An Analysis of the Themes and Speech Acts in the Recent Inaugural Speeches by Leaders of the Countries with English as an Official Language

Inaugural speeches mark the beginning of a new leadership period and serve as powerful tools for leaders to convey their vision, goals, and aspirations to the public. Analyzing these speeches can reveal how leaders use language to communicate their political agendas, values, and visions. Focusing on recent inaugural speeches delivered by leaders of countries where English is an official language, this paper analyzed their predominant themes using the by Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework and Searle’s (1979) speech act theory. The data comprised 10 inaugural speeches from 10 countries, divided into five geographic groups: (1) North America, (2) Europe, (3) Africa, (4) Australia, and (5) Asia. To ensure inter-coder reliability, a second coder analyzed 20% of the data using Cohen’s Kappa statistics. The results revealed prominent themes found in the top five themes in each speech, as well as ideologies and values embedded in these speeches. Additionally, the analysis uncovered associations between specific types of speech acts and themes, such as the common association between future plans and commissive and assertive speech acts and the less common association between future plans and directives. The findings provide insights into the strategies employed in modern public speaking, shedding light on leaders’ use of themes, speech acts, and their underlying motivations.