Verbal Communication Strategies of Political Leaders in Containing Corona Pandemic Crisis :A Case Study of the Lock-down Speeches of New Zealand’s and Britain’s Prime Ministers and the Germany’s Chancellor

We are constantly shaping our world through verbal and nonverbal acts. Verbal communication is generally important for the politicians specifically in the time of the emergence of a crisis. The present article is aimed at looking into leadership communicative strategies,, gender stereotypes and identities as represented in Coronavirus lockdown speeches delivered by the two prime ministers of New Zealand and Britain and the Chancellor of Germany in March 2020. The study shows that sympathy and convergence as female linguistic stereotypes are deeply nested in Ardern’s and Merkel’s speech. While Johnson’s speech contains elements of the above-mentioned female stereotype, it is also marked by contest, rivalry and dominance. “We” is the most frequent identity activated in the three speeches, however the frequency of inclusive “we” is significantly higher in Ardern’s speech while exclusive “we” is dominant in Johnson’s and Merkel stands in between. The study suggests thorough consideration and application of linguistic choices and decisions by politicians and codification of the discursive regularities by discourse analysts which could lead into promoting political rhetoric. Additionally, the article speculates the emergence of a new effective political rhetoric which questions the normative so-called dominant “male” political discourse.