Pronominal Choice and Person of the Werb in Parliamentary Discourse: First Person Plural

Abstract

Polarisation of discourse participants is a common phenomenon in political discourse and it refers to the process whereby several opposing groups are established. Thus, the study of personality, i.e. the choice of pronouns and the person of the verb, is an important subject for research in parliamentary discourse. With this in mind, the paper focuses on the most frequent perspective used in the Parliament of Montenegro – that of the first person plural of the verb and the use of the pronoun we. We identify the discourse macrostrategies which are employed to develop group identity and mitigate responsibility. Then we provide a list of the most frequent verbs used in this perspective and discuss their form (mood and tense). The results show that spontaneous rebuttals of MPs greatly differ in this respect from parliamentary speeches, which have been prepared in advanced, which points to the fact that there is conscious manipulation.