The Pragmatic Paradigm Of The Language Of Rape: A Qualitative Approach

Abstract

The rape perpetrators maneuver their language to perform the wrongful act through threat and among others. In this study, the qualitative approach is used to know the construct on rape that has been identified like the rape activity, illocutionary force, linguistics strategy, and social pattern. Using the random sampling, I determined the 47 decided rape cases from 2015 up to 2020 which were published online from the Supreme Court of the Philippines. It was found that the rape activities are force, threat, intimidation, the influence of moral ascendancy, rape through sexual assault, penetration, and giving or receiving of benefits. Further, it was observed that out of five illocutionary forces as proposed, there were four of them that are present in the decided rape cases which includes constative, directives, commissives, and expressive. The linguistics strategies employed in the utterances are seen such as bargaining, implied threats, reply to act of questioning, replies that form questions, scripting, self – disclosure, justification, announcement, directive or regulatory speech, reassurance or diminution of threat lying, and limitation. Lastly, the social patterns are identified that command society's language, such as criminal speech, solicitation, bribery, and threats. This study's result would add up to the body of knowledge by providing linguistics awareness to the readers.