Communicative Strategies and Tactics in the Spanish King Felipe VI’s Public Speeches

Abstract
Nowadays the ways to influence an audience by the rhetoric of public speeches are widely studied. The analysis of speech influence in institutional status-orientated discourse is a promising and actively developing area in modern Linguistics. The institutional discourse of the Spanish monarchy plays an important role in social relations in modern Spain. However, its features still have not been described in detail in Roman studies, especially in the linguopragmatic perspective. Moreover, due to the current socio-economic and political context it is extremely important to analyze what linguistic instruments Felipe VI uses to save the image of the Spanish Crown. The present paper deals with the public speeches of the Spanish King issued from 2014 to 2020 and focuses on the “external” addressee. Felipe VI’s messages represent a fundamental resource to create a favorable image of Spain in the international arena and to convince the world community of the necessity for peaceful coexistence and international cooperation. The speeches, which are ideologically driven and politically motivated, are analyzed in the context of linguo-pragmatics. The theoretical value of this paper is in providing an exhaustive analysis of speech strategies and tactics used in the King’s messages delivered abroad. Firstly, the country’s presentation strategy allows the monarch to emphasize that Spain belongs to the European Union and plays a crucial role in the international arena while making decisions and fighting challenges. Secondly, the emotional strategy is used to create a trustworthy atmosphere (mainly by appealing to the sense of pride) and to give moral support to Europeans and other nations. Thirdly, the interpretation strategy may be considered a conventional resource used to strengthen the institution of the monarchy in the eyes of the international community. Finally, agitation and argumentative strategies are employed to convince the addressee of the necessity to strengthen international cooperation.

Keywords
Spanish monarch, institutional discourse, political discourse, public speech, speech influence, speech strategies and tactics