Funkcja pragmatyczna orędzia noworocznego prezydenta : (na materiale tekstów wystąpień Prezydenta Federacji Rosyjskiej oraz Prezydenta Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej)

Abstract

The article presents material confirming that New Year’s speeches delivered by the two Presidents show some similarities as to their goal, their extralinguistic traits (periodicity, constant time and place of presentation) and composition. Significant differences between the two Presidents’ addresses have been found in terms of how their pragmatic function, being the main topic of my analysis, was carried out. The pragmatic function constitutes the hidden sense conveyed by a text. A basic way of its realization consists in pragmatic presuppositions (conventional and contextual). I have managed to establish that conventional pragmatic presuppositions are constituted similarly in both texts discussed. On the other hand, pragmatic presuppositions of a conversational kind differ substantially and it is them that, eventually, affect the potential recipient’s perception and determine the perlocutionary effect the addressers manage to achieve. These in turn constitute symptoms of language manipulation strategies that differ greatly in the two texts discussed.