A CASE STUDY OF A THREE-YEAR-OLD BOY’S PERLOCUTIONARY ACTS TO INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS.

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Hatfina Sakinah, 2015

A CASE STUDY OF A THREE-YEAR-OLD INDONESIAN BOY’S PERLOCUTIONARY ACTS TO INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu

A CASE STUDY OF A THREE-YEAR-OLD INDONESIAN BOY’S

PERLOCUTIONARY ACTS TO INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

A Research Paper

Submitted to Department of English Education of the Faculty of Languages and Literature in a partial fulfillment of the requirements for Sarjana Sastra degree

Hatfina Sakinah

1003141

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE EDUCATION INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

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A CASE STUDY OF A THREE-YEAR-OLD

INDONESIAN BOY’

S PERLOCUTIONARY

ACTS TO INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

Oleh Hatfina Sakinah

Sebuah skripsi yang diajukan untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar Sarjana pada Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa dan Sastra

Januari 2015

Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.

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PAGE OF APPROVAL

HATFINA SAKINAH

A CASE STUDY OF A THREE-YEAR-OLD INDONESIAN

BOY’S PERLOCUTIONARY ACTS TO INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

Approved by:

Main Supervisor

Prof. E. Aminudin Aziz, M.A., Ph.D. NIP. 19671116 199203 1 001

Co-Supervisor

Ruswan Dallyono, S.Sos., M.Pd NIP. 19700803 200501 1 002

Head of Department of English Education Faculty of Language and Literature Education

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A CASE STUDY OF A THREE-YEAR-OLD INDONESIAN BOY’S PERLOCUTIONARY ACTS TO INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu

ABSTRACT

A CASE STUDY OF A THREE-YEAR-OLD BOY’S PERLOCUTIONARY ACTS TO INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

This study aims to investigate a three-year-old Indonesian boy’s response to indirect speech acts. It focuses on the perlocutionary acts to indirect speech acts given by the subject based on the response performed by the subject in relation to rank of imposition (Rx), proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987) as well as kinds of perlocutionary acts which appear mostly. The data were collected by recording the conversations with the subject, and taking notes. This study reveals that the subject responds to indirect speech acts by accepting and rejecting, both verbally and nonverbally. The most commonly used response was nonverbal response by following directions given by the interlocutors. There are four types of verbal acceptance performed by the subject, namely giving advice, inviting, expressing wants, and asking permission. Meanwhile, in

accepting nonverbally, the subject followed his interlocutor’s direction. In addition to

acceptance, the subject used three strategies in rejecting verbally, namely suggesting alternatives, direct refusal, and expressing wants; while persisting actions was performed to reject the indirect speech acts nonverbally. However, the subject sometimes mixed verbal and nonverbal responses, and there was also a response showing that the subject did not understand the indirect speech act performed by the interlocutor. The result of this study also found that ranking of imposition is the most influential factor that influences response to indirect speech acts performed by the subject. In heavy ranking of imposition, orders and prohibitions were rejected. However, the

interlocutor’s permission was allowed. Meanwhile, in light ranking of imposition, orders and

prohibitions were accepted. The findings of this study suggests that at the age of three, this Indonesian boy has been able to respond to indirect speech acts given by his interlocutors in various speech situations as well as of different ranking of impositions. The subject seems to have mastered a certain level of pragmatic competence required to perform a given speech act.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT ... i

PREFACE ... ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... iii

ABSTRACT ... iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... v

LIST OF TABLES ... vii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1

1.1 Background of the Study ... 1

1.2 Research Questions ... 3

1.3 Aims of the Study ... 3

1.4 Significance of the Study ... 3

1.5 Research Method ... 4

1.5.1 Data Collection ... 4

1.5.2 Data Analysis ... 4

1.6 Organization of the Paper ... 5

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ... 6

2.1 Speech Acts Theory ... 6

2.1.1 Indirect Speech Acts ... 8

2.1.2 Responses to Indirect Speech Acts ... 10

2.2 Pragmatic Competence of A Three-Year-Old Child ... 10

2.3 Ranking of Imposition ... 11

2.4 Previous Study ... 14

2.5 Concluding Remarks ... 16

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ... 18

3.1 Research Design... 18

3.2 Subject of the Study ... 19

3.3 Data Collection Procedure ... 20

3.3.1 Elicitation Technique ... 20

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3.3.3 Note Taking ... 23

3.4 Data Analysis ... 24

3.4.1 Locution and Context ... 24

3.4.2 Illocution, Rx, and Responses ... 25

3.4.3 Distribution of the Subject’s Responses ... 25

3.5 Concluding Remarks ... 25

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ... 26

4.1 Responses to Indirect Speech Acts Performed by RA ... 26

4.1.1 Acceptance ... 26

4.1.1.1Acceptance with utterances (verbal responses) ... 27

4.1.1.1.1 Giving Advice ... 27

4.1.1.1.2 Inviting ... 28

4.1.1.1.3 Expressing wants ... 28

4.1.1.1.4 Asking Permission ... 29

4.1.1.2Acceptance with actions (nonverbal responses) ... 30

4.1.1.2.1 Following directions ... 30

4.1.1.3Accepting with expression and actions ... 30

4.1.2 Rejecting ... 31

4.1.2.1Rejecting with utterance (verbal responses) ... 31

4.1.2.1.1 Suggesting alternatives ... 31

4.1.2.1.2 Direct refusal ... 32

4.1.2.1.3 Expressing wants ... 33

4.1.2.2Rejecting with action (nonverbal responses) ... 33

4.1.2.2.1 Persisting ... 34

4.1.3 A Response Showing Misunderstanding ... 34

4.2Distribution of The Subject’s Responses to Indirect Speech Acts ... 35

4.3Relationship between Ranking of Imposition (Rx) and The Subject’s Responses 36

4.4Discussions ... 37

4.5Concluding Remarks ... 44

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 45

5.1Conclusions ... 45

5.2Suggestions ... 46

REFERENCES ... 47

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A CASE STUDY OF A THREE-YEAR-OLD INDONESIAN BOY’S PERLOCUTIONARY ACTS TO INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study, problems of the study, aims of the study, and significance of the study. This chapter also provides a brief description of the research method which is divided into data collection and data analysis. A brief explanation of the structure of the paper is also given in the end of this chapter.

1.1 Background of the Study

Some research on children’s language acquisition has been primarily

dominated by researchers who aim to describe the linguistic competence of the children. They are particularly interested in describing children’s linguistic developments in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. A number of linguists have conducted such studies e.g. Dardjowidjojo (2000), Fodor and Kam (2012), Fikkert (2014), Lapiak (2014), Pica (2005), and Wagner (2014). Today, however, there is an emerging trend among researchers to switch their attention from structural descriptions to pragmatic descriptions because it appears that children also develop their pragmatic competence. When children have mastered particular linguistic features, they must also have mastered how to use those features for pragmatic functions.

According to Ninio and Snow (1996, cited in Dardjowidjojo, 2000), nonverbal communications performed by a child, such as weeping and laughter, show that they have acquired pragmatic competence. Dardjowidjojo (2000) discovered that a five-week-old child has been able to perform these abilities. In addition, it is said that the ability to give something to the right person also reveals that a child has been able to perform pragmatic competence (Dardjowidjojo, 2000).

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child is able to perform speech acts since he or she is at the age of one and a half years old. Dardjowidjojo (2000) found that an 18-month child was able to perform primitive speech acts, i.e. labeling, repeating, answering, requesting action, requesting answer, calling, greeting, protesting, and practicing (Dardjowidjojo, 2000). Supporting Dardjowidjojo (2000), Brumark (2010) states that a three-year-old child has been able to respond and produce indirect speech acts both grammatically and pragmatically. This is a reason why a three-year-old child was chosen as the subject of this study.

In general, research on speech acts’ acquisition mostly focuses on describing

how speakers understand and produce speech acts (Cohen and Ishihara, 2010). It is also related to the notion of pragmatic competence because it deals with language abilities (Taguchi, 2009). Therefore, various studies regarding different types of speech acts have been conducted and one of them is indirect speech act.

Indirect speech act is important to investigate because it is considered to be complex, especially for young children for the reason that, according to Mey (2001) and Scheyder (2004), indirect speech acts arise multiple meanings. For example, “Did

you forget to bring me a box of chocolate?” does not only convey a question whether the hearer forgot to bring a box of chocolate, but also the speaker apparently scolds the hearer for the mistake. Since there are multiple meanings arisen from indirect

speech act, the responses may contain more than one “move” (Pinker, Nowak, & Lee, 2008; Goffman, 1976).

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Nonetheless, the subject of Yuniarti (2010) was not specific and the topic was too broad. Besides, the research did not specifically mention how the directive speech act was given, directly or indirectly. Moreover, both Yuniarti (2010) and Scheyder (2004) did not reveal ranking of imposition (Rx) as a factor that influences the responses performed by the subject. Consequently, the present study makes it specific by involving a three-year-old boy, who is acquiring colloquial Bahasa Indonesia as his first language, and investigates his responses of indirect speech acts. Furthermore, this study examines the effect of ranking of imposition to the subject’s responses.

1.2 Research Questions

The problems of this study were formulated as follows:

1. How does a three-year-old boy respond to indirect speech acts? 2. What kinds of responses appear mostly?

3. How does the ranking of imposition (Rx) influence the subject’s responses?

1.3Aims of the Study

Based on the problems above, this study aims to:

1. Examine how a three-year-old boy responds to indirect speech acts. 2. Investigate kinds of responses that appear mostly.

3. Discover how the ranking of imposition (Rx) influences the subject’s responses.

1.4Significance of the study

The results of this study are expected to contribute to pragmatic competence, especially in investigating children’s ability to respond to indirect speech acts. In addition, this study is expected to enrich current insights in terms of kinds of responses to indirect speech acts produced by a three-year-old Indonesian boy. The more researchers conduct research about this topic, the clearer the development of

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1.5 Research Method

This study primarily used a descriptive qualitative method because it is satisfactory in elaborating the response to indirect speech acts performed by a three-year-old boy in an Indonesian family. In addition, a qualitative method can be shown from the form of words in elaborated data of findings and analysis in this study (Maxwell, 1992). According to Maxwell (1992), qualitative researchers depend on a diversity of understanding and corresponding types of validity in describing,

interpreting, and explaining process of interests’ phenomena. In particular, this study

occupied a case study although Heigham and Croker (2009) suggested that it is not a research method. A case study “involves an intensive study of the background, current status, and environmental interactions of a given social unit: an individual, a group, an institution, or a community (Brown & Rodgers, 2002).”

1.5.1 Data collection

The data were collected from the recorded conversations with the subject. Elicitation method was applied to allow the subject to speak actively. This method was employed because, according to Schmidt and Richards (2002), it can be used to obtain data as natural as possible. Therefore, the data were taken in casual settings and indirect speech acts given to the subject were suited to the setting. The conversations, recorded by using cell-phone, were transcribed and they were conducted until the data are sufficient to be analyzed. Notes were also used to gather the data regarding different types of speech acts. Data collection was completed because the conversations have been conducted for a certain period of time until indirect speech acts, both in the form of interrogative and declarative, given by the interlocutor are responded, either verbally or nonverbally.

1.5.3 Data analysis

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responses to indirect speech acts produced by a three-year-old boy. Finally, the results of responses to indirect speech acts by the subject were presented.

1.6 Organization of the Paper

The final paper consists of five chapters: Introduction, Literature Review, Research Method, Findings and Discussion, and Conclusion. The first chapter is an introduction which consists of background of the research, problems of the research, aims of the research, and scope of the research. A brief description of the research method is also provided. It is divided into respondents of the study, data collection, and data analysis. The clarification of the key terms is also given in this chapter. The second chapter is a literature review presenting the reviews and summaries of the theoretical frameworks that are related to the case study of speech acts acquisition of a three-year-old Indonesian boy in an Indonesian family.

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

This chapter presents the procedures which include research design, data collection and data analysis to answer the problems of the study. The data collection section elaborates subject of the study, data source and data collection technique. The data analysis describes how the data are analyzed by applying the theories that have been reviewed in the second chapter.

3.1.Research Design

This study primarily used a descriptive qualitative method because it fitted satisfactory in elaborating the subject‟s responses to indirect speech acts performed by a three-year-old boy in an Indonesian family. In addition, a qualitative method can be used to describe data in the form of words to be analyzed to answer the research questions. According to Maxwell (1992), qualitative researchers depend on a diversity of understanding and corresponding types of validity in describing, interpreting, and explaining phenomena.

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3.2.Subject of the study

A three-year-old boy was chosen based on an assumption that he has acquired pragmatic competence. According to Ninio and Snow (1996, cited in Dardjowidjojo, 2000), nonverbal communications performed by a child, such as weeping and laughter, show that they have acquired pragmatic competence. Dardjowidjojo‟s (2000) subject has been able to perform these abilities since she was five-week-old. In addition, it is said that the ability to give something to the right person also reveals that a child has been able to perform pragmatic competence (Dardjowidjojo, 2000). Moreover, Brumark (2010) says that a three-year-old child has been able to respond and produce indirect speech acts both grammatically and pragmatically.

The subject is an Indonesian boy named RA (initial name), who was born three years ago. His mother is an Indonesian woman who acquired Sundanese as her L1. Living in Semarang, Central Java for more than five years, she is able to speak Javanese. However, RA‟s father is a Javanese man who lives in Bandung for more than ten years so he can speak Sundanese better than Javanese, although he uses an informal variety. Coming from two different language backgrounds, RA‟s parents communicate in colloquial Bahasa Indonesia to their son. Being surrounded by people speaking Sundanese in their daily lives, the Indonesian dialect he speaks is sometimes mixed with Sundanese. The following conversation describes how mother talks to the subject:

Setting: at the subject‟s house, in the morning

Situation: mother was in a hurry because she would go to the office. Unfortunately, the subject cried and did not allow his mother leaving.

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M : Mas Ray jangan nangis aja atuh, kan ada Ambi sama Enin. Besok Mamam libur.

„Mas Ray, please, don‟t cry. Ambi and Enin will be here for you. Tomorrow I have a day-off.‟

It can be seen from the conversation above, that the subject and his mother prefer to speak in Indonesian but sometimes mixed it with Sundanese. The following conversation shows how the subject performed a perlocutionary acts in Bahasa Indonesia combined with Sundanese:

Setting: Grandmother was annoyed with chickens that throw dirt anywhere. E : Aduh, ini ayam teh ee di mana aja ya!

„Oh my God, chickens throwing dirt anywhere!‟

R : ayamnya dijual aja ya nin, kasihin ke olang. loki juga suka dimalahin sama Mas kalau ee di mana aja. Kata mas teh: eh, loki! Jangan ee di mana aja! Nanti dikasihin ke orang geura!

„Why don‟t you sell the chickens? I used to be angry with Rocky if he threw dirt anywhere. I said, Rocky, don‟t throw dirt anywhere! Otherwise I give you to someone else.‟

3.3. Data Collection Procedures

The data collection mainly used an elicitation method. It was conducted to allow the subject to speak actively (Richards and Schmidt, 2002). According to Sakarya (2011), elicitation method can be accomplished by recording and taking notes. In this study, the recorded conversations and notes were taken until the data were sufficient to be analyzed, or when the subject gave responses to indirect speech acts in the various forms, both declarative and interrogative. In particular, the data were obtained from the conversations involving the subject, in informal settings. Therefore, indirect speech acts given to the subject were suited to the speech situations. The conversations, then, were transcribed and analyzed to answer the research questions.

3.3.1. Elicitation Technique

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activity. Thus, the researchers do not just observe the subject. There are four types of elicitation procedures, namely interviews, questionnaires, combining questionnaire and interview, and production tasks (Sakarya, 2011).

This study employs production tasks. According to Sakarya (2011), production task is used to collect data from a language learner in order to investigate language development of the subject. Production tasks also vary; there are discourse completion tasks (DCT), role-plays, tests used as elicitation procedures, picture description tasks, and using tasks to investigate negotiation of meaning (Sakarya, 2011). This present study used tasks to investigate negotiations of meaning as a method to explore the subject‟s understanding to indirect speech acts by analysing the response.

However, Sakarya (2011. pp.46-47) mentions some advantages and disadvantages of elicitation techniques as listed in the table below:

Table 3.1 Advantages and disadvantages of elicitation techniques

Advantages Disadvantages

1. Two or more techniques can be combined and use as triangulation method. For example, interview combined with questionnaire. 2. Elicitation techniques provide large amount of data in shorter time than naturalistic method.

1. Other relevant issues may be ignored by determining in advance what is going to be considered relevant.

2. It may not be certain whether the results obtained are because of the elicitation devices employed.

Despite the fact that elicitation technique has its weaknesses, it is believed that elicitation technique can maximize contributions in finding the answers for the research questions of the present study.

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3.3.2. Recorded Conversation

There were 15 conversations recorded for this study taken at the subject‟s grandmother‟s house in the morning, afternoon, and evening. The following settings and situations have been recorded to gather the data:

1. Setting : at aunt‟s bedroom, in the morning.

Situation : The child was playing toys with his aunt. Suddenly, the aunt got stomachache.

2. Setting : at the grandmother‟s house, in the morning.

Situation : Grandmother was annoyed with chickens defecating anywhere.

3. Setting : at grandmother‟s house, in the morning.

Situation : Grandmother has just finished washing clothes and would dry them.

4. Setting : at grandmother‟s house, in the afternoon.

Situation : His mother has just bought a delicious food and wanted to give him.

5. Setting : at grandmother‟s living room, in the evening.

Situation : The child was playing a spoon and a cup of tea. He dripped tea on the table, so it is wet. Aunt tried to forbid him.

6. Setting : in grandmother‟s dining room, in the afternoon.

Situation : Aunt was looking at her nephew who is eating cracker whose stock was limited but she wanted to eat that cracker too. 7. Setting : at grandmother‟s dining room, in the afternoon.

Situation : The child was looking at his aunt who is eating bread. He wanted to eat that bread too but the stock was limited. 8. Setting : at grandmother‟s living room, in the evening.

Situation : The child was talking with his grandmother living in

Bandung, the same city with the subject, by phone. They have been losing contact for a long time.

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Situation : The child took his aunt‟s pen and used it to scrawl on a piece of paper.

10.Setting : at aunt‟s bedroom, in the evening.

Situation : The child and his aunt were busy playing toys. Suddenly, they heard something falling.

11.Setting : at grandmother‟s house, in the morning.

Situation : The child wanted to go to the minimarket with his aunt but he has to wear sandals. Otherwise, he is not allowed to go.

12.Setting : at the subject‟s room, in the evening.

Situation : His mother told him to go to sleep but his room should be cleaned up first.

13.Setting : in front of bathroom, in the morning. Situation : His aunt would take him to bath. 14.Setting : at grandmother‟s house, in the evening.

Situation : The child was watching TV. His eyes were too close to the screen.

15.Setting : at grandmother‟s house, in the evening.

Situation : The child was watching TV when his aunt approached and sat beside him. He trampled on his aunt‟s lap.

The conversations were recorded by using a hidden cell-phone because the subject did not speak if he knew that the cell-phone was used to record his utterances. Indirect speech acts used by interlocutor in this conversation were suited to the setting and situation. For example, when the subject would take a bath, his interlocutor asked him to take off his clothes by asking, bisa buka baju sendiri kan? „can you take off

your clothes?‟ Then, responses given by the subject were recorded before being analyzed.

3.3.3. Note Taking

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because it did not make the subject suspicious. In addition, it obtained larger amount of data than recording by making a note of conversation conducted between the subject and his grandmother, aunt, mother or father. Therefore, the more indirect speech acts were heard and responded by the subject, the larger amount of data were collected by taking notes.

3.4.Data Analysis

Having been collected, the data were analyzed based on the theories reviewed in chapter two. There were several steps to analyze the data in order to reach the goal of this study. First, the collected data were classified based on the utterance given to the subject. Second, the data were analyzed in terms of rank of imposition (Rx), proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987) and its relation to the locution, illocution and context to discover response to indirect speech acts produced by a three-year-old boy. Finally, the results of response of indirect speech acts by the subject were presented in a table.

3.4.1. Locution and Context

As has been mentioned above, the data were classified based on the locution before they are analyzed. The next step was analyzing the relation between locution and context of each conversation. Richards and Schmidt (2002) argues that “the context often helps in understanding the particular meaning of utterances (p. 116).” For example:

16.Setting : at the subject‟s bedroom.

Situation : The child was playing toys with his aunt. Suddenly, the aunt got stomachache.

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3.4.2. Illocution, Rx, and Response

After analyzing locution and context, the next step was to examine how ranking of imposition (Rx) of the illocution influences the response performed by the subject. Section 3.4.1 above has implicitly mentioned that asking permission to leave the subject for a while is the illocution or meaning intended by the interlocutor. Rx (ranking of imposition) of this illocution is heavy because of its urgency. The subject probably thought that the only thing to cure stomachache was to empty the bowels or something disgusting would happen if he did not allow his aunt leaving. Consequently, the subject allowed the interlocutor by saying, mpup dulu atuh „You‟d

better defecate first.‟ By saying this, the subject understood the illocution of the utterance spoken by the interlocutor. The analysis of each data will be presented further in chapter four.

3.4.3. Distribution of The Subject’s Response

The distribution of the subject‟s response to indirect speech acts was divided into two sections; accepting and rejecting. These two kinds of responses were separated into two parts, namely verbal and nonverbal. The distribution was presented in a table which contains types, forms, and strategies of response performed by the subject. Then, frequencies of the strategies were counted to determine which strategies appear mostly. The distribution of the subject‟s responses will be presented further in chapter four.

3.4.4. Concluding Remarks

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