Macro and Micro Analysis of Motivational Speech Acts in Biden’s Political Speech

Abstract

This study analyzes Biden’s political speech on raising governmental funds as a macro speech act which instantiates the speaker’s purpose behind this discourse. It draws insights from some pragmatics and discourse analysis theories, developed by Austin, Searle, and Van Dijk, as a point of departure to develop an analytical framework with two levels (micro and macro levels) to analyze this political discourse. Despite a great deal of research conducted on speech acts from a pragmatic perspective, very few studies examined speech acts existing in a connected manner (a sequence of speech acts) in political discourse. This study bridges pragmatics and discourse analysis claiming that directives complement expressives, assertives, and commissives. This complementary between these classes built the speaker’s authoritative, affective, persuasive, responsible, and supportive identity that enables him to present his perspective effectively and appealingly. These acts blend into this discourse to form a macro speech act. This macro act represents the intended speaker’s purpose behind this discourse.

Keywords

• ideology
• macro and micro speech acts
• motivational speech
• political discourse
• political speech