Proceedings of The 9th International Conference on Modern Approach in Humanities
Year: 2021
DOI:
A comparison between the speeches given in front of the European Parliament Nby King Juan Carlos I on the 14th of May 1986 and King Felipe VI on the 7th of October 2015.A pragma-rhetoric analysis
Simona-Luiza Țigriș
ABSTRACT:
This paper focuses on comparing the speeches given in front of the European Parliament by King Juan Carlos I on the 14th of May 1986 and by King Felipe VI on the 7th of October 2015 from a pragma-rhetoric perspective. Both speeches reflect some of the issues that the European Union had to tackle at the time they were delivered. King Juan Carlos I urges for a more united Europe and highlights the technological challenge that lies ahead after the world has passed from the atomic age to the space age. He uses metaphors, anaphors, a paradox and the ad consequentiam fallacy. King Felipe VI points out the need of the European Union to identify new internal and external objectives in a more globalized world. He also states that, by joining their forces together, the European states can offer help to the thousands of refugees who were migrating back then from Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq in order to escape war and persecution. King Felipe VI uses in his argumentation anaphors, the circular reasoning fallacy, the ad baculum fallacy and the appeal to authority. As a discursive strategy, he mentions that the Union European is “our great common project”, making thus reference to the concept of “project of life” as it was defined by the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset. Both orators use indirect directive speech acts and personifications of Spain. They both throw a strong light on the role of Spain within the European Union.
keywords: argumentation, pragmatics, discourse analysis, rhetorical figures.