In:The Person in Politics: Pronouns and political personalization in U.S. presidential campaigns
Lilla Petronella Szabó
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 107] 2025
► pp. v–viii
Table of contents
AcknowledgementsIX
List of figuresXI
List of tablesXIII
Chapter 1.Introduction: Towards personalized political communications1
1.1What the personalization? Defining the personalized politics2
1.2Democracy in danger? The stakes of personalized politics7
1.3What is this book about?8
1.4Personalization in language: Communicative and linguistic framework10
1.5Stars and stripes: Cultural and political context14
1.6Talking for votes: The campaign address15
1.7The structure of the book18
Chapter 2.Personalized politics: Causes and effects20
2.1The ages of political communication20
2.2What made politics personalized?22
2.3Of the People, by the People, for the People — and closer to the People?26
2.4Personalization in theory: Research on personalized politics32
2.4.1Institutional personalization34
2.4.2Media personalization36
2.4.3Behavioral personalization42
2.4.4Gendered personalization48
2.5Personalization in practice: Effects on campaign communication49
Chapter 3.The language of political personalization:
Deixis and image schemas54
Deixis and image schemas54
3.1Pointing to the person: Deixis55
3.2Putting the person in the center: Image schemas65
3.2.1The types and tranformations of image schemas68
3.2.2The center-periphery image schema71
3.2.3Image schemas and metaphors74
3.3The person in perspective: Deixis and image schemas78
Chapter 4.The politics of pronouns, the pronouns of politics85
4.1Stuck in the middle: First-person singular pronouns85
4.2We, the People — and others? First-person plural pronouns87
4.3Personalizing pronouns in nomination speeches: Foundations and hypotheses94
Chapter 5.Operationalizing pronouns in politics: The method of a linguistic analysis98
5.1The investigated speeches: Corpus data98
5.2Who are “we”? First-person plural categories99
5.2.11PPFamily100
5.2.21PPParty101
5.2.31PPNation102
5.2.41PPHumanity103
5.3Where pronouns are on the radial model104
5.4What pronouns stand for: Metonymy and pronominal reference107
5.5Positioning with pronouns: Further methodological considerations110
5.5.1The 1PS and 1PP of this research110
5.5.2The analysis of the 1PS111
5.5.3The analysis of the 1PP112
5.5.4Excluded categories113
Chapter 6.A linguistic analysis of personalization in politics: Results and discussion116
6.1Party pronouns: The 1PS and 1PP in Democratic and Republican speeches117
6.21PS and 1PP plural pronouns over the years120
6.3The first-person plural: Different meanings122
6.3.1Results: 1PPFamily123
6.3.2Results: 1PPParty124
6.3.3Results: 1PPNation125
6.3.4Results: 1PPHumanity126
6.4Data-driven results: A summary127
6.5Personal pronouns in context: Scenarios130
6.5.1Parents and children: The scenarios of 1PPFamily131
6.5.2My party and your party: The scenarios of the 1PPParty132
6.5.3Pronouns of present and past: The scenarios of the 1PPNation133
Chapter 7.Political personalization in detail — Case studies135
7.1Don’t think of a political party137
7.2Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential nomination acceptance speech139
7.3Ronald Reagan’s 1984 presidential nomination acceptance speech143
7.4Party matters: A summary147
7.5Women, politics, and dangerous things149
7.6Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential nomination acceptance speech153
7.7Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential nomination acceptance speech157
7.8Gender matters: A summary161
Chapter 8.Pronouns, politics, and personalization: Conclusion164
8.1Personalization in language and communication165
8.2To personalize or not: Contextual factors167
8.3Limitations and recommendations for further research168
8.3.1Linguistic extension169
8.3.2Contextual extension170
8.4The practice of personalized political communication171
References174
Sources192
Index
