This article examines how EU leaders position themselves with respect to a European identity through pronoun use. The data for this article were taken from a session from the 2008 meeting of the World Economic Forum (YouTube 2008). It featured a panel of leaders from current and prospective EU member states. I selected a 15-minute segment, which focuses particularly on the concept of a European identity. Of particular interest in this study is the identity expressed by the Turkish member of the panel, as it compares to the other EU leaders.
I use Wortham’s (1996) deictic mapping techniques to analyze pronoun use in the data. The analysis reveals that three identities are constructed through pronoun use: neutral, non-European, and European. While leaders from current member states emphasize their Europeanness through pronoun use, the Turkish member portrays an identity in opposition to this European identity.
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