Language

Language overview

In her “Lancaster House speech”, Prime Minister Theresa May makes sure that the language (and structure) of her speech support her main intention: to inform about the Government’s Brexit plan. This is the first time she publicly outlines what Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union will actually mean, and a lot of different target groups have been waiting anxiously. Thus, May is trying to address the EU (its political leaders as well as ordinary citizens) and the UK (both those for and against Brexit) at the same time. And she is well aware that what she is going to say will affect people’s emotions - and possibly their wallets, too.

Choice of words and tone

Theresa May’s language is generally relatively neutral when it comes to the level of formality. She never becomes informal as this would seem inappropriate for a Prime Minister giving an important speech to the world, but at the same time she avoids words that may be too complex. Brexit will affect a lot of ordinary people, so her speech needs to be easily understood. She does use advanced political and financial terms from time to time, but she generally makes sure to clarify them, for example...