PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF ORAL DISCOURSE: A CASE OF INFORMAL INTERVIEWS

Abstract

This paper proposes a pragmatic analysis of the oral discourse and the performative and indirect attributes inherent in it. Pragmatic studies on speech act have centred mainly on the speaker’s intended message and its effect on the receiver, but little or no attention has been paid to the mannerism employed by both the speaker and the receiver within the context of the speech act, to achieve a mutual understanding of the intended message .Such verbal mannerisms as indirectness, inferences, rational consideration and the like. This work tries to make up for this gap. To this end, four samples of oral interviews were subjected to pragmatic analysis .It was observed that even though the universally accepted sub- speech acts like commissives, directives dominate the oral discourse, other sub-acts like expressive, representatives and indirectednessss featured significantly in the communicative mannerism of the participants in the speech process for the effective conveyance of the speaker’s message.