SPEECH ACTS ANALYSIS OF COVID-BASED EPIDEICTIC RHETORIC

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of speech acts of epideictic rhetoric in terms of pragmalinguistics. The research material encompasses official Covid-based speeches made by the top officials of the country: Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Donald Trump, the former President of the United States of America. The subject of the study comprises performative utterances of the speakers from the perspective of their illocutionary force. The theoretical and methodological basis for the analysis was the Theory of Speech Acts by J. Austin, as well as the classification of illocutionary acts by J. Searle. The analysis of Covid-based speech acts revealed their representative directive character. We have found out that the use of representatives in these epideictic speeches is due to the global goal of the speakers, that is to quiet the hearers (carrying out perlocutionary effect). It is supposed that stating the inevitability of certain events and their patterns, positive predictions and personal beliefs of people in power make ordinary citizens (hearers) put up with certain restrictions and inconveniences. In the pragmatic aspect, the use of directives (the second frequently used by speakers) is justified by the situational goal – to encourage the hearers to comply with the rules in connection with the introduction of quarantine. We have also concluded that commissives are used twice less frequently compared with the representatives and directives as their usage is primarily connected with the risk for the speaker to make promises and guarantees in quite unpredictable and uncontrolled time. For top officials this also involves reputational losses in case the promises are broken. It should be noted, though, that the use of declaratives in such speeches is very common and relevant as the speakers have appropriate social status and authority for official statements, decrees or decisions of state importance. Thus, the felicity conditions of declarations can be met. According to the research results the lowest frequency of the use of expressives proves the seriousness of the situation where emotionality and uninformativeness are inappropriate.