Abstract
This study investigates the use of deixis in Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2023 presidential campaign speech, examining how contextual reference shapes meaning in political communication. Grounded in pragmatic theory, particularly Levinson’s account of deixis as context-dependent interpretation, the research adopts a qualitative content analysis approach to identify and interpret deictic expressions in the speech. Data were sourced purposively from publicly available campaign materials, including official platforms and media publications. The analysis reveals that person, spatial, temporal, demonstrative, possessive, and exophoric deixis are strategically deployed to construct proximity, assert authority, and foster solidarity with the audience. The findings show that (i) deictic expressions create immediacy and strengthen the speaker–audience relationship; (ii) deixis enhances message relevance by anchoring political promises in shared contexts; (iii) deictic choices help articulate concrete political commitments; and (iv) deictic ideology supports inclusivity and persuasive alignment. The study concludes that deixis plays a central role in shaping the grammatical and rhetorical structure of the campaign discourse. It recommends deeper attention to deictic strategies in political communication studies, as inadequate contextual interpretation may lead to misunderstanding of political intent and message framing.
Keywords: Pragmatics, Political Discourse, Politeness Strategies, Deixis, Speech Acts
