POLITENESS Strategies and Perlocutionary Acts in the Media Interviews of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.: A Socio-Pragmatic ANALYSIS

Abstract

This socio-pragmatic qualitative analysis aimed to unveil the politeness strategies and variations, perlocutionary acts, and power dynamics in the 51 media interviews of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. The findings revealed the themes of the politeness strategies: bald-on record, don’t do Face-Threatening Acts (FTAs), negative, off-record, and positive. For perlocutionary acts, the following themes derived from individual in-depth interview responses from 10 participants selected through purposive sampling technique with the utilization of the expert-validated researcher-made interview guide questions: uncertainty and confusion, disappointment and skepticism, diminished public trust, mild persuasion, informing (limited effect), mockery/ridicule, creating awareness, setting the national agenda, and reassurance (limited effect). Finally, on the insights drawn from the power dynamics, the following themes have emerged: directness, indirectness, rhetorics, power through alliance building, and power through avoidance.