Austin’s Speech Act Theory on the Language of COVID-19 Affected People: Phenomenological Approach

Abstract

Purpose: Language changes in unprecedented times leads to the invention of new vocabulary. Written and oral discourse is influenced by worldly events which cause changes in language. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of context in perpetuating particular functions of language. The focus was laid on the perlocutionary force of coronavirus related terms to determine how context effect the language and word choices of the narrator.
 Methodology: This research adopted phenomenological approach and applied mixed method research design. Six blogs form Dawn news web were taken as sample where coronavirus survivors, healthcare workers and Pakistani students in China University had narrated their experiences regarding COVID-19 pandemic. Language phenomenon was analyzed by qualitative research design through close detailed document analysis of the blogs. Austin’s Speech acts theory was applied for differentiating the mostly used acts in the language of the narrators. Data was coded initially for arranging the sentences into explosives, behabitive and exercitive acts. COVID related terms were detected for analysis of the nature of the words and to find out similarities across different blogs. Quantitative analysis was carried out for quantifying the amount of the speech act usage and coronavirus related terms.
 Findings: The findings showed that coronavirus survivors have performed behabitive acts more than other participants because they expressed their mental state. Healthcare workers performed explosive speech acts for 81 times and survivors performed it for 35 time because they focused more on the factual information, strategies and ongoing processes.
 Conclusion: Perlocutionary force of COVID-19 related terms showed that these terms were used for creating awareness in the audience regarding the precautionary measures during pandemic.
 Recommendation: Future researches can be conducted to investigate the speech acts of two different blogs to highlight the ideological stances of narrators.