If anybody wants lessons on how to exploit the utility of pronouns, check out UNC leader and the nation's Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. She gave a masterclass when she roused us on January 24 on the occasion of the second anniversary of her leadership of the UNC.

Because in our political culture the content of speeches on such occasions is entirely predictable, I watched the telecast for a while then switched to Barack Obama's State of the Union address, with the hope that I would get a copy of our PM's speech subsequently. I have a copy of her "notes" with its pronominal manipulations. She weaves between different references of "they/them", "you", and "we" with the facile dexterity of the illusionist, or of the charlatan, if you wish.

But first, a summary of the speech. It paints the expected picture of a caring, responsible, democratic, and provident UNC party and People's Partnership government foregrounded against a reckless, obstructionist, and hypocritical PNM.

It tells stories of Government successes in many areas, eg, crime, health, education, works and infrastructure, tertiary education, energy, trade and investment, poverty relief.

It promises legislation on critical matters like a fixed election date, a term limit for prime ministers, and recall of ineffectual representatives. It announces reliefs for people 60 years and over. It boasts about the productivity of all her ministers. It avers humility in the face of God.

And in all this, it exploits the utility of pronouns.

The beauty of pronouns lies not simply in their being nifty shortcuts for their longer grammatical siblings, nouns and noun phrases, but in their having shifting reference. They can refer to anybody and anything—and at any time.

In the same speech, "you", for example, can refer to UNC supporters, People's Partnership government supporters, and everybody in the nation except, of course, the PNM and their supporters; and "they" and "them" can refer to the PNM (of course) and every dissenter and critic.

So let's focus on "you" and see who PM Kamla—I prefer the bisyllabic cuteness of the first name to the ungainly "Persad-Bissessar"—is addressing in particular parts of her speech.

She opens by addressing all of us (UNC bigwigs and supporters, "friends and family of the UNC"—which, I suppose, includes the partners TOP, COP, NJAC, and MSJ—and "all the people of T&T"). Then in the body of the speech she is clearly using "you" to primarily address the UNC faithful, but at times it seems that she is using the pronoun to include everybody who voted for the UNC/People's Partnership and everybody in the country except the PNM and its supporters. Let's look at a few samples of her text and see whom she is addressing.

Text 1:

"You reposed your confidence in my leadership then and tonight I renew my pledge and my gratitude to you for first electing me Political Leader of the United National Congress and then Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago."

It is clear that she is addressing the UNC faithful for she is grateful for having been elected political leader of the UNC, but she stretches the reference of "you" beyond them, doesn't she, for she claims that the "you" also elected her as Prime Minister!

Now, except she has the effrontery to claim that it is the party faithful that elected her Prime Minister, she must be referring to all those who gave her Partnership arrangement a majority of seats—voters of UNC, COP, TOP, and NJAC, as well as not a few of the PNM disenchanted. And remember, from her opening salutations, she is talking to "all the people of T&T".

Text 2:

"And that is why we are all here tonight. That is what we celebrate. My heart is filled with pride and gratitude. As Prime Minister it is you who have led me to this point. It is you who continue to inspire me. It is you who tell me when we go wrong or cheer me on when we do what is right. None of this would have been possible without you, our dedicated and loyal members of the UNC. The flame that you kindled two years ago has provided light and guidance to our nation when it was at its darkest hour."

Again, she is directly addressing the UNC faithful, as we can see from, among others, the phrases "we are all here tonight" and "our dedicated and loyal members of the UNC". But when she goes to say that it is "you who tell me when we go wrong" and "you who kindled [a flame] two years ago [that] has provided light and guidance to our nation", what is that? What is that, eh? Except she is enthralled by a party narcissicism that disables or, at the very least, diminishes her appreciation of other contributors, she must be using "you" to include the latter. But even so, the UNC faithful get pride of place in the reference.

Text 3:

"It is a vision where the media must be free to report and probe as a fourth estate of governance, to be the guardians of democracy to generate debate and discussion on matters of national interest on which citizens can act. It is a vision of continuing service to you the people. …"

So now it's no longer the UNC faithful including the other contributors, right? It is the all-encompassing "people" who include the faithful.

Text 4:

"That is the change you voted for!"

Who voted for the change? Clearly, the UNC faithful. But the "you" can refer to the non-UNC voters who voted for the rest of the company, can't it? So there is no need for them to be offended by an indirect reference, is there?

Apart from using "you" to directly refer to the UNC faithful and to merely reflect the others, PM Kamla uses it in counterpoint to "they/them", as in "When they ask you … tell them". She uses the device to brilliantly recount her government's successes and to discredit the PNM and other detractors. But that's a topic for another discussion.

• Winford James is a UWI

lecturer and political analyst