SPEECH ACTS OF MAIN CHARACTER IN
AVATAR MOVIE SCRIPT
A THESIS
Submitted to English Department, Faculty of Language and Art In Partial Fulfillment Of The Requirements For
The Degree Of Sarjana Sastra
By:
ROY MARTIN SITANGGANG
Registration Number: 208222055
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
DECLARATION
Except where appropriately acknowledge, this thesis is my own work, has been expressed in my own words and has not previously been submitted for assessment.
I understand that this thesis may be screened electronically or otherwise for plagiarism.
Medan, Maret 2013
ABSTRACT
Sitanggang, Roy Martin. Reg. No. 208222055. Speech Acts of Main Character in Avatar Movie Script. A Thesis, English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan. 2013
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Jesus Christ, the most gracious and merciful, all praise for His mercy, guidance and loving care which have been given to the writer so this thesis entitled “Speech Acts of Main Character in Avatar Movie Script” could be completed well. This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra at English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts, State University of Medan.
This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the help of several individuals who always contributed and extended their valuable assistances in the preparation and completion of this thesis. The writer’s special appreciation goes to:
Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si. as the Rector of State University
of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum. as the Dean of Faculty of Languages and
Arts State University of Medan and to all her staffs.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd. as the Head of English Department. Dra. Rahmah, M.Hum. as the Secretary of English Department.
Dra. Meisuri, MA as the Head of Applied Linguistics Program
Dra. Masitowarni, M.Ed. thanks for their administrative help during the
writer’s study in English Department State University of Medan.
Drs. Muhammad Natsir, M.Hum. as the writer’s Thesis Supervisor and
Academic Consultant who always gave the encouragement, constant support, constructive comments, and suggestions to the writer in finishing this thesis.
Mam Endah who have helped the writer in providing the academic
administration.
The writer’s greatest family, my Dad, the lovable, Horfikran Sitanggang and my Mom, the greatest woman and the truly inspiring, Dormauli br.
Manik and also to my brothers and sisters Maslin Sitanggang/ F.Sibuea, Ranto Sitanggang/ K.Hutauruk, Rikki Sitanggang/ S.Tambunan, Eva Sitanggang/ N.Sihombing and my nephew/ niece (Gerhard, Yobel, Shella, Silvia, Yosia) for their endless love, prayers, advises, and
encouragement. Without them, the writer may never have overcome this long journey, because when he felt down, their love will always give him strength in facing all complications happened in his life
The writer’s best friend in NHKBP Dame Purwodadi Zev Nadeak,
motivates me in finishing and completing this study and thank you so much for the friendship, hospitality, moral support, and for all the fun and happy memories they shared. And loyal support and motivation from my lovely girl Sebrina Nuriani Nainggolan.
The writer’s special colleagues: Agus, Anton, James, Jansen, Mario,
Tohom, Wira, Manna, Etha, Meilyna and All of the writer’s friends in
Applied Linguistics A and B 2008, for studying together in classroom, discussing around and studying together under the ladder have motivated the writer to finish her study.
The people who direct or indirectly contributed in this research, your kindness means a lot to her. Thank you very much. May God bless us. Amen.
Medan, March 2013
The Writer,
v
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ... 26
A. Research Design ... 26
B. The Source of Data ... 26
C. The Technique of Collecting Data ... 26
D. The Technique of Analyzing the Data ... 27
CHAPTER IV THE DATA AND THE ANALYSIS OF DATA ... 28
A. The Data ... 28
B. The Analysis of Data ... 28
1. The Analysis of The Occurrence Types of Speech Acts ... 42
C. Research Findings ... 45
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 47
A. Conclusion ... 47
B. Suggestions ... 48
REFERENCES ... 49
APPENDICES ... 50
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix Page
1
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. The Background of the Study
Language is one of media which cannot be separated from human life. Human uses language in their speech, either spoken or written. Language is used every day by everybody to communicate with others, by using language in our daily life, it can be define as communication as human being. Communication is one ways to express our mind, feelings, ideas, and emotions. We can also express it by using gesture or body movement, action, signal and sound.
Austin (1962) stated that there are many different things that speakers can do with word and some utterance, the speakers produce are not statement or question about some piece of information, but an actions. It shows that words are not only something the speakers use to say things but also to do thing. Sometimes when the speakers say something, the speakers do not just say it exactly, but there is an implicit meaning behind it. Therefore, the words or utterance that we produce also can lead to misunderstanding.
2
This research takes pragmatic approach as the way of analysis, considering how the speakers use the language in the social interaction with others. According to Leech (1983) pragmatics can be stated as astudy of a language used in certain time and condition. Pragmatics is the study of speakers meaning base on situation. Pragmatics generally is the study of the natural understanding and specifically the study of how people comprehend and produce a communicative or speech act.
Speech act is concern with the speaker’s communicative intention in producing an utterance and it is defined by the purpose for which the speakers use the language, for example to make a request, to apologize, and to report (Yule, 1996). Speech act is the key concept in the field of pragmatics, the study of speaker’s intentions and what the speakers mean when they use the particular linguistics in context (Hatch, 1992). People do not use language just to state things but to do things, and to perform actions (Thomas, 1995).
The writer realizes that in our daily life, we also always use the speech act function when we have communication with others. For example, we say the weather is hot today; it means there is some implicit meaning to request to do an action that is to switch on the fan or maybe open the window.
3
The writer uses Avatar movie script as media for this analysis. Movie script is commonly understood as the written text which is spoken by the actor or player in movie. The movie script sometimes defines as the whole of utterance which is written in a piece of paper or more to be spoken by the actors or actress in the movie.
Concerning to the problem above, the writer takes “Avatar” movie to represent the different use of speech act. Avatar tell about the earth have severely depleted Earth's natural resources and Pendora still have much mineral so The RDA Corporation mines try to take mineral from Pendora. The writer chooses this movie because Avatar movie is one of the most popular movies in the box offices in the world. Avatar movie has got many awards such as Saturn Awards, Golden Globe Awards and earn more than $2 billion. The writer chooses Jake Sully character because he is the main character in Avatar movie.
B. The Problem of the Study
The problems of the study are formulated as the following:
1. What are the classifications of speech act uttered by Jake Sully in Avatar’s movie script?
2. What is the dominant classification of speech act uttered by Jake Sully in Avatar movie script?
4
C. The Scope of the Study
In order to have specific research, this study is limited on the main character in Avatar movie script. The main character in Avatar movie is Jake Sully. The writer uses George Yule’s theory to identify the Speech Act that is found in Avatar movie script. All the kinds of speech act that are classified according to its function become the scope of the study such as; declarations, representatives, expressives, directives, and commissives, which are found in Avatar movie script.
D. The Objective of the Study
The objectives of the study are:
1. To find out the classification of speech act that uttered by Jake Sully in Avatar movie script.
2. To find out the classification of speech act that is dominantly uttered by Jake Sully in Avatar movie script.
3. To describe the most dominant classification of speech act used in Avatar movie script.
E. The Significance of the Study
5
2. For readers, this research will give information and enrich their knowledge about speech act and how speech act used in the daily communication.
47
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions
Based on the findings of this research, it can concluded that:
1. The five types of Speech Acts are found in Avatar Movie script. They are (1) Declarative that it is intended for declaring war, firing, marrying, bidding, etc. (2) Representative that it is intended for assertions, facts, claims conclusions, descriptions, inform report, suggests, and claims. (3) Expressives that it is intended for thanking, apologizing, welcoming, joy, like, dislike, complaining, deploring, condoling, sorrow, and congratulating. (4) Directive that it is intended for requesting, commanding, warning, permitting, urging questioning, ordering, suggesting, advising, begging, challenging, insisting, and pleading, and (5) Commisive that it is intended for promising, threatening, swearing and offering in future action. The total number of those five types speech acts that uttered by Jake Suly are 350 utterances. The total number of declaratives acts are 3 items (0.85%), representatives acts are 176 items (50.28%), expressives acts are 48 items (13.71%), directives acts are 96 items (27.42%), commissives acts are 27 items (7.71%).
48
3. Representatives act is the most dominant used in avatar movie script because avatar movie is tell about science and military. So there are many sentences containing facts, assertions, claims conclusions, descriptions, inform report, suggests, and claims.
B. Suggestions
In relation to the conclusion above, some suggestions are given as following: 1. For readers, this research will give information and enrich their
knowledge about speech act and how speech act used in the daily communication.
2. For Student of English Department. It is expected that the student can obtain more information about communication, especially in choosing speech act of action based on appropriate situational context.
REFERENCES
Austin, J.L. 1955. How to Do Things with Words. London: Oxford University.
Black, Elizabeth. 2006. Pragmatic Stylistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
Chapman, Siobhnan and ChristopherRoutledge. 2009. Key Ideas in Linguistics
and The Philosophy of Language. Edinburg: Edinburg University.
Clark and Clark. 1977. Psychology and Language: An Introduction to
Psycholinguistics. United States of America: Harcourt Brace Jovanovic.
Cummings, Louis. 2009.Clinical Pragmatics. New York: Cambridge University. Curse, D. Alan. 2000. Meaning Language: An Introduction to Semantic and
Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University.
Grundy, Peter. 2000. Doing Pragmatics. London: Oxford University Press.
Levinson, S.C. 1983. Pragmatic. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Peccei, J.s. 1999. Pragmatics. London: Routledge.
Searle, J.R. 1979.Expression and Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Yule, George. 1996. The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar. ( accessed on Wednesday 4 April 2012 )
http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cameron. ( accessed on Friday 18 April 2012 )
http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/movie. ( accessed on Sunday 1 April 2012 )
http:/imsdb.com/scripts/avatar.html. ( accessed on Wednesday 23 May 2012 )
