Language and Linguistics

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Browsing Language and Linguistics by Subject "Impeachment proceedings"

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    A critical analysis of the discourse during the Impeachment of the second deputy president of Kenya
    (Chuka University, 2025) Wambugu, Rose W.
    This study sought to determine the impoliteness strategies applied by senators during the impeachment proceedings of the second Deputy President of Kenya in the senate. The research objectives were: to investigate the impoliteness strategies used by senators during the second Deputy President's impeachment motion in the senate;to analyse the communicative goals the senators aimed to achieve by employing impoliteness strategies during the impeachment motion of the second Deputy President of Kenya and to examine how senators strategically constructed impolite utterances for optimal relevance in conveying their communicative intentions. Data analysis employed two theories: Culpeper (1996) theory of impoliteness to respond to objective one and two and Sperber and Wilson (1995) Relevance theory to address the third objective. The data for the analysis was sourced from The Hansard Kenya between 16th and 17th October 2024, where one hundred and fifty nine excerpts with impolite remarks made by senators were purposively sampled for examination. The researcher identified impolite utterances based on the indicators of various impoliteness strategies as highlighted in Culpeper (1996) theory of impoliteness. Statements articulated by attorneys during the motions were excluded from this analysis. The data was analysed qualitatively. Three Guiding cards facilitated the data analysis procedure: the first guiding card was used to identify and categorise the types of impoliteness strategies utilized by senators, the second guiding card was utilized to do a content analysis of the communicative goals aimed to be achieved by the impoliteness strategies while the third guiding card was used to analyze the interplay between the strategic impolite utterance, the cognitive effect and the processing rate as discussed by Sperber and Wilson (1995) Relevance theory. The findinds of the study revealed that the senators used bald-on-record, negative, withholding and positive impoliteness strategies. The senators’ deployment of impoliteness strategies was intended to assert dominance, discredit the opponents, strengthen political alignment and strengthen social alignment. The senators used strategies such as proverbs, Bible verses and metaphors to craft the impolite utterances so as to achieve optimal relevance in conveying their communicative intentions. This study is significant for understanding how language shapes democratic processes and it is urgent due to the rising incivility in Kenyan parliamentary discourse. The research advances the domains of pragmatic and discourse analysis.