Why did Trump say “I hope you will let Flynn go” to Comey

Pragmemes and socio-pragmatics (A Strawsonian analysis)

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21201107
AutoresAlessandro Capone (0000-0001-6584-9767, University of Messina), Antonino Bucca (University of Messina)
Ano2018
Volume9
Fascículo2
Páginas208-231
Data de publicação2018-06-28
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPragmatics and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1878-9714 • E-ISSN: 1878-9722
EditoraJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/ps.17024.cap
OpenAlexW2810393636
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas20

In this paper, we analyse and discuss an utterance/pragmeme/pract proffered by US President Donald Trump and addressed to FBI Director Comey: ‘I hope you will let Flynn go’. 1 We consider the explicature of this utterance (‘I hope you will drop the Russian investigation concerning Flynn’) and its illocutionary and perlocutionary effects. We argue that while Republicans opt for an Austinian or Searlean analysis, in the attempt to deny that this utterance constituted an attempt to influence Comey, there are reasons for adopting a Strawsonian analysis, casting it in the framework of pragmemes, devised by Mey (2001) , that frame a socio-pragmatic analysis of utterance interpretation within context. This analysis shows, Trump illicitly tried to persuade Comey to drop the Russian investigation, and therefore attempted to interfere with the judiciary system. A reasoned case can be made for saying that Trump had the intention of interfering with America’s federal court system through this utterance

Linguistics · Political science · Utterance · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · History · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation