Leading Through Language: A Pragmatic Study Of Leadership Language With Examples From Selected Works Of Deng Xiaoping

Leadership language, in a sense, has been studied from the perspective oflanguage art in the past decades. Few studies, however, have been conducted in thelight of pragmatic theories, among which the Cooperative Principle (CP) and thePoliteness Principle (PP) are of great importance. Do leaders follow the CP and the PP,and if so, in what ways respectively? What implications do the two principles have foreffective leading through language respectively? All these thorny questions stillremain unanswered issues, thus being the topics of this study.It was hypothesized that leaders follow the CP and the PP, and they might applysome linguistic devices into leading. In addition, the CP and the PP might have someimplications for effective leading.With Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping as data source, we analyzed leadershiplanguage from the perspective of the CP and the PP. Evidences were cited from thebook to illustrate the applicability of the CP and the PP in leadership language. Theexamples were then examined and classified.Leaders were found, in their efforts to lead the masses insocial-economical-cultural activities, to follow the CP and the PP in performing theirspeech acts. In order to effect leading, many linguistic devices were applied, such asmetaphor, coinage, parody, etc. As two essential principles in conversation, the CPand the PP can be applied to leadership language. Therefore, leaders are expected topay attention to these two principles as to fulfill leading goals.The significance of the findings of this study lies in the fact that it applied the CPand the PP in a relatively new field, thus extended their explanatory significance. Andthe findings could be of practical value in daily classroom language teaching, sincethey could throw lights on how to monitor our speech as to achieve bettercommunicative effect.Nevertheless, many rising issues are still worth further investigating. Forexample, we found that good leaders tended to follow the CP and the PP in leading,and we suggested some reasons for the acts and some ways leaders used in them. Andthere may be some other reasons and ways. These might be topics of future research.