ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS BY THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE MOVIE LES MISÉRABLES.

ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS BY THE MAIN CHARACTER

IN THE MOVIE LES MISÉRABLES

A THESIS

Submitted to the English Department of UNIMED in Partial as Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Sarjana Sastra

BY:

ELNISCAYA RIASETIA HULU

Registration Number 2102220004

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Praise the Lord, the writer thanks to Almighty God Jesus Christ, for His

love and mercy in this life, especially in the process of accomplishing this thesis.

In accomplishing this thesis, the writer was helped by so many beloved people

and the writer would like to express her gratitude to:

1. Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si. as the Rector of State University of Medan

during the completion of this thesis, the writer learns many things from him,

he is a humble figure, like in Indonesian proverb “Seperti ilmu padi, semakin

berisi semakin merunduk” Drs. Lidiman Sahat Martua Sinaga, M.Hum as

her academic advisor and also a friend who helps students, and all her

beloved lecturers in English and Literature Department

5. Her beloved family, her father, Samarudi Hulu; her mother, Rosmina

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Yakin Ati Murni Hulu, thank you for the understanding and the big support in prayer, love, motivation and financial while accomplished this thesis.

6. Bidikmisi Scholarship, so the writer can join to be a student in State

University of Medan, it is like a golden to be given to students like the writer

and all the receivers of scholarship promises to give the best to the Nation.

7. Her true friends, Mardohar Aritonang, Ermayani Simamora, Astuti

Mendriani, James Tambunan, thanks for your love, happiness, and friendship. Her special thanks also go to all friends in Applied Linguistics A

and B 2010 especially for her comrades; Ester, Kidu, Ripka, and

Octhaviani and many others that she cannot mention one by one.

8. All others whose name cannot be mentioned one by one for their help and

support. Thanks for everything. May God bless.

Finally, the writer admits that this thesis still far from being perfect.

Therefore, the writer would like to invite the readers to give suggestion for the

improvement of this thesis later on.

Medan, March 2014

The writer

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ABSTRACT

Hulu, Elniscaya Riasetia. 2014. Illocutionary acts by the main character in the movie Les Misérables. A Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan.

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LIST OF APPENDICES ... vii

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION ... 1

D. The Classification of Speech Acts ... 10

1. Locutionary Acts ... 10

2. Illocutionary Acts …………..……….. 10

3. Perlocutionary Acts ………..12

E. Types of Illocutionary Acts ... 13

1. Declarations ... 13

CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 28

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CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 36

A. Conclusion ... 36

B. Suggestion ... 36

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LIST OF TABEL

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Pages APPENDIX A. Iddentification of Illocutionary Acts by the main character

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

People often deliver their purpose in many ways and language is as a tool

to communicate. This communication will be effective if the purpose of the

communication can be gained well, both speaker and hearer have the same

perception of the thing they are talking about. Here, an understanding is more than

lexical meaning but it is closer to meaning based on context.

Being a student in Applied Linguistics made the writer combine two fields,

first from Linguistics which was concerned on illocutionary acts and the second

from Literature about the main character in a play. In a play, people also can find

the main character by seeing what the characters tell and show, they mostly give

more important information to the audience or reader.

In analyzing a movie, a dialogue cannot be separated from the topic of

speech acts. Through dialogue people can understand what happened in the movie

and the meaning of the speaker. To make it easier, transcription is also available,

by this transcription, the utterances can be analyzed. In the movie many utterances

are performed by particular kinds of action such as stating, promising, warning

and so on.

In discussing speech acts, it is important to distinguish between three sorts

of things that one is doing in the course producing utterances. These are usually

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Searle (1975) divided illocutionary acts into five types of general

functions, they are declarations, representatives, expressives, directives and

commissives.

The reason of choosing illocutionary acts in the movie Les Misérables is

because this movie is based on true story before the revolution in France so it has

historical value, moral teaching about social misery, injustice and to see the

phenomenon how the people in France used language in the interaction at the

time. This movie is also adapted by Tom Hooper from the novel by Victor Hugo.

It has been shown on the stage musical began in 1980 and this play is very

popular for the people who love literature but the writer thinks there are many

Applied Linguistics students have not known this play, so the writer will

introduce one of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece through this study.

It will be interesting to analyze the five types of illocutionary acts by the

main character in this movie to get the goal of his speech. The usage of

illocutionary acts in the movie is actually a representation of real conversation in

natural society. In addition, it is important to get meaning of illocutionary acts

found in the movie Les Misérables to know how the language is used by the

speaker to deliver his goal and the hearer to comprehend. It will be interesting to

analyze the five types of illocutionary acts by the main character in this movie to

find out whether the utterances have all the five types of illocutionary acts or not.

The main characters are Jean Valjean, Javert, Cossette and Marius. In this case,

this research is limited in analyzing illocutionary acts that said by Jean Valjean

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movie. Beside it, there were linguists who paid attention in language use like

Austin, the developer of the theory of speech acts and Searle was the student of

Austin who categorized illocutionary acts to be more specific.

There are some studies also support the research on illocutionary acts, like

Mcgowan wrote in her journal ‘A Partial Defense of Illocutionary Silencing

(2011)’ and the result of her research is dominantly women who got traumatic

they used expressive. The second journal, Shalev wrote ‘Illocutionary clauses

accompanying questions in Greek drama and in Platonic dialogue (2001)’ and the

result is she found that questions can be Directive purpose. Third, Corrigan in his

journal ‘Speech acts, generic differences, and the curious case of `Cymbeline'.

(2002)’. The result in his research is he found mixed between the five types of

illocutionary acts by Searle’s theory in Cymbeline which is one of the most

unwieldly of Shakespeare’s play.

Les Misérables is one of the best movies in 2012, released in December

2012. This movie is a true story that sets against the backdrop of the 19th-century

France. Les Misérables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited

love, passion, sacrifice and redemption a timeless testament to the survival of the

human spirit. There is an ex-prisoner named Jean Valjean, hunted for years by the

ruthless policemen Javert after he breaks parole. One day, Valjean meets someone

who changes his live to be better. He meets Fantine’s daughter who needs his

help. With his generosity, he takes care for Cossete and their lives change forever.

Les Misérables won 2013 Golden Globe Award for best motion

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for best achievement costume design, best achievement in music written for

motion pictures, best achievement in production design, best motion picture of the

year, best performance by leading actor role and best performance by an actrees in

a supporting role.

B. The Problem of the Study

The problems of study were formulated as following.

1. What types of illocutionary acts are used by the main character in Les

Misérables?

2. What illocutionary acts is dominantly used by the main character in Les

Misérables?

3. What are the interpretations of the use of illocutionary acts to the main

character in Les Misérables?

C. The Objective of the Study

Related to the problem of the study, the objectives of the study were

1. to describe the types of illocutionary acts by the main character of Les

Misérables,

2. to derive the most dominant type of illocutionary acts by the main

character of Les Misérables, and

3. to explain the interpretations from each type of illocutionary acts by the

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D. The Scope of the Study

This study was focused on types of illocutionary acts by the main

character, Jaen Valjean in the movie Les Misérables based on Searle’s theory,

such as (1) declarations (2) representatives, (3) expressives, (4) directives (5)

commissives. Further the study was concerned with the dominant type used and

the interpretations of the speech acts.

E. The Significance of the Study

Findings of the study were expected to be useful for

1. Applied linguistics students to make them easier to analyze the types of

illocutionary acts,

2. readers who wanted to make a study on the same topic, this study might be

references, and

3. those who wanted to know the application of illocutionary acts could be

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusions

After analyzing the data, conclusions could be drawn as the following.

1. The five types of illocutionary acts were found in the movie Les

Misérables. They were declarations, representatives, expressives,

directives and commisives.

2. The most dominant type of illocutionary acts by the main character in the

movie Les Misérables was representatives (39.34 %).

3.

The interpretations from each type of illocutionary acts to the main

character in the movie Les Misérables had the relationships to Jean

Valjean. He reflected his figure as the important person in a play, he often

used representatives which was also as the highest percentage of

illocutionary acts, he described the situation in France at the time where

there were injustice and social misery.

B. Suggestions

In relation to the conclusions, the following suggestions are staged.

1. Applied Linguistics student, it is suggested to watch Les Misérables

because it has historical value about France before revolution and to know

work of literature has been being staged annually in United Kingdom

which is very famous but some of Applied linguistics student has not

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2. seen by using illocutionary acts theory and this movie also has a good

moral teaching about forgiving.

3. The readers, it is good to know illocutionary acts in daily life, so when the

speaker and hearer have a conversation, they will not get misunderstanding

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