Speech act analysis: Hosni mubarak’s speeches in pre-crises and in-crises Egypt.

Abstract

Language is critical to governance. It determines the success or failure of any government at the international, national or local level. This is because communication is central in government and language remains the most productive tool of communication. The goal of communication through language is constrained by Speech Acts identified by Austin (1962). The central idea here is that sentences perform more special functions than mere reporting of states of affairs. Thus, each time a speaker/writer makes an utterance an act has been performed, such as requesting, issuing a threat, promising, issuing an order, stating a fact, asking a question, thanking somebody. This paper performs a Speech Act Analysis of Hosni Mubarak‟s pre crises speeches and notes the various factors inherent in the speeches that manifested and determined the psycho-social situation of the country.