An Analysis of Indirectness Employed by the Main Character in the Movie “Easy A”

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An Analysis of Indirectness Employed by the Main Character in

the Movie “Easy A”

(A Pragmatic Approach)

THESIS

Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Sarjana Sastra Degree in English Department of Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts

By

Natalia Desy Ekawati

C 0304038

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY

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MOTTO

Dream, Believe, and Make It Happen!

~Agnes Monica~

“Some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to

follow their dreams. If you're wondering which way to go, remember

that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn't love

you anymore.”

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DEDICATION

I wholeheartedly dedicate this thesis to:

The Almighty, Jesus Christ

My beloved Mom and Dad,

My family

My beloved friends

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thanks God I’ve finally made it after the long road I have taken. This

thesis could not be achieved without help and support from everyone during the

process of finishing this thesis. Therefore, I would like to express my greatest and

deepest gratitude to the following people:

Drs. Riyadi Santosa, M.ED., Ph.D as the Dean of Faculty of Letters and

Fine Arts of Sebelas Maret University, for approving this thesis.

Drs. Agus Hari Wibowo, M.A.Ph.D as the Head of English Department,

for providing the opportunity to conduct this research.

Prof. Dr. Djatmika, M.A., my thesis supervisor, for his patience,

understanding, and valuable advices. Thank you for providing the opportunity to

conduct this thesis when I almost believe that it is not possible to finish what I

have started.

Dr. Sri Marmanto, M.Hum, my academic supervisor, for the assistance

during the academic period.

Lecturers of English Department, for teaching and sharing knowledge. It

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My Mom and Dad, thank you for who I am, I’m sorry it took forever, but

you are the reason I finish this thesis. I hope it makes you smile, and I hope you

are happy with my life, at peace with every choice I made how I change along the

way. Forgive me for the words unsaid and for the times I forgot. I know you

believe in my dreams and I owe it all to you because I love you.

My lovely sister and my cutest brother. Family is like music. Some have

high notes, others have low notes, but it is always a beautiful song. Thank you for

loving me just the way I am, and for being proud that I’m your kindest, hottest,

and best sister ever.

My best friend, Tatiana Fernandez. Thank you for supporting me in so

many ways that I could not tell. You always inspire me to be a better person.

Someday when we are grey, old, and probably have my own kids and family (I

don’t know how you do that but I believe you will make your own, he) I will be

proud to tell my kids about you, and say “She’s my best friend!”

The one and only, Ingmar de Jong. From the day you went away you left

thousand dreams that now I realize it changed my point of view about certain

things. We might be separated by distance and time, but I believe it helps to think

we are sleeping underneath the same big sky. Thank you for supporting me in

every decision that I’ve made. Such a great friend, teacher, both angel and evil,

loyal fans (keep my CD, songs, and pictures, I will give my signature when we

meet again, he). I will never forget you.

English Department class 2004. Am I the last one? I hope not (grin).

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Finally, the writer hopes that the result of this research will be beneficial

for English Department students especially for those who study linguistics.

Surakarta, March 2012

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PRONOUNCEMENT

Name : Natalia Desy Ekawati

NIM : C0304038

I hereby state truthfully that the researcher writes the thesis entitled “An

Analysis of Indirectness Employed between the characters and the main character

in the film entitled Easy A”. It is not plagiarism nor made by others. The things

related to other people’s work are written in quotation and bibliography.

If in the future it is proved that the researcher cheats, the researcher is

ready to accept the academic sanction.

Surakarta, March 2012

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The List of Table

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Abstract

Natalia Desy Ekawati. C0304038. 2012. An Analysis of Indirectness Employed By the Main Character in the Movie Entitled “Easy A’. Thesis: English Department, Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts, Sebelas Maret University.

This research focuses on indirectness employed by the main character and the other characters in the film entitled “Easy A”. This study aims to find out the kinds of indirectness performed in the movie entitled “Easy A”, the motives to use indirectness employed by the characters, and how the interlocutor understands indirectness used in the conversation.

This research belongs to descriptive-qualitative research that refers to the method to formulate the conclusion by collecting, classifying, and interpreting the data of the research.

The sources of the data of the research are the movie entitled “Easy A” and its movie script found from the internet. This research focused on the conversation containing indirectness between the main character and the other characters in the movie entitled “Easy A” as the data. This research applies purposive sampling technique. Overall, there are 24 data of indirectness.

The research findings show that there are two kinds of indirectness: implied meaning and mismatch of the structural forms of sentence with the original communicative function. The speaker who utters indirectness employs an implied meaning, or the mismatch of structural forms of sentence with the original communicative functions, or employing both of them. The analysis of the data shows that there is more implied meaning than the mismatch of structural forms of sentence with the original communicative function. The fact shows that 19 data represent implied meaning (79,17%), 5 data (20,83%) represent the mismatch of structural forms of sentence with the original communicative function. In regard with motives used by the character to employ indirectness, the researcher found four reasons including interestingness (20,83%), to force one’s message (25%), competing goal (25%), and politeness (29,17%). The response of the hearer is found that 18 data (75%) representing indirectness is responded relevant and 6 data (25%) has irrelevant response.

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An Analysis of Indirectness Employed by the Main This study aims to find out the kinds of indirectness performed in the movie entitled “Easy A”, the motives to use indirectness employed by the characters, and how the interlocutor understands indirectness used in the conversation.

This research belongs to descriptive-qualitative research that refers to the method to formulate the conclusion by collecting, classifying, and interpreting the data of the research.

The sources of the data of the research are the movie entitled “Easy

A” and its movie script found from the internet. This research

focused on the conversation containing indirectness between the main character and the other characters in the movie entitled “Easy A” as the data. This research applies purposive sampling technique. Overall, there are 24 data of indirectness.

The research findings show that there are two kinds of indirectness: implied meaning and mismatch of the structural forms of sentence with the original communicative function. The speaker who utters indirectness employs an implied meaning, or the mismatch of structural forms of sentence with the original communicative functions, or employing both of them. The analysis of the data shows that there is more implied meaning than the mismatch of structural forms of sentence with the original communicative

1_{Mahasiswa Jurusan Sastra Inggris dengan NIM C0304038} 2

Dosen Pembimbing

function. The fact shows that 19 data represent implied meaning (79,17%), 5 data (20,83%) represent the mismatch of structural forms of sentence with the original communicative function. In regard with motives used by the character to employ indirectness, the researcher found four reasons including interestingness

(20,83%), to force one’s message (25%), competing goal (25%),

and politeness (29,17%). The response of the hearer is found that 18 data (75%) representing indirectness is responded relevant and 6 data (25%) has irrelevant response.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Research Background

Language plays a very important role as a means of communication used

by human beings to express their ideas, thoughts, and feelings. Mar‟ at (2005:19)

states that language has two functions. The first is interpersonal function. It is

usually applied in the form of imperative, interrogative, and declarative to show

the message of the speaker. The second is intrapersonal function. It is related with

the use of language for problem solving, decision making, remembering, thinking,

etc. From these two functions of language, people can communicate and express

what they want to share. Furthermore, according to Trudgill language is not

simply as a means of communicating information. It is also important means of

establishing and maintaining relationship with other people (Trudgill, 1974:13). It

means that communication will influence many aspects of people‟s relationship in

society, including the relationship between the speaker and the hearer and the

goals for the particular communication.

A communication is basically to transfer the information or message

from a source to a receiver. Communication can be called as conversation, namely

to sending and receiving message. Communication works if the message can be

received and interpreted properly. In order to make communication runs well,

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both speaker and hearer should understand the co-text and context that build up

conversation. Mey (1993:181) explains that co-text is the individual utterances

making up the text while context is the surroundings, in the widest sense, that

enable the participants in the communication process to interact, and make the

linguistic expressions of their interaction intelligible. Moreover Yule (1996:47)

points out that „people do not only produce utterances containing grammatical

structures and words, they perform actions via those utterances. These are what so

called as speech acts. In line with this, Yule explains that actions performed via

utterances are generally called speech act and they are commonly given more

specific label in English, such as apology, complaint, compliment, invitation,

promise, or request (Yule, 1996:47).

Through the context, indirectness has been extensively used by the

people to express something in daily life conversation. Thomas (1995:119) states

that indirectness occurs when there is a mismatch between the expressed meaning

and implied meaning. An indirect speech act occurs when there is an indirect

relationship between a structure and a function (Yule, 1996:54). Due to this

definition indirectness can be classified into two major kinds: implicit sentences

or implied meaning and sentences that are not used in accordance with their

original functions (the mismatch of structural forms of sentence with their original

communicative functions). Somehow people have their own reason why they use

indirectness and their own way how to use indirectness remarks. Therefore the

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why they use indirectness and how the hearer in return recognizes and reacts to

the indirectness used by the speaker.

Due to the explanation above, the researcher is interested in analyzing

indirectness employed by the main characters in the conversation in the film

entitled “Easy A” since it provides adequate data that researcher needs to analyze

indirectness. The movie itself is a comedy drama of high school students with

some youth problems in which, ideally, the use of indirectness is inescapably

large. The used of indirectness are influenced by some motives or goals.

Here are the examples of conversation taken from the film entitled “Easy

A” which may help us understand the concept of indirectness:

Example 1

The setting of this conversation is in Melody Bostic‟s room when Olive

is still in 8th grade. Olive and Todd join the game that makes them have to kiss

each other for the first time.

Olive : I think this is the part where you're supposed to stick

your tongue in my mouth. That's what I've heard,

anyway.

Todd : Just give me a second, okay?

Olive : According to my watch, you have 382 of them.

Olive‟s statement to Todd in Melody Bostic‟s room is an indirectness.

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information from the speaker, it is actually interpreted as a request or might be a

command to the hearer. The utterance can be stated directly, “what are you

waiting for, just kiss me!”

By employing a declarative form, the speaker actually asks the hearer to

do something for her. A declarative used to make command is considered as an

indirectness.

Olive employs indirectness for her interest and she enjoys the language.

Practically, she only needs to say “I think it’s the time for you to kiss me.” But the

speaker chooses to use a long sentence describing the word „kissing‟. The speaker

wants the interlocutor to be excited about kissing. Both Olive and Todd have

never been kissed before so she tries to describe it in order to make Todd not

nervous.

Todd is actually not ready yet to get his first kiss. The way Olive

describes kissing itself makes Todd nervous. “Just give me a second, okay?”

shows that Todd is not ready to do it. The interlocutor gets the point that they

should have their first kiss at that time, but the speaker fails to make the

interlocutor get the excitement because in return he tries to refuse it.

Example 2

Brandon and Olive have their detention after school. This

conversation takes place in the basketball court while mopping the floor.

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Olive : Not in high school. The principal's like the captain of the

ship in international waters. He can even marry people.

Olive : We haven't talked in a while. How have you been,

Brandon?

Brandon : Fabulous. I'm crushing it. Everything’s according to

plan. I wanna be in detention.

Olive : Yeah, why are you here? From the blood I saw gushing

out of your nose, I thought you were bullied.

Brandon‟s utterance in answering Olive‟s question is an indirectness.

Brandon employs sarcasm to imply his intention about how he hates the detention.

Brandon‟s utterance “Fabulous I'm crushing it. Everything’s according to plan. I

wanna be in detention.” does not mean that he is in a happy condition, instead he

is mad about his own life which is not like something he hopes for and he also

criticizes Olive‟s question who actually knows that Brandon is in trouble. It can

directly be said “as you know we are in detention, and it’s not good.” However

the speaker chooses to represent the opposite of what the speaker actually means.

Here, the speaker employs an indirectness in sarcastic way.

The speaker employs an indirectness for competing goals. The speaker

tries to tell the interlocutor about his life in sarcastic ways. Brandon wants to tell

Olive about his messy life because he gets bullied from being a gay, on the other

hand, he tries to criticize Olive‟s question. In this case, Olive and Brandon are in

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school. Brandon thinks that Olive should not have to ask about his situation

because she knows it already. Brandon can also say “what a question, you know

that we are in detention” to Olive, but Brandon makes it more dramatic by using a

sarcasm.

The interlocutor gets well understanding that the speaker is being

sarcastic. The interlocutor‟s remarks “Yeah, why are you here? From the blood I

saw gushing out of your nose, I thought you were bullied.” shows her sympathy

about what happens to Brandon. It relevants to the speaker‟s intention.

B. Problem Statement

1. What kinds of indirectness are used by the characters in the film

entitled “Easy A”?

2. Why do the characters employ indirectness?

3. How do the interlocutors understand to the indirectness used in the

conversation?

C. Research Objectives

1. To figure out the kinds of indirectness used by the characters in the

movie entitled “Easy A”

2. To figure out the motives of the characters in using indirectness

3. To figure out how the interlocutors understand indirectness used in

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D. Research Limitation

This research took conversation containing indirectness in the film entitled

“Easy A” as the data. The data were analyzed based on the way in uttering

indirectness by using the kind of indirectness; the motives of the characters to use

indirectness, and the understanding of the interlocutor of indirectness used in the

conversation in the film entitled “Easy A”.

E. Research Benefits

1. I expect that this thesis will be beneficial for other students to give

some insight concerning indirectness in general

2. I expect that this thesis can be used as source of reference for those

who want to conduct further study on indirectness strategy.

F. Research Methodology

This research employed a descriptive qualitative method by collecting

data, classifying, analyzing, and interpreting them. The data are the conversations

between the main character and the other characters containing indirect utterances

in the film entitled “Easy A”. Purposive sampling technique was employed in this

thesis in a way that the researcher took samples selectively under several criterias

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G. Thesis Organization

This thesis is divided into five chapters, and each chapter consists of

several subchapters. The outline of this research is arranged systematically as

follows:

CHAPTER I:

INTRODUCTION : Research Background, Problem Statement, Research

Objective, Research Limitation, Research benefits, Research

Methodology, and Thesis Organization.

CHAPTER II:

LITERATURE REVIEW: Pragmatics, Speech Acts, The Cooperative

Principles, and Indirectness.

CHAPTER III:

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Type of Research, Data and Sources of

Data, Sample and Technique of Sampling, Equipment of the Research,

Technique of Collecting Data, Research Data Coding, Technique of

Analyzing Data, and Research Design.

CHAPTER IV:

ANALYSIS: Introduction, Data Analysis, and Discussion.

CHAPTER V:

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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Pragmatics

Pragmatics focuses on how language is used in context as stated by

Levinson (1983:9). It is the study of the relation between language and context

that are grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of language. It is the study of

language usage, or the study of relation between language and context that are

basic on an account of language understanding (ibid, 21). In addition, Leech in his

book Principal of Pragmatics says that pragmatics is the study of utterance

meaning in relation to speech situation (1983:6). It can be said that pragmatics is

the study that discuss is the meaning of utterances in regarding to the situation

including the addressee and the context where the utterance happens.

However, Yule states that pragmatics involves the interpretation of what

people mean in a particular context and how the context influences what is said

(1996:3). This means, pragmatics always relates the meaning of utterance with its

context where the utterance is delivered. It also means that pragmatics is the study

on how the speaker organizes what they want to share in accordance with whom

they are talking to, where, when, and under what circumstances.

Furthermore, George Keith (in

http://facebooky.org/printthread.php?tid=255) describes that pragmatics is all

about the meanings between the lexis and the grammar and the phonology,

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meanings are implied and the rules being followed are unspoken, unwritten ones.

This means that both of the speakers and the interlocutors must have high

understanding in particular communication. The speakers must be able to depend

on a lot of shared assumption and interpretation. By those assumption and

interpretation, the hearers get a perception in understanding what is more

communicated than it is said.

B. Speech Act

1. Definition

According to Searle (1969) to understand language one must understand

the speaker‟s intention. Since language is intentional behavior, it should be treated

like a form of action. Thus Searle refers to statements as speech acts. A speech act

is the basic unit of language used to express meaning, an utterance that expresses

an intention. Normally, the speech act is a sentence, but it can be a word or phrase

as long as it follows the rules necessary to accomplish the intention. When one

speaks, one performs an act. Speech is not just used to designate something. It

actually does something. Speech act stresses the intent of the act as a whole.

According to Searle, understanding the speaker‟s intention is essential to capture

the meaning. Without the speaker‟s intention, it is impossible to understand the

words as a speech act. There are four types of speech act: utterance acts,

propositional acts (referring is a type of propositional act), illocutionary acts

(promises, questions and commands) and perlocutionary acts. A perlocutionary

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believes that speakers perform acts by observing two types of rules: constitutive

rules or definition rules (create or define new forms of behavior) and regulative or

behavior rules (these rules govern types of behavior that already exist).

2. Speech Act Classification

Yule (1996:53) lists five types of general functions performed by speech

acts, which are: declarations, representatives, expressive, directives, and

commissives.

1. Declarations

Declarations are those kinds of speech act that change the world via their

utterance. The speaker must have a special institutional role in a specific context,

in order to perform a declaration appropriately.

Example:

Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife.

The speaker (the priest) alters the situation by making an utterance. The

priest has a special role that is to unite a man and woman to be a husband and wife

in a wedding ceremony. By declared a man and woman to be husband and wife,

their status are no longer single.

2. Representatives

Representatives are those kinds of speech act that state what speaker

believes to be the case or not. Statement of fact, assertions, conclusions, and

descriptions, as below, are the examples of the speaker representing the world as

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a. It was a warm sunny day.

b. The earth is flat

The example above describes that the speakers commit in various ways

to the truth of their statements. What they said are the truth and things that they

believe.

3. Expressive

Expressives are those kinds of speech act that state what the speaker

feels. They express psychological states and can be statements of pleasure, pain,

likes, dislike, joy, or sorrow. The examples below illustrate that they can be

caused by something the speaker does or hearer does, but they are about the

speaker‟s experience.

a. I‟m really sorry!

b. Congratulations!

c. Oh, yes, great, mmmm, sshhh!

In using an expressive, the speaker makes words fit the feeling.

4. Directives

Directives are those kinds of speech act that a speaker use to get someone

else to do something. They are commands, orders, requests, suggestions, and as

illustrated below, they can be positive or negative.

a. Could you lend me a pen, please?

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The examples above are the speaker‟s ways in making the hearer do

something for the speaker.

5. Commissives

Commissives are those kinds of speech act which are use by the speaker

to commit themselves to some future action. They are promises, threats, refusals,

pledges.

a. I‟ll be back

b. I‟m going to get it right next time.

The examples above are such kinds of promise that will be accomplished

in the future by the speaker.

C. The Cooperative Principles

Grice provides a theory which explains how we correctly interpret what

others are implying by universal convention called the Cooperative Principles.

Grice calls such principles conversational maxims. The principles can be

explained by four underlying rules or maxims.

They are the maxims of quality, quantity, relevance and manner.

a. Quality: speakers should be truthful. They should not say what

they think is false, or make statements for which they have no evidence.

b. Quantity: a contribution should be as informative as is required

for the conversation to proceed. It should be neither too little, nor too much. (It is

not clear how one can decide what quantity of information satisfies the maxim in

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c. Relevance: speakers' contributions should relate clearly to the

purpose of the exchange.

d. Manner: speakers' contributions should be perspicuous: clear,

orderly and brief, avoiding obscurity and ambiguity.

These maxims are useful for analyzing and interpreting conversation, and

may reveal purposes of which (either as speaker or listener) we were not

previously aware. Very often, we communicate particular non-literal meanings by

appearing to “violate” or “flout” these maxims.

D. Indirectness

1. Definition of Indirectness

A different approach to distinguish types of speech acts can be made on

the basis of structure. In English, there are three basic sentence types that provide

a structural distinction between three general types of speech acts. There is a

relationship between the three structural forms (declarative, interrogative, and

imperative) and the three general communicative functions (statement, question,

command or request). An indirect speech act occurs when there is an indirect

relationship between a structure and function. For instance, a declarative and

interrogative used to make a request are indirect speech acts (Yule, 1996:54). In

addition, Searle (1975:61, in Allan, 1986:204) states that “in indirect speech act

the speaker communicates the hearer more than he actually say by way of relying

on their mutually shared background information, both linguistic and

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the hearer.” Thomas (1995:119) also states that indirectness occurs when there is a

mismatch between the expressed meaning and the implied meaning. It means that

the speaker expresses his intention implicitly.

The examples may clarify the explanation:

a. Move out my chair! (imperative)

b. Do you have to sit on my chair? (interrogative)

c. You are sitting on my chair. (declarative)

The sentences above have different structures (imperative, interrogative,

and declarative), but these different structures are actually to accomplish the same

basic function. The basic function of all utterances above is to command in which

the speaker wants the hearer not to sit on his/her chair. The speaker wants the

hearer moves out from his/her chair. According to the three utterances above, only

example (a) represents a direct speech acts, that is an imperative structure as a

command. The interrogative structure in (b) is not literally used as a question;

hence it is an indirect speech acts (indirectness). The declarative structure in (c) is

also an indirect command.

2. Analysis of Indirect and Non-Literal Speech

Dimitracopoulou (1990:61-63) explains the different type of indirect and

non-literal speech according to the following criteria:

Indirect Speech Act

Any speech act which was judged as having two illocutionary forces was

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act, the coder has to rely on the relevant contextual information of the utterance in

question. For example:

Speaker (S) utters: “there is a tiger there” to the hearer (H).

It is a mutual contextual belief that S and H are playing game and the

location of the tiger on the board is irrelevant to the discussion so far. Thus H

infers that S could not be merely stating that the tiger is over there. It is a mutual

contextual belief that „tigers‟ are dangerous. In stating and give information that

there is a tiger there implied meaning that S requests H not to go near the tiger.

Therefore the utterance “there is a tiger there” is an assertion but under

the specific circumstances it also serves additional illocutionary intent and

simultaneously become a request.

Bach and Harnis (1970, in Dimitracopolou, 1990:61) state there are three

main subcategories of indirectness:

(1) Standardized form

Some forms which appear to be indirect actually behave as if they were

direct. This process has been called “standardization” and some typical examples

are:

(a) Wh imperatives

e.g Could you lend me your notes?

Indirect force: (I request you) to lend your notes.

(b) Impositives

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(c) Queclaratives

e.g does anyone eat the cake anymore?

Indirect force: Nobody eats the cake anymore

(2) Pragmatic Idioms (or situated conventional speech)

Some forms do not receive their proper interpretation in any regular way;

they are in effective idiomatic and must be learned case by case. Here are some

typical examples:

(a) Imperatives

e.g. Just calm down. (Do not scream)

(b) Interrogatives

e.g. Is not the cake delicious? (The cake is delicious)

(3) Hints (logical inferences)

Hints require a logical inference on the part of the hearer for the

realization of the speaker‟s intention. Hints are employed when the speaker and

hearer can rely on shared rules or on shared understanding of habits and motives

in familiar step-ups.

Examples: the pen is on the table. (Implying: please take by yourself)

Non_Literal Speech Acts

The speech act is coded as being non-literal where the speaker did not

intend the literal meaning of the expressed phrase. There are three main

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(1) Understatement or overstatement

e.g. Yeah. I would take a bullet for you. You know that. Right between

the eyes. Man, I would slit my throat rather than say something to someone that

you didn't want me to say. (Adapted from Easy A)

It is an overstatement represents that the speaker seriously tells the truth.

(2) Irony, Sarcasm

To recognize sarcastic comments, the hearer must understand that under

the particular circumstances the opposite of what is said is actually meant.

e.g:

Olive : We haven't talked in a while. How have you been, Brandon?

Brandon : Fabulous. I'm crushing it. Everything’s according to

plan. I wanna be in detention. (Easy A)

(3) Metaphor

Levinson (1983: 148) explains metaphor as follows:

The comparison theory:

Metaphor are silmiles with suppressed or deletion predications of

silimiarity.

The interaction theory:

Metaphors are special use of linguistic expressions where one

„metaphorical‟ expression is embedded in another „literal‟ expression (or frame),

such that meaning of the focus interacts with and changes the meaning of the

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e.g. George is what you name your teddy bear, not the name you

wanna scream out during climax. (Adapted from Easy A)

Rhiannon uses this metaphor to mocking Olive that spending weekend

with George (Olive‟s fictional date) is not as spectacular as spending time with

her.

It is an utterance which the meaning is embedded in a literal expression.

The meaning can not be interpreted literally based on the literal statement. The

meaning should be associated to the interpretation in the literal statement.

3. Kinds of Indirectness

We must consider the notion of Literal Force Hypothesis (LFH) in

achieving kinds of indirectness. Levinson explains that LFH occurs when

illocutionary force is built into sentence form. Gadzar (1981) has pointed out in

Levinson (1983) LFH will amount to subscribing to the following:

(i) Explicit performatives have the force named by the performative

verb in the matrix clause.

(ii) Otherwise, the three major sentence-types in English, namely the

imperative, interrogative, and declarative, have the forces traditionally associated

with them, namely ordering (or requesting), questioning and stating respectively

(with, of course, the exception of explicit performatives which happen to be

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The explanation above shows that explicit sentence and sentences used

according to their force (function) are categorized into indirectness. However, in

the real world, people do not always obey such kind of rules and even most usages

are indirect. Thus, any usages other than those in (i) and (ii) are indirect speech act

(Levinson, 1983:264)

It can be concluded that, according to Levinson‟s view, indirectness can

be divided into two major types, i.e. implicit sentences (implied meaning) and

sentences that are not used in accordance with their original function (the

mismatch of structural forms of sentence with the original communicative

function).

4. Factors of Using Indirectness

Every culture has its own rule of indirectness. Thomas (1995) explains

the factors that determine the use of indirectness in all language and culture as the

following:

a. Power

We tend to use a greater degree of indirectness with people who have

some power of authority to another than those who do not. We would probably be

more indirect about conveying to our teamwork because s/he always comes late,

than in conveying the same to our sister or brother. It is partly because our

teamwork can influence our career in a positive way (reward power) or a negative

way (coercieve power). These types of power are most apparent in obviously

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power depends not so much on the seniority or authority position of interrogator,

as his special power over a suspect in custody. However, power is present in all

degree and relationship, at least some of the time. This summarizes different types

and component of power as follows:

1. Legitimate Power: one person has the right to request certain

things by virtue of role, age, or status.

e.g.

A teacher has the power to give homework to the student or even give a

punishment for not do the homework thing.

2. Referent power: one person has power over another because

the other admires wants to be like him/her in some respect

e.g.

Someone could change his/her attitude in order to follow his/her role

model such as an artist.

3. Expert power: one person has some special knowledge or expert

about something that the other person needs.

e.g. A doctor could command a patient not to do this and that because

s/he is an expert to heal the patient.

b. Social Distance

The term of social distance is the best seen as a composite of

psychologically real factors (status, age, sex, degree, of intimacy, etc) which

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situation (Leech, 1983a:126, in Thomas, 1995: 128). It means we feel less need to

employ indirectness if we close with someone and because that person is similar

in the term of age, social class, occupation, sex, ethnicity, etc. For example in

making a request, we feel less need to employ indirectness to someone close to us

than to a completely stranger.

c. Size of Imposition

Talking about size of imposition refers to how great is the request we are

making. For an instant, we would probably use a greater degree of indirectness in

requesting our parents to buy us a car rather than we requesting to buy a book.

Requesting for free goods or free services requires minimal degree of indirectness.

For example, we would probably use a greater degree of indirectness in requesting

someone to translate the article than we would request someone to pass the

newspaper.

d. Rights and Obligation

It relates to whether or not the speaker has the right to make particular

demand and whether the hearer has the obligation to comply. For example, a

policeman could stop or move our car by saying directly as s/he speaking with the

capacity as a police officer (in a uniform), but if s/he does not wear the uniform

s/he could does the same thing. For example, a policeman, speaking in his

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the same person, speaking in a purely private capacity, would have to use a much

more indirect strategy to perform the same speech act.

5. The Motives of the Use of Indirectness

Thomas (1995) reveals that the variety of reasons has been put forward for the universal use of indirectness, including:

a. Interestingness

People may use indirectness because they enjoy having fun with the language. Indirectness is used to make one‟s language more or less interesting.

Example:

Dill : Yeah. I would take a bullet for you. You know that. Right

between the eyes. Man, I would slit my throat rather than say something to

someone that you didn't want me to say.(Easy A)

Motives: to attract the hearer‟s intention

b. Increasing the Force of One’s Language

Indirectness can be employed to increase „the impact‟ of effectiveness of

our message.

Example:

Olive : Shit. I want a $100 gift card deposited into my locker by noon

tomorrow. Preferably to the Gap, but I will also take Amazon.com or

OfficeMax. Actually, make it OfficeMax. I have my eye on a label maker. We

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for you unmatched by anything you've experienced, including cake. Got it?

(Easy A)

c. Competing Goals

Two goals which compete make people employ indirectness. For an

instance, if a teacher has to tell a student that the student‟s work is not up to

standard, the teacher‟s duty to tell the truth may conflict with the desire not to hurt

the student‟s feeling or discourage him or her. In order to understand what the

teacher means, the student must recognize the conflict goals.

d. Politeness

Yule (1996: 60-64) describes about politeness as follows:

Being tactful, generous, modest, and sympathetic toward others include

in Politeness. The concept of politeness is „face‟ means the public self-image and

it refers to emotional and social sense of self that everybody has and expects

everyone else to recognize. It shows awareness of another person‟s faces.

If we say something that threat another person‟s self-image, it is called

face threatening act. For an instant, if we use direct speech act to someone

(“your‟re boring!”) in the middle of conversation it will hurt others feeling. An

indirect speech act in the form of a request (“I‟m terribly sorry, can I leave now?”)

makes the request less threatening to the other‟s person sense of self. Whenever

we say something that lessens the possible threat to another‟s face, it is called face

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There is positive and negative face. Positive face is our need to be

connected, to belong, and to be a member of the group while negative face is the

need to be independent and to have freedom from imposition.

E. Synopsis of The Movie

Nathaniel Hawthorne's “The Scarlet Letter” is one of subject in English

class which inspires a high school girl‟s life in solving her problem. Like most

high school kids, Olive Penderghast just wants to be popular. When her best

friend, Rhiannon asks Olive how her weekend went, the bored teen decides to

whip up a spicy white lie just to make things interesting, but that minor

exaggeration begins to take on a life of its own when it reaches the ears of

motor-mouth gossip Jesus freak Marianne, and in short the entire student body is abuzz

over unassuming Olive's unrepentant weekend of debauchery. Of course not a

word of it is true, but that doesn't stop everyone in school from talking, and an

amused Olive from deciding to go with the flow. Playing the role of the hussy to

the hilt, the girl who used to be invisible begins dressing provocatively and

turning heads in the hallways. The students aren't the only ones taking notice,

either; Olive's English teacher, Mr. Griffith, is concerned that the kind of attention

she's receiving isn't healthy for a developing girl, and his wife, the school

guidance counselor, is in full agreement. The only people who seem remotely

interested in the truth are Olive's trusting and open-minded parents. As Olive

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Letter heroine Hester Prynne, she realizes that she may be able to manipulate her

newfound notoriety to give fellow classmate Brandon's popularity a much-needed

shot in the arm. Olive never thought her little game could possibly have any

negative effect on anyone but herself, but when loose lips start sinking ships all

around her, she realizes that it is high time for the truth to come out.

F. Review of Related Study

In conducting this research, the researcher includes a related research on

indirectness. The researcher considers it as counterpart and source of insight to

this research. The related research taken is the research entitled Indirectness in

„Wahyu Jati Wasesa‟, a Title in the Javanese Purwa Shadow Puppet Performance,

done by Bambang Setyo Nugroho in 2006.

In Bambang‟s research, he analyzed about the reason of using

indirectness proposed by the characters in „Wahyu Jati Wasesa‟, and he discussed

about the maxim employed in „Wahyu Jati Wasesa‟, the Javanese Purwa Shadow

Puppet Performance.

In this research, the researcher would like to study further about

indirectness employed by the characters in the movie entitled “Easy A”. This

research analyzes about the way in expressing indirectness performed by the

characters, then provides the motives in using indirectness, and finds out the

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Similar to the previous research, this research uses conversation

containing indirectness utterances employed by the main characters in analyzing

indirectness.

Different from the previous research, this research analyses further in

providing the way in expressing indirectness, and specifies on the way

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Type of Research

According to Hadi (1983:4) a research is defined as an effort to find,

develop, and examine the truth of knowledge, an effort done by using a scientific

methodology. Thus, research methodology is a strategy employed in collecting,

analyzing, and drawing conclusion to solve problem statements.

This research is a qualitative research. The qualitative research is an

inquiry process of understanding based on distinct methodological tradition of

enquiry that explores a social or human problem. The researcher builds a

complex, holistic picture, analyzes words, reports detailed views of information,

and conducts the study in natural setting (Creswell 1998:15)

In doing the research, several ways are considered to the objective of the

research. The ways are collecting data, making analysis, and making a conclusion.

This kind of research is considered as a descriptive method. According to Hadi,

the descriptive method is kind of research method which is applied by collecting

data, analyzing them and drawing conclusion without making generalization

(1983:3). Due to the definition, this research is valid only for the data used in this

research, not for others.

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B. Data and Source of Data

Source of data is the kinds of information researchers obtain on the

subjects of their research (Fraenkel, 2000:127). In conducting the research, the

data used is selected conversations between the main character and the other

characters containing indirectness utterance in the film “Easy A”. The film was

selected since it has various kinds of indirectness employed by the characters in

the film. The film depicts the everyday life of youth high school students with all

the problems dealing with it. It is about how to face the youth’s problems of

relationship in school, family, love, gossip by paralelling it with the certain

subject study. Since the film represents the everyday life, the conversation

employed by the characters deals with the matters around us. Therefore, it

represents the language use employed by society. That is why the researcher

decided to analyze indirectness since it can not be evaded in the people’s daily life

conversation.

C. Sample and Technique of Sampling

Sample is a part of the data being observed (Hadi, 1983:70). Sources of

data used in qualitative research do not represent population but tend to represent

the information (Sutopo, 2002:55). Here, the researcher uses purposive sampling

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containing indirectness utterance between the main character and the other

characters in the film entitled “Easy A” as the data.

D. Technique of Collecting Data

In collecting the data, the researcher applied these following steps.

1. Watching the film “Easy A” several times to comprehend the

whole story and catch the utterances containing indirectness.

2. Getting the script of the film from the internet

3. Rechecking the conversations of the script taken from the internet

while watching the film. This part is needed to get the valid data since the script

taken from the internet does not mention the names of the characters.

4. Selecting the utterances containing indirectness.

5. Taking all the utterances containing indirectness as the data of the

research.

6. Giving code in each datum

E. Research Data Coding

The data codification was done as follow:

Code 07/EA/IM/MSF

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EA : Easy A

IM : Implied Meaning

MSF : Mismatch Structure and Function

F. Technique of Analyzing Data

In analyzing the data, the researcher applied these following steps.

a. Analyzing each datum based on the three problem statements by

using the appropriate theories:

1. Analyzing what kind of indirectness used by the characters based

on the match on structure forms of sentence with general communicative

functions; and the implied meaning of the utterances to answer the first problem

statement.

2. Analyzing the motives of the use of indirectness by using Thomas

(1995) theory of indirectness to answer second problem statement.

3. Analyzing the interlocutor’s understanding due to the indirectness

used by the speaker.

b. Rechecking the analysis

c. Counting the percentage of each classification and the results of

analysis are put in the tables.

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G. Research Design

The design of this research makes the researcher keeps in the selected

framework.

The design of this research is arranged as follows:

a. Collecting the data by replaying the film entitled “Easy A” and

getting for the script in the internet and so rechecking the conversations while

watching film.

b. Selecting and giving the mark on the utterances in containing

indirectness as the data

c. Classifying and coding the data based on the type of indirectness

d. Analyzing the data

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CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

A. Introduction

Chapter IV is the most important part of this research since it contains

analysis of the data based on the theory in order to answer problem statements

stated in chapter I.

This chapter is divided into three subchapters: A. introduction provides a

general description about what are going to be discussed in this chapter. B. Data

analysis is the main part of analysis covering the context of situation, the data

conversation containing indirectness perform in the film entitled “Easy A” and the

analysis of data answering the three problem statement. The first problem

statement about how the characters express indirectness is analyzed based on the

match on structural forms of sentence with general communicative functions; and

the implied meaning of the utterance. Second problem statement about the motive

of the use of indirectness is analyzed by using Jenny Thomas theory on

indirectness. Third problem statement shows the responses of the hearer to the

indirectness used by the characters. C. discussions will be the summary of

indirectness analysis employed in the second subchapter.

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B. Data Analysis

01/EA/IM

Context of situation:

The conversation takes place at school, when student chill after the class.

Rhiannon tries to convince Olive to spend the weekend with her by mocking

Olive‟s imaginary date, and suddenly Mr. Griffith comes and joins the

conversation.

Rhiannon : George is not a sexy name. George is what you name

your teddy bear, not the name you wanna scream out

during climax.

Mr. Griffith : And by that, I assume you mean?

Olive : The stable and self-perpetuating end stage in the evolution

of a plant community.

Rhiannon : Right.

Olive : Why, what were you thinking?

Mr. Griffith : The same. But I don't say it out loud lest someone get the

wrong idea. I think you know innuendo is attached to

everything these days.

1. Rhiannon‟s utterance in giving allusion to Olive, by employing a

metaphor, is considered to be indirectness. In this case, Rhiannon employs an

implied meaning through metaphor. She makes a metaphorical expression (focus

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utterance). She employs „teddy bear‟ as a metaphorical expression (as an implied

meaning) for Olive‟s imaginary boyfriend‟s name. Rhiannon uses metaphor

“George is not a sexy name. George is what you name your teddy bear, not the

name you wanna scream out during climax.” to say allusion about George

(Olive‟s imaginary boyfriend) in order to make Olive oppressed and choose to

spend the weekend with her.

Rhiannon uses conditional sentence in uttering her allusion. The speaker

use word „sexy‟ to imply „fun, excitement, enjoyment‟ and by saying that „George

is not a sexy name‟ the speaker want to say „it is boring, unexciting, dreary‟, and

by saying “George is what you name your teddy bear, not the name you wanna

scream out during climax” does not mean that George is immature, the speaker

actually wants to emphasize that it is not good idea to spend the weekend with a

guy named George because the speaker has a plan to ask her out in the weekend

but the speaker does not say it directly, therefore the speaker uses indirectness by

employing metaphor in conditional sentences.

2. Rhiannon uses indirectness to force the message. Rhiannon wants to

emphasize Olive that spending the weekend with her is more fun than spending

weekend with anyone else. The speaker stressed on the invitation to spend the

weekend with her by using allusion about George (Olive‟s imaginary boyfriend)

and teddy bear. By employing allusion “…George is what you name your teddy

bear, not the name you wanna scream out during climax”, the speaker wants to

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speaker hopes that the hearer will cancel the date‟s plan turns into spend the

weekend with the speaker.

3. Mr. Griffith coincidentally hears Rhiannon and Olive‟s conversation.

When he passed by Rhiannon says “George is what you name your teddy bear,

not the name you wanna scream out during climax” without knowing the topic they talk before. The way he response Rhiannon statement is by questioning what

does it mean, “And by that, I assume you mean?” it shows that he is not really

sure about what he hears. Strengthened with his following utterance, “But I don't

say it out loud lest someone get the wrong idea. I think you know innuendo is

attached to everything these days”, clearly shows that he accept Rhiannon‟s

statement literally and he thinks it is taboo to say at school in fact she use

indirectness in her motives to persuade Olive. Here, interlocutor‟s response is

irrelevant to Rhianon‟s intention.

02/EA/IM

The setting of this conversation is in basketball court, when the entire students

give it up for new school mascot, woodchucks.

Todd : woodchucks!!!! (Presenting new costume)

Rhiannon : I liked Todd much better when he was topless.

Olive : Yeah, but even dressed as a woodchuck, I still fantasize

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Todd : Woodchucks!!! (Shooting the ball and fall)

1. Rhiannon utterances in expressing her feeling about Todd to Olive is

indirectness since she uses implied meaning. The meaning of this utterance is not

interpreted literally. The datum is expressed in declarative form, but it is not only

giving an information or statement. There is meaning implied behind the sentence.

Rhiannon says „I liked Todd much better when he was topless…‟ does not mean

that she adore Todd in person, actually she wants to say that a new school mascot

(woodchucks) especially the costume is terrible. The utterance can be said directly

„woodchuck is stupid, and the costume is ridiculous.‟ The speaker uses an

utterance that has implied meaning rather that stating directly. Here the speaker

uses indirectness.

2. Rhiannon employs indirectness for politeness. In this case she knows that

Olive admire Todd from the first grade, as we can see Olive‟s commenting on

woodchucks, „Yeah, but even dressed as a woodchuck, I still fantasize about him,‟

so that she does not want to taunt Todd as a woodchucks and the costume directly.

The speaker tries to be polite in expressing her intention and this is a strategy to

maintain harmonious relation between the speaker and the hearer.

3. Olive knows exactly that Rhiannon really does not like the new mascot

woodchuck especially the costume used by Todd, it looks terrible, and she has the

same taught by commenting the costume “Yeah, but even dressed as a

woodchuck, I still fantasize about him.” Olive‟s statement “…, I still fantasize

about him” shows that she knows that Rhiannon knows about her feeling to Todd.

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context very well. The interlocutor‟s response is relevant to the context and

relevant to the speaker‟s intention.

03/EA/IM

The situational context:

Rhiannon curious about Olive‟s date, and what she‟s doing a whole weekend

Rhiannon : Okay, okay. Wait, wait. So are you going to see him

again?

Olive : No. No, probably not. You know, it was just one of those

weekends.

Rhiannon : A whole weekend?

Olive : Yup.

Rhiannon : Wait a minute.

Olive : What?

Rhiannon : You didn't have?

Olive : No. No, of course not.

1. Rhiannon‟s utterance “You didn't have?” is indirectness. There is an

implied meaning to this utterance. Rhiannon asks Olive about the weekend with

the guy she dates with, Rhiannon surprise that Olive spends a whole weekend

with him, Rhiannon thinks that Olive might have sex with that guy, but because

the setting of this conversation is in public where there are students around them,

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The speaker does not put the object (sex) word whereas she meant to be. Actually

the speaker could say “a whole weekend with a guy? So you have sex with him or

what?” but she chooses not to say it directly or else other students hear it. Here the

speaker uses implied meaning.

2. The speaker employs indirectness because of competing goals. In this

case, Rhiannon has the goals which compete. She wants to know the truth whether

Olive has sex with the guy or not but they are in the middle of the students which

can be bad because if she says the „sex‟ word everyone will pay attention.

Rhiannon dying to know the truth; in the other hand she does not want people

know what they talk about.

3. The interlocutor definitely understands about the speaker‟s intention.

Although the speaker does not put the object in her utterance “You didn't have?”

the hearer could answer without asking what it is all about, “No. No, of course

not.” From the hearer answer, the speaker indirectness is easy to understand. Here

the interlocutor response relevant to the context and relevant to the speaker‟s

intention.

04/EA/MSF

The situational context:

Rhiannon insist that Olive has to tell her every detail of what happened in her

weekend, she tries to push her into the toilet.

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Rhiannon : Now, bitch.

Olive : You know, you call me "bitch" a lot. Okay? It's not a

term of endearment.

Rhiannon : I want every detail. Now, shitface!

Olive : You're not heading in the right direction.

Rhiannon : (hit Olive‟s head) Tell me!

1. Olive‟s utterance in telling that the way Rhiannon addressing her name is

bad is the form of indirectness. Olive employs a structural form of sentence which

is not in accordance to the communication function. “You know, you call me

"bitch" a lot. Okay? It's not a term of endearment.” is a declarative form but the

speaker‟s intention is not only to give a statement or information, the speaker aims

to make the hearer realize that the hearer must stop calling her with the addressing

code „bitch‟.

Olive‟s intention is to make an imperative to Rhiannon. The utterance can be said

“Stop calling me Bitch! You bitch!” but this sounds as rude as Rhiannon

addressing code and she does not want that. The speaker employs a declarative to

make an imperative, Olive mismatches the structural form of the sentence with the

communication function. Here, the speaker employs indirectness.

2. The speaker employs indirectness for politeness. Olive is trying to make

Rhiannon realize that addressing some one who has close relationship with „bitch‟

is not nice. In this case, the speaker gives information and it means it implies cost

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which is employing declarative form. By using declarative form, the speaker does

not seem to give command or put the cost to the hearer. The speaker tries to make

the hearer understand and to stop to calling her a „bitch‟.

3. Two indirectly declarative sentence that Olive state, “You know, you call me "bitch" a lot. Okay? It's not a term of endearment.” seems not enough to make Rhiannon changes her attitude to call Olive with an inappropriate addressing code.

She stops calling Olive „bitch‟ but she use into another improper addressing code,

“I want every detail. Now, shitface!” The interlocutor does not get the point of

indirectness employed by the speaker it shown by her response which not relevant

to the speaker‟s intention.

05/EA/MSF

The setting of this conversation is in Melody Bostic‟s room when Olive is still in

8th grade. Olive and Todd join game in which they have to kiss each other. This

will be their first kiss.

Olive : I think this is the part where you're supposed to stick

your tongue in my mouth. That's what I've heard,

anyway.

Todd : Just give me a second, okay?

An Analysis of Indirectness Employed by the Main Character in the Movie “Easy A”