Personal Deixis in the 2020 United States Presidential Election : An Analysis of Joe Biden’s and Donald Trump’s Political Speeches

The present study aims to explore how deictic personal pronouns are used in political speeches by the two American presidential candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, during the 2020 United States presidential election. Donald Trump’s usage of the personal pronouns I, you, he/she, we and they is analysed and compared to Joe Biden’s usage of the same personal pronouns. The study has shown that Joe Biden has a preference for the first-person singular pronoun I while Donald Trump has a similar preference towards the third-person plural pronoun they. Both candidates also use the pronoun we just as often, however, Joe Biden’s we is mostly the universal we, referring to all Americans, while Donald Trump’s we is mostly the royal we, referring to his government. This study shows that the same deictic pronouns can be used to indicate inclusion and exclusion.