The Pragmatics of Civility in Prince Harry's Exit Speech

Abstract

Civility is a widespread phenomenon in societies as it has its own place as one of the social values of humanity. In this regard, civility is conceived of as the act of showing regards for others through civilized verbal behaviour. However, civility is much more than that since it is viewed as the baseline of respect people owe to each other in public life. Generally speaking, civility prevails in religious contexts; nevertheless, it can be investigated in other contexts. Accordingly, the present study purports to set itself this task through concerning itself with the investigation of civility in a context other than the religious one. Precisely, it is intended to scrutinize this linguistic phenomenon in a speech by Prince Harry of Britain (the Duke of Sussex) with the aim of revealing the strategies through which civility is pragmatically realized. The data is purposefully chosen since Prince Harry is described as being civil and courteous. To achieve the aim of the study, the relevant literature on civility is surveyed and a model is developed for the purpose of pragmatically analyzing the data under perusal and coming out with certain findings.