ILLOCUTIONARY SPEECH ACTS IN ARABIC QUOTES ON INSTAGRAM: A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS ON SHALNACK’S ACCOUNT

The language use in social media can be observed in quote posts on Instagram. Instagram serves as a platform for spreading quotes, which are often used as a medium to express ideas, views, or emotions. The present research focuses on the phenomenon of illocutionary speech acts in Arabic quotes posted on Instagram with a case study on the account @shalnack. A descriptive qualitative approach is employed to explore this phenomenon in depth aiming to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of how illocutionary speech acts function in communication through quote posts on Instagram. The data, consisting of Arabic quotes, was collected using the observation and note-taking techniques. This technique involves directly observing the posts on the @shalnack Instagram account, where the researcher carefully examines each speech act presented in the quotes. After the observation process, the researcher meticulously records relevant speech acts for further analysis. The data was then analyzed using the interactive analysis model, which consists of data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The research’s findings indicate that there are five types of illocutionary speech acts, i.e. directives, assertives, commissives, expressives, and declaratives. Among these types, directive speech acts were found to be the most dominant. The implications of the present research suggest that quotes on Instagram, particularly those in Arabic, are widely used to provide guidance or instructions to readers.