الإصدار 6 - العدد 18 (2026-09-20)

Strategic Impolite Responses in American Presidential Press Conferences: A Pragmatic Analysis

Lect. Dr: Abdullah Muhammad Naif

Tikrit University - College of Basic Education/ Shirgat

The present paper conducts a pragmatic study of the notion of impoliteness in some American presidential press conferences. It specifically attempts to investigate the strategically impolite responses to the reporters' questions. As far as politics is concerned, this notion of impoliteness has not gained enough research. This paper tackles the problem of using impoliteness to achieve certain political persuasive and effective goals rather than for default social hostility. The present study tries to find out the communicative goals behind politicians' impolite responses. It also attempts to explore the possible functions and strategies of impoliteness in ongoing political interactions.

This study is based on the hypotheses: (1) impoliteness is strategically rather than randomly demonstrated in American presidential press conferences and (2) impolite responses are mainly employed to express social hostile behaviors in American presidential press conferences. The findings prove the validity of the hypothesis (1) and reject (2). This paper has come with the conclusion that impoliteness is not mostly employed to express social hostility, personal stance or escalate conflict but it is rather strategically employed to achieve certain effective persuasive political goals.