SPEECH FROM THE THRONE AS A RITUALIZED DISCOURSE TYPE

Abstract

This article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the British monarch’s Speech from the Throne as a genre of ritualised political discourse examined from a diachronic perspective. The relevance of the study is determined by the need for a deeper understanding of ritualised forms of political communication, which combine institutional stability, symbolic density, and pragmatic effectiveness within the contemporary socio-political space. The central research problem lies in identifying the specific verbal, axiological, and non-verbal/supraverbal mechanisms of meaning construction in the Speech from the Throne as an integral component of the ceremony marking the State Opening of the British Parliament. The aim of the study is to establish the linguo-pragmatic characteristics of the Speech from the Throne and to elucidate its functioning as a means of legitimising power, symbolically representing the United Kingdom’s statehood, and of articulating governmental political priorities. The research material comprises Speeches from the Throne delivered by British monarchs from the late seventeenth century until today. The methodological framework is based on general scientific and special linguistic methods, including analysis and synthesis, as well as discourse, pragmalinguistic, and cognitive analyses. The results of the study substantiate the interpretation of the the Speech from the Throne as a highly ritualised discursive formation that integrates declarative, directive, commissive, and expressive speech acts. The research identifies stable structural components of this genre of political discourse, its axiological dominants, and variable elements that change in accordance with the historical context. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the application of an integrative model of ritualised discourse analysis to the Speech from the Throne and in explicating its evolution as an instrument of political communication that combines tradition with contemporary communicative strategies.