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 cinemamovie
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
though the language in a movie is scripted, it appears to be the most representative in
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
characters in the movie.
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
that they produce.
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
characters in Alan Poul’s The Back-up Plan movie.
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 in any kind of performance, particularly movie, based on linguistics and to inspire
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
or force of an utterance.
