A disinvitation occurs when a speaker (S) makes a statement that the hearer (H) is no longer invited to an event that H expects to attend (Bardovi-Harlig, 2015). Following Hancher’s (1979) analysis of invitations, disinvitations may belong to two illocutionary classes, declaratives and directives. Disinvitations as declaratives withdraw the benefits of invitations, and also have the potential of reversing the warm feelings toward the inviter engendered by the invitation; disinvitations as directives attempt to affect the behavior of the invitee by directing the hearer to not attend the event. 

 

Disinvitations occur in social and professional settings. Most happen in private and would be lost to pragmatics researchers, except for those reported and discussed online (see Bardovi-Harlig, 2015). However, some disinvitations are considered newsworthy and are covered by the media, and these are the topic of this paper. Their interest to the media generally comes from the prominence of the actors involved and the importance of the event from which they were (dis)invited.

 

There is a general consensus among lay members of the English-speaking web community that disinvitations are highly dispreferred and should be avoided. However, these same discussions identified two conditions under which they may be performed: The invitee has committed a serious offense and that offense occurred after the invitation and before the event (Bardovi-Harlig, 2015).

 

This talk investigates whether and in what ways these constraints are observed in 40 newsworthy disinvitations reported in print and online newspapers, and institutional websites and blogs, including Bloomberg Business Week, Huffington Post, US News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. The events from which individuals were disinvited include fundraisers, commencement speeches, keynote speeches, inaugurations, royal weddings, concerts, prayer days, TV appearances, festivals, hearings, and conferences. Disinviters include universities, high schools, media, service groups, event organizers, and governmental entities including embassies, the Royal Family, the White House, the President, and the Pentagon. The disinvitees include individuals, authors, performers, scholars, diplomats, ambassadors, world leaders, and politicians.

 

Reports of the newsworthy disinvitations show that although the constraints are sometimes observed, these events follow a more lenient interpretation of timing. An offense may have occurred before the invitation, but it may have become known after the invitation was extended, as with allegations of sexual harassment, but others, such as a public figure’s record on human rights, climate change, gay rights, or political affiliation are rarely unknown at the time of the invitation.