CHAPTER
I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The background of the study
People
always communicate one aother by using language in their social environment.
Language is one of tools of communication. In communication, language has an
important role because it has to explain what the speaker wants the listener to
do. The purpose of communication itself is informative which means an appeal to
the mind that is accomplished through language.
While people communicate,
they use utterances to express what they have in their mind toward the listener.
Utterance produced by speaker does not only function to explain the speaker
mind toward the listener, but also means to show the relationship between them.
When we want to know people’s relationship through their utterance, we can see
it from speech act. That is why this paper presents definition of speech acts
and the types of speech acts so that you know what someone means.
CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
SPEECH ACTS
A.
Definition
of Speech Acts
Yule
(1996:47) proposes that speech acts is performed action via utterance. Another
definition from Crystal in Soekemi (1995:121) mentions that speech act is a
theory which analyses the role of utterance in relation to the behavior of
speaker and listener in interpersonal communication According to Austin (1960),
speech act is a theory of performative language, in which to say something is
to do something.[1] In brief
when speakers are saying words, they not only produce utterance containing
words and grammatical structure, but they also perform action in those
utterances.
Speech
acts reveal the intentions of speakers and the effects the speaker’s utterances
and expressions have on the hearers. The implication of speech acts is that
every utterance has a purpose which derives from the specific context. It has
been observed that language use depends on such contextual factors as social
and physicalnconditions, attitudes, abilities, beliefs and the relationship
existing between the speaker and the listener.[2]
B.
Type
of Speech Acts
There are three types of speech acts,
they are :
1.
Locutionary
Acts
A locutionary act
is the performance of an utterance,
and hence of a speech act.
The term equally refers to the surface meaning of an utterance because,
according to J. L. Austin's
posthumous "How To Do Things With Words", a speech act should be
analysed as a locutionary act (i.e.
the actual utterance and its ostensible meaning, comprising phonetic, phatic
and rhetic acts corresponding to the verbal, syntactic and semantic aspects of
any meaningful utterance).[3] It
can be recognised by the hearer.
E.g
: if someone says ‘Knock the door!’ the locutionary acts is the
realization of the speaker’s utterance.
2.
Illocutionary
Acts
Illocutionary acts is
performing an act in saying something, what is done in uttering the
word’, the function of the word, the specific purpose that the speaker’s have
in mind. Searle (1975) set up the following classification of illocutionary
speech acts :[4]
v Assertive: an illocutionary act that speech
acts that commit a speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition.
The acts are stating,
claiming, hypothesizing, describing, telling, insisting, suggesting, asserting that
something is the case.
Example :
Stating : staff and VIP permitted here
v Directive: an illocutionary act for getting the addressee to do
something by responding to an utterance or by performing some physical
actions.
The acts are ordering, commanding, defying, advising, asking, begging, challenging, daring, demanding, forbidding, insisting, inviting, permitting, recommending, requesting, suggesting, etc.
The acts are ordering, commanding, defying, advising, asking, begging, challenging, daring, demanding, forbidding, insisting, inviting, permitting, recommending, requesting, suggesting, etc.
Example:
Command :
Close the door please!!!
Forbid, Prohibit :
Don’t close the door!!! Don’t go to the party!
v Commissive: an illocutionary act that the
speakers use to commit themselves to some future action. The acts are
committing, guaranteeing, offering, promising, refusing, threatening,
volunteering, vowing, threatening,
intending, vowing to do or to refrain from doing something.
Example :
Promising :We promise to give you much money.
Vowing : I will be the best husband in your life my
darling.
v Expressive: an illocutionary act that expresses the
speakers feeling and attitudes toward events or affairs. The acts are congratulating, thanking, deploring,
condoling, welcoming, apologizing.
Example :
Condoling : I am sorry to hear that.
Congratulating : Hey Bro, congrats for your
success
v Declaration: an illocutionary act that brings into existence the
state of affairs to which it refers. The speaker brings about a change in the word by
uttering an Illocutionary act. The acts are blessing, firing, baptizing,
bidding, passing sentence, excommunicating, marriage, arresting, approving,
naming, etc.
Example :
Naming : I named my baby Amanda.
v Verdictive : an illocutionary acts in which the
speaker makes an assessment or judgement about the acts of another, usually the
addressee. The acts are ranking, assessing, appraising, condoning. Verdictive
verbs include accuse, charge,excuse, thank in the explicit forrame.[5]
Example
:
Assessing
: you have low score
in undestanding Syntax.
3.
Perlucotionary
Acts
Perlocutionary
act is an act that is uttered to affect the listener. An utterance that is
uttered by someone often has effect to the listener. Which can be expected or
unexpected affect that created by the speaker. So, in other word, a perlocution
is listener behavioral response to the meaning of the utterance, not
necessarily physical or verbal response, perhaps merely a mental or emotional
response.
There is
an example of speech acts. A child refuse to lie down and go to sleep, then his
mother says, “I’ll turn your light off”. The locutionary act is utterance of
this sentence “I’ll turn your light off”. However, the mother may be intending
that the utterance to be interpreted as a threat. The threat here is the
illocutionary acts. It means that child does not sleep, his mother will turn
off the light. As consequence behavior of that child, he must be frightened
into silence and sleep is Perlocutionary act.
CHAPTER III
CONCLUSION
Speech
acts reveal the intentions of speakers and the effects the speaker’s utterances
and expressions have on the hearers. In brief when speakers are saying words,
they not only produce utterance containing words and grammatical structure, but
they also perform action in those utterances.
There are three
types of speech acts, they are:
a.
Locutionary acts
b.
Illocutionary acts
Ø Assertiv
Ø Directive
Ø Commissive
Ø Expressive
Ø Declaration
Ø Verdictive
c.
Perlocutionary acts
REFERENCE
Dwi Purnomo,
Maslathief. 2012. Diktat of Semantics In
linguistics. Medan.
Kreidler, W. Charles. 2002. Introducing Semantic English. London : the Taylor and Francis
e-library.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_act
[1] http://www.managementfile.com/journal.php?id=161&sub=journal&page=strategic&awal=50.
Access on 19 April 2013.
[2]
Dwi Purnomo, Maslathief. 2012. Diktat of
Semantics In linguistics. Medan.hl, 46
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