ILLEISM, THE MORE AND MORE FREQUENT LINGUISTIC PHENOMENON
ILEISMUL, UN FENOMEN LINGVISTIC TOT MAI FRECVENT
Marinela Doina NISTEA
Universitatea Tehnică de Construcţii Bucureşti
Facultatea de Inginerie în Limbi Străine
Departamentul de Limbi străine şi comunicare
Bd. Lacul Tei, nr. 122-124, sector 2
Mirel ANGHEL
Universitatea Tehnică de Construcţii Bucureşti
Facultatea de Inginerie în Limbi Străine
Departamentul de Limbi străine şi comunicare
Bd. Lacul Tei, nr. 122-124, sector 2
Abstract
Throughout history, in the statements and writings of the great political leaders or dictators, in the speeches of the current politicians and in their social media posts, referring to themselves in the third singular person is met often. This linguistic phenomenon, scarcely studied by specialists, was called “illeism”. Public persons especially resort to such a method through which self-referentiality is disguised in order to underline the importance of themselves in a temporary position, while offering the illusion of self-objectification. The use of illeism implies an exaggeration of the perception of someone’s importance in public perception and even in history, in numerous cases being a demagogic means of manipulation of the electorate.