Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Attainment of a
Sarjana Sastra Degree in English Language and Literature
By:
Fahma Chimayasari 11211141011
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE STUDY PROGRAM ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS YOGYAKARTA STATE UNIVERSITY
v
(Q.S. Al-Mujadilah 58:1)
“BE INITIATIVE!”
vi
The ones who are never tired of loving, supporting, caring, and praying for me,
Bapak Ahmad Dartono A.M.
and IbuMahmudah,
Thank you for your patience…
The ones who always give me strength to keep on going,
Hamda ‘Aliya Nurutsani
andMuhammad Anggit Pratama,
The one who is already in heaven…
Muhammad Syifaurrohman,
And the ones who always give me their loyalty and unbreakable friendship,
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love without which I would have never been able to finish this thesis. I would also like to express my sincerest gratitude to the following people.
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my first consultant Dr. Margana M. Hum, M.A., and my second consultant Paulus Kurnianta, M.Hum., who have shared their valuable time, knowledge, and guidance with all their patience and wisdom during the completion of this thesis.
I am indebted to my academic consultant Titik Sudartinah, M.A., and all my lecturers who have taught me well and given me valuable knowledge. Moreover, a million of thanks go to my beloved parents, Bapak Ahmad Dartono A.M. and Ibu Mahmudah, my younger sister Hamda ‘Aliya Nurutsani and my younger brother Muhammad Anggit Pratama, for their never ending love, prayer, and patience for every single step I take in my life.
My huge gratitude is also expressed to my beloved comrades in English Literature A 2011 and Linguistics 2011 who have accompanied me and given me a lot of things to share, materially and mentally, during the process of writing this thesis. I would also like to devote my great appreciation to my closest friends Puput Suryani, Dyah Intan, Nurokayati, and Eristin Setiabudi, for always supporting, accompanying, and giving me a place to come by during the process of finishing my thesis.
Finally, I realize that this thesis is far from being perfect. Therefore, I would gratefully accept any constructive comments, feedback, and suggestions for the betterment of this study. Hopefully, this study will give some beneficial contributions to the readers.
Yogyakarta, 14 December 2015
viii
RATIFICATION SHEET ... iii
SURAT PERNYATAAN ... iv
MOTTOS ... v
DEDICATIONS ... vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ... vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... viii
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ... xi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ... xii
ABSTRACT ... xiii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Background of the Study ... 1
B. Research Focus... 6
C. Objectives of the Study ... 7
D. Significance of the Study ... 8
E. Operational Definitions ... 9
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ... 10
A. Literature Review ... 10
1. Pragmatics ... 10
2. Context ... 11
3. Speech Act ... 13
a. The Definitions of Speech Act ... 13
b. The Classification of Speech Act ... 13
1) Locutionary Act ... 14
2) Illocutionary Act ... 14
3) Perlocutionary Act ... 14
4. Illocutionary Act ... 15
ix
3) Expressive ... 19
4) Directive ... 20
5) Commissive ... 21
d. The Functions of Illocutionary Act ... 22
1) Competitive ... 22
2) Convivial ... 22
3) Collaborative ... 23
4) Conflictive ... 23
5. Movie ... 23
a. The Definitions of Movie ... 23
b. The Back-up Plan ... 24
B. Previous Studies ... 26
C. Conceptual Framework ... 27
D. Analytical Construct... 29
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODS ... 30
A. Research Type ... 30
B. Form, Context, and Source of Data ... 30
C. Research Instrument ... 31
D. Techniques of Data Collection ... 33
E. Techniques of Data Analysis ... 33
F. Trustworthiness of the Data ... 34
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ... 36
A. Research Findings ... 36
1. The Types of Illocutionary Act Performed by the Main Characters in Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan Movie ... ... 36
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Characters in Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan Movie ... 78
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS ... 86
A. Conclusion ... 86
B. Suggestions ... 87
REFERENCES ... 89
APPENDIX ... 91
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Table 1 : Data Sheet of Types and Functions of Illocutionary Act Performed by
the Main Characters in Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan Movie ... 31 Table 2 :The Types of Illocutionary Act Performed by the Main Characters in
Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan Movie ... 37 Table 3 : Illocutionary Forces Performed by the Main Characters in Alan Poul’s
The Back-up Plan Movie ... 38 Table 4 : The Functions of Illocutionary Act Performed by the Main Characters
xii Di : Directive
Ex : Expressive Co : Commissive
P : Participants S : Setting
T : Topic
IA/S-/P/D-/T/F
IA : Illocutionary Act
S : Scene
P : Page
D : Data
T : Type
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ABSTRACT
This study aims to analyze illocutionary act performed by the main characters in a movie entitled The Back-up Plan. The objectives of this study are (1) to identify
the types of illocutionary act and (2) to reveal the functions of illocutionary act performed by the main characters in the movie.
The study applied the descriptive qualitative method with the researcher as the main instrument and the data sheets as the secondary instrument. The discussion was presented in a descriptive way. The data were utterances in the form of words, phrases, and sentences spoken by the main characters in the movie. After being collected, the data were organized and analyzed based on Searle and Leech’s theory of illocutionary act. To gain the trustworthiness of the data in this study, triangulation was applied.
This study reveals some findings. First, there are four types of illocutionary act performed by the main characters in the movie. They are representative act, directive act, expressive act, and commissive act. Representative act is found as the most dominant type performed by the main characters. The main characters employ representative act to convey their ideas to each other. On the other hand, declarative act is not performed by the main characters in the movie since performing felicitous declarative act needs particular authorities and circumstances. Second, there are three functions of illocutionary act performed by the main characters in this movie. They are collaborative function, competitive function, and convivial function. The most dominant function performed by the main characters is collaborative function since it is intended to tell the truth of the main characters’ feelings to each other. Meanwhile, conflictive function is not performed by the main characters since it is intended to offend the hearer.
1
Language is an inseparable part of human’s life. Its role is inevitably crucial to
ease people’s intentions in delivering messages. People socialize to each other in their
life by conducting communication through language. It is important in human’s life
as it facilitates people to interact with each other. By means of communication,
people are able to transfer information, exchange ideas, share feelings, and convey
messages to each other. In this regard, language is an important means in
communication.
Mukalel (2003: 1) defines language as a greatly dynamic, active, and complex
process in which several agents and components are engaged. People generally use
language verbally or orally to serve many significant roles. It facilitates human to
exchange ideas, thoughts, desire, or simply to express their feelings. The way people
utilize language is different. It depends on the contexts and circumstances in which
the language is used.
Language is not only used to ease people’s communication but can also be used
to identify people’s social status, education level, and the like. People coming from
the higher levels of education utilize language differently from those coming from the
lower levels. They utilize language to reveal their social status or educational levels.
or she utilizes language. Therefore, people who share the same background tend to
use the same way in using language.
Language can be studied by employing many approaches. One of the approaches
that can be employed to study language is pragmatic approach. Leech (1983: 1)
defines pragmatics as the study of how language is used in communication. When
people attempt to express themselves, they do not merely produce utterances which
contain grammatical structures and words. Besides, people also perform actions via
their utterances which are generally called speech act. In analyzing speech act,
pragmatic study can be applied. According to Yule (1996: 3), this type of study
unavoidably requires the interpretation of what people intend in a particular context
and how the context affects what is said. People need to consider the context in which
the language is used. Thus, pragmatics is the study of language in context.
Considering the contexts in which a language is performed is important. Yule
(1996: 21) defines context as the physical environment in which a word is used. It is a
background knowledge which is assumed to be shared by a speaker and a hearer.
Context takes part on how the hearer comes to an interpretation of what the speaker
means in his or her utterance. Hence, context is vital in studying speech act. The
importance of analyzing speech act by considering the context is inevitable.
Yule (1996: 47) defines speech act as the actions which are performed via
utterances. Speech act contains the speaker’s communicative intentions and functions
to deliver them to the hearer. An utterance cannot be considered as a performance of
By means of speech act, language influences people and their behavior. Therefore,
performing speech act is not simply an action of making an utterance. It also may
convey the speaker’s certain intention which underlies the speech that he or she
produces.
Speech act that people utilize can be performed through any ways, of any reasons,
and for any purposes. It can be traced from the way a language user structures and
arranges his or her speech. The purpose may be to give arguments, persuade or even
transport personal perspectives. Hence, the functions of speech act are unlimited.
According to Austin (1962: 98), there are three types of speech act in producing
an utterance. They are locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary act. The basic
element of an utterance or the production of a meaningful linguistic expression is
called as a locutionary act. Illocutionary act is performed via the communicative force
of an utterance. On the other hand, the perlocutionary act of an utterance deals with
the effect on the hearer.
Austin (1962: 108) further explains that performing a locutionary act is forcefully
equivalent to uttering a certain sentence with a certain sense and reference. It is also
forcefully equivalent to ‘meaning’ in traditional sense. When someone performs a
locutionary act, he or she also performs a certain illocutionary act. Actions such as
informing, ordering, warning, and undertaking are some examples of illocutionary act.
Meanwhile, the perlocutionary act of an utterance deals with what we bring about in
saying that utterance, such as convincing, persuading, deterring, and even surprising
The second type of speech act based on Austin’s categorization (1962) is
illocutionary act. It is the function of the word, the specific purpose that the speakers
have in mind. Searle (1969: 23-24) defines illocutionary act as the acts of uttering
words in sentences under certain circumstances, in certain contexts, and for certain
purposes. It also deals with certain intentions or forces that a speaker tries to deliver
through his performance of speech acts.
As locutionary act can be defined as the surface of the utterance itself,
illocutionary act is more about the actual meaning implied than what is orally said.
According to Cutting (2002: 16), the most important study from the three kinds of
speech act is the study of illocutionary act. It becomes the basic analysis in pragmatic
comprehension.
The phenomena of illocutionary act is not only seen in real life but it is also
found in a movie. A movie or a film is defined as a series of moving pictures
recorded with sounds that tells a story, shown on television or at the cinema/movie
theater (Hornby, 2000: 496). A movie is used as a manifestation of human’s life
which can reflect the use of illocutionary act as a means to deliver people’s intentions
in transferring information.
The characters in a movie use language by performing speech act in their
dialogues. They use speech act to deliver their intentions or simply to express their
feelings. In a movie, language represents the ways people actually talk. Hence, even
actual language use. In this respect, the researcher uses a movie entitled The Back-up
Plan as the object of the study to explore the usage of illocutionary act.
The Back-up Plan tells about the life of Zoe as the main character who tries to
deal with her dream of becoming a single mother by means of artificial insemination.
Zoe thinks that by being a single parent, she will not have to experience the pain of
love and complex relationship as she does not want to be involved in any case of love.
However, the plan does not run as she expects. On the way back home after getting
inseminated, she meets a guy named Stan and gradually falls in love with him.
There are several factors why this movie is selected as the object of this research.
First, the researcher is interested in the way the two main characters are engaged in a
relationship even though they are often involved in a conflict. The problems faced by
the main characters appear within their utterances. Second, the conversations of the
two main characters which mainly discuss how they overcome the problems in their
relationship are interesting to be observed. Moreover, the conversations of the main
characters represent people’s daily conversation. The language of the main characters
employs various types of speech act, particularly illocutionary act. Hence, this study
analyzes the illocutionary act performed by the main characters in The Back-up Plan
movie to explore the types and the functions of illocutionary act used by the main
B. Research Focus
According to Searle (1975), there are five types of illocutionary act: declarative,
representative, expressive, directive, and commissive illocutionary act. Each of the
five types is used differently in certain contexts, under certain circumstances, and for
certain purposes. Moreover, Leech (1983) divides illocutionary act into four functions
based on social purpose: competitive, convivial, collaborative, and conflictive.
Considering the theories above, the researcher identifies, delimits, and formulates the
problems of the study by relating the object of the study to the theories applied.
In The Back-up Plan movie, Zoe and Stan, serving as the two main characters,
were described as an unmarried couple who tried to deal with their life as they were
going to be parents and they didn’t feel ready for it. Zoe was declared pregnant only
in a short time after she dated Stan. This situation set her to be complicated on how
she tried to convince Stan that everything would be fine even though he would soon
become a father. Things worse when Stan found out that Zoe was actually carrying
twins and the babies were not his. However, both Zoe and Stan were two persons
with a lot of things to say. They liked to talk about the problems that they were facing
by having tight discussions. They often had a discussion to solve their problems. The
complicated ways in which Zoe and Stan tried to maintain their relationship and
overcome their problems explored specific language use. Both of the two main
characters utilized illocutionary act with certain implicit meanings in their utterances
to convey message to each other and to achieve the social functions of the utterances
Based on the identification of the problems above, the researcher comes to the
limitation of this research in order to gain the focus of this research. This study is
limited only on identifying and describing the illocutionary act performed by the
main characters in The Back-up Plan movie based on John R. Searle and Geoffrey N.
Leech’s theories. The main concerns are the types and the functions of the
illocutionary act performed by the main characters in The Back-up Plan movie.
Therefore, based on the identification and the limitation of the study above, the
researcher formulates the observed problem as presented below.
1. What are the types of illocutionary act performed by the main characters in
Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan movie?
2. What are the functions of the employment of illocutionary act by the main
characters in Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan movie?
C. Objectives of the Study
Based on the formulation of the study, the objectives are:
1. to identify the types of illocutionary act performed by the main characters in
Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan movie, and
2. to find out the functions of the employment of illocutionary act by the main
D. Significance of the Study
By conducting this study, the researcher expects that the findings enrich the
research in the pragmatic field, particularly speech act. Regarding the background and
the objectives, this research confers theoretical and practical significance.
Theoretically, this research presents significance to enrich the findings of
illocutionary act under pragmatic study. Illocutionary act is an important topic in
speech act that can be analyzed using pragmatic approach. The researcher hopes that
this research is contributory to understand illocutionary act under the scope of
pragmatics. Moreover, this research can be used as a reference to the readers and
resource for the next relevant type of research.
This study confers practical significance to be beneficial to the readers of the
study and the students of English Language and Literature study program. For the
readers of the study, this research can directly give more information on how and why
illocutionary act is performed in communication. It can be useful for people who are
interested in the study of speech act, particularly illocutionary act, which are
performed in a movie, a talk show, or other media.
For the students of English Language and Literature study program, this research
confers benefits for the students of English Language and Literature as an authentic
source of the study involving illocutionary act. Besides, this research also gives
deeper understanding for the students in analyzing illocutionary speech act performed
other researchers to develop and conduct other study under the same subject with
different object.
E. Operational Definitions
1. Pragmatics
Pragmatics is the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker or writer,
and interpreted by a listener or reader (Yule, 1996: 3).
2. Speech Act
Speech act is actions which are performed via utterances (Yule, 1995: 47).
3. Context
Nunan (1993: 7) defines context as a vital element that refers to the
situation which giving rise to the discourse.
4. Illocutionary Act
Yule (1996: 48) defines illocutionary act as the utterances with some kind
of function in mind.
5. Illocutionary Force
Yule (1995: 48) defines illocutionary force as the communicative purpose
10
framework, and analytical construct. Literature review provides the relevant theories
while the summary of the previous research is provided in the subtopic of previous
studies. Conceptual framework and analytical construct of the research are presented
in the latter part of the chapter.
A. Literature Review 1. Pragmatics
Human communicates with each other through language. The use of language in
human’s communication cannot be separated from its context. The study of language
in contextual meaning is called pragmatics. Yule (1996:3) states that pragmatics is
concerned with the study of interpreting the meaning of what is being communicated
by a speaker. It deals with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than
what the words or phrases might mean by themselves. Levinson (1983:5) states that
pragmatics is a study of language usage. It is the study of the relation between
language and context which are essential to an account of language understanding. In
other words, pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning.
Yule (1996: 4) defines pragmatics as the study of the relationship between
linguistic forms and the users of those forms. By studying language via pragmatics,
the kinds of actions that they are performing when they talk. Furthermore, as the
study of hidden meaning which is not actually said or written, pragmatics necessarily
involves interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and how the
context influences what is said. It requires the consideration of how speakers organize
what they want to say, whom they are talking to, and the setting and the situation
when the talk occurs.
Pragmatics also explores how listeners can make inferences about what is said in
order to arrive at an interpretation of the speaker’s intended meaning. This type of
study investigates how the hidden meaning intended by the speaker can be recognized
by the hearer. A speaker or writer must be able to depend on their purposes and the
types of action that they are performing. Thus, their intended meaning can be
successfully delivered to the hearer.
In brief, pragmatics is the study of language in context. Therefore, based on the
description of pragmatics explained above, this research conducts pragmatic study to
reveal the use of illocutionary act by the main characters in a movie entitled The
Back-up Plan.
2. Context
A crucial aspect in studying pragmatics is context. According to Nunan (1993: 7),
context refers to the situation giving rise to the discourse, and within which the
discourse is embedded. In other words, context is background knowledge that is
interpretation of what the speaker means in his or her utterance. This unit examines
how factors such as time, place, and social relationship between the speaker and the
hearer affect the ways in which language is used to perform various functions.
In producing a sentence or an utterance, people must also understand the context
in which the sentence or the utterance is performed to fully understand its meaning.
According to Holmes (2001: 8), the participant, the setting, the topic, and the purpose
of the conversation have to be considered by the speakers to effectively convey the
message to other participants.
Furthermore, Cutting (2002: 3) explains that there are three sorts of contexts to
be observed in a conversation. They are presented below.
(a) the situational context, it is what speakers know about what they can see
around them;
(b) the background knowledge, what they know about each other and the world;
(c) the co-textual context, what they know about what they have been saying.
In pragmatic study, context is a vital element. Mey (1993:58) asserts that a
pragmatic thing is under the context bound. This means that someone always operates
in context to understand the implied meaning of an utterance. Context plays great role
in someone’s interpretation of an utterance and how he or she determines between the
literal meaning and the implied meaning of the utterance.
In addition, Leech (1983:13) also characterizes that a context has great influences
in understanding the meaning of an utterance. A speaker and the addressee share their
between them can be successful if the hearer is able to interpret the intended meaning
delivered by the speaker correctly. In other words, the same background knowledge
can assist the addressee in interpreting the meaning intended by the speaker.
To sum up, the role of context in studying pragmatics is important. By
considering the context in which a language is performed, the information or idea can
be transferred and interpreted successfully.
3. Speech Act
a. The Definitions of Speech Act
Searle (1976:16) asserts that speaking a language can also be regarded as
performing speech act. It needs the production of the symbol, word or sentence in a
performance of speech act. Therefore, speech act is the basic minimal units of
linguistic communication. Moreover, Yule (1996:47) states that in attempting to
express something, people do not only produce utterances containing grammatical
structures and words but they also perform actions via those utterances. Actions
performed via utterances are generally called speech act. In English, speech act is
commonly given more specific names such as apology, complaint, compliment,
invitation, promise, or request.
b. The Classification of Speech Act
1) Locutionary Act
According to Austin (1969: 108), performing a locutionary act is roughly
equivalent to uttering a certain sentence with a certain sense and reference. It is the
acts of saying something in the full sense of ‘say’. On the other hand, Yule (1996: 48)
defines locutionary act as the basic act of utterances of producing a meaningful
linguistic expression. Yule proposes an example in the utterance “I have just made
some coffee”. The locutionary act of the utterance is that the speaker simply utters
that he or she just made some coffee.
2) Illocutionary Act
Austin (1969: 108) defines illocutionary act as an utterance which has a certain
force. It can also be said that illocutionary act refers to the intention behind the act of
saying something. Meanwhile, Searle (1985: 1) defines illocutionary act as the
minimal unit of human communication. It is performed via the communicative force
of an utterance such as stating, requesting, and apologizing. In Yule’s example “I
have just made some coffee”, the speaker makes an offer or a statement. There are
some other examples of illocutionary act such as ordering, apologizing, offering,
giving permission, betting, vowing, and proposing.
3) Perlocutionary Act
According to Austin (1969: 108), perlocutionary act is what people bring about
or achieve by saying something such as convincing, persuading, surprising, and
performs perlocutionary act of causing the hearer to account for a wonderful smell, or
to get the hearer to drink some coffee.
On the other hand, Searle (1969: 23-24) starts with the notion that when a person
speaks, he or she performs three different acts. They are utterance act, propositional
act, and illocutionary act. Utterance act consists of uttering strings of words.
Meanwhile, propositional act and illocutionary act consist of uttering words in
sentences in certain context, under certain condition, and with certain intention.
4. Illocutionary Act
a. The Definitions of Illocutionary Act
Searle (1985: 1) defines illocutionary act as the minimal units of human
communication. It is performed via the communicative force of an utterance. An
illocutionary act refers to the type of function the speaker intends to fulfill, or the type
of action the speaker intends to accomplish in producing an utterance. It is an act
which is accomplished in speaking. Illocutionary act can be identified in many forms.
Several examples of the forms of illocutionary act are accusing, apologizing, blaming,
congratulating, giving permission, joking, nagging, naming, promising, ordering,
refusing, swearing, and thanking.
Searle (1985: 1) states that in general, an illocutionary act consists of an
illocutionary force and a propositional content. For example, the two utterances “You
which is that ‘you’ will leave the room. The first utterance has the illocutionary force
of a prediction while the latter has the illocutionary force of an order.
The distinction between illocutionary force and propositional content is
supported by the fact that their identity conditions are also different. The same
propositional content can occur with different illocutionary forces and the same
illocutionary force can occur with different propositional content. By recognizing and
identifying the force of an utterance, the illocutionary act of the utterance can be
delivered successfully. Hence, the role of illocutionary force in determining the types
and functions of illocutionary act is vital.
b. Illocutionary Force
On many occasions, one single utterance can potentially have quite various
intentions. In identifying the certain intention that a speaker tries to deliver using his
or her utterance, the hearer needs to identify the illocutionary force of the utterance.
When the hearer has recognized the illocutionary force of the utterance, the intention
can be acknowledged successfully.
The study of illocutionary act is mainly focused on the illocutionary force of the
utterances. Illocutionary force is the speaker’s involvement in what is uttered (Mey,
1993: 156). When a speaker performs an utterance in an appropriate context with
certain intention, he or she also performs one or more illocutionary acts (Searle and
Vanderveken, 1985: 1).
The illocutionary force of an utterance can be identified using seven Illocutionary
punctuation, word-order, intonation contour, stress, and performative verbs. The
example on how the IFID is realized in a conversation is presented below.
Him : Can I talk to Mary? Her : No, she’s not here.
Him : I’m asking you –can I talk to her? Her : And I’m telling you –she’s not here!
(Yule, 1996: 50)
In the conversation above, each speaker has performed illocutionary act of asking
and telling by drawing the illocutionary forces of ‘ask’ and ‘tell’ in each of their
utterances. Illocutionary force can be present in many forms, depending on the
contexts in which the illocutionary act is performed.
c. The Types of Illocutionary Act
Searle (1975:11-17) classifies illocutionary act based on varied criteria as the
following:
1) Declarative
According to Yule (1996: 53), declarative act is the type of speech act that
change the world via the word. It affects immediate changes in some current state of
affairs. The speaker has to have a special institutional role, in a specific context, in
order to perform a declaration appropriately such as bidding in bridge, declaring war,
excommunicating, firing from employment, and nominating a candidate. The
a) Priest : I now pronounce you husband and wife. b) Referee : You’re out!
(Yule, 1996: 53)
The first example can constitute a declaration of marriage if the utterance is
spoken by an appropriate authority, such as a Catholic priest. On the other hand, the
same sentence, if it is spoken by an eight year old kid, cannot constitute a felicitous
declarative act. The second example can also be regarded as a declaration if the
utterance is spoken by a referee. It is spoken to declare that a player of the match is
out of the game.
Searle and Vanderveken (1985: 205) indicate that declarative forces can be
present in many forms such as declaring, approving, endorsing, excommunicating,
naming, christening, resigning, firing, abbreviating, and blessing. The language
features that indicate declarative acts are verbs such as declare, approve, endorse,
excommunicate, name, christen, resign, fire, abbreviate, and bless.
2) Representative
Representative act represents some state of affairs. According to Yule (1996: 53),
representative act is the type of speech act that states what the speaker believes to be
the case or not. They express the speaker’s belief. Statement of fact, assertion,
conclusions, and description are some examples of the speaker representing the world
as he or she believes it. For examples:
a) The earth is flat.
b) It was a warm sunny day.
The examples above are the representations of the speaker’s beliefs to be the case
in the world. The speaker in the first example expresses his or her belief by asserting
that the earth is flat. On the other hand, the speaker in the second example expresses
his or her belief that the day was a warm sunny day by uttering the assertive
illocutionary act.
Assertive forces can be present in many forms, such as informing, stating,
arguing, clarifying, convincing, agreeing, describing, protesting, reminding, and
reporting. The language features that indicate representative acts are verbs such as
assert, claim, argue, assure, predict, report, inform, admit, remind, testify, confess,
conjecture, guess, state, hypothesize, swear, and insist.
3) Expressive
Yule (1996: 53) states that expressive act is a kind of speech act that states what
the speaker feels. They express psychological states and can be statement of pleasure,
pain, likes, dislikes, joy or sorrow. Expressive act refers to a speech act in which the
speaker expresses his or her feeling and attitude about something. They can be caused
by something the speaker does or the hearer does, but they are about the speaker’s
experience. The examples of expressive act are shown below.
a) I’m really sorry! b) Congratulations!
(Yule, 1996: 53) Searle in Wardaugh (2006: 287) states that expressive act is used to express the
“Congratulations” in the conversation above are the examples of expressive
illocutionary act which have the illocutionary forces of apologizing to someone and
congratulating someone.
Expressive forces can be present in many forms, such as thanking, apologizing,
complimenting, congratulating, hoping, greeting, or joking. The language features
that indicate expressive acts are verbs such as apologize, congratulate, thank,
compliment, deplore, condole, and welcome.
4) Directive
Mey (1993: 164) asserts that directive act embodies an effort on the part of the
speaker to ‘direct’ the hearer towards some goal (of the speaker, mostly). According
to Yule (1996: 53), directive act is the type of speech act that the speakers use to get
someone else to do something. They express the speaker’s desire or wish for the
addressee to do something. Directive act contains what the speaker wants. By using
directive act, the speaker attempts to adapt the world into the uttered words. The
examples of directive illocutionary act are presented below.
a) Give me a cup of coffee. Make it black. b) Could you lend me a pen, please?
(Yule, 1996: 54)
The examples above are the utterances which involve the performance of
directive illocutionary acts. The first example is a directive illocutionary act in the
of requesting. The speakers of the utterances attempt to make the world fit the word
via the hearers.
Directive forces can be present in many forms, such as requesting, suggesting,
commanding, asking, begging, warning, or advising. The language features that
indicate directive acts are verbs such as request, ask, order, command, solicit, incite,
invite, beg, suggest, advise, recommend, supplicate, entreat, and pray.
5) Commissive
Commissive act refers to speech act that commits the speaker to do something in
the future such as promising, offering, threatening, refusing, vowing, and
volunteering. Yule (1996: 54) states that commissive act is the type of speech acts
that the speakers use to commit themselves to some future action. They express the
speaker’s intention and can be performed by the speaker alone or by the speaker as a
member of a group. The examples of commissive illocutionary act are presented
below.
a) I’m going to get it right next time. b) I’ll be back.
(Yule, 1996: 54)
The content of commissive act has something to do with a future and possible
action of the speaker. The modal ‘will’ or (to be) going to (in certain rules, contexts
and situation) signifies a promise in which it is considered as commissive act. In the
examples above, the speaker in the first example performs a commissive illocutionary
next time. Meanwhile the speaker of the utterance in the second example performs a
commissive illocutionary act in the form of promising that he or she will be back at
certain time in the future.
Commissive forces can be performed in many forms, such as offering, promising,
threatening, betting, denying, or refusing. The language features that indicate
commissive acts are verbs such as commit, promise, threaten, accept, pledge, vow,
consent, covenant, and guarantee.
d. The Functions of Illocutionary Act
Illocutionary act is central to linguistic communication. When saying something,
the illocutionary act that a speaker produces actually has functions. According to
Leech (1983: 104), there are certain functions of illocutionary act and he divides them
into four social functions as listed below.
1) Competitive
This illocutionary goal competes with the social goal. This function is intended
for showing politeness in the form of negative parameter. The point is to reduce the
discord implicit in the competition between what the speaker wants to achieve and
what is ‘good manner’. The examples of this goal are ordering, asking, demanding,
and begging. Competitive goals are those which are essentially discourteous, such as
getting someone to lend his or her money.
2) Convivial
This illocutionary goal coincides with the social goal. On the contrary with the
politeness here is in the positive form of seeking opportunity for comity. As an
example, if someone has the opportunity to congratulate his or her friend on his
birthday, he or she should do so. The examples of this goal are offering, inviting,
greeting, thanking, and congratulating.
3) Collaborative
This illocutionary goal is indifferent with the social goal. In this illocutionary
function, both politeness and impoliteness are relevant. This function commits the
speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition. It can be found in most of written
discourse. The examples of this goal are asserting, reporting, announcing, and
instructing.
4) Conflictive
This illocutionary goal conflicts with the social goal. Similar to the collaborative
function, politeness does not need to be questioned as the terms in this illocutionary
function are used to cause offence or hurt the feeling of the hearer. The examples of
conflictive function are threatening, accusing, cursing, and reprimanding.
5. Movie
a. The Definitions of Movie
A movie can be regarded as a representation of a real life. A movie or a film is
defined as a series of moving pictures recorded with sounds that tells a story, shown
on television or at the cinema/movie theater (Hornby, 2000: 496). A movie is created
by photographing actual scenes with a motion picture camera, drawings or miniature
techniques and other visual effects. To analyze a movie, one has to understand its
elements. Some elements of a movie are listed below.
1) Scene: A section of a movie or film usually made up of a number of shots, which
is unified by time, setting, character, etc.
2) Plot: The unified structure of incidents in a movie or film.
3) Character: An imaginary person in a movie or film.
4) Point of view: The angle of vision from which a story is narrated.
b. The Back-up Plan
The Back-up Plan, previously known as Plan B, is a 2010 romantic comedy film
directed by Alan Poul, starring Jennifer Lopez and Alex O'Loughlin. It was released
theatrically in the U.S. on April 23, 2010, and later in other regions.
Picture 1. The Back-up Plan Movie DVD Poster
The genre of this movie is the combination of romance and comedy that explores
that waiting for the right man takes too long time. Determined to become a mother,
she was inseminated to get a baby. She made an appointment and decided to go
through the insemination alone. That same day, Zoe met Stan, a man who captivated
her heart. Zoe never expected that she would meet a guy and fall in love with him.
Unfortunately, Zoe got pregnant when her relationship with Stan was doing well.
She became complicated on how she should explain everything to Stan. Stan finally
figured out that she was pregnant with twins. He assured Zoe that everything would
be okay even though they were going to be parents for twins.
However, things did not go well as planned. Stan incidentally revealed to the
public that the babies were not his and it made Zoe angry and left. As time went by,
both Stan and Zoe realized that they could not live separately from each other. They
finally reunited right at the time Zoe was in labor. Stan accompanied her during the
birth delivery, promised to be on her side since then and become a good father for the
babies.
The Back-up Plan movie tells about how a woman deals with donor insemination
to get a baby. In the movie, donor insemination is featured in the storyline as a way
for a woman who does not want a marriage could still have a child. According to
American Pregnancy Association (APA), donor insemination is legal in the United
States. In December 2014, Fox News reported that the government of the United
States brokered a deal to help a wife of a Cuban spy become pregnant through
artificial insemination. This shows that this process is one of the ways for women
In brief, The Back-up Plan movie portrays how couples in the United States
normally live and face their problems. Through this movie also, the phenomena of
donor insemination is introduced as a problem solving for women who are unable to
have child.
B. Previous Studies
Two studies related to this research are Commissive Illocution in Ernest
Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises: A Pragmatic Analysis by Debora Pangaribuan and An Analysis of Illocutionary Act in Prince of Persia: The Sand of Time Movie by Nur
Azni Wardani.
Debora Pangaribuan’s research which is entitled Commissive Illocution in Ernest
Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises: A Pragmatic Analysis analyzed commisive
illocutionary act employed by the characters in The Sun also Rises novel. Her
research applied descriptive qualitative method. The main objective of her study was
to find commissive illocutionary act in the novel. The study revealed that there were
four types of commissive act in the novel. They were promising, offering, threatening
and betting. The most dominant type of commissive act used in the novel was
promising.
Moreover, Nur Azni Wardani’s study which is entitled An Analysis of
Illocutionary Act in Prince of Persia: The Sand of Time Movie analyzed illocutionary
act performed by Dastan who is the main character in the movie. Her research applied
underlying illocutionary act used in Dastan’s utterances and the implicature behind it.
The study indicated that there were five illocutionary act occurred in Dastan’s
utterances. They were representatives (reporting, stating, and concluding), directives
(ordering, asking, requesting, and commanding), expressives (praising and
apologizing), commisives (refusal and pledging), and declaratives (declaring).
This study is different from the two previous studies mentioned above. In the two
studies, they only analyzed the types of illocutionary act. Meanwhile, this study
focuses not only on the types of illocutionary act but also on the social function of the
performance of illocutionary act. Furthermore, this study also deeply analyzes
illocutionary act employed in the movie by investigating the illocutionary force of the
two main characters’ utterances. With regard to the background of the study and the
previous studies, the researcher is inspired and motivated to conduct a study of
illocutionary act in a movie entitled The Back-up Plan.
C. Conceptual Framework
This study analyzes illocutionary act performed by the main characters in The
Back-up Plan movie. This study employs descriptive qualitative research in which the
researcher concerns on the performance of illocutionary act by the main characters in
The Back-up Plan movie. Analyzing speech act, particularly illocutionary act, is a
matter of making assumption that is the interpretation of the utterances. In making
interpretation of illocutionary act, the researcher should know the implied meanings
the meanings of the utterances intended by the main characters in The Back-up Plan
movie.
Pragmatics as the study of language meaning is the appropriate approach to be
used to analyze illocutionary act in The Back-up Plan movie, since the utterances
have other meanings that sometimes are different from what are literally spoken by
the speakers.
Austin (1962) proposes that language has three main aspects: locutionary act,
illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. Locutionary act is the basic act of utterance
of producing a meaningful linguistic expression. Illocutionary act is performed via
the communicative force of an utterance. Meanwhile, perlocutionary act is the effect
on the hearer. Searle (1969:358) further develops the types of illocutionary act into
five major categories. They are declarative, representative, directive, expressive and
commisive.
Furthermore, Leech (1983: 104) divides the functions of illocutionary act into
four categories. They are competitive, convivial, collaborative, and conflictive. This
division of the functions of illocutionary act enables the researcher to seek out the
goals of the illocutionary act by the main characters in movie and how their
performances of illocutionary act are actually intended to the social goals.
Therefore, this study is expected to reveal the types and the functions of
illocutionary act based on the theories proposed by Searle and Leech. In addition, this
study is also expected to provide a useful source of learning material, especially
Figure 1. Analytical Construct Locutionary Act Illocutionary Act
30
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODS A. Research Type
This research was conducted by using qualitative approach. Qualitative method
was used to describe the phenomenon in its context by interpreting the data. This
method dealt with the possibilities to solve the problem by collecting, classifying,
analyzing, and interpreting data.
According to Bogdan and Taylor (1975: 4), the examples of descriptive data are
human being’s written or spoken words and their observable behaviors. The use of
qualitative approach was aimed to describe the types and the functions of
illocutionary act performed by the main characters in The Back-up Plan movie.
Vanderstoep and Johnson (2008: 167) state that qualitative research is more
descriptive than predictive. Therefore, the qualitative method applied in this study
aimed to present the research in the form of words description instead of numbers and
statistics.
For this reason, this research aimed to describe the types and the functions of
illocutionary act employed by the main characters in The Back-up Plan movie.
B. Form, Context and Source of Data
The data of this study were taken in the form of spoken but written utterances by
the two main characters in the movie while the contexts were dialogues. The source
of this study was a movie entitled The Back-up Plan. This movie was chosen as the
discuss how they overcome the problems in their relationship employ various types of
illocutionary act. Furthermore, the conversations of the two main characters represent
people’s daily conversation. Therefore, this movie was selected as the object of this
research.
C. Research Instrument
The primary instrument of this research was the researcher herself since the study
employed a descriptive qualitative research. Moleong (2001:121) states that in
qualitative method, the researcher plays as the designer, the collector, the analyst, the
interpreter, and the reporter of the data finding. The researcher designed the research
including observation, analysis, and interpreting the data. Regarding the important
role of the researcher, her knowledge and experience deeply influenced the accuracy
of the data analysis. Furthermore, the secondary instrument of this research was the
data sheet which was used to collect the data of illocutionary act from the sources.
The table below illustrates the form of the data sheet which was used to collect the
data.
Table 1: Data Sheet of Types and Functions of Illocutionary Act Employed by the Main Characters in Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan Movie
me, this is my cab.(1a)
IA : Illocutionary act S-1 : Scene 1 Re : Representative Di : Directive Ex : Expressive Co : Commissive CP : Competitive CV : Convivial CB : Collaborative CF : Conflictive
In addition, to make the data easier to be found in the data source, the researcher
also used data codes. The figure of the data codes is presented below.
Figure 2: The data codes Code (IA/S-20/P8/D-1a/Re/CB)
IA : Illocutionary act S-1 : Scene 1
D-1a : Datum 1a P8 : Page 8
D. Techniques of Data Collection
The data of this research were collected using a note-taking technique from the
utterances of the two main characters in The Back-up Plan movie. According to
Sudaryanto (1993: 133-135), this is a technique for providing data through reading
carefully and note taking.
The researcher took some steps during the data collection: watching the movie,
finding its transcript, making the data sheet, and categorizing the raw data into the
sheet. The first step was watching The Back-up Plan movie to understand its plot and
story. After the researcher understood the content of the movie, it was then
re-watched to find the utterances containing illocutionary act performed by the two main
characters. After that, the researcher searched for the script of the movie from the
internet and checked the accuracy of the script with the dialogues in the movie. The
script was accessed from the internet
(http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Back-up-Plan,-The.html). Next, the researcher took notes of the main characters’ utterances which
were in accordance with the objectives of the study. Categorizing the raw data into
the data sheet was the final step of the data collecting techniques.
E. Techniques of Data Analysis
Bogdan and Biklen (1982: 145) state that qualitative data analysis deals with
working with data, organizing it, breaking it into manageable units, synthesizing it,
searching for patterns, discovering what is important and what is to be learned, and
The researcher applied referential methods in which the data were analyzed
based on the explored theory. The process of the data analysis was started by
reducing the raw data by sorting out the irrelevant data. Next, the researcher classified
the data into the data sheet based on the classification of the two objectives of the
study. After that, the data were analyzed according to the applied theories. To gain
trustworthiness, the data were then triangulated by three students of English
Language and Literature study program. The final step of data analyzing process was
drawing the conclusion based on the result of the research in order to answer the
formulation of the problem.
F. Trustworthiness of the Data
This research conducted trustworthiness to establish the reliability, truthfulness
of the data, credibility, and the consistency of the data. According to Vanderstoep and
Johnston (2009: 179), the reliability of data can be gained by conducting triangulation.
If the research is reliable, it can be said as a valuable research.
Furthermore, the credibility of the data was achieved by performing the data in
deep and detail observation so that the data could be said credible. In applying this
credibility, the data were reread carefully and comprehensively in accordance with
the researcher’s questions until she got the correct analysis.
The validity of the data was provided by crosschecking different data sources.
Therefore, in this research, the data validity of the research was done by repeating
observation of the data, comparing the obtained data with the other references and
students of English Language and Literature study program to triangulate the data.
They were Nabella Primadianti, Efa Nuryani, and Wahyu Kurniasari. The
transferability and confirmability of the data were achieved by involving various
36
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter, the results of the research are explained in detail. This chapter
consists of two sub-chapters: sub-chapter A and sub-chapter B. The first chapter
presents the findings of the research. Meanwhile, the discussion of the findings is
presented in sub-chapter B.
A. Research Findings
Based on the data analysis, the study reveals 277 data of illocutionary act
performed by the main characters in The Back-up Plan movie. The following sections
illustrate the research findings.
1. The Types of Illocutionary Act Performed by the Main Characters in Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan Movie
In terms of the types, illocutionary act can be divided into five types. They
are declarative, representative, directive, expressive, and commissive. The findings of
the types of illocutionary act employed by the main characters in The Back-up Plan
Table 2: The Types of Illocutionary Act Performed by the Main Characters in Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan Movie
No Types of Illocutionary Act Occurrences
1 Representative 158
2 Directive 84
3 Expressive 23
4 Commissive 12
5 Declarative 0
Total 277
Table 2 shows that four types of illocutionary act are performed by the main
characters in The Back-up Plan movie. They are representative act, directive act,
expressive act, and commissive act. The most often occurring type is representative
with 158 occurrences. In the second rank is directive act with 84 occurrences.
Expressive act is in the third rank with 23 occurrences. Meanwhile, the least
occurring type is commissive act with only 12 occurrences. Based on the findings,
declarative act is not performed by the main characters in the movie.
The two main characters in the movie are described as a new couple who are in
the steps of knowing each other better. This situation makes them employ
representative act more often than the other types. By employing representative act,
declarative act is not found performed by the main characters in the movie since it
needs particular authority and circumstance. As the two main characters are common
people with no certain authority, they do not perform any declaration in their
utterances.
Furthermore, the findings of illocutionary forces found in the movie are
presented in Table 3.
Table 3: Illocutionary Forces Performed by the Main Characters in Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan Movie
No Types of Illocutionary Act Illocutionary Force Occurrences
1 Representative a. Informing 79
b. Asserting 61
c. Explaining 4
d. Arguing 1
e. Predicting 1
f. Guessing 3
g. Reminding 4
h. Reporting 1
i. Agreeing 1
j. Stating opinion 3
2 Directive a. Questioning 72
b. Requesting 3
c. Commanding 4
d. Advising 3
e. Wishing 2
3 Expressive a. Thanking 1
b. Greeting 2
c. Apologizing 5
d. Complimenting 2
e. Stating love 4
f. Stating surprise 5
h. Stating annoyance 1
4 Commissive a. Promising 9
b. Offering 2
c. Guaranteeing 1
5 Declarative
Total 277
Based on Table 3, representative illocutionary act has the most various kinds of
force found in the movie followed by expressive illocutionary act. Meanwhile,
directive act has 5 kinds of illocutionary force and commissive act has only 3 kinds of
illocutionary force. Declarative force is not found performed by the main characters
in the movie.
2. The Functions of Illocutionary Act Performed by the Main Characters in Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan Movie
Each illocutionary act found The Back-up Plan movie is performed with
functions. According to Leech’s theory, there are four kinds of social functions of
illocutionary act: competitive, convivial, collaborative, and conflictive. The findings
of the functions of illocutionary act by the main characters in The Back-up Plan
movie are provided in the Table 4.
Table 4: The Functions of Illocutionary Act Performed by the Main Characters in Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan Movie
No Functions of Illocutionary Act Occurrences
2 Competitive 84
3 Convivial 35
4 Conflictive 0
Total 277
Based on Table 4, three social functions of illocutionary act are employed by the
main characters in the movie. They are competitive, collaborative, and convivial. The
dominant function of illocutionary act found in the movie is collaborative with 158
occurrences, followed by competitive with 84 occurrences. The function with the
smallest occurrences is convivial with only 35 occurrences. Conflictive function is
not performed by the main characters in the movie.
Since collaborative function is intended to ignore social goal, it is dominantly
performed by the main characters. They choose to perform illocutionary act with
collaborative function to tell the truth of their feelings to each other. However,
conflictive function is not found performed by the main characters since it is intended
to offend or hurt the feeling of the hearer. The main characters are a couple who are
in love and they want to give good impression to each other. Therefore, they do not
employ conflictive function in their utterance as it can create conflict in their
relationship.
B. Discussion
This section presents the discussion of the study based on the research findings in
section identifies the types and the functions of illocutionary act employed by the
main characters in The Back-up Plan movie.
1. The Types of Illocutionary Act Performed by the Main Characters in Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan Movie
This part contains the explanations of the data findings in reference to data
analysis. There are four types of illocutionary act found in the research. Each of them
contains several particular forces. All are discussed as follows.
a. Declarative
Declarative act is not found in this research. This type of illocutionary act
requires certain institutional role in a specific context. Furthermore, declarative act
has specific uses in very specific place and events (settings), e.g. a judge in a court
when sentencing a defendant, a priest when declaring a couple as husband and wife,
and a director of a company when firing his employer. Moreover, declarative acts use
specific illocutionary force indicative device, e.g. ‘I declare that…’, ‘I pronounce
that…’
In the movie, the two characters are depicted as commoners with no certain
authority or institutional role. Zoe is a woman who works at a pet shop while Stan is a
man who makes cheese. In such setting, this type of illocutionary act is rarely found.
Therefore, there is no any declarative act found performed by the main characters in
b. Representative
Representative act is the type of speech act that state what the speaker believes to
be the case or not. They express the speaker’s belief. Based on the analysis, there are
158 occurrences of representative act found in the movie.
The forces of representative illocutionary act found in the findings are informing,
asserting, explaining, arguing, predicting, guessing, reminding, reporting, agreeing,
and stating an opinion. Each force of representative act is presented below.
1) Informing
Informing is an act to tell someone about a particular fact or more. It can be in
the form of spoken or written information. The first evidence of informing acts
performed by the main character in the movie can be seen in the conversation below.
The above dialogue occurred when Stan was following Zoe walking out from the
subway station. Stan asked Zoe the reason of her good mood even though previously
they had an argument. Zoe answered Stan’s question by informing him that there
were good things happening to her. With regard to this context, since Zoe’s utterance
is a statement which contains explanatory information about the reason of her good (4: 01)
Stan : So, why are you in such a good mood anyway?
Zoe : Not that it’s any of your business, but… good things are happening to me.
Stan : That’s nice. I hope it continues.
P: Zoe and Stan
S: Inside the subway station, day
mood, it is then categorized as informing. The next conversation written below also
shows another informing performed by the main character.
The above conversation took place when Zoe and Stan were sharing each
other’s information. Stan began by telling Zoe that his family produced cheese. Zoe
then asked him for further information about the cheese. As presented in the bold
expression, Stan answered Zoe’s by informing her that his family had a goat farm.
In relation to this context, Stan’s utterance is categorized as informing since it is a
statement which contains information about his family. Another example of
informing is provided as follows.
The above dialogue happened when Zoe and Stan were having dinner at Gray
Papaya. They were on the step of knowing each other better. Stan asked Zoe about (4: 02)
Stan : Can I just give you my card? Here, take my card. I’m not a freak, really. I sell cheese.
Zoe : Cheese?
Stan : Yeah, my family has a goat farm. We make cheese. You like
cheese?
P: Zoe and Stan
S: At Hudson Pet, night
(IA/S-5/P14/D-14a/Re/CB)
(4: 03)
Stan : How about your family?
Zoe : It’s just my grandmother. She lives in a retirement community in Queens. My parents died when I was young.
Stan : I’m so sorry. P: Zoe and Stan
S: At Gray Papaya Hot Dog, night
her family and she answered his question by informing him that she only lived with
her grandmother who was at a retirement community. In reference to this context,
Zoe’s utterance is classified as informing since it is a statement which contains
explanatory information about Zoe’s family.
2) Asserting
Asserting is an act to express something in spoken or written words carefully,
completely, and clearly. It is used to arrange, fix, or announce something in advance.
People express something in words to state what they think about by stating. Datum
presented below is the example of asserting performed by the main character.
The above dialogue happened in a scene where Zoe and Stan first met each other.
Both of them were trying to rent the same cab. When Zoe found out that there was
another person entering the cab, she immediately asserted to Stan that the taxi
belonged to her. In relation to this context, Zoe’s utterance is categorized as asserting
since it is a statement which contains her own belief that the taxi is hers. Another
asserting is presented as follows. (4: 04)
(Zoe notices someone entering the cab from the other side)
Zoe : Uh… Excuse me, this is my cab.
Stan : You own it?
Zoe : No, but I’m about to rent it.
P: Zoe and Stan S: Inside a taxi, day
The above conversation occurred in the same setting and situation with the
previous dialogue. Zoe and Stan were arguing over a cab. Stan told Zoe that she could
not take another person’s cab. Zoe then responded it by saying that she did not see
him beforehand. Thus, she did not know that there was another person trying to get in
the same cab. Stan then asserted to Zoe that Zoe saw him. In reference to this context,
since Stan’s utterance is a statement which includes his own belief, it is classified as
asserting. Another example of asserting is provided below.
The above dialogue occurred when Zoe visited Stan’s cheese stand. Zoe asked
Stan what he sold and he answered cheese. Zoe responded his information by
asserting to him that she knew it was cheese. In relation to the context, Zoe’s (4: 05)
Stan : If you see someone about to get in a cab, you can’t just run in from the other side and say it’s yours.
Zoe : I didn’t see you. Stan : I saw you see me.
P: Zoe and Stan S: Inside a taxi, day
(IA/S-1/P8/D-3c/Re/CB)
(4: 06)
Zoe : What is it? Stan : It’s cheese. Zoe : I can see that.
P: Zoe and Stan
S: At Stan’s cheese cave, night
