Pragmatic Acts Analysis of Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus’ 2021 Addresses on Covid-19 And HIV/Aids

Abstract

This study, analyzed Ghebreyesus 2021 addresses on Covid-19 and HIV/AIDS. The study aimed to identify the broad categorizations of the pragmatic acts performed vis-à-vis the practs, together with their contextual tools, deployed by the speaker to address the world on the state of covid-19 pandemic and HIV/AIDS epidemic. The textual analytic research design was adopted for the study. It was anchored on Mey’s theory of Pragmatic Acts (2001). The population of the study comprised of two Ghebreyesus’ speeches on Covid-19 and HIV/AIDS from which his 2021 speeches on Covid-19 and HIV/AIDS were selected as sample using the purposive sampling technique. These sets of data were downloaded directly from the website of the World Health Organization, and subjected to both quantitative and qualitative analysis, using the basic principles of the adopted theoretical framework. The results of the study revealed that speech acts were the most dominant type of pragmatic act used. Results also indicated the use of indirect speech acts and psychological acts in Dr. Ghebreyesus' addresses. Based on these findings, the study recommended that: Public health officials should use a range of pragmatic acts to convey their messages and use psychological acts to create an emotional connection with the audience and encourage change of behavior; the curriculum of instruction in public health colleges and universities should be rejigged to incorporate the use of pragmatic acts and psychological acts in messages; and Government should provide public health officials with in-service training and capacity building on the effective use of pragmatic acts in public health communication to improve their messaging skills.