IMPOLITENESS IN THE OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT CONFIDENTIAL FUND CONGRESSIONAL HEARING: A SOCIO-PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS

Jay C. Britos, Marlon James Erjon L. Miras, Arron Vincent S. Villaraiz, Christian Jay O. Syting

Abstract


Impoliteness in political discourse has become widespread and is a growing concern, contributing to uncivil deliberations and public scrutiny. This study investigated the discursive use of impoliteness in political discourse, particularly within the Office of the Vice President’s Congressional Hearing. It examined how impoliteness strategies and the types of face and sociality rights they violated. Furthermore, the strategies were classified according to their functions: affective, coercive, and entertaining. A total of 100 impolite remarks were analyzed using Culpeper’s Impoliteness Theory, Austin’s Speech Act Theory, and Spencer-Oatey’s Rapport Management. The findings revealed that off-record impoliteness was prevalent, followed by negative impoliteness and positive impoliteness. These strategies violated aspects of face (quality face and social identity face) and sociality rights (equity rights and association rights), revealing how political discourse operates through veiled aggression and strategic use of language. The study underscores the need to foster critical language awareness through seminars and curricula. It contributes to understanding language’s role in reinforcing power, managing conflict, and shaping accountability in formal political contexts.

 

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impoliteness, impoliteness strategies, political discourse, socio-pragmatic analysis, Philippines

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejlll.v9i3.659

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