REQUEST STRATEGIES ON BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH.

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REQUEST STRATEGIES ON BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH

A Thesis

Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora

BY:

FANDY ZULMI

Registration Number: 8126 112 011

ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM

POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

MEDAN

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REQUEST STRATEGIES ON BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH

A Thesis

Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora

BY:

FANDY ZULMI

Registration Number: 8126 112 011

ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM

POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

MEDAN

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iii

ABSTRACT

Zulmi, Fandy. Registration Number: 8126112011. Request Strategies on

Barack Obama’s Speech. A Thesis. English Applied Linguistics Study

Program. State University of Medan. 2014.

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iv

ABSTRAK

Zulmi, Fandy. Nomor Registrasi: 8126112011. Strategi-Strategi Permintaan di Pidato Barack Obama. Tesis. Program Studi Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris. Universitas Negeri Medan. 2014.

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i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Alhamdulillahirabbil‘alamin, giving the deepest sense of gratitude to

Allah SWT for a life full of happiness. Because the writer completed this thesis

as the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Magister

Humaniora. And also for the last prophet, Muhammad SAW, the greatest teacher of great teacher.

The writer comes upon a lot of difficulties during the writing of this study,

due to his limited knowledge and experience. However, many people have contributed and helped his directly and indirectly during completing of this thesis.

The writer is deeply indebted to his consultants, Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd and Prof. Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd who always help and gave

excellent advice to finish his study. He should also thank to the board of

examiners Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A, Ph.D, Prof. T. Silvana Sinar, M.A., Ph.D and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S For their constructive comments,

suggestions and valuable time in improving this thesis.

The writer would like to express his gratitude to the head and secretary of English Applied Linguistics Study Program Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd

and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S and their staff Farid, for the guidance in the process of completing the academic requirements and all lecturers for the valuable knowledge taught during the academic years.

The greatest thanks is fully addressed to his beloved parents, Zulkifli and Emmi Herawati, for their love, patience, care, inspiration, advice, prays and

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Zulmi, S.kom. for their motivation that the writer really need in order to finish

this study.

The writer also would like to express his special gratitude to his beloved

wife, Rachmawati Wijaya, S.Pd. for her advice, support, ideas, care, suggestion and motivation have made the writer get curiosity to accomplish this study; and

also my best friends, Bambang Nur Alamsyah Lubis, Balqis Wandira, Irma Khoirot Daulay, Syafrina Panjaitan, Chitra Latiffani, Yulie Ayu Utari,

Agung Pramono, and Indra Sariman for their laughs, supports and motivation.

Last, special thank is given to all his friends in LTBI class A1, A2, B1 and B2 XXII, who can not be mentioned one by one, thanks for help, motivation and

comment during acedemic years. Finally a million thanks to all those have given endless contribution in the process of completing this thesis.

Medan, November 2014 The Writer

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v

LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX I ... 43

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1Background of the Study

Communication is any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person information about that person's needs, desires, perceptions,

knowledge, or affective states. Communication may be intentional or unintentional, may involve conventional or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or nonlinguistic forms, and may occur through spoken or other modes,

taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication. With communication we can interchange in different ways, feeling, persuading, advising, warning,

teaching and so on. In communication there is an action to get someone else to do something. One of the ways to do an action to someone to do something is by

using request.

Request is a speech act expressing the speaker’s desire for the hearer to do

something with the added proviso that the hearer takes this expressed desire as the reason to act, Bach and Harnish (1984: 48). Based on Bach and Harnish’s

definition, Kuang et al. (2006) redefined requests as verbal instructions performed

by the speaker expressing a desire for the addressee to do a particular thing and usually aim for the addressee to intend to do it and actually to do it.

According to Blum-Kulka (1984), a request is a prevent act that expresses a speaker’s expectation about some prospective action, verbal or nonverbal, on the part of the hearer. The goals of a request include action (e.g., “Can you open the

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know who our teacher is going to be this semester?”), and permission (e.g., “May

I leave early?”), and the appropriateness of a particular goal is determined by the

social norms of the society in which the speech act is made.

In order to categorize the wide range of request types, Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper (1989) developed a scale in the Cross Cultural Speech Act

Realization Project (CCSARP). The scale is composed of nine subcategories grouped into three broad categories of request strategies depending on the degree of directness. The nine subcategories groups are; (1) Mood Derivable (2)

Performatives (3) Hedged Performatives (4) Obligation Statements (5) Want Statements (6) Suggestory Formulae (7) Query Preparatory (8) Strong Hints and

(9) Mild Hints.

They pull together the five most direct request strategies (Mood derivable, performatives, hedged performatives, obligation statements and want statement)

called impositives, and combined original types (Suggestory formulae and Query Preparatory) called conventionally indirect. They treat the two types of hints (Strong Hints and Mild Hints) as one strategy type, hints.

According to Khalid (2013) the significance of political speech in present world lies in keeping the good relations among countries, nations, and also it

saves external and internal policies. Political discourse is a tool by politicians’ hands, through political speech the politicians can give warring, advice, or declare to do something, according to international interest requirements, the politicians

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This study investigates how request strategies are used on Barack’

Obama’s speech. It is become an interesting research because the writer tries to

find request strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech. In his background as

African American, he can be a president of the United States defeated his entire opponent and takes the people’s trust in him. So, the writer tries to find request

strategies on his speech that can make the people trust in him.

Based on Scientific Text Analysis of 2012 Debates, Barack Obama’s speech can persuade the audiences, Barrack Obama is more persuasive. Obama’s

speech is also more likely to contain causation.

Examples below show us some of his request strategies used in his

campaign speech in Columbus, Ohio on November 5th 2012:

“I'm asking for your vote, and if you're willing to work with me again.”

This utterance shows the request strategies of Performatives, which the

illocutionary force is explicitly named.

“I'm not ready to give up on the fight. I've got a whole lot of fight left in

me, and I hope you do too.” This utterance shows the request strategies of Query

Preparatory, which the utterance containing reference to preparatory conditions of willingness.

“I want to cut the growth of tuition so our young people aren't burdened

with debt. I want to recruit 100,000 math and science teachers so our kids don't

fall behind. I want to train 2 million Americans at our community colleges with

the skills that businesses are looking for right now.” The utterances show the

request strategies of Want Statements, which state the speaker’s desire that he

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All of examples show the request strategies that express ability, willingness and wish or desire in Barack Obama speech to persuade the audience.

Barack Obama is an amazing leader and many of his strong qualities are

comparable with those of other great leaders throughout history. Obama is able to inspire through speaking. Getting straight to the hard issues while still creating the

feeling of national unity for his listeners is a skill amazing speaking abilities. Obama won his campaign by creating hope of a better tomorrow for his country. His catch phrase, "Yes We Can," and inspirational posters all helped to promote

his ideals for change in America. With his phrase Obama can persuade the audiences.

Based on the previous research about The Modals Verbs: A Speech Act of Request in The Speech of The President of The United States Barack Obama”

from Khalid Wahaab Jabber and Zhang Jinguan, the researcher attempted to

explore the speech acts of request of political speech which has been delivered by president Obama. He uses them into two kinds of sentences, the declarative and interrogative, the study showed that the illocutionary force plays a major role in

the speech, the function of the request is the only act which has been dominated the context of the considered speech acts, the aim of two different sentences is

contrary to the internal meaning, therefore, the illocutionary forces appeared as a request said in indirect way .Due to the style of the political speech and for the sake of international significance, this indirect speech act which tackled by the

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And another research about “Metaphors in Barack Obama’s Spechees” from Syafarudin Marpaung, conclude that the use of metaphors in Barack Obama’s speeches are to convey the message and to persuade his people, to make

message more vivid and increase its retention and to satisfactorily perform as political values in reflected patriotism and liberalism.

From the explanation above, the researcher focus on the types of request strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech, how request strategies are used on

Barack Obama’s speech and the reason why the request strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech.

1.2Problems of the Study

The problems to be answer in this study are formulated as the following. 1. What types of request strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech?

2. How are the request strategies used on Barack Obama’s speech?

3. In what contexts are the request strategies used on Barack Obama’s speech?

1.3The Objectives of the Study

With reference to the problems previously, the objectives of the study are: 1. to find out the types of request strategies on Barack Obama’s speech. 2. to find out how the request strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech.

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1.4The Scope of the Study

The scope of the study is focused on the types of request strategies which are found on the first and second political victory speech of the president of the

United States Barack Obama. Further, the analysis of the study intends to find the objective and explanative of the types of request strategies used on Barack Obama’s speech.

1.5The Significance of the Study

The findings of this study are expected to be useful theoretically and practically. Theoretically, the lecturer can improve the ability to teach English and

enlarge their knowledge about the request strategies that are used in speech. And for the readers can enlarge their knowledge and understanding about request strategies are used in speech, especially in Barack Obama’s speech.

Practically, the readers can understand how request strategies are used on speech. It is hope that the result of the study will contribute for the other people to understand why the request strategies are used on speech. And for other researcher

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

1.1 CONCLUSIONS

After analyzing, the data conclusions are drawn as the following.

1. There are five of nine types of request strategies in the theory stated by

Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (1989:18) on Barack Obama’s victory speeches. Namely; Mood Derivable, Performatives, Obligation Statements, Want Statements and Mild Hints. The other, such as

Suggestory Formulae, Hedged Performatives, Query Preparatory and Strong Hints were not found in Barack Obama’s speech.

2. The request strategies on Barack Obama victory speeches tend to use positive politeness strategy than negative politeness strategy.

3. There are some contexts that speakers bring when they are use the language. This context includes experiences, assumptions and expectations. The request strategies on Barack Obama’s speech, Obama

used the context of expectation that can make the hearers trust in him. This context aims through the social interactions in the real life

1.2 SUGGESTIONS

In relation to the conclusion above, suggestions are stated as the following.

1. It is essential to conduct other research relating to request strategies, not just on the component of head act but from any other components in the

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down graders, upgrades and postposed supportive moves, so that it will enrich our understanding of request strategies.

2. It is also important to investigate to what extent directness of request relate to politeness in Barack Obama’s speech as well as speeches of Indonesian

people, for there is an assumption that the more indirect the request the

more polite it will sound. The question is whether it occurs in Barrack Obama’s speech and other Speeches of Indonesian people. Of course, this

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication accessed on Jan 8th 2014

http://blog.odintext.com/Scientific_Text_Analysis_of_2012 accessed on Jan 9th 2014

REQUEST STRATEGIES ON BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH.

REQUEST STRATEGIES ON BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH

FANDY ZULMI

REQUEST STRATEGIES ON BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH

FANDY ZULMI

ABSTRACT

ABSTRAK

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF APPENDICES

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS