Saudi Minister of Health's Speeches Regarding to Covid-19 Pandemic, a Study in Light of Speech Acts

Abstract

The idea of the research proceeds from the fact that the linguistic discourse adopted by the Saudi Ministry of Health contributed - along with other factors - to overcoming the large and dangerous effects that left behind Covid-19.  This success was witnessed internationally in multiple official reports, which made this Saudi experience pioneer and even deserved to study and analyze. In fact, the linguistic discourse adopted by the Saudi Ministry of Health had an important role in the interaction of Saudi society members and organizations, and their full commitment to the instructions and directives of the competent health authorities, which made it possible to overcome the effects of this pandemic. Accordingly, we intend to study this discourse in the light of the speech act theory, so that we can reveal (the performance power in this discourse), as well as the role of (implicit and presupposition), in achieving the required interaction with the addressee. The study found that results, including the predominance of (illocutionary acts) in the statements whether it is (declarative) or (performative). In addition, each of the nine discourses represented a fully illocutionary act, and the acts in these discourses are obvih, does, and free of semantic ambiguity. Moreover, the speaker invested in politeness strategies, especially positive ones, to save the face of the addressee to be treated by performing acts. Acknowledgment: The author acknowledges the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Faisal University for the financial support under Nasher Track (Grant No216113).