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IN THE FILM ENTITLED “PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS” ( A SOCIO-PRAGMATICS APPROACH)
Thesis
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment For Requirements For The Sarjana Sastra Degree in English Department
By
WAHYU SATOTO C1306535
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
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iv Name : Wahyu Satoto
NIM : C1306535
Stated that the thesis entitled Complaint Expressions Used by the Characters in
the Film Entitled “Pursuit of Happiness” is originally made by the researcher. It is not made by other persons since the researcher truly made it by himself. Thus, it
is not what people call as plagiarism.
In the future, if it is proved that the researcher cheats, the researcher is ready to
take the responsibility.
Surakarta, April 2011
The researcher
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Never Put off Till Tomorrow What You Can Do Today Ever Onward never Retreat
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This thesis is dedicated to:
My beloved mother and father
My lovely sister and brothers
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All praises are just for the Almighty God, for the blessing so that I can
have the capability to complete this thesis. Many sides has given a lot of
assistance from the beginning to the completion of this thesis. Therefore, I would
like to express my gratitude to all people as follows:
1. The Dean of Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts, UNS, Drs. Riyadi Santosa,
M.Ed, Ph.D.
2. The Head of English Non-Regular Program, Drs. S. Budi Waskito, M.Pd.
3. My thesis consultant, Dr. Sri Marmanto M.Hum, for his guidances,
suggestions, and useful corrections for my thesis.
4. My academic consultant, Dyah Ayu Nila Khrisna, SS for the assistance.
5. All lecturers of English Non-Regular Program for the valuable knowledge
which had been given to me.
6. My beloved mother and father for your never ending love, support, prayer, and
patience.
7. My brothers and sister for giving me such a great love and support.
8. For my special friend, Wulan Sari, thanks for the love, fun time and wonderful
companionship. I thank to you all who never stop to remind and support me to
finish this thesis. Love you so girl.
9. Najeb, Fa’i, Takbier, Ryo, Ateng, Roby, Selly (my crazy friends of what we
called as the bandit?) thanks for our fun time and your support. Love you all
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togetherness in Linguistics class, we have our enjoyable moment.
11.Luky, Feri, Tyas, Rika, Susi, Inul, Tiwi, Beta, Ayuk, DJ, and All my friends of
English Non-Regular Program who I can’t mention one by one, good luck and
thanks for everything.
12.Everyone who has sweet memories with me.
I realize that this thesis is still far from being perfect. Therefore, some
advices and supporting criticism are expected to make this thesis better.
The researcher
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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW……… 10
A. Sociolinguistics ... 10
1. Definition of Sociolinguistics……… . 10
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B. Ethnography of Communication ... 15
1. Speech Community ... 16
1. The Definition of Speech Acts……… 23
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G. Technique of Analyzing Data ... 47
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS……… 48
A. Introduction of Analysis ... 48
B. Types of Complaint... 49
C. Data Analysis ………. 51
D. Discussion ... 81
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION……… 90
A. Conclusion ... 90
B. Suggestion ... 94
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 95
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Wahyu Satoto. 2011. Complaint expressions used by the characters in the movie entitled Pursuit of Happiness. Thesis: English Department of Non-Regular program. Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts. Sebelas Maret University.
This research focuses on the complaint expressions used by the characters in
the film entitled Pursuit of Happiness. This research is conducted to describe the
strategies of complaining used by the characters in the movie “Pursuit of
Happiness”, to describe the functions of the act of complaining employed by the
speakers, and to identify the responses of the complainees towards the complaints. This research is a descriptive qualitative research. This research uses a socio-pragmatics approach. The sampling technique used in this research is total
sampling. The conversations containing complaint expressions in the film “Pursuit
of Happiness” are taken as the data.
From the result of the data analysis, the researcher draws conclusions, they are:
There are five types of complaint strategies that are employed by the characters in the movie entitled Pursuit of Happiness, namely: hint strategy, direct
accusation strategy, modified blame strategy, explicit condemnation of accused’s
action strategy and explicit condemnation of the accused as a person strategy. According to the directness level of the complaint that is proposed by Anna Trosborg, Hint strategy is the mildest strategy and explicit condemnation of the accused as a person strategy is the most severe one. Anna Trosborg proposes Internal and External modification as an additional strategy. Hence, Internal modification dominates the whole data over the External ones.
There are three functions of complaint expressions employed by the
characters in the film entitled Pursuit of Happiness, namely: to break relationship
or create a social distance, repair the relationship and improve the situation, and show negative feeling or specific negative evaluation only. Complaint expressions produced by the speaker has particular function which is appropriate with its context.
There are eight types of responses that are employed by the complainee to respond the complaint of the complainer. They are denial, apology, tease, zero, change topic, explanation, justification, and challenge. Respond categories of
“excuse” was not found in my data analysis.
commit to user CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
Research Background
People need to communicate to each other in order to fulfill their own
needs, as well as to express their thoughts, feelings, and knowledge. Thus, they need
language as a means of communication in social interaction. The use of language is
related to social and cultural values. Sapir (in Fasold, 1996: 50) describes that
language use is a guide to social reality. Furthermore, language is a means of
interpersonal communication and influence. In the interpersonal interactions,
language is used by speakers for thinking and for communicating with each other in
many different contexts for a wide variety of purposes (Wardhaugh, 1976).
In an attempt to express themselves, people do not only produce utterances
containing grammatical words, but also perform actions via those utterances. Actions
performed via utterances are generally called speech acts (Yule, 1996: 47). Austin (in
Levinson, 1983:236) divides three kinds of acts that are simultaneously performed in
which in saying something one is doing something.
a) Locutionary act: the utterance of a sentence with determines sense and
reference.
b) Illocutionary act: the making of a statement, offer, promise, etc. in uttering
c) Perlocutionary act: the bringing about effects on the audience by means of
uttering sentence, such as effects being special to the circumstances of
utterance.
Trosborg defines complaint as an illocutionary act in which the speaker
(complainer) expresses his/ her dissaproval, negative feeling, etc towards the state of
affairs described in the proposition (the complainable) and for which he/she holds the
hearer (the complainee) responsible, either directly or indirectly (1995: 311-312).
Complaint can be expressed in daily life, in various occasions. What people need to
concern is that, to express a complaint, such particular strategy must be determined
without neglecting the context of situation. Complaint can naturally cause offence
and highly threaten the social relationship between speaker and hearer. Therefore, it is
very important for people to be able to use appropriate strategy to perform complaint
in order to avoid or minimize personal conflicts in communication. Considering this,
a particular level of directness is needed also to be determined. Complaint can be
expressed at various level of directness. By choosing a particular level of directness,
the complainer is able to decide on the conflict potential of the complaint (Trosborg,
1995: 314)
Based on the explanation above, the researcher is interested in analyzing
complaint expressions in the film entitled “Pursuit of Happiness”. This film provides
some phenomena of complaints that are expressed by the characters that can be
varied. There are many complaint’s utterances in this film which are used to express the speaker’s negative feeling towards the others. Here are some examples of
complaints in the film “Pursuit of Happiness ” :
DATA 04 /PoH /IM (Dc- App) /HINT- CT Description of Context:
The conversation occurs in Gardner's house, early in the morning Gardner and
Linda has a short conversation before they start their activity. Gardner talks to his
wife Linda about being a stockbroker, but Linda feels that her husband is only
dreaming. She wants Gardner to sell his entire machines before he talk about another
job. Conversation runs informally. The participants here are Gardner and Linda, they
are husband and wife. (Gardner does not like Linda underestimates him)
Linda : You should probably do your sales calls.
Gardner : I don't need you to tell me about my sales calls, Linda.
I got three of them before the damn office is even open.
(Gardner is upset because he knows his duty and he does not want to discuss it anymore)
In the conversation above, the data belongs to Internal Modification which the
complaint is softened or weakened by Downgraders, from the words “Don’t talk to
Linda underestimates him. Linda just wants Gardner to have responsibility with his
current job and not to talk about having another job. Gardner is upset to Linda and he
utters his complaints: “Don't talk to me like that, Linda. I'm gonna go down and see about this, and I'm gonna do it during the day”. In applying the complaint, he
uses the Hint strategy of complaining (HINT). He actually complains about Linda’s
action of underestimating him. But he does not mention the complainable thing in his
statement. He hides the complainable thing into a piece of information telling about
his job and wants to apply a job as a stockbroker. He delivers the complaint in usual
and low intonation. His face also shows no anger since it looks so casual. Those all
indicate that he uses such strategy since he does not want to attack Linda, because he
loves his wife. His aim is to gain Linda’s understanding so that he can handle the
situation and Gardner can also do what he wants to do.
Linda responds Gardner’s complaint immediately with a change of topic “You should probably do your sales calls.” She really has no intention to soften his up.
She wants her husband to sell his machine and to get out from that business, because
it makes Linda has to work hard to fulfill their family needs. She does not want any
personal conflict with her husband, since they are husband and wife.
. DATA 07 /PoH / IM- ( Dc – U)/ ECAA / CT Description of Context:
The conversation occurs when Gardner at home, Linda and his son
Christopher are not at home, he is so confused. Suddenly he receives a call from Dean
does not have a paper to write the phone number so he has to memorize it. Gardner
goes outside to find his family, and he meets Wayne at the mini market and asks
Wayne about his family while he writes the phone number. When Gardner writes the
phone number, Wayne talks to Gardner about football score. Gardner gets annoyed
from Wayne because he also has to recall the phone number. Conversation runs
informally. The participants here are Gardner and Wayne; they are close friends and
they always help each other.
Gardner : Excuse me, did Linda and Christopher come in here?
Wayne : No, I haven't see them.1 1 9-1 20. Double overtime,
Moons hits three-pointer at 1 7 seconds left.
Gardner : Wayne, Wayne, Wayne. I Can't talk to you about
numbers right now.
(Gardner is annoyed by Wayne as he has to recall phone number and suddenly Wayne talks to him about football score in the same time)
Wayne : What's your problem with numbers?
From the conversation above Wayne does not know what happens to Gardner,
he just wants to talk with Gardner about football match, and he talks about score to
Gardner when Gardner has to recall the phone number from Dean Witter Company.
Gardner immediately utters a statement “Wayne, Wayne, Wayne. I can’t talk to you about numbers right now.” The data above belongs to Internal Modification which
the complaint is softened or weakened by Downgrades and those are modifiers that
under-represent the state of affairs denoted in the complaint. It can be found in the
words “Wayne, Wayne, Wayne. I can’t talk to you about numbers right now” !”.
which Gardner uses the strategy of Explicit Condemnation of the accused’s action (ECAA). His complaint is a direct complaint which can be seen from the use of
reference “you”. He feels that Wayne disturbs him when he stucked in an emergency situation, He also makes the complaint explicit. Since they are just common friends,
Gardner states the complaint directly but in usual and low intonation to avoid
personal conflict. He expresses his annoyance towards Wayne’s stupid action by
talking to him as he has to recall the phone number because it makes him confused.
Wayne considers that Gardner’s behavior is unusual. Wayne does not
understand why Gardner says something like that and he tries to understand what
happen to Gardner . So Wayne changes the subject and asks Gardner to know what
happens to Gardner and says: “What's your problem with numbers?” Wayne's
response shows clearly that he tries to understand what happen to Gardner by
changing the topic. But then Gardner leaves Wayne because he has to find his family
and to avoid personal conflict with his friend.
From the examples above, complaint can be uttered in various ways
influenced by the context of situation. The uniqueness and variety in uttering the
complaint are considered by the researcher as an interesting phenomena to be
observed. In accordance with that, the researcher comes to the point of thinking that it
would be interesting to discuss about complaint strategies based on its directness
level, and the functions of the complaining act and also the responses of the
complainees toward the complaints since there are also various kinds of responses
“Complaint Expressions Used By the Characters in the Film Entitled Pursuit of Happiness” ( A Socio-Pragmatics Approach).
A. Problem Statements
Based on the background, the problem statements are arranged as follows:
1. What strategies of complaint are employed by the characters in the film
entitled “Pursuit of Happiness”?
2. What are the functions of the act of complaining uttered by the speaker?
3. How do the complainees respond to the complaint?
B. Research Objectives
The objectives of the research are as follows:
1. To describe the strategies of complaints found in the film entitled “ Pursuit
of Happiness.
2. To describe the functions of the act of complaining uttered by the speakers.
3. To describe how the complainees respond the complaints.
D. Problem Limitation
A number of speech acts can be found in the film entitled “Pursuit of
Happiness”. However, the research gives focus of analysis only on the speech acts of
complaints. The analysis will be based on the data taken from the film entitled
“Pursuit of Happiness”. There are several non-verbal complaints in the film.
E. Research Benefits
This research is carried out to give contributions as follows:
1. It is expected that this research will give an input and understanding to the
students in studying Speech Act, especially the complaints and complaint
responses.
2. It is expected that this research can be used as a reference to conduct further
research on complaints and complaint responses.
F. Research Methodology
This research employs a descriptive qualitative method. The steps in this
reseach to solve the problem are collecting data, classifying data, analyzing data, and
drawing the conclusion. In this research, the source of data is the film entitled
“Pursuit of Happiness”. The data are gained from the utterances containing complaint
in the film “Pursuit of Happiness”. Further explanation of the research methodology
G. Thesis Organization
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION consists of Research Background, Problem
Statements, Research Objectives, Problem Limitation, Research
Benefits, Research Methodology, and Thesis Organization.
CHAPTER II : LITERATURE REVIEW consists of Sociolinguistics,
Ethnography of Communication, Pragmatics, Speech Acts,
Complaints, Sociopragmatics, Synopsis of the Film, and Review
of Related Study.
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY consists of Research
Methodology, Data and Source of Data, Sample and Sampling
Technique, Instrument of the Research, Research Procedure,
Technique of Coding Data, and Technique of Analyzing Data.
CHAPTER IV : DATA ANALYSIS consists of Introduction to Analysis, Data
Analysis and Discussion.
commit to user CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
Some theories and references are applied in the analysis in order to support this
research. The details of the theories and references are as follows:
A. Sociolinguistics
1. Definition of Sociolinguistics
In a society, people speak to interact with one another. The language which is
used in interaction is influenced by a number of social factors which define the
relationship between the participants. A number of social factors influence the way
people use language.
People need a language to communicate to others, thus language cannot be
separated from the society. Speaking about language and society, there is a branch of
linguistics that studies all aspects of language and society, this branch is called
sociolinguistics (Biber and Finegan, 1994).
In accordance with sociolinguistics, there are some sociologists who give a
definition about it. According to Holmes (1992:1), sociolinguistics is the study of
relationship between language and society. It explains why people can speak
differently in different social context. It also concerns with identifying the social
functions of language and the ways it is used to convey social meanings.
Moreover, Holmes states that sociolinguistics are interested in explaining why
we speak differently in different social contexts and they are concerned with
identifying the social functions of a language and the ways it is used to convey social
meaning (1992: 2). It means that the way someone speaks is influenced by the
situational context in which the conversation or speech happens. Holmes also states
that the social factors and social dimensions influence the choice of appropriate ways
of speaking in different social context. Social factors involve four components as
follows:
a) The participants: who is speaking and who are they speaking to?
b) The setting or social context of the interaction: where are they speaking?
c) The topic: what is being talked about?
d) The function: why are they speaking? (Holmes, 1992: 12)
Thus, based on the definition above it can be pointed out that there are some
important aspects related to sociolinguistics. It concerns with analyzing how people
use language in social interaction. Furthermore, when investigating the subject in the
sociolinguistics area, we should consider the sociolinguistics rules of who speaks to
whom, in what situation, when, and where the conversation happens.
2. The Scope of Sociolinguistics
into two studies. They are Macro-sociolinguistics and Micro-sociolinguistics.
Macro-sociolinguistics is concerned with the study of language history and
development in the scope of society in general. It stresses on the social aspects
(Fishman, 1972: 242). It means that macro-sociolinguistics covers the inter-group
interaction or large group of speakers. Furthermore, according to Trudgill, the term of
macro-linguistics refers to sociolinguistics area, which involves the study of
relatively large group of speech (1992: 51).
Micro-sociolinguistics concerns the study of a language in specific speech
communities with the scope of discussion such as the behavior toward the language,
style of speech, domains of language use, register, speech act, etc. It means that
micro-sociolinguistics covers the intra-group interaction or the relatively small group
of speakers (Fishman, 1972). While according to Trudgill, micro-sociolinguistics is
the study on social, which emphasizes on the study of face-to face interaction,
discourse analysis, conversational analysis, and other areas of sociolinguistics
involving the study of relatively small group of people (1992: 51).
In this research, the researcher takes micro-sociolinguistics as the frame of the
study as it is focusing to the individual interaction, especially complaining acts
3. The Dimension of Sociolinguistics
According to Holmes (1992: 12) there are four social dimensions which
related to the social factors. Holmes suggests that it is useful to take account of four
different dimensions for analysis related to the social factor. These social dimensions
are:
a. Solidarity/Social Distance
This dimension takes account for the pattern of linguistic interaction. How
well the participants know each other is a relevant factor in language choice.
Strangers with little in common are more likely to use official language for
communication. Vernacular forms within a language occur more frequently in
interactions where people know each other well. Standard forms often express social
distance between participants. People use different words to different person based on
the closeness between them, whether in intimate or distant relationship.
The social distance scale deals with participant relationships. This scale is
useful to know that how well we know someone is relevant factor in linguistic choice.
It means that how well the speaker knows the hearer is one of the most important
factors affecting the way he/she talks to them. The dimension of social scale deals
with the influence of closeness relationship between the participants in the
conversation. If the participants have intimate relationship, it will probably emerge
high solidarity between them. Otherwise, if the participants are not so close, it will
b. Status/ Power
The dimension of status/ power accounts for variety of linguistic differences
in the way people speak. People speak in a way which signal their social status and
construct the social identity in a community where they live, whether they are
superior, equal, or subordinate. The status/power scale points to the relevance or
relative status in some linguistic choices.
The status scale concerned with participant relationship. The status or power
dimension accounts for a variety of linguistic differences in the way people speak.
The speaker speaks in such ways that signal their social status in a community. The
participants who have different social status, a superior and a subordinate, will be
different in their way of conversation from those participants who have the same
status. The way people talk to others also reflects their relationship on this status and
power dimension. Where people use non-reciprocal address forms, for instance, the
reason is always due to a status or power difference.
c. Formality
Formality dimension accounts for speech variation in different setting or
contexts. The formality or informality of the setting influences the use of language.
The formality scale is concerned in assessing the influence of the social setting or
type of interaction on language choices. Official languages are the appropriate
varieties for formal government interactions and state occasions. Vernaculars are the
predominate in casual talk, while standard forms are more frequent in situations such
as informal interview with the school principal or a bank manager.
d. The Referential and Affective Function Scales
The function of an interaction is also an important influence to the linguistic form.
Some interactions, including its linguistic features, are strongly influenced by the
kinds of information they want to get. Thus, the basic functions of a language in all
communities are referential and affective (or social) meaning. In referential function,
language can convey objective information of a referential kind. While in affective
function, language is a means of expressing how someone is feeling. In short, the
more referentially an interaction is, the less expression of the felling of the speaker is.
The four social dimensions above are useful to analyze the sociolinguistics
variation in different kinds of speech communities and in different context.
B. Ethnography of Communication
The ethnography of communication studies the relationship between language
and culture. Hymes in Chaika defines the ethnography of communication as a study
of the dynamics of communication between social groups (Chaika, 1994: 164).
According to Fasold the ethnography of speaking (It is known as ethnography of
communication) is the approach to the sociolinguistics of language in which the use
of language in general is related to social and cultural values (Fasold, 1996: 39).
deals with language as a means of communication, which is used in a certain society
considering the norms and the values applied in the community.
The ethnography of communication is not simply a study of language
structure or grammar. It concerns on how the speakers use utterances, whether to
show deference, to get someone to do something, to display verbal skill or to give
someone else information which is considered simply outside the concerns of
linguistic theory.
Thus, the ethnography of communication seeks to account not merely for
what can be said but for when, where, by whom, to whom, in what manner, and in
what particular circumstances. It is necessary to understand the fundamental concepts
of the ethnography of communication because the ways of speaking may vary from
one culture to another.
1. Speech Community
Bloomfield stated that a speech community is group of people who interact by
means of speech (in Hudson, 1996: 25). In other words, speech community is a group
of people who communicate to each other by means of language.
Another definition of speech community is proposed by Fishman (1972), that
speech community is one; all of the members of speech community share at least a
single speech variety and the norms for its appropriate use. So, clusters of people do
their member of speech community. They do not have gaps or overlap in their
clusters.
Studies of speech communities reveal the social stratification, social networks
and relevant social groupings. People within one community do not necessary speak
the same way. Moreover people may belong to several speech communities with
consequences for changing their speech behaviors but all of members of speech
communities may not use the rules of language in the same way. Different members
of a speech community may have very different experiences. Some may have gone
into the service where they met people of many different dialects, thus they change
their own perceptions. The different attitude of a group is discovered by examining
the dialects that they have copied as well as by asking people to evaluate their own
and other’s speech.
From the definitions above, it can be concluded that a speech community is a
group of people who use at least a single speech variety and have the same rules in
interacting each other that mutually accept way among themselves.
2. Speech Situation
Hymes (in Fasold, 1996: 42) defines speech situations as situations associated
with (or marked by the absence of) speech. Speech situations are not purely
communicative. They may be composed by both communicative and other kinds of
events. It means that speech situations may be in the form of nonverbal context. They
speaking as contexts.
From the explanation above, the speech situation refers to the context within
the speech occurances. However, it is not directly governed by the rules of speaking.
The situations deal with any constellation of statuses and settings which constrain the
interaction that may occur, between church and priest, clinic and doctor, class and
teacher, etc. Thus, church, clinic, and class are the situations. The speech situation
might affect the communicative behavior in the speech community.
3. Speech Event
Yule defines that a speech event is an activity in which participants interact
via a language in some conversational way to arrive at some outcome (1996: 57). In
other words, speech event involves participants, having a social relationship of some
kind and it may have particular goals.
Hymes (1985: 52) describes that speech event will be restricted to activities or
aspects of activities that are directly governed by rules of norms for the use of
language. A speech event occurs within a speech situation. A speech event may be
built from single or several speech acts. Therefore, the same type of speech act may
recur in different types of speech event and the same type of speech event may occur
4. Speech Act
Speech act is a part of pragmatics study. According to Searle (1969: 16),
speaking a language is performing speech acts, acts such as making statement, giving
command, asking questions, and making promises. Yule in “Pragmatics” (1996: 47)
defines speech act as action performed via utterances. Similarly, Austin (in Tsui,
1994: 9) states that act refers to the action performed in making an utterance. All of
those statements refer to the same understanding that speech act is particular action
performed when people say something.
Since this research is mostly concentrated on the study of speech act,
especially on the study of speech act of complaining, further explanation of speech
act focused on pragmatics area will be provided in the next sub chapter.
5. Component of Speech
The ethnography of communication studies speech acts in relation to the
social context. Speech situation, speech event or speech act cannot get rid of the
communication. According to Hymes (in Fasold 1996: 44), there are eight
components of speech, abbreviated as SPEAKING, which reflect the relationship and
the intentions of participants in communicative events. They are as follows:
a. Situation (S)
Situation includes the setting and the scene. The setting refers to the concrete
refers to the abstract of psychological setting or the cultural definition of the occasion.
b. Participants (P)
The participants involved in the communication are not only the speaker and
the hearer, but also the addressor and the audience. The distinction between the
speakers and the addressor (source) can be seen, for example: when the words of the
chief (addressor) are repeated by the spokesman (speaker). The addressor who is not
presented would be the case, because the addressor is the head of the state whose
message is read to the reporter by the press agent. Furthermore, it deals with who is
speaking and who they are speaking to. For example, a telephone conversation
involves a sender and a receiver.
c. Ends (E)
Ends of a speech act can be divided into outcomes and goals. Outcomes are
the purpose of the event from a culture point of view. The goals are the purpose of the
individual participant, for example, the personal goal of the seller is to maximize the
price while the buyer wants to minimize it. Basically, its goal is to get something by
exchanging value from one person to another.
d. Act Sequence (A)
Act sequence refers to message forms (how something is said) and message
content (what is said). It deals with the used precise words, how they are used, and the
know how to formulate speech events and speech acts in their culture appropriately
and how to manage changes in topic. For example, causal conversations may discuss
fashion (message content) in informal situations between best friends.
e. Key (K)
Key refers to the tone, manner, or spirit in which a speech act is performed,
whether it is serious, mocking, sarcastic, and so on. Furthermore, it also refers to the
feeling, atmosphere, and attitude. Moreover, the key may be marked by nonverbal
action such as certain kinds of behavior, gesture, or posture. The definition of aspects
of key is as follows:
1) Tone : It is the general spirit of the scene, such as brave, angry,
afraid, etc.
2) Manner : It is the participants’ way of behaving toward others, whether
it is polite, impolite, formal, informal, serious, mocking, etc.
3) Feeling : It concerns to emotion indicating happiness, anxiety, shock,
anger, etc.
4) Atmosphere : It refers to the feeling that affects the mind in a place or
condition, such as good, evil, etc.
5) Attitude : It is participants’ ways of thinking and behaving toward a
f. Instrumentalities (I)
Instrumentalities refer to channel and form of speech. Channel is defined as
the way a message travels from one person to another whether by oral or written.
Messages can also be transmitted by such a means as telegraph, semaphore, and
smokes signals or drumming. The form of speech refers to language and their
subdivisions dialects, codes, varieties and register.
g. Norms (N)
Norms are divided into two, namely norms of interaction and norms of
interpretation. Norms of interaction refer to non-linguistic rules of when, how, and
how often speech occurs in the community. Norms of interaction are determined by
the culture of the community. Thus, they are different in each different community.
Norms of interpretation implicate the belief system of a community. It involves trying
to understand what is being conveyed beyond what is in the actual words used. One
has to follow both norms of interaction and norms of interpretation in order to be
competent in communicating in a certain culture.
h. Genre (G)
Genre refers to categories such as poems, myths, proverbs, jokes, lectures,
sermons, editorials, etc. Genres often coincide with the speech event, but genres need
to be distinguished from speech events since a speech genre can occur in more than
of its own. (Hymes in Fasold, 1996: 44-45)
C. Pragmatics
A branch of linguistics study that focuses in meaning of utterances is called
pragmatics. The study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and
interpreted by listener (or reader) is known as pragmatic (Yule, 1996:4). Thus, when
people deal with pragmatics, they deal with utterances’ meaning. This is a study that
can help people to be able to figure out the meaning of particular utterances.
Meanwhile Levinson (1997: 24) states that pragmatics is the study of the role of
context that focuses on meaning of utterances. It means that this type of study
involves the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and how the
context influences what is said. The context takes important position due to its ability
to give influence to the utterances’ meaning. Therefore, in order to know and
understand the meaning of the speaker’s utterance, the hearer needs to concern about
the context of the conversation. Similarly, McManis (1987: 197) states that
pragmatics concerns itself with how people use language within a context and why
they use language in particular ways.
According to Fraser (in Schmidt, 1996: 30), pragmatics is the theory of
linguistic communication. Things that are involved in linguistic communication,
according to him, are what can be communicated, how the speaker goes about
accomplishing the intended communication, and why certain strategies are selected
From those definitions, it can be concluded that pragmatics is a study that
discusses meaning of language by regarding the relation between a language and a
context. Thus, it can be clearly understood that the interaction between the context
and language becomes the main study in pragmatic.
1. Speech Acts 1. The Definition of Speech Act
In an attempt to express themselves, people not only produce utterances
containing grammatical words, but also perform actions via those utterances. Actions
performed via utterances are generally called speech acts (Yule, 1996: 47). Searle
(1969: 16) states that speaking a language is performing speech acts, acts such as
making statement, giving command, asking questions, making promises and so on. It
means that particular actions will be performed when people state an utterance.
Speech act is utterances which function to state the speaker's intention to the hearer.
The speaker’s utterance here causes the hearer perform particular actions.
According to Austin in Tsui, speech acts is defined as the act that refers to the
action performed in making an utterance (Tsui, 1994: 9). It means that language can
be used to perform particular actions. When we say an utterance, we actually do an
action. As what Austin states in his book How To Do Things With word, in some
cases and senses in which to say something is to do something; or in which by saying
or in saying something we are doing something (Austin,1962: 12). Furthermore,
illocutionary and perlocutionary. Those three kinds of act are as follows:
1. Locutionary : the actual words uttered
2. Illocutionary : the force or intention behind the words
3. Perlocutionary : the effect of the illocutionary on the hearer
This is an example to give a clear understanding about the three kinds of act
above.
“It’s hot here” (Taken from Thomas, 1995: 49)
The act of saying “it’s hot here” is the locutionary act while the illocutionary
act or the meaning of the utterance is to command the speaker might need some fresh
air and the perlocutionary act might be that someone opens the window.
2. The classification of Speech Act
Based on Searle’s classification in Yule (1996, 53-54), speech act can be
divided into five categories as follows:
1. Declarations
Declarations are kinds of speech acts that change the world via utterances.
The speaker has to have a special institutional role, in specific context, in order to
perform a declaration appropriately. Declarations cover declaring war, naming,
marrying, christening, etc.
For example: Priest: I pronounce you husband and wife.
Referee: You’re out!
2. Representatives
Representatives are kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker believes
to be the case or not. The examples of speech act included in representatives are
statements of fact, assertions, conclusions, and descriptions.
For example: a. The earth is flat.
b. Chomsky didn’t write about peanuts
c. It was a warm sunny day.
3. Expressives
Expressives are kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker feels. They
express psychological states and can be statements of pleasure, pain, like, dislike,
joy, or sorrow. They are giving compliment, congratulating, welcoming, thanking,
5. Commisives
Commissives are those kinds of speech acts that the speakers use to commit
themselves to some future action. They express what the speaker intends
including promise, threat, and pledge.
For example: a. I’ll be back.
b. I’m going to get it right next time.
c. We will not do that.
2. Direct and Indirect Speech Acts
The direct speech acts perform their functions in a direct and literal manner
(McManis, et.al, 1987: 200). They also state that the direct speech acts can be
performed (a) by making a direct, literal utterance, or (b) by using a performative
verb that names the speech act.
According to Yule, direct speech act occurs when there is a direct
relationship between structure and a function (Yule, 1996: 55). The speaker expresses
his / her intention explicitly in order to make the hearer understands and interprets
what the speaker means easily.
Meanwhile indirect speech acts, in general, are the syntactic form of an
in Parker, 1986: 17). Indirectness is conveying meaning without saying it explicitly
(Fasold, 2006: 361).
Indirect speech act, according to Fraser, are those illocutionary acts which
are not directly performed in the sense in which we have used the term, but which are
intended to be inferred by the speaker on the basis of what has been said, the way in
which it was said, and the context of speaking (in Schmidt, 1996:46)
3. Complaint 1. The Definition of Complaint
Complaint is one of speech acts belonging to the category of expressive
function. This category includes moral judgments which express the speaker’s
approval as well as disapproval of the behavior mentioned in the judgment. The act of
complaining is in essence retrospective in that a speaker passes a moral judgment on
something which (he/she believes) the complainee has already done or failed to do, or
is in the process of doing (Trosborg, 1995:311). From those definitions, complaint
can be defined as a speaker’s disapproving statement towards someone’s behavior
which includes the giving of moral judgment.
According to Trosborg, complaint is defined as an illocutionary act in which
the speaker (the complainer) expresses his/her disapproval, negative feeling, etc,
towards the state of affairs described in the proposition (the complainable) and for
which he/she holds the hearer (the complainee responsible, either directly or
with displeasure or annoyance to an action that has affected the speaker unfavorably.
In Leech terminology, the complaint is a representative of the conflictive
function, which includes acts of threatening, accusing, cursing and reprimanding. The
act of complaining is designed to produce offence and they can break the social
useful strategy by avoiding of mentioning the hearer who is indirectly responsible. By
formulating a complaint indirectly as a piece of information or a request for
information, it is often possible to avoid that a direct confrontation arises from direct
accusation. However, in the latter case (a request instead of a complaint), the speaker
runs the risk of loosing face him/herself, as there is no guarantee that his/her request
will be granted (Trosborg, 1995: 313-314). From those statements we can assume that
when people do a complaint, such particular strategy must be determined without
neglecting the context of situation. Complaint can naturally cause offence and highly
threaten the social relationship between the speaker and the hearer. Therefore, it is
very important for people to be able to use appropriate strategy to perform complaint
2. Complaint Strategies
Trosborg (1995: 315-320) sets up the complaint categories based on the data
obtained in the present study: no explicit reproach, expression of annoyance or
disapproval, accusation and blame. He also establishes 8 sub-categories. The situation
of the complaint strategies given in the example is “damaged car” (A hearer has
borrowed a speaker’s car and damaged it. The speaker complains). The complaint
strategies are presented at level of increasing directness.
a. No explicit reproach
The complainable thing is not mentioned in the proposition. This strategy is a
weak complaint strategy but it might be used successfully to prepare more
forceful strategies.
Strategy 1. Hints
Example: My car was in perfect order when I last drew it.
There was nothing wrong with my car yesterday.
b. Expression of annoyance or disapproval
A complainer expresses his/her annoyance, dislike, disapproval, etc.
concerning a certain state of affair he/she considers bad for him/her. The utterance
may also express the ill consequence resulting from an offence for which the
complainee is positioned implicitly as the one who is responsible.
Strategy 2. Annoyance
Example: There’s a horrible dent in my car.
Strategy 3. ill Consequences
Example: How terrible! Now I won’t be able to work tomorrow
Oh damn it, I’ll lose my insurance bonus now.
3. Accusation
Accusations seek to establish the agent of complainable thing. Troshborg
distinguished two level of indirectness. The first level is that the complainer can
ask the hearer question about the situation or assert that he/she is in some way
connected with the offence and thereby the complainer can try to establish the
hearer as a potential agent of complainable thing (indirect accusation). The
second level is that the complainer can directly accuse the complainee of having
committed the offence (direct accusation).
Strategy 4. Indirect Accusation
Example: You borrowed my car last night, didn’t you?
Strategy 5. Direct Accusation
Example: Did you happen to bump into my car?
4. Blaming
An act of blame presupposes that the accused is guilty of the offence. There
are three levels that are identified with respect to the explicitness with which the
complainer formulates his/her moral condemnation of the accused.
Strategy 6. Modified Blame
accused is responsible.
Example: Honestly, couldn’t you have been more careful
You should take more care with other people’s cars.
Strategy 7. Explicit condemnation of accused’s action
The complainer explicitly states that the accused’s action is bad
Example: It’s really too bad, you know, going around wrecking other people
cars.
How on earth did you manage to be so stupid?
Strategy 8. Explicit condemnation of the accused as a person.
The complainer explicitly states what is implicit at all other levels, that he/she
finds the accused a non-responsible social member.
Example: Oh no, not again! You really are thoughtless
Bloody fool! You’ve done it again.
3. Directness Level of Complaints
Trosborg states that complaints could be expressed at varying levels of
directness ranging from hint and mild disapproval to severe challenges in which the
complainee is explicitly declared incompetent and irresponsible as a social member.
In a complaint, the utterance may only indirectly express the complainer’s ill feelings
towards the complainee, or these may be said in terms of a straightforward accusation
or moral judgement. In the former case, the complainee has to perform an inference
process to establish a link between what is said and what is really intended on the
to decide on the conflict potential of the complaint.
The criteria used to establish the scale of directness are the following:
P: Propositional content (complainable thing)
C: Complainer
A: Accused (complainee)
Factors determining the directness level of a complaint are:
1. The complainable thing is or not expressed directly in the propositional content
(P describes/ does not describe the complainable thing)
2. The complainer’s negative evaluation of the prepositional content is implicitly or
explicitly expressed (P is bad - articulated or implied)
3. The agentive involvement of the complainee is implicitly or explicitly expressed
(A has done P – articulated or implied)
4. The complainer’s negative evaluation of the complainee’s behavior is implicitly or
explicitly expresses (C evaluates A’s action as bad – articulated or implied)
5. The complainer’s negative evaluation of the complainee as a person is implicitly
or explicitly expressed (C evaluates A as a bad person- articulated or implied).
(Trosborg, 1995: 314-315)
4. Complaint Perspective
The speaker/hearer’s perspective of a complaint presents a particular pint of
interest. A speaker (complainer) may avoid mentioning the hearer as the guilty person
and this decreases the impact, the bad impact especially, of the complaint on the
Haverkate (1984) (in Trosborg) states that reference to the complainer and the
complainee can be expressed in various ways. Haverkate makes an important
distinction of reference, i.e. focalizing and defocalizing expression. In a complaint,
speakers can use focalizing expressions in order to stick out the referent’s role in the
state of affairs. Whereas defocalizing expressions are used to minimize or to avoid
mentioning the referent’s role in the state of affairs.
1. Focalizing reference is made for the purpose of expressing emphatic reference.
In this perspective, a speaker typically uses specific reference that
involves the first person singular pronoun / sometimes proper and common nouns
may be used as well like daddy, uncle Sam, etc. when a complainer selects
focalizing reference to the complainer when expressing his/her annoyance or
moral judgement, he/she identifies him/herself as a people who take personal
responsibility for issuing the blame.
2. Defocalizing reference to the complainer (speaker-perspective-we)
A complainer may use this perspective if he/she wants to hide from taking
a personal responsibility for issuing the blame. The first person plural pronoun of
“we” is often uttered when a speaker wants to involve the hearers and other
persons as well by making them sharing the responsibility for issuing the blame.
3. Focalizing reference to the complainee (hearer-perspective-you)
In this perspective, the complainer explicitly expresses the hearer as the
pronoun you and other common nouns.
4. Defocalizing reference to the complainee (hearer-perspective-it)
This category is used when a complainer suppresses information
concerning the identity of the complainee. It is usually employed for the strategic
purpose such as avoiding direct accusation or blame of the hearer or the identity
of the agent has been known by both the speaker and the hearer. It involves
neutral agents (one, someone, they, people, etc.) and construction of undesired
statement of affairs, which are made as the focus of attention.
Trosborg (1995: 327-331) also presents the internal modification and
external modification to make a clear difference of complaint’s directness level.
1. Internal modification
A complaint may be softened or weakened by the inclusion of downgraders
and strengthened by the inclusion of upgraders. Indirect complaints may be softened
by mitigation and direct complaints may be made more face threatening if the offence
is upgrade.
Downgraders comprise: (1) downtoners (just, simply, perhaps, maybe,
possibly); (2) understaters, those are modifiers that under-represent the state of affairs
denoted in the complainable, e.g. a little bit, a second, not very much, etc. (ex: I’m a
bit annoyed that ….); (3) Hedges, e.g. kind of, sort of, somehow, etc.(ex: Are you
somehow involved in this affair?); (4) subjectivizers, those are modifiers that
characterize the proposition as the speaker’s personal opinion or indicate the
opinion, etc; (5) Cajolers, gambits functioning at the interpersonal level of discourse
with the function of restoring harmony between two interlocutors, e.g. you know, you
see, I mean, etc ; (6) appealers, discourse elements (including tags) intended to elicit a
response from the complainer, appealing to his/her understanding, etc., e.g. okay,
right, don’t you think?
Upgraders comprise intensifiers, commitment upgraders and lexical
intensification. Intensifiers are adverbials or adjectives intensifying part of a
proposition, e.g. such, so, very, quite, really, terribly, awfully, absolutely, etc.(ex:
what a frightful mess you’ve made, I’m absolutely disgusted). Commitment
upgraders are sentence modifiers expressing a special commitment towards the
proposition, e.g. I’m sure, I’m certain, I’m positive, it’s obvious, and the
corresponding adverbials like surely, certainly, positively, unfortunately, etc. (ex: I’m
sure that this dent wasn’t there when I last drove my car). Lexical intensification is
lexical choice that is used to reveal an attitude. In extreme cases swear word may be
used, (ex: what the hell are you doing?) (p. 327-329)
2. External modification
Place (1986) (in Trosborg) states that a low level of directness is an important
mean of avoiding conflict when expressing moral censure. Another important aspect
is the complainer’s ability to justify his/her accusation or reprimand so that it appears
convincing (p.329).
Several conditions determine whether a complainer is successful in pinning
complainer’s right to place the blame for something on the complainee. They function
at the structural level of discourse (Preparators), at the interpersonal level (disarmers),
as well as at the content level. Preparators are important with regard to the successful
organization of the conversation in which a complaint is issued. One cannot just go
up and start accusing other people right away. Instead, it is important to prepare the
speech act in order to warn the complainee that a complaint is forthcoming.
Disarmers are tools for the complainer to avoid producing an act that is too face
threatening to the complainee. A complainer must save their face, the complainer’s
face and the complainee’s face. Providing evidence is the third strategy. A complainer
must prove that A did P (P is bad). He/she must be able to show that the complainee
has performed the deplorable action. And the last strategy is substantiation. It is also
important for a complainer to be able to provide substantiating moves in the form of
arguments to effect that :P is bad”, i.e. the complainer must prove that he/she is
justified in interpreting P as bad for him/her (Trosborg, 1995: 329-331).
In this research, there is only one datum that belongs to external modification:
G. Response
A response is a verbal or non-verbal act of the hearer, which is performed
because of the hearer’s understanding to the meaning and the force of the speaker’s
utterance. It counts as a perlocutionary effect of the speech act (Sbisa in Searle, 1969:
102).
the audience if the illocutionary act is to be carried out” and he calls such effect as
“uptake”. This uptake is defined as “the understanding of the meaning and the force
of the locution” if the hearer’s uptake is necessary for carrying out an illocutionary
act, people should first know whether an uptake has been achieved. People can know
it from a consideration of the response (verbal or non-verbal) which follows the
illocutionary act since each response makes manifest how the hearer has taken the
speaker’s illocutionary act (Sbisa in Searle, 1969). Therefore, to give a definite
illocutionary force to a certain speech act, the hearer’s response should be taken into
account.
Boxer (1989) in http://web.fu-berlin.de/phin/phin39/p39t2.htm identifies six
types of response, they are: (1) zero response or change the topic, (2) a request for an
elaboration of the complaint, (3) joking or teasing, (4) a contradiction or explanation,
(5) advice or lecture, and (6) commiseration.
While Richards and Schmitt (1996) presents five types of complaint’s
response, they are: (1) apology, (2) denial, (3) excuse, (4) justify, and (5) challenge
(P.129).
The researcher applies those theories above to classify the responds stated by
the complainees as the researcher conducts that those theories represent them to be
H. Socio-pragmatics
Sociopragmatics is concerned with the analysis of significant patterns of
interaction in particular social situations and/or in particular social systems. For
example, speech act may be realized differently in social contexts and situations as
well as in different social groups within a speech community.
Emphasis on the interactive aspect and the acknowledgment of the social
context in which a speech act occurs has formed the basis of sociopragmatics research
(Trosborg, 1994:38).
Thus, sociopragmatics involves an analysis of the use of specch acts in
relation to social situations, and the social functions of language seem to motivate
much linguistic detail.
Leech in www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/200305kawate_mierzejewska
states that socio-pragmatics is "the sociological interface of pragmatics" involving
speakers' and hearers' beliefs built on relevant social and cultural values.
From the definitions above, it can be concluded that socio-pragmatics studies
the meaning of language use in relation to social and cultural values. This research
uses socio-pragmatics approach since it discusses the speech act of complaining
applied in a particular social interaction in which it considers the social relation
between speakers, the choice of appropriate language, and the meaning intended by
I. Synopsis of the film
In 1981, in San Francisco, the smart salesman and family man Chris Gardner
invests the family savings in Osteo National bone-density scanners, an apparatus
twice as expensive as an x-ray machine but with a slightly clearer image. This white
elephant financially breaks the family, bringing troubles to his relationship with his
wife Linda, who leaves him and moves to New York where she has taken a job in a
pizza parlor. Their son Christopher stays with Chris because he and his wife both
know that he will be able to take better care of him.
Without any money or a wife, but committed to his son, Chris sees a chance to
fight for a stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter, offering a more promising
career at the end of a six-month unpaid training period. During that period, Chris goes
through a lot of hardship personally and professionally. When he thinks he is "stable,"
he finds that he has lost $600 when the government takes the last bit of money in his
bank account for taxes. He is rendered homeless because he can't pay his rent. He is
forced at one point to stay in a bathroom at a train station, and must scramble from
work every day to the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, which offers shelter
to the homeless. He must leave work early every day so that he is there by 5:00 in the
evening along with his son so that he may be assured of a place to sleep. He is seen
carrying his suitcase to work because he doesn't have a home. At work, there are
nineteen other candidates for the one position.
Chris thinks that he is about to be told the job will not be his as he says that he wore a
shirt and tie for his final day. Then they tell him that he has been an excellent trainee
and that tomorrow he will have to wear his shirt and tie again as it will be his first day
as a broker. Chris struggles to hold back tears. Outside he begins to cry as the busy
people of San Francisco walk past him. He rushes to his son's daycare, hugging him
and knowing that after everything him and his son had been through things would be
all right.
The final scene shows Chris walking with his son down a street. His son is
telling him a joke, when a wealthy business man in a suit walks past. Chris looks
back as the man continues on. The man in the suit is none other than the real Chris
Gardner.
J. Review of Related Study
Previous study about complaint expression was done by Ardianna Nuraeni in
2005 entitled “Strategies of Complaining among Characters in the Movie 10 Things I
Hate About You”. The aims of the study are to figure out the kinds of strategy of
complaining used by the characters in the movie “10 things I Hate about You”, the
reasons why the speakers choose certain strategy of complaining, and the responses
of the hearer towards the complaints.
The result of the study finds that there are seven kinds of strategy of
complaining that are used by the characters in the movie 10 things I Hate about You.
strategy (IACC), direct accusation strategy (DACC), modified blame strategy
(MBLA), explicit condemnation of the accused’s action strategy (ECCA) and explicit
condemnation of the accused as a person strategy (ECAP).
In her research, there are some reasons why the speakers choose certain
strategy of complaining. Those reasons are to break the relationship between the
speaker and the hearer, to maintain the relationship between the speaker and the
hearer, to repair the relationship between the speaker and the hearer, and to show the
negative feeling only.
The result shows that most of the characters in this movie employ blaming
strategy that is the explicit condemnation of the accused’s action strategy (ECCA),
while ill consequence strategy of complaining (ICON) does not emerge in this movie.
The second previous study about complaint expression was done by
Widyasari in 2009 entitled “Complaint expressions used by the characters in the
movie entitled Runaway Bride.”. The aims of the study are to figure out the kinds of
strategy of complaining used by the characters in the movie “Runaway Bride”, the
reasons why the speakers choose certain strategy of complaining, and the responses
of the hearer towards the complaints.
The result of the study finds that there are seven kinds of strategy of
complaining that are used by the characters in the movie Runaway Bride. They are
Hint strategy (HINT), annoyance strategy (ANOY), indirect accusation strategy
(IACC), direct accusation strategy (DACC), modified blame strategy (MBLA),
condemnation of the accused as a person strategy (ECAP).
In her research, there are some reasons why the speakers choose certain
strategy of complaining. Those reasons are to break the relationship between the
speaker and the hearer, to maintain the relationship between the speaker and the
hearer, to repair the relationship between the speaker and the hearer, and to show the
negative feeling only.
The result shows that most of the characters in this movie employ blaming
strategy that is the explicit condemnation of the accused’s action strategy (ECCA),
while ill consequence strategy of complaining (ICON) does not emerge in this movie.
In my research, the researcher focuses on external and internal functions
appearing inside the conversations found in the data where complaints exist. The
researcher classifies the data based on two strategies, the main strategies and internal
