Approche pragmatique de l'allocution, genre de discours public et cérémoniel

Abstract

Any event, public and ceremonial in nature, be it celebration, feast, nomination, inauguration, commemoration, electoral meeting, scientific conference, etc – where a personality is required to attend, entails an allocution in the form of a written discourse, but orally delivered, therefore, meant to be heard and not read. The allocution, as any discourse, showcases social actors, positions and relations between one speaker and one or more addressees and the internal and external context of communication (Maingueneau, 1989). From a pragmatic perspective, this article aims at examining the connection between the speaker-orator, his addressees and the institutional venue where the speaker takes the floor, as well as the discursive (argumentative) strategy that the speaker-orator uses in order to make the audience listen to him and take action. Thus, we intend to detect the markers of the declarative-pragmatic operations by which the speaker-orator positions himself and locates his addressee in a public and ceremonial institutional interaction frame, which is the social context of the allocution. Having the purpose herein in mind, it seemed essential to us to start with a presentation of the specific features the discourse genre, as a public and ceremonial institutional speech. Next, we will examine the speech in itself, more explicitly the description of the social and subjective context of its occurrence, and the speaker-orator who is acting upon his addressees, via his speech, so that he might trigger reactions from the latter.