Direct and Indirect Speech Acts in Politicians Posts on Social Networks

Abstract

The aim of this study is to present a detailed interpretation of the speech acts of posts and responses in the discourse analysis on Facebook.The research was handled on 20 posts of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and 20 responses of public people for each post.The conversations were between politicians and public people.The chosen methods were quantitative and qualitative analysis.The results indicate that the politicians' posts were direct rather than indirect in relation to the speech act.Then, the responses by the hearers were also more direct than indirect.Also, the results indicate that the usages of the locution, illocution and perlocution speech acts were followed by the politicians and the hearers successfully.The study suggests further research could be carried out in the field of politeness strategies in posts and responses.