An interpretation of discourse strategies in the 2019 budget speech

Abstract

Discourse strategy can be seen as a strategic effort to achieve accessibility and intelligibility in a communication process. Because every produced discourse contains different content, through different way and for a specific group of audience. Therefore, this study aimed to identify and elaborate the discourse strategy created by the speaker to present the 2019 budget speech text. For this purpose, theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis by Fairclough (1995, 2007, 2013) was employed in the study. The analysis of the 2019 budget discourse focuses on two elements of discourse practice, namely, intertextuality and interdiscursivity element. The result of this research indicated that intertextuality construct involves three elements of intertextuality such as discourse representation, metadiscourse and presupposition. The usage of these three intertextuality elements revealed that the resulting budget discourse created is transparent, non-controversial and does not mislead the people. For interdiscursivity element, the speaker has used four types of discourse such as expository, explanatory, argumentative and expressive. The consolidation of this four interdiscursivity elements represent a variation in the presentation of information in speech. In conclusion, the identification and elaboration of the 2019 budget speech text have shown that the presentation of the budget discourse not only creates socio-economic activity but also produces a more complex discourse. Therefore, the speaker needs to act wisely in responding to people’s needs for government to continue rule the country through its budget discourse strategy.