APPRAISING QUEEN ELIZABETH’S ADDRESS ON COVID 19 THROUGH THE LINGUISTIC APPROACHES OF ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS, MODALITY AND PRONOUNS

Abstract

Communication, within the framework of linguistics, involves the use of language units such as words, phrases, sentences and discourse. It requires some techniques applied by the speaker to convey messages with reference to language structure and the context of utterances. This paper aims to highlight the communicative strategies used by Queen Elizabeth to deliver her coronavirus speech. It specifically adopts J. Searle’s (1969) approach to analyse the illocutionary acts and S. Eggins’s (2004) to explore modality features and pronouns in the speech. The results show that the three types of illocutionary acts used in this speech viz. representative, commissive and expressive emphasise the Monarch’s beliefs, commitment and feelings related to the issue of this coronavirus pandemic. Regarding modality and pronouns, they are meant to disclose the sovereign’s judgments and attitudes as well as the different measures to be adopted to fight the disease. It has been concluded that this address is a verbal communication which aims to bring hope in that period of crisis.