| This is a comparative study of political discourse, specifically the State of the Union addresses, of three democratically-elected political leaders---Michelle Bachelet, Barack Obama and Jose Luis Zapatero. It addresses a need for combining the idea of "context" to include the historical, cognitive and social spheres. The analytical framework of this analysis of political discourse in the form of State of the Union addresses employs Critical Discourse Analysis and Relevance Theory to explore political language as both a mental and a social phenomenon. This work explores the meanings of the settings for the speeches, the histories associated with each country and government, and the psychological and cognitive processes defined above as "context.".;With regard to the analysis of the political speeches before their respective legislative bodies, Bachelet, Obama and Zapatero shared similar contexts in one important way: the historical moments in which they were elected as the leaders of their countries. This analysis suggests that effective political discourse, which is optimally relevant, is key to successful political leadership. |
