The use of personal pronoun in political campaign advertisements in the Philippines

• Main Author: Gocheco, Paulina M.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2011
• Subjects: Tagalog language—Pronoun; Political campaigns—Philippines; Language Interpretation and Translation; South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/6498
• Institution: De La Salle University

The study investigates the interplay of language, persuasion and culture, as reflected in the usage of pronouns in a political type of discourse such as political campaign advertisements on television. An examination of the linguistic features in a mediated type of discourse may reveal the speakers' strategies in their attempts of persuasion. For example, the first person plural pronouns can be used by politicians in their strategies to gain the people's allegiance, while the use of singular first person pronoun may result in exclusion of some groups. The variances in the use of pronouns can shed light on how participants project themselves and others. In the Tagalog language, the preference for certain pronouns reveal social distance, politeness, or solidarity. To serve as the framework for categorizing the Tagalog pronouns, the study adopts Schacter and Otanes' (1972) categories of personal pronouns; namely, genitive, absolutive, and locative. The corpus consists of 60 political campaign ads shown on television for a national senatorial race. The study argues that pronouns are linguistic features that may render uniqueness in a particular type of political discourse that is generally persuasive in nature. Though the analysis of the frequency and usage of personal pronouns in the televised campaign ads, the study provides insights and discussions on the benefits of the agentive role of the pronoun, as well as the role of culture and other speaker motivations in the use of pronouns. Despite the significance of inclusive pronouns such as tayo 'we' in persuasive discourse, the study reveals the predominance of first person singular ko 'I' in the corpus.