Do directives always direct ? cognitive directives and meaning inculcation in el-Sisi's improvised speeches : a pragma-semantic analysis

Abstract EN

This paper investigates three types of directives used in President El-Sisi's improvised speeches: directive questions, directive commands, and directive modality.

The main objective of this paper is to test the hypothesis that directives, irrespective of their type, do not necessarily seek information (as is the case for questions), require a verbal/physical response (as is the case for commands), or prospect an obligation (as is the case for obligation modality).

More specifically, this paper tries to show how certain presidential meanings are linguistically inculcated by a particular directive mood through which a cognitive activity is initiated on the part of the interlocutors towards the acceptance of certain arguments in a particular way.

The two research questions in this paper are: first, what are the presidential meanings El-Sisi wants to inculcate in his addressees? Second, what is the effect of using directives in presidential speeches' context in relation to the exercise of meaning inculcation? This paper draws upon two analytical approaches: Speech acts theory instanced by directives (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969, 1976) and Ervin-Tripp's (1976) classification of directives.

Two main findings are shown in this paper: first, El-Sisi uses directive questions, directive commands and directive modality to influence his addressees' attitudes rather than to prospect and/or stimulate their verbal/physical performance.

Second, directives are employed in the speech to initiate a cognitive link that operates as a communicative channel through which specific presidential meanings are intended to be inculcated.