Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 22:6 (2023) ► pp.779–801

National identity revisited

Deictic WE in President Zelenskyy’s speeches on Russia-Ukraine war

ORCID logo | Ilia State University

National Identity is a discursively constructed complex entity which can reshape an image of a nation. Even one person powerful enough to be a representative of the whole nation can promote a collective sense of nationality/patriotism and sovereignty of the country in line with social, historical, or most importantly, a versatile geopolitical context. The present study is an illustration of how lexical choices of a particular political figure – the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy – identified by specific corpus linguistic research tools in the discourse, defines and emphasizes a national integrity during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis is applied to investigate how a prominent Ukrainian political figure – Volodymyr Zelenskyy discursively constructs national identity in the context of the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war. The research is based on the linguistic scrutiny of presidential video addresses, which are stored at the official presidential website and transcribed in English.

Keywords: national identity, critical discourse analysis, presidential addresses, deictic pronouns
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discursive construction of national identity
    • 2.1National identity in the context of Europeanness
    • 2.2National identity and person deixis
  • 3.Methods
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1The case of inclusive We – We of European togetherness
    • 4.2Addressee exclusive We- reproaching We
    • 4.3Metonymic We: Patriotic We
    • 4.4Polarity of deictic pronouns: We vs. They
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 May 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.22106.gul
References (50)
Anderson, Benedict
1983 Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. Verso.Google Scholar
Anthony, Lawrence
2012 AntConc (Version 3.3.2) [Windows 3.5.7.]. Waseda University. [URL]
Baker, Paul
2006 Using corpora in discourse analysis. Continuum Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 Contemporary corpus linguistics. Continuum International Publishing.Google Scholar
Benvéniste, Emile
1966 La nature des pronoms (The Nature of Pronouns). Collection GallimardGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre
1994 “Rethinking the State: Genesis and Structure of the Field.” Sociological Theory 12(1): 1–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chilton, Paul, Tian, Hailong, and Ruth, Wodak
2010 “Reflections on Discourse and Critique in China and the West.” Journal of Language & Politics 9(4): 489–507. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chung, Cindy, and James, Pennebaker
2007 “The psychological functions of function words.” In Social Communication, ed. by Klaus, Fiedler, 343–359. Psychology Press.Google Scholar
De Cillia, Rudolf, Reisigl, Martin, and Ruth, Wodak
1999 “The discursive construction of national identity.” Discourse and Society 10(2), 149–173. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Derrida, Jacques
1978 Writing and difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Feng, Hao, and Yuhui, Liu
2010 “Analysis of interpersonal meaning in public speeches – a case study of Obama’s speech.” Journal of Language Teaching and Research 1(6): 825–829. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giner, Salvador
1994 “The Advent of a European Society.” International Journal of Sociology 24(1): 11–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Mark
1987 The Body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and Reason. University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Boris
2022 February 24. Boris on Putin: ‘A bloodstained aggressor who believes in imperial conquest’. The Global Herald. [URL]
Habermas, Jürgen
2001 The Postnational Constellation: Political Essays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hall, Stuart
1994 Rassismus und kulturelle Identität. Ausgewählte Schriften 2. Hamburg: Argument (Argument Sonderband 226).Google Scholar
1996 “Introduction: Who Needs ‘Identity’?” In Questions of Cultural Identity, ed. by Stuart, Hall, and Paul, Du Gay, 1–17. London.Google Scholar
Halbwachs, Maurice
1985 Das kollektive Gedächtnis. Frankfurt: Fischer.Google Scholar
Hassener, Pierre
2012 (June). The Paradoxes of European Identity. Englesberg Seminar.Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin, and Joan, Stambaugh
1969 Identity and Difference. 1st ed. Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Ifversen, Jan
2002 “Europe and European Culture: A Conceptual Analysis.” European Societies 4(1): 1–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaye, James
2009 “Out of Maelstroms: Crises and Parlous Developments of Europe since World War Two.” In European Public Sphere and the Media, Europe in Crisis, ed. by Anna, Triandafyllidou, Ruth, Wodak, and Michal, Krzyżanowski, 53–82. Basingstoke: Palgrave. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kuo, Sai-Hua
2002 “From solidarity to antagonism: The uses of the second-person singular pronoun In Chinese political discourse.” Text 22(1): 29–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakomaa, Erik
2017 “The history of business and war: introduction.” Scandinavian Economic History Review 65(3): 224–230. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michal
2010 The Discursive Construction of European Identities: A Multi-level Approach to Discourse and Identity in the Transforming European Union. Frankfurt am Main: Lang.Google Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michal, and Florain, Oberhuber
2007 (Un)Doing Europe: Discourse and Practices of Negotiating the EU Constitution. Bruxelles: Lang.Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C.
1983 Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maalej, Zouheir A.
2012 “The ‘Jasmine Revolt’ has made the ‘Arab Spring’: A critical discourse analysis of the last three political speeches of the ousted president of Tunisia.” Discourse & Society 23(6): 679–700. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Malmborg, Mikael, and Bo, Stråth
2002 The Meaning of Europe: Variety and Contention Within and Among Nations. New York, NY: Berg.Google Scholar
Martin, Denis C.
1995 “The Choices of Identity.” Social Identities 1(1): 5–20. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moore, Dahlia, and Baruch, Kimmerling
1995 “Individual Strategies of Adopting Collective Identities: The Israeli Case.” International Sociology 101: 387–408. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oberhuber, Florian, Bärenreuter, Christoph, Krzyżanowski, Michal, Schönbauer, Heinz, and Ruth, Wodak
2005 “Debating the Constitution: On the Representations of Europe / the EU in the Press.” Journal of Language & Politics 4(2): 227–271. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
O’Connor, Brendan, Maisa, Taha, and Megan, Sheehan
2008 “Castro’s shifters: Locating variation in Political discourse.” University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 14(2): 120–129. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pavlidou, Theodossia-Soula
2014 “Constructing collectivity with ‘we’ An Introduction.” In Constructing Collectivity ‘We’ across languages and contexts, ed. by Theodossia-Soula, Pavlidou, 1–19. Jon Benjamins Publishing: Amsterdam. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pennebaker, James W., Matthias R. Mehl, and Kate, G. Niederhoffer
2003 “Psychological aspects of natural language use: Our words, our selves.” Annual Review of Psychology 541: 547–577. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pennycook, Alastair
1994 “The politics of pronouns.” ELT Journal 48(2): 173–178. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Siewierska, Anna
2004 Person. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, Anthony D.
1990 “Towards a Global Culture?” In Global Culture. Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity, ed. by Mike, Featherstone, 171–192. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1991 Nationalism. Theory, Ideology, History. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
1992 “National Identity and the Idea of European Unity.” International Affairs 681: 55–76. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1993 “A Europe of Nations-or the Nation of Europe?” Journal of Peace Research 301: 129–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Dijk, Teun A.
1998 Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Sage Publications, Inc.Google Scholar
2003 “Political discourse and ideology.” Doxa Comunicación 11: 207–225. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wodak, Ruth
2015a Politics of Fear: What Right-wing Populist Discourses Mean. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015b “Normaliserung nach rechts”: Politischer Diskurs im Spannungsfeld von Neoliberalismus, Populismus, und kritischer Offentilichkeit.” In Linguistik Online 73(4): 27–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 “Discourse and European Integration.” KFG Working Paper, 861. Free University: Berlin. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, Rudolf, de Cillia, Martin, Reisigl, and Karin, Liebhart
2009 Discursive construction of national identity. Routledge.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, and Salomi, Boukala
2014 “Talking about Solidarity and Security in the Age of Crisis: The Revival of Nationalism and Protectionism in the European Union – A Discourse Historical Approach.” In EU’s Foreign Policy Through the Lenses of Discourse Analysis, ed. by Caterina, Carta, and Jean-Frederic, Morin, 171–190. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, and Michael, Meyer
2016 Methods of critical discourse analysis. Sage Publications Ltd.Google Scholar
Zelenskyy, Volodymyr
n.d). Speeches. [1/04/2021 – 28/03/2022] President of Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskyy. [URL]