The Illocutionary Purposes of Speech Acts in Rached Ghannouchi's Discourse – A Pragmatic Study Based on Searle's Classification

This article seeks to apply a pragmatic approach by utilizing one of the most essential procedural mechanisms of pragmatic research, namely Speech Act Theory. This theory is considered one of the key pillars of pragmatic linguistics, initially associated with the efforts of the linguistic philosopher Austin and later refined by his student Searle. Accordingly, this research aims to apply Searle’s fivefold classification to the discourse of the former leader of Tunisia’s Ennahda Movement, Rached Ghannouchi, by analyzing and categorizing the speech acts contained in his discourse. The study then highlights the illocutionary purpose and perlocutionary effect resulting from these acts.