The Study of Speech Acts in Pakistani Universities’ Vice Chancellors’ Messages: A Pragmatic Lens

Abstract

This research aims to explore the manners Pakistani educational leaders/Vice Chancellors perform actions through language in their messages in the educational context. Furthermore, VCs of universities promote education and motivate students to get education reflecting their aims and strategies to infuse positivity and love for knowledge along with responsibility for the country’s progress in their blood. Moreover, this is significant for decoding their messages in an educational context because this inspires the learners. This is a mixed-method inquiry, primary data in the form of VC messages is selected from the official websites of Pakistani universities and analyzed under The Speech Act Theory (Searle, 1969). The findings reveal three types of speech acts in their messages. The percentages of these speech acts are representative (40%), commissive (36%) and Expressive (24%). These speech acts interact with the context and give the intended meaning. Thus, Pakistani Universities’ vice-chancellors in their messages perform representative commissive and expressive speech acts to promote education and to motivate students for the future another function is the role of these speech acts in the promotion of universities to increase the admission ratio.