Communicative strategies in Theresa May’s discourse practice

Abstract

The article studies Theresa May’s communication activities during the Brexit process and the communicative strategies she uses. The author analyses her speeches at conservative party congresses, addresses to the nation, participation in parliamentary debates, official letters, as well as mass media publications on the dynamics of the negotiation process between the British government and the EU negotiators. The communicative strategies T. May employs in her activities are analyzed to reveal a correlation between the success and failure of each communicative act. The changes in the character of communicative strategies are studied as far as the attitude of British establishment and general public to changes in the government’s Brexit policy. The analysis of the communicative strategies used in implementing her Brexit policy both internally and externally makes it possible to reveal the factors facilitating or preventing the success of a communicative act. For the purpose of a complex pragmatic analysis of the communicative acts, both oral and written messages of the participants as well as the addressees’ responses to them are analyzed semiotically. The communicative strategies T. May used within the country, in most cases, did not match the pragmatic context and resulted in failure while the strategies used in negotiating with the EU were adequate to the pragmatic intentions of both parties and resulted in signing a Brexit deal. Besides, failure in her communication within Great Britain is due to the dissonance between the internal and external communicative practices utilized by T. May that prevented the parliament from approving the deal with the EU and successfully achieving strategic goals of the government, i.e. orderly Brexit and preserving the unity of the conservative party.