Directive Speech Acts Drive Higher Engagement: A Pragmatic Linguistic Study of Patisserie Brand Captions
Abstract
This study examines how three types of pragmatic speech acts—directive, expressive, and informative—are employed in social media captions by international patisserie brands and how these linguistic strategies influence consumer engagement. Addressing the limited scholarly attention to speech act functions in commercial digital discourse, this research applies Speech Act Theory and a descriptive quantitative approach to analyze 12 purposively selected captions from Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. The findings reveal that informative speech acts are the most frequently used, whereas directive speech acts generate the highest levels of engagement, particularly within TikTok comment interactions. These results highlight the persuasive power of directive forms in digital marketing communication. Despite limitations related to sample size and language scope, the study offers theoretical insights into pragmatic patterning in brand discourse and provides practical implications for optimizing engagement-driven content. Future studies should expand the dataset and incorporate multimodal or cross-linguistic perspectives to deepen.
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