Speech act-based legitimisation in selected inaugural speeches of British Prime Ministers.
[ 1 ] Akademia Nauk Stosowanych im. Stanisława Staszica w Pile | [ 2 ] Centrum Języków i Komunikacji, Politechnika Poznańska | [ P ] employee
2022
scientific article
english
- speech act theory
- political discourse
- critical discourse analysis
- legitimisation
EN This paper offers insight into discursive patterns of the two most recent British Prime Ministers’ inaugural speeches from an anthropological pragmatics perspective. The paper employed speech act theory in conjunction with a qualitatively centered critical dis-course analysis study to unveil messages within the illocutionary communicative acts in the context of public political speeches. It is argued that both speeches are inherently embedded within threat-based rhetoric whose persuasive effect follows from a predominant use of the pathos and ethos appeals. Advancing the concept of speech acts as a tool for establishing pragma-discursive patterns, this paper demonstrates that generating fear in public discourse is essentially strategic and goal-oriented practice. Most importantly, the strategies used by Rishi Sunak rely heavily on his use of promises and statements, reflecting patterns of legitimisation through building a credibility schema and proximising the frame of fear mongering. Liz Truss on the other hand, develops slightly different narrative patterns, drawing mainly upon prom-ises that help enact ‘collective leadership’ in the times of threat and a socio-economic crisis.
30.12.2022
25 - 37
CC BY-ND (attribution - no derivatives)
open journal
final published version
at the time of publication
40