Speech Acts and Progressive Discourse in The Inaugural Address of President Paul Biya-6th November 2018

Abstract

This paper investigates the persuasive strategies of President Biya’s public speaking as well as the covert ideology enshrined in his inaugural address. My analysis is grounded in Ruth Wodak’s assumptions in critical discourse analysis claiming that, language is not powerful on its own-it is a means to gain and maintain power by the use ‘powerful’ people make of it. This explains why the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) critically analyses the language use of those in power who have the means and opportunities to improve conditions (Wodak 2009:88) the DHA focuses on the field of politics, where it develops conceptual frameworks for political discourse. The selected corpus assesses the ideological and persuasive components of Biya’s discursive strategies.