Unexpected Uptakes Caused By Misunderstanding in 'Joey' TV Series.

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iii Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam Tugas Akhir ini saya menganalisis tentang keberadaan uptake yang

tidak terduga sehingga menimbulkan kelucuan pada serial TV komedi situasi

Joey.

Dalam penelitian ini, saya menggunakan pendekatan linguistic, yaitu

pragmatik yang di dalamnya terdapat teori tindak tutur. Tindak tutur adalah

melakukan tindakan atau perbuatan melalui ucapan atau kata-kata. Tindak tutur

terdiri atas lokusi, ilokusi, perlokusi, dan kemungkinan adanya uptake. Uptake

merupakan sebuah ungkapan atau jawaban yang ditimbulkan oleh sang mitra tutur

dalam menanggapi ucapan sang penutur. Terdapat lima fungsi dari tindak tutur,

yaitu, deklarasi, representatif, ekspresif, direktif, dan komisif.

Namun, tidak semua tipe tersebut digunakan dalam data yang dianalisa.

Saya hanya menemukan dua tipe tindak tutur yang sering digunakan, yaitu,

direktif dan ekspresif.

Dengan keberadaan uptake yang tidak terduga ini, penonton diajak untuk

tertawa karena mereka dapat mendengarkan tanggapan-tanggapan yang tidak

terduga sehingga menimbulkan kesalahpahaman yang membuat suasana menjadi

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ii Maranatha Christian University

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Communication is an important aspect of our life. Communication is a

process that allows people to exchange information by several methods, in this

case, language. Communication is the process when a message is given or

received through talking, writing, or making gestures. It can be verbal, such as

speaking and singing. It can also include tone of voice, and nonverbal aspects,

such as body language, sign language, touch, eye contact, or the use of writing. It

is the act of passing on information and the process by which meanings are

exchanged so as to produce understanding.

Kent Bach, a professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University,

says that there are many things we can do with words, such as making requests,

asking questions, giving orders, making promises, giving thanks, offering

apologies. Usually more than one act is performed in a Speech Act. The acts are

distinguished by different elements of the speaker's intention, in which there is the

act of saying something, what the speaker intends by saying those utterances (such

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2 Maranatha Christian University on the listener (Bach). In general, Speech Acts are acts of communication. “To

communicate is to express a certain attitude, and the type of Speech Acts being

performed corresponds to the type of attitude being expressed” (Bach).

Misunderstandings sometimes happen in conversation. They happen

because the listener does not fully receive or understand what the speaker means.

"Different people have different ways of telling each other how they feel about

one another, ways that are perhaps so fundamentally different that

misunderstanding is almost inevitable" (Villard & Whipple 162). Unexpected

uptakes in a conversation can change the atmosphere in which the conversation

takes place. What is more, it can make the listener confused.

In attempting to express themselves, people not only use utterances, but

those utterances are also used to carry out actions. A Speech Act is performing

action using an utterance. For example, when the boss says “You’re fired!” this boss’ utterance is more than just a statement. The utterance shows that someone’s

career is about to be ended. As Yule states in Pragmatics, “An utterance may

indicate apology, complaint, compliment, invitation, promise or threat” (Yule 47).

For my thesis, I choose the topic about the occurrence of humour due to

unexpected uptakes in Joey TV series. I choose this topic because Joey TV Series

is comedy, in which many unexpected uptakes occur. Unexpected uptakes that

occur in conversation can result in good humor, especially in comedy situations.

The audience laughs because of the confusion which is caused by unexpected

uptakes.

I observe these unexpected uptakes using the theory of Speech Acts, which

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3 Maranatha Christian University Yule, in particular about Speech Acts, and An Introduction to Linguistics by Janet

Holmes.

In this thesis, I want to know the significance of the theory of Speech Acts

in locution, illocution, uptake, and perlocution in reference to the situation or

atmosphere which is shown in the movie. I also want to know what type of

Speech Acts is used, why the hearer gives an unexpected uptake, and the effect of

that unexpected uptake. The speaker’s locution and illocution can be

misinterpreted by the listener which causes a different uptake, which leads to a

different perlocution. This is caused by the different opinion or beliefs between

the speaker and the listener. In comedy situations, different uptakes or unexpected

uptakes which are made by the listener can lead to funny situations.

Illocutionary and perlocutionary acts have two levels of success. As an

illocutionary act, a request, for example, is considered a success if a listener is

able to do what the speaker intends, but as a perlocutionary act it succeeds only if

he/she actually does it. According to Michael Devitt and Richard Hanley, “You

can express your desire without getting realization from the listener, but your

utterance is the performance of an act of both types.” (Devit)

By reading this thesis, the readers will know what type of Speech Acts are

frequently used that can cause unexpected uptakes to happen. Other researchers

could use this writing as a reference for comparison with their research so they

can expand their research by finding more types of Speech Acts that are used that

can cause unexpected uptakes.

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4 Maranatha Christian University 1.2 Statement of the Problem

1. What is the illocution of the speaker’s utterance?

2. Why does the hearer give an unexpected uptake?

3. What is the effect of the unexpected uptake?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

In this thesis I would like to show:

1. The illocution of the speaker’s utterance.

2. The reason why the hearer gives an unexpected uptake.

3. The effect of the unexpected uptake.

1.4 Method of Research

I take the following steps for this study. First, I watched Joey (TV series)

seasons 1 and 2. Second, I collected some data which contains Speech Acts from

the dialogues. Third, I chose significant data which are suitable to analyze. Fourth,

I analyzed the data based on the theory. Fifth, I wrote the thesis.

1.5 Organization of Thesis

This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter one is the Introduction. It

contains Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the

Study, Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two

provides a theoretical framework of the study. The data analysis is presented in

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5 Maranatha Christian University discussed in the previous chapter. At the end of the thesis is the Bibliography, in

which the sources are listed, and also the Appendices, in which the whole data are

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I would like to present my conclusion based on the

findings. Having analyzed the data, I notice that there are many factors which can

create humor in a TV series, especially Speech Acts, because there are so many

examples of communication which involve conversation containing Speech Acts.

Speech Acts makes communication more interesting to be analyzed.

In my data analysis, I focus on misunderstanding in conversation.

Misunderstanding can occur because of the intention or the meaning which is

contained in the speaker’s utterance is not fully recognized by the listener or can

be considered as the failure of the speaker’s illocutionary act. Moreover, the

misunderstanding can lead to the occurrence of an unexpected uptake. The

different opinions between the speaker and the listener is the most obvious factor

that leads to misunderstanding. Different opinions can be caused by different

characteristics, gender, age, level of education, interpretation and social status.

However, lack of information can also lead to misunderstanding.

From the data I have analyzed, I found that there are two types of Speech

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25 Maranatha Christian University Speech Acts. Among the fifteen data I have collected, there are ten data that

contains directive Speech Act and five data that contains expressive Speech Act.

In my data, I see that these two types of Speech Act are easier to lead the listener

to misunderstand the speaker’s meaning in their utterance. The purpose of

directive Speech Act in the data is to give an order or command via the speaker’s

utterance; however, the listener does not really understand the meaning. The

purpose of expressive Speech Act is to state the feeling of the speaker via his or

her utterance; moreover, the listener does not really understand the meaning or

shares a different feeling. As a result, the listener gives an uptake which is

unexpected by the speaker, although an uptake does not always occur, because the

listener also can be silent, or do something beyond the speaker’s assumption.

However, I cannot find any other type of Speech Acts that causes

misunderstanding besides directive and expressive Speech Acts in my data. The

other types of Speech Acts, such as declaration, representative, and commisive

also occur in the movie, but they do not create misunderstanding; accordingly, I

did not use them in my analysis. In my opinion, those other types of Speech Act

can possibly create misunderstanding in different situations.

According to the data, directive Speech Act is usually in the form of an

invitation, asking for someone’s help, hoping that someone will do something,

and giving advice. Expressive Speech Act is in the form of expression, such as

likes, dislikes, hates, and compliments.

In my opinion, based on the data, the hearer gives an unexpected uptake

because he or she has a different opinion than the speaker has. This unexpected

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26 Maranatha Christian University in a common situation, but in a comedy situation it causes humor. Unexpected

uptake can be accidentally or deliberately spoken by the listener as a reply to the

speaker’s utterance.

I believe that the occurrence of unexpected uptakes in comedy situations is

a very important factor. The anger or confusion caused by an unexpected uptake

gives the effect of a funny situation. The funny situations that provoke the

audience to laugh are the director’s main goal in comedy situations. I think that

the occurrence of unexpected uptakes in comedy situations gives the audience an

idea about the character’s foolishness, which makes them think that the character

is silly or stupid. Therefore, I personally think that the use of unexpected uptake to

produce humor is important in comedy situations and it is one of the story writer’s

ways of bringing humor.

In writing this thesis, I spent a lot of time observing the data, as there are

44 episodes in total, of 20 minutes per episode. From the observation, I notice

that there are various situations when unexpected uptakes occur; there are serious,

tense, sad, happy, and regular situations. Moreover, the unexpected uptakes can

change the situation dramatically, for example, from a serious and tense situation

to become a funny situation for the audience. However, the situation in the movie

does not change. It still has the original serious and tense situation, as can be

found in data one, or even becomes tenser, as in data 9. By the use of changing the

situation, the story will not be monotonous, which would make the audience

bored. This changing of situation is important in comedy situations in which the

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27 Maranatha Christian University Finally, I draw a conclusion that Speech Acts is very interesting and it is

not hard to understand, as all people experience Speech Acts in their daily

conversation, although they often do not realize it. By reading this thesis I hope

that the readers will know and understand what Speech Acts is, and be aware that

understanding Speech Acts is not difficult.

After working on this thesis about Speech Acts, I now feel more critical

about other people’s utterances, in which I need the speaker to specify their

meaning in their utterances in order not to cause misunderstanding.

For further research, writers can use this writing as a reference to be

compared with their research, and I suggest that researchers choose a comedy

situation TV Series that has more seasons as there will be more data to be

observed; therefore, researchers could possibly find other types of Speech Acts

that are used to make a funny situation. Besides comedy situations, a researcher

could analyze other genres, such as horror, tragedy, romance; therefore, they

could observe Speech Acts that are used to convey horrific, tragic, or romantic

situations.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Austin, J. L. How to Do Things With Words. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962.

Holmes, Janet. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Pearson Education Limited, 2001.

Villard, K. L. & Whipple, L. J. Beginnings in Relational Communication. New York: Wiley, 1976.

Yule, George. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Electronic Publications

Devitt, Michael, and Richard Hanley (eds). The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Language. Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 3 March 2008 <http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~kbach/Spch.Prag.htm>.