’s national identity is largely based on the perception of ‘other’ (Costelloe 2014: 322). In other words, the manner in which political speakers discuss the collective ‘we’ and refer to foreign adversaries with the use of ‘they’ can greatly influence national identity. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the importance of address forms and references in influencing public opinion. The analysis of these speeches will serve as an example of how address forms and references are of great importance in political discourse, and I will discuss how their use can serve to influence national identity as well as manipulate public opinion.

Date

11-15-2017

Committee Chair

King, Jeremy

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.4358

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