Politics and politeness: An analysis of Presidential Inaugural Speeches of Philippine and American Presidents

This study compares the politeness strategies utilized by two presidents from different world Englishes: American English and Philippine English.Given how language is a powerful tool and how inaugural speeches share their vision for their country, the study used each president's recent inauguration speech, gathering from the respective official websites of the presidents, this study demonstrates how language subtly shows how the presidents wants to be viewed or how they view themselves using polite theory.It argues that culture is also embedded in their manner of speaking, what their focus is, and how the identity of one president can be analyzed using verbal patterns.