11 In other word, pragmatics is a necessary theory to be taken into account of this
study. Pragmatics defines the way people use the language to communicate in conversation based on the context of situation. Politeness deals with how people
use the language according to the context of situation as well. Speaker should know how to convey a meaningful utterance that the hearer can interpret. Both the
speaker and hearer should know share the same knowledge that will make them understand the context of situation. Therefore, both the speaker and hearer can be
able to use politeness and to understand it.
2. Speech Acts
According to Searle 1987, speech act is an utterance that does not only contain performative verbs but also constitute acts. In his theory, Searle 1987
states that speech acts consists of three acts, namely an act of saying something, act of doing something, and act of affecting someone. When a speaker produces
utterances, it means that the speaker communicates things carrying actions. Searle 1987 adopts the terms locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts from
Austin 1962 to distinguish the acts carried by an utterance. The next few paragraphs explain all of those terms.
a. Locutionary Act
According to Searle 1987, locutionary act is an act that contains the actual meaning of the utterance. When the speaker produces the utterance, the
speaker is conveying something literally. Locutionary act deals with the surface meaning of the utterance. Sadock 1974 states that this is an act of
communicating things. When the speaker says, “The weather is too hot” it means
12 that the speaker thinks or feels that weather or the temperature is really hot. This
utterance also means that the speakers communicate his thought about the weather.
b. Ilocutionary Act
Illocutionary act according to Sadock 1974 is the act of communicating our intent to accomplish things. Illocutionary act contains the force of an utterance.
Speaker communicates the intention to do something by stating an utterance. There are numerous ways of communicating the intention to do a thing. The way
people convey the intention or the force of an utterance is called performative. Holtgraves 2002 states that performative is the type of an utterance that is used
to perform certain actions. Acts of stating, promising, apologizing, threatening, predicting, complaining, ordering, refusing, and requesting are kinds of
performative or the illocuti onary act itself. If the speaker says, “It is really hot in
here” said in a room without air conditioner and closed windows, it means that he wants the hearer to open the windows. Searle 1987 classifies the illocutionary
act into several types namely assertive, directives, commisives, expressives, and declaratives.
1 Assertives
An assertive is the act of representing an actual state of an affair, to commit a speaker to something which becomes the case. This act is used to state
the actual status of a case or to state something which is true. This act consists of the act of stating, suggesting, boasting, complaining, claiming, and reporting.
Searle 1987 exemplifies this with the utterance, “It is raining.”
13
2 Directives
A directive is a speech act that is used to make the hearer perform a particular action. Speaker tries to accomplish a thing by making the hearer
performs a particular action. It includes the act of requesting, ordering and questioning. Searle 1987 exemplifies this with
the utterance, “Close the window?
”
3 Commisives
A commisive is the attempt of the speaker to commit to do a particular action in the future. Speaker tries to accomplish particular future action by getting
himself perform that. It includes the acts of warning, promising, threatening, and guaranteeing. Searle 1987 exemplifies this with the utt
erance, “I promise you to take the kids away.”
4 Expressives
An expressive is the act of showing the attitude and emotion toward particular thing. Speaker expresses the emotion or attitude toward particular thing
through the utterance. Expressive includes the acts of thanking, complaining, praising, greeting and apologizing. Searle 1987 exemplifies this with the
utterance, “I apologize for stepping on your toe.”
5 Declaratives
A declarative attempts to express a declaration to change a state of an affair. By doing this, the speaker produce an utterance that declares something
which changes a state of particular affair. Declarative includes the acts of
14 declaring war, performing marriage and baptism, and pronouncing someone guilty.
The example of this act is “I pronounce you husband and wife” Searle, 1987.
c. Perlocutionary Act
