A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF NELSON MANDELA’S INAUGURAL SPEECH

Abstract

Language according to Sapir is a human and noninstinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols. Speech act is doing something using language. When we say something, we are requesting, appreciating, appealing, commanding, ordering or proposing. This study is a pragmatic analysis of Nelson Mandela’s inaugural speech presented at a critical moment of South Africa’s history. It is aimed at examining what Nelson Mandela’s inaugural speech may have meant to his people whom he represented in the fight for freedom. The locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary aspects of his inaugural speech were examined using the Speech Acts Theory to ascertain the extent to which his inaugural speech acts met the felicity condition as spelt out by J.L Austin. Data was collected through internet and library sources. The analysis was done using J.L. Austin’s Speech Acts Theory. The researcher dwells on the illocutionary act namely the Assertive, Commissives, Directives, and Expressives. It is observed that in the representative or assertive acts that Nelson Mandela was explaining, informing, asserting, proving and stating the facts of the situation at hand. His speech met J. L Austin’s felicity conditions. From the analysis of his speech, we find Mandela as a great orator and achiever. We also observed the speaker’s cultural influence in terms of greeting, appreciating and thanking his audience. Nelson Mandela brought an end to apartheid using his communicative competence which helped in the complete eradication of apartheid in South Africa.