DECIPHERING NANA AKUFO-ADDO’S AND JOE BIDEN’S ENCODED MESSAGES IN THEIR SPEECHES ON COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A SPEECH-ACTSORIENTED STUDY

Abstract

This study seeks to scrutinize speech acts in Nana Akufo-Addo’s And Joe Biden’s Speeches on Covid-19 Pandemic. The investigation is aimed at decoding both presidents’ various encoded messages in their speeches to help understand beyond what is literally said therein by each one of them about the pandemic within the period when both speeches got delivered. The study is further intended to examine how similar and/or different both political figures’ perspectives are about the pandemic. To reach such aims, the article appeals to the mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology. The study has made important findings. Among others, the investigation has unveiled that both Nana Akufo-Addo and Joe Biden are seriously concerned and committed to the fight against Covid-19 pandemic. The results further indicate, via their use of the directive speech acts, that the success in the battle is largely incumbent upon the presidents’ populations who need collaborating by complying with their respective political leaders’ requirements. More to the point, the use of the commissives has revealed that Joe Biden sounds, by far, more strategically and pragmatically committed to future steps against the pandemic than Nana Akufo-Addo. The study has opened up avenues for further researches. Exploring implicature and implication as well as the Gricean maxims of the cooperative principle in both studied speeches will, no doubt, contribute to the decoding of additional meanings to those arrived at in this paper. Key words: Covid-19, Locution, Meaning, Pragmatics, Speech acts.