THE EXPRESSIVE SPEECH ACTS IN KAMALA HARRIS` VICTORY SPEECH: A STUDY OF MULTICULTURAL VALUES

Abstract

This paper explores the types of expressive speech acts used by Kamala Harri in her victory speech as the first black female vice president in American history. Her personality as a Jamaican-American-Indian woman has attracted public attention, especially after the Black Lives Matter campaign.  The five types of expressive speech acts in this study are based on Searle (1976). This speech act then refers to the words used to express the speaker’s feelings towards the situation, such as apologizing, thanking, deploring, and welcoming. The method used in this research is a qualitative method that involves collecting and analyzing non-numerical data. The data of this study were taken from the transcript of Kamala’s victory speech retrieved from the website of the Washington Post. The results show there are 20 sentences used as the expressive speech act which reflect cultural values she owned as a Jamaican-Indian woman. These include greetings, gratitude, sadness, praise, happiness, and attention. Attentive speech includes speech acts of appreciation, willingness (hope), encouragement, the pride that shows solidarity. Behind these expressive speech acts, Harris implies a great intention to embrace multicultural values ??and empower the entire black community, especially women, and fight racism in the United States. Through her victory speech, Harris embodied multicultural values ??which imply her pride toward her ethnic roots and that she celebrates unity among diversities in the country of United States. Besides, the expressive speech acts reflect the social functions in leading a country.