From Crisis to Hope:

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Boris Johnson's Easter Day Speech

Abstract

Critical Discourse Analysis is a research approach which examines how language use reflects and maintains societal power dynamics. It seeks to reveal hidden meanings and ideologies in speech by investigating how language establishes social reality, reinforces power hierarchies, and shapes social practices. In the current study, Fairclough's (2001) model is adopted to analyze a speech delivered by the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on April 12, 2020, during Easter Sunday to the nation. In this speech, Boris Johnson thanked The National Health Service for saving his life from Covid-19 after leaving the hospital. The problem of the study is of three-folds:(1) understanding the speech's context and backdrop, particularly the COVID-19 epidemic and its effects on the UK (2) Recognizing the possible impact of political objectives and biases on the speech's linguistic construction (3) overcoming the difficulty of locating and examining hidden meanings and presumptions in the speech. It is hypothesized that the speaker uses language reflecting a strong national unity. It is hypothesized that the speaker uses language reflecting a strong national unity. The study concludes that the speech involves using different discoursal and ideological features and structures (such as nationalism, calling for action, increasing solidarity, etc.) that directly reflect the power of the language used to make the speaker influence his audience positively. Also, the analysis confirms the hypothesis raised.