Analysis of the President’s Contexts in Speaking Tough Language

Abstract

This paper examined the speeches of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the 16th President of the Republic of the Philippines who was labeled as a singular man with a singular voice. This paper used pragmatic analysis. This research capitalized on the contexts of using the expression “Putang Ina” (son of a whore) in the speeches working within the Taxonomy of Illocutionary Forces by John Searle. Moreover, it also utilized Habitus and Field Theory by Pierre Bourdieu. The result showed that the president made use of physical, linguistic, social, and epistemic contexts in his speeches. Duterte’s utterances exhibited his ability to assert power and authority. Moreover, tough language was used to attack the interlocutors and despite that, the president was still an effective speaker. The use of tough expressions in his speeches has become his habit and was already part of his system to convey abhorrence.