Decoding the wordplay: Speech act analysis of headlines predicting the future
Keywords:
Pragmatic markers, , Speech acts, CNN, PakistanAbstract
Present article attempts to analyze the role of the pragmatic markers or illocutionary force indicating devices in the speech acts of prediction. The headlines play a significant role in making a news story readable and approaching large number of audience. The headlines used in the present article were taken from CNN website. These headlines cover a variety of stories related with Pakistan. As the headlines communicate more than what is said they have been treated as speech acts. Searle (1969) defines speech act as a minimum unit of communication which is illocutionary in nature and creates an impact on the mind of the reader. Keeping, this definition in view, the headlines are speech acts that affect the readers. Current study is limited to the headlines that are related to prediction or forecasting the future state of affairs.The detailed analysis of the speech acts finds that the interpretation of the headlines depends on the language devices which help in shaping the illocutionary functions of the speech acts in collaboration with the context. It has also been found that the headlines use negative words more often than the positive ones in an attempt to take the reeaders to the detailed stories.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Journal of Peace, Development and Communication (JPDC) is an open access journal , which means that all articles are available on the internet to all users immediately upon publication. Non-commercial and commercial use and distribution in any medium is permitted, provided the author and the journal are properly credited.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.