A PRAGMATIC STUDY OF CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS IN JOE BIDEN’S INAUGURAL SPEECH

Abstract

This study examines President Joe Biden's inaugural speech as the 46th President of the United States with a view to ascertaining his compliance (or otherwise) with Grice’s (1975) Cooperative Principle (CP). A descriptive qualitative methodology was used for the study. Extracts were purposively sampled and subjected to critically analysis using the conversational maxims. The result of the analysis reveals that all the four maxims of the Cooperative Principle - the maxims of quantity, quality, manner, and relation were flouted by Joe Biden, and that the maxim of manner is the most flouted of all, basically with the use of pragmatic strategies like metaphors, repetition, tautology and anaphora. Also, simile, metaphor and overstatement (hyperbole) are the tactics used in flouting the remaining maxims of the Cooperative Principle. The study concludes that flouting these maxims is very common in political speeches and most times it is deliberately done to achieve certain rhetorical goals, manipulate information given to the public, or to avoid addressing unbearable truths. The study, therefore, recommends that it is important for listeners to critically analyze political speeches to personally discover the speaker’s hidden intention for better understanding of the message.