Leadership in numbers
The pragmatics of We in Singapore’s NDR speeches (2004–2023)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6084853 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Khin Wee Chen (0000-0002-9477-751X), Khin-Wee Chen (corresponding author), Ali Al-Kandari (0000-0002-8552-6196), Ali A Al-Kandari |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-25 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Language and Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1569-2159 • E-ISSN: 1569-9862 |
| Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1075/jlp.25089.che |
| OpenAlex | W7106624583 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 34 |
This paper examines how former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong strategically deployed personal pronouns — especially we — in National Day Rally (NDR) speeches (2004–2023) to construct authority, manage affect, and negotiate state–citizen alignment. Situated within Singapore’s hybrid political system, the study adopts a corpus pragmatic approach combining frequency analysis, collocate profiling, and a substitution-based method to track inclusive and exclusive we alongside broader patterns of I , you , and they . Informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), deixis, and modality, the analysis shows that we functions as an indexical pivot modulating institutional stance around elections, milestones, and crises: exclusive we dominates early speeches and reflects technocratic leadership, while inclusive forms rise during periods of public outreach and pandemic response. These findings demonstrate that pronoun choice acts as a rhetorical device for distributing agency, calibrating legitimacy, and adapting leadership style to political context
Construct (python library · Discourse analysis · Indexicality · Negotiation · Personal pronoun · Politics · Pronoun · Rhetorical question · Systemic functional linguistics
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| Highly cited | No |
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