EXPRESSIVE ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS ANALYSIS OF DONALD TRUMP’S REMARKS ON COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN PRESS BRIEFING APRIL 23rd, 2020

Salsabila, Luthfiya. 2021. ― Expressive Illocutionary Acts Analysis of Donald
Trump‟s Remarks on COVID-19 Pandemic in Press Briefing April 23rd, 2020.
Final Project, English Education Study Program, Faculty of Language and Arts
Education, University of PGRI Semarang. Advisor I: Prof. Dr. Suwandi, M.Pd.
Advisor II: Dr. Arso Setyaji, S.Pd., M.Hum.
Keywords: Expressive Illocutionary Acts, Remark, Press Briefing
Language is a tool that humans use to connect in society. It is a primary
need that helps us share ideas, feelings, and anything that we want to express.
Everyone has their own experiences and preferences that create ways of thinking,
it results in how they express things. People don‟t always simply express things
literally, sometimes we need to express things in a particular way to get the
intended message delivered. This is why some people even at the same time and
place, each person may have different judgments toward an event and this is what
pragmatics is concerned with, it is not only about how people use their language
but also in which social context they use it. The researcher narrows down the
topic to speech acts. An utterance can result in three kinds of acts, they are
locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary. There is a category in illocutionary
acts that the researcher was interested in, it is called expressive speech acts.
Expressive speech acts are the category that Vanderveken has developed in his
book Foundations of Illocutuonary Logic. For the research, the researcher decided
to take Donald Trump‟s remarks in an event that everyone will always remember,
the press briefing that the White House held where Donald Trump delivered his
remarks. The researcher is interested in Donald Trump‟s remarks in the COVID-
19 press briefing issued on April 23, 2020. As the result, 110 utterances were
identified as expressive illocutionary activities. In his statements, Donald Trump
used thirteen different sorts of expressive illocutionary acts. They were 1) twenty
six utterances welcoming, 2) seven utterances of thanking, 3) thirteen utterances
of complimenting, 4) three utterances of complaining, 5) three utterances of
reproving, 6) eight utterances of boasting, 7) twelve utterances of bragging, 8)
three utterances of approving, 9) one utterance of deploring, 10) seven utterances
of rejoicing, 11) three utterances of disapproving, 12) three utterances of blaming,
and 13) ten utterances of praising. As a result, the researcher advises that the
teacher should teach students about expressive illocutionary acts by providing
examples from real-life cultural and social contexts, such as those offered in
Donald Trump's press briefing remarks.