ANALYZING SPEECH ACTS IN TRIBUNE NEWSPAPER ARTICLES: UNVEILING IMPLICIT MESSAGES AND ACTIONS

Abstract

This paper focuses on speech acts in seven articles from The Tribune newspaper randomly pulled from the January to March 2024 editions. The random number generator of StatTrek made a guarantee that each month would feature six articles, without any overlapping of months. The present study hinges on the Speech Act Theory, first introduced by J. L. Austin in 1962 and later developed by John Searle in 1969. IAustin divided speech acts into assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, and declarations which correspond to the language functions such as informing, instructing, promising, apologizing and declaring respectively. Staying with the idea of speech acts, the study will entail the identification of how The Tribune uses communication strategies through these speech acts Discovering such information will help the researcher understand more about the newspaper’s linguistic tactics hence help the reader. It is shown that 88 numbers are assertive, 38 numbers are declarative, 33 numbers are imperative expressive, 3 numbers are directive and 9 numbers are commissive. About this, the following findings recount how The Tribune’s language use positions the language and controls the discursive field in the public sphere, underwrites authority, and instigates process of social modulation. This paper aims to give a more profound understanding of the manner in which the newspaper unfolds and articulates discourses as well as practices and the stance toward the readership and journalism. It identifies the importance of doing speech acts in media communication and the part they have in influencing the discusses in the society.