Textual analysis of accommodation theory and language attitudes on Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s speech at the University of Perpetual Help

This study conducts a textual analysis on the transcript of Former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s speech delivered on 1st of March 2016, at the University of Perpetual Help, Binan, Laguna. This study explores the enduring legacy of the words uttered by the former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. The theoretical framework for this study is the Communication Accommodation Theory by Giles & Gasiorek (2016) and the Tripartite (ABC) Model by Colin Baker (1992). The research design employed in this study is a qualitative descriptive research design. The result found 7 phrases from the transcript are under the convergence component; 5 phrases from the transcript are under the divergence component, 2 phrases from the transcript are under the over-accommodation component, 4 phrases from the transcript are under the maintenance component, 8 phrases from the transcript are under the affective component, 12 phrases from the transcript are under the behavior component, and 8 phrases from the transcript are under the cognitive component. The findings of this study are as follows: The components of Communication Accommodation Theory present include those of convergence, divergence, over-accommodation, and maintenance. The components of Language Attitudes present include those of affective, behavioral, and cognitive. The most dominant Communication Accommodation Theory component is the maintenance component, which consists of 8 phrases from the speech. The most dominant Language Attitudes component is the affective and cognitive components, which consist of 8 phrases each from the speech. The minor Communication Accommodation Theory component is the over-accommodation component, which consists of 2 phrases from the speech. The minor Language Attitudes component is a behavior component that consists of 7 phrases from the speech. Lastly, the study concludes that Communication Accommodation Theory and Language Attitudes components are significant in making former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s speech effective and efficient.