The Effect of COVID-19 On Presidential Language A Pragmatic Study of the Indirect Speech Acts in Selected Presidential Speeches

Abstract

Coronavirus COVID-19 has its effect on all the aspects of life. The research is oriented towards exploring to what extent COVID-19 affects the presidential language, and whether this effect leads to the use of indirect speech in the presidents’ speeches about COVID-19 instead of talking directly about such unprecedented crisis. Three presidents’ speeches are chosen arbitrarily since the effect of COVID-19 overcomes all countries equally: President Trump’s Speech on Coronavirus Pandemic on March 11, 2020, speech by M. Emmanuel Macron, President of France, on the COVID-19 coronavirus on 16 March 2020, president Cyril Ramaphosa: South Africa's response to Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic on 23 Apr 2020. By adopting Searle’s speech acts (1969), the researcher makes a comparison by the qualitative and quantitative analysis leaving the readers to decide to what extent COVID-19 has indelible mark on the presidential language.