Language in/of the State of the Nation Addresses
THE State of the Nation Address (SONA) is an annual report to Filipinos delivered by the President of the Republic of the Philippines before a joint session of Congress. Philippine presidents have given reports to the nation since the early days of the nation-state, yet the SONA in its current form began in 1936 under the presidency of Manuel Quezon. The report is not only a plain statement of accomplishments and plans. British philosopher of language J.L. Austin, in his well-received speech act theory, postulated that we do things with words and that every word we utter is not only speech but...