| dc.description.abstract | Deixis is a major consideration in interpreting meaning. While delivering inaugural speeches, presidents consciously use deixis to achieve effective communication of their intentions. The choice of linguistic device is depended on the communicative roles they perform and how they convey the speakers communicative intend Deixis requires contextual information in interpreting meaning such as identity of the speaker, location of the speaker, the actual time of the speech performance and the social status and ranking of the different communicative agents in the speech event. This study sough to provide a deictic analysis of presidential inaugural in East Africa in the quest of investigating the role and effect of the deixis used in selected inaugural speeches. The objectives of the study were; to identify and describe the different types of deixis used in the selected inaugural speeches, to establish the role of the deixis used in selected inaugural speeches, and to investigate the effect of the deixis used in the selected inaugural speeches. The study was founded on the Deictic Field Theory by Hanks 2005. A descriptive-analytic research design was adopted in this study. Data Extraction was the main data collection method in the study. The population of the study consisted of inaugural speeches of presidents in East Africa. The accessible population comprised of most recent inaugural speeches performed in English from the year 2010 to 2018. Four speeches were selected for study. The speeches were downloaded from the internet. Iteration and saturation sampling was used in the study. The data was examined through content analysis. A corpus analyzing software called AntiConc 3.5.8 was used to facilitate the investigation in the inquiry by identifying different deictic words and different contexts of their use within each inaugural speech. The analysis was conducted in three phases; the first phase involved reading the selected inaugurals and running them through the software to identify the types of deixis used. The second phase involved identification of various contexts in which specific deictic expressions were used within the inaugurals to establish the role of each deictic word. The third phase involved identification of various contexts in which different deictic words were used to investigate how speakers used deixis to achieve their communicative intend. The study was both qualitative and quantitative. The findings were presented in tables, bar charts, bar graphs and descriptive write ups. The findings established that presidents in East Africa used different types of deixis in their inaugural speeches. Each deictic word was used to perform a particular role and achieve the speaker’s communicative intend. Person, spatial, temporal, and social deictic expressions were used to provide the context for correctly interpreting the intended message. Deictic expressions signaled realities that the presidents communicated in their inaugural speeches. The Presidents used deixis to achieve emotional, cohesive, emphasizing and politeness effects. The findings of the study generated theoretical, empirical and research methodological information that would aid research in future studies on deixis. | en_US |