VIVIAN
“Youre late.”
EDWARD “Im sorry”
VIVIAN
“Youre forgiven.” The act of saying “I’m sorry” which is uttered by Edward toward Vivian
is the locutionary act. While the act of apologizing is as the illocutionary act and the acceptance of the apology by Vivian toward Edward is the perlocutionary act.
2. Direct and Indirect Speech Acts
In the course of performing speech acts, we ordinarily communicate with each other. Speech acts can be performed directly or indirectly. Yule 1996b:54-56
gives explanation about direct and indirect speech acts as follow: a. Direct speech act
Direct speech act happens when there is a direct relationship between structure and a function. A declarative is for making a statement,
an interrogative is for making a question and an imperative is for making command. The examples are below:
a You close the door. Declarative
b Do you close the door? Interrogative
c Close the door please Imperative
In a the speaker states that the hearer closes the door while in b the speaker asks a question to the hearer whether the hearer closes the door
or not and in c the speaker commands the hearer to close the door. In this research there are some direct apologies which are uttered
by the characters in the film entitled “Pretty Woman” such as ‘sorry’ and ‘apologize’. The expressions of direct apologies in this research are as
direct speech act of apologizing. b. Indirect Speech Act
Indirect speech act happens in an indirect relationship between structure and a function. It means that the speaker expresses something
indirectly or implicitly. For example are: a Do you have to sit at the chair?
Interrogative b You’re sitting at the chair
Declarative The two utterances above have different structure but they have the same
function as a request. The interrogative a is not only used as a question but also as a request and the declarative b is not only used as a statement but also as a
request. Both of the statements have the implicit meaning to the hearer as a request to move from the chair.
According to Fasold 1990:153, an apology is a good example of indirect speech act. People say apologizing act focusing on the offenses of the
hearers although they realize that their act can be detrimental toward the hearers. Searle 1975:178 states that in indirect speech acts, the speaker
communicates to the hearer more than he actually says by way of relying on their mutually shared background information, both linguistic and nonlinguistic,
together with the general powers of rationality and inference on the part of the hearer.” Talking about indirect speech acts, Searle attempts to explain how it is
possible for a speaker to say something and to mean it, but it additionally means something else.
From the statements above, direct and indirect speech acts are used to know how the speakers express apologizing acts in the film entitled “Pretty
Woman”.
3. Speech Acts Classification
