Matthew Woods & Merced See - Politicians
“Politicians Say Whaaaat!?”
Ocasio-Cortez, A. (2025, Feb, 13) "MaYbe shE's goiNg to be in TroUble nOw", [X Post]. X.
Matthew Woods and Merced See
Course Name: Ling 1000: Language in US Society
Instructor: Prof. Kira Hall
Nominators: Prof. Kira Hall and TA Emma Bornheimer
How do politicians use the power of language to connect with their audiences?
Being in the public eye, politicians are some of the most scrutinized and observed figures in U.S. Society. How they speak and address issues with language is critical for them to garner support for their ideas.
Political discourse, whether it be online, in interviews, within governmental proceedings, or rallies, can define how information is shared as well as influence how people perceive political figures. One figure of note: Democratic Representative Alexandra Ocasio Cortez (AOC) who is prominent in today’s political field. Her discourse style ranges from professional to personal depending on the context of her speech. Whether she is speaking in Congress, posting on social media, or participating in rally speeches for the democratic party, she adjusts her language to suit her audience.
Language can be a useful tool for self-expression and image management. Politicians have learned how to utilize it to their advantage. Through the small tweaks and changes they make, from context to context, politicians might appear personable, professional, or fearless. In our project, we investigated the speech patterns, vocabulary, and overall sentence structure of AOC’s communication style in each context to identify some of the ways that AOC shifts her style based on the audience and situation.
Looking at a few examples of AOC’s speech, we found that professional settings, such as a floor speech, hold many differences than within an interview or rally. In her floor speeches, AOC tended towards speech that was more concise and strong in word choice, while maintaining very clear enunciation.
“Without action against these blatant violations, reasonable Americans have and will continue to lose faith in the court itself. Reasonable Americans will and do believe that Justices Thomas and Alito are prone and subjected to corruption, that the institution failing to punish them is broken, and that consequently, their impeachment is a constitutional imperative and our congressional duty,” (RepAOC, 2024).
This speech style leaves the audience with a clear idea of her stance and maintains a quick pace. We attribute these choices to her audience because they reflect an ideal strategy to explain points and convince other house members. Comparing this to an interview on NPR, AOC spoke with less direct language and a more conversational tone.
In rally speeches, AOC employed much more repetition and shorter sentences in order to stress her main ideas.
“And I can tell you there, I can tell you that for a while there, when I was working double shifts, tired to the bone, I did. I did. I did try to give up. I tried to stop caring. I tried to just keep my head down and work my shifts and accept that this is just it and this is how things are. But that is no way to live. It’s no way to live,” (Ocasio-Cortez, 2025).
Furthermore, when comparing conversational discourse with her online presence, we found a number of other striking differences. Most notably, AOC is much more willing to utilize heavy sarcasm and confrontational language online as compared to the in-person examples we studied.
We can connect our findings to many concepts in the broader linguistic field including style shifting, language variation, linguistic affordances, and the linguistics S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G model. These concepts give us a bit of insight into how and why AOC may choose to use the strategies in her speech that we noticed in our case study.
Success in the political world is heavily dependent on how you are presenting yourself to potential voters and other politicians, as it is how politicians are elected and gain legislative advantages. Our findings highlight how much this jargon can change, from more personable language in an interview, to passionate/repetitive language in rallies, highly formal and sophisticated grammar in congressional addresses, to her sarcastic and informal remarks on X. Our research presented to us an interesting look into how our politicians present themselves to the public and an idea of the inner workings of their rhetorical success.
Merced See is currently double majoring in Environmental Studies and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a double minor in Creative Writing and Geology. She loves skiing in the winter, hiking in the summer, game nights with friends, and has a passion for photography.
Matthew Woods is majoring in Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences and minoring in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of ĢӰ Boulder. He enjoys being outdoors hiking and bouldering as well as playing trading card games and listening to music.
References:
Gibson, J. (1979). “Chapter 8: The Theory of Affordances”. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Houghton Mifflin. Boston, MA.
Hymes, D. (1962). THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF SPEAKING. Anthropology and human behavior. (13-53).
Hymes, D. (1964). Toward Ethnographies of Communication. American Anthropological Association. (1-34).
NPR. (2025, Feb, 28). Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is trying to find her party’s path back into power. | Morning Edition | NPR. YouTube.
Ocasio-Cortez, A. (2025, Jan, 29) In case you’re having a bad day at work, [X Post]. X.
Ocasio-Cortez, A. (2025, Feb, 13) "MaYbe shE's goiNg to be in TroUble nOw", [X Post]. X.
basics of linguistics. (2021, June 26) ethnography of communication dell hymes speaking model. YouTube.