Akofena (Sep 2022)
A pragmatic study of the contribution of language to the success of Benin republic’s 1990 national conference of the living forces
Abstract
Abstract: This article uses the sociopolitical fact of Benin Republic’s National Conference of the Living Forces of February 1990 to analyze the contribution of language from a pragmatic perspective. The analysis carried out for this purpose fits both in the theoretical framework of Austin’s (1962) work related to the conditions of performativity of speech acts and aspects of interpersonal relations. The corpus of this study is composed of excerpts from the closing addresses of the conference as delivered by General Mathieu Kérékou, Bishop Isidore de SOUZA, and the general reporter Albert TEVOEDJRE. This corpus has been instrumental in examining the contribution of language to the success of the conference. The study highlighted the social reality channel and the meaning encoding power of language through a pragmatic analysis. The analyzes and interpretations carried out thus made it possible to arrive at three major results, namely: 1the weakening of Benin political authority due to speech acts non-performance, 2the feature of durability attached to the establishment as well as the recognition of authority and 3the usefulness of the evocation of a supreme being in situations of confidence crisis affecting the achievement of speech acts.
