Political Discourse and the Theory of Speech Acts

• Author: Mirela Arsith
• Pages: 619-624

Interdisciplinary Dimensions of Communication Science

619

Political Discourse and the Theory of Speech Acts

Mirela Arsith1

Abstract: The hypothesis from which we start of is that of political discourse, in its quality of practical

discourse in order to be analyzed through the theory of speech acts, dominated by the use theory rule o f

meaning, which refers to the context of communication and human behavior. The theory of speech acts rise

the issue of significance dependence, not the mere use of language, but the acting context of utterance, that the

utterance fact, the latter n ot being a simple statement of something. J. L. Austin makes a first distinction

between constitutive statements, which only say something, establishing a state of things, the truth of a fact

and the performative utterances which are th e performance of an action. Along with the locutionary act which

manifests as utterance, as formulatin g sentences, the perlocutionary act, produced by the fact of having to say

something, followed by the effects on a locutionary, either on the speakers, existing the illocutionary act,

which is to commit something by enunciation, revealing a certain value and “force”: information, promise,

demand, order, request, warning, advice, etc. B y extending the characteristics of speech acts at the level of

political discourse, we can say that it manifests itself as an entity resulting from the identical meaning of

producing the statements that composes it, of the illocutionary force marking the enunciation and the effects

by which it is achieved a certain performance.

Keywords: performative utterance; illocutionary act; enunciation

1. Introduction

The argumentative foundation from which we plan to start analyzing this issue is assuming

communication as always being a major social and political fact, with an essential contribution in

establishing the social order. The discourse is, simultaneously, a specific way of action, a way of

representation, but also a linguistic approach that speakers act upon the world and especially on their

peers. Political discourse, as a species of the genre, subsumes these traits. In this context, there should

be approached the performative aspects of communication ,J. L. Austin, an important representative of

the “Literary” School at Oxford, in How to do Things with Words, made an initial distinction between

constitutive utterances that just say something, establish a state of things, the truth of a fact and the

performative utterances which are, by themselves, the performance of an action.

1 Associate Professor, PhD, Dean of Faculty of Communication and International Relations, “Danubius” University of Galati,

Romania, Address: 3 Galati Boulevard, 800654 Galati, Romania, Tel.: +40.372.361.102, fax: +40.372.361.290,

Corresponding author: arsith.mirela@univ-danubius.ro.