Addressee
Ledia Kazazi, University of Elbasan "Aleksandër Xhuvani", Albania
lediakazazi@gmail.com
An addressee is the immediate recipient or intended receiver of a communicative act, as understood within the frameworks of speech act theory, pragmatics, and discourse analysis. The addressee plays a central role in shaping communication, as language users continuously adapt their utterances to suit the perceived identity, knowledge, expectations, and emotional stance of their interlocutor. This process of adaptation underpins both everyday conversation and more structured forms of public discourse. Frame Semantics highlights the role of the addressee in meaning construction since linguistic expressions are interpreted in relation to background cognitive frames, structured sets of knowledge shared between speaker and addressee. Effective communication thus depends on the speaker's ability to anticipate the frame activated in the mind of the addressee and align their message accordingly. Building on this, and from a Gricean pragmatic perspective, the social dynamics between speaker and addressee are emphasized. Communicators deploy politeness strategies, indirectness, and conversational implicatures to navigate interpersonal relationships and manage social roles. Particularly in public discourse—such as political speeches, media commentary, and public opinion formation—addressing diverse audiences involves carefully balancing clarity, persuasion, and social sensitivity. In the context of public opinion, the notion of the addressee becomes crucial. Politicians, journalists, and institutions craft their messages in anticipation of how target audiences such as voters, readers, or constituents will interpret and emotionally respond to them. The framing of information, choice of tone, and use of inclusive or exclusive language all reflect strategic considerations about the addressee’s values, identity, and likely reception. Understanding the concept of the addressee is thus essential for analysing how public discourse seeks to influence, align with, or challenge collective opinion.
Keywords: communication, language users, social dynamics
Related Entries: Communication, Frames, Discourse (1), Discourse (2), Speech Act/Speech Event
References:
Fillmore, C.J. (1975). Santa Cruz lectures on deixis: 1971. Indiana University Linguistics Club.
Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press.
Recanati, F. (2011). Truth-conditional Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.
