Illocutionary Acts of the Prime Minister of Singapore in Curbing the Transmission of COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 is an epidemic with extraordinary effects to such an extent that it was declared a pandemic. These extraordinary effects have led to the need for efforts to curb its spread. In this case, the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong (LHL), issued five remarks in the Malay language that were intended to convey a message of security and welfare to the population of Singapore during the COVID-19 situation. These remarks were aimed to influence its audience to jointly curb the spread of COVID-19 in Singapore. To illustrate their purpose, LHL’s remarks were analysed by applying the theory of communicative illocutionary acts proposed by Bach and Harnish (1979), with focus on two categories and subcategories, namely directives and commissives. The analysis applies qualitative method, namely thematic analysis, which has seven phases, including download, coding and classification, in order to achieve two objective sets, which are classifying and discussing the illocutionary force of the categories and subcategories of directives and commissives. The findings of the analysis showed that the illocutionary force is characterized by the use of the modality verbs (KKM) “mesti”, “boleh” and “akan”; the verb aspect (KKA) “akan” and other verbs (KK), including “harap (berharap)”, “bersiap” and “melonggarkan”; and the prohibitive word “jangan”. LHL’s illocutionary acts prove that he has practiced good governance, that is, a government that has transparency, efficiency and accountability towards the people of Singapore who have elected them as rulers. This good governance is represented through the illocutionary acts of LHL, who gives directions and promises to the people of Singapore in dealing with the COVID-19 situation.