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Babel: Online-First Articles

Pronoun shifts in political discourse

The English translations of the Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s statements on the international stage

| Mahidol University
| University of Leeds

This article examines the English translations of former Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s statements on the international stage and the shifts in the first-person pronoun. Looking at interpersonal positioning through a systemic functional linguistic lens, we found that the translations underline the explicitness of agency, highlighting the variation of stylistic choices and interplay with source-text politics. The shifts come with a modified degree of willingness, a more active agency, an increase in the modality of inclination, and more force in attitude. These interpersonal overtones largely contribute to recasting the image of the Thai government to ensure its legitimacy, promote national unity, and appeal to the international community. These crafted translated texts seem to hone the leader’s public persona in front of global audiences by continuing to enhance the country’s reputation, thereby maintaining the speaker’s dignity and prestige–an essential for the national leader’s image.

Keywords: political discourse, pronoun, prime minister, SFL, translation, Thai politics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Function of pronoun we
    • 2.1Potential shift of modality
    • 2.2Relations between agency, engagement, and graduation
  • 3.Research design
  • 4.Pronoun shifts and their relation to the interpersonal positioning
    • 4.1Shift in modality to show willingness
    • 4.2Shift in agency to show more active role
    • 4.3Shift in engagement to show devotion
    • 4.4Shift in graduation to show stronger evaluation
  • 5.Concluding discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 2 April 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00388.pha
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