Towards an Analytical Model in Critical Pragmatics

Abstract

Aspects like power, dominance or ideology affect our choice of words in addition to other contextual factors (such as settings, participants and so on). The power we enjoy as social actors or the ideology we adhere to concerning any issue in life may play a crucial role in our language production or interpretation. Issuing a certain speech act rather than another or producing one impolite form rather than a polite one owning to such aspects falls within the realm of critical pragmatics. It is one analytical methodology where critical issues are examined in terms of the pragmatic phenomena to explore how the latter aid in the manifestation of the former. It attempts to answer this question: what are the most common pragmatic phenomena that reveal how racists or sexists pass on their critical ideologies? It aims to develop an analytical model for critical pragmatics and identify the common pragmatic themes utilized. The study is qualitative. It confines itself to the political discourse in the American context. The analysis of the data proves the workability of the model that has been developed by the study. It also shows that various pragmatic phenomena can be utilized to unravel critical issues.