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situation is the situation in which the text is uttered. Meanwhile, context of culture is the cultural background behind the participants.
From the statement above, it can be concluded that speech context of linguistics research is a context in all physical aspects or social background
related to the speech, time, place, social environment, political condition, etc.
C. Speech Act
Speech act is a part of pragmatics study. It focuses on how to do something by saying utterances. It means that the speaker uses a language to get
the hearer to do something and expects that the hearer will understand hisher communicative intention.
According to Searle 1976: 16, speaking a language is performing speech acts, acts such as making statements, giving commands, asking questions, and
making promises. While, Yule 1996: 47 defines speech acts as action performed via utterances such as apology, complaint, invitation, promise or request.
Austin 1962 divides three kinds of acts that are performed in which in saying something someone is doing something.
a. Locutionary act is the literal meaning of the utterance. It is the basic act of
utterance. b.
Illocutionary act is the act of getting the audience to recognize the speaker‟s meaning.
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c. Perlocutionary act is the bringing about of effect on the audience by means
of uttering the sentence, such effect being special to the circumstances of utterance.
In simple way, locutionary act is the act of saying something, illocutionary act is what is done in the act of saying something, and perlocutionary act is the
effect produced by saying something. The example below will give clear understanding of it.
A: You look beautiful tonight. B: Thank you.
The act of saying „You look beautiful tonight‟ is the locutionary act. A complimenting B is the illocutionary act. The acceptance of the compliment by B
is the perlocutionary act. In attempting to further development to further analysis of speech act,
Searle in Leech 1983 provides classification of speech acts in which he calls as five macro-classes of illucotionary acts. They are:
1. Declarations : utterances which effect immediate changes in the
institutional state of affairs and which tend to rely elaborate extra linguistics institutions.
For example: Priest: I baptize you…. I pronounce you husband and wife.
I name this baby “David”. 2. Assertives : utterances which commit someone to the truth of the expressed
proposition: e.g. stating, suggesting, boasting, complaining, claiming, and
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reporting. The point is expressing a belief, making words fit the words, and committing the speaker to the truth of what is asserted.
For example: a. The earth is flat. b. Today is cool.
c. Sophie is a beautiful girl. 3. Expressives: utterances which express a psychological condition. It means
that the speaker expresses his feeling; it can be statements of pleasure, pain, like and dislike. The examples of the speech act included in expressives are
compliment, congratulating, thinking, apologizing, refusing, etc. For example: a. I really like your haircut.
b. Thank you for your help. c. I am sorry I can‟t go with you.
4. Directives : utterances which are attempted the speaker to get the hearer to do something. Directives cover command, order, request, suggestion, etc.
For example: a. Open the door, please b. Could you take me a drink, please?
c. Don‟t throw the rubbish to the river 5. Commisives : utterances which commit the speaker to some future course of
action. Examples of speech act which are included in commisives are promise, threat, and pledge.
For example: a. I‟ll be back. b. I will finish my homework tomorrow.
c. I promise him I would come.
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To give a comparation, Tsui 1994:52 defines the primary acts on the basis of where they occur in the exchange structure. Tsui‟s classification about speech
acts are:
a Elicitation
It is used to describe any utterances which functions to elicit an obligatory verbal response or its non-verbal surrogate.
i Elicit: inform.
It is a kind of elicitation which invites the addressee to supply a piece of information. For example:
X : Where is the key?
Y : It‟s on the table.
ii Elicit: confirm
It is a kind of elicitation which invites the addressee to confirm the speaker‟s assumption. For example:
X : Is it your book?
Y : Yes, that‟s right.
iii Elicit: agree
It is a kind of elicitation which invites the addressee to agree with the speaker‟s assumption that the expressed preposition is self
evidently true. For example: X
: It‟s hot today, isn‟t it? Y
: Yes, it is.
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iv Elicit: commit
It is a kind of elicitation which not only invites a verbal response but also invites commitment on the part of the addressee to further
interaction. For example: X
: Can you help me, Mom? Y
: Yes, sure.
b Requestives
It refers to the utterances which solicit non verbal actions and the addressee is given the opinion of carrying out the solicited action.
i An offer. For example:
A : I have a new novel, would you like to?
B : Oh, sure
ii A request for permission. For example:
A : do you mind if I smoke?
B : go ahead.
iii An invitation.
For instance: Would you like to come to my wedding party? iv
A request of action. For example: A
: I wonder if you might give me apology for that mistakes that
I‟m not going to make it tomorrow. B
: Well, okay.
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c Directives
Directives are acts which prospect a non-verbal action from the addressee without giving him or her option of non-compliance. The subclasses of
directives are: 1
Advisives are directives which direct the addressee to perform an action for the benefit of his own. There are two kinds of advisives:
a Advice is directives which advocates a course of action for the
benefit of the addressee, in which the consequence of compliance is desirable. For example: “You had better do it by yourself. You
will be very satisfied with your own result. ”
b Warning is directives which advocate the hearer to perform an
action for the benefit of himherself and which either explicitly or impliedly specifies the undesirable of non-compliance. For
example: “Do not pick up this cattle. It‟s burning hot 2
Mandatives are directives by which the speaker attempts to get the addressee to perform, or to refrain from performing, an action for the
benefit of the speaker himherself. The kinds of mandatives: a
Instruction The speaker usually has the authority over the addressee to get the
addressee to comply. For example the customers to the waitress: “Black coffee”
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b Threats
It is a kind of directives that the speaker commits to perform a future action to the detriment of the addressee. For instance: “Put
your gun or I‟ll shoot her”
d Informatives
Informatives cover utterances which provide report of events or states of affair, recount, personal experiences, express belief, evaluate judgment,
feeling, and thought. The subclasses of informatives are: 1
Report gives an account of certain events, states of affairs or personal experiences in the past, present, or future.
For example: “She is the cleverest student in the class.” 2
Assessment asserts his judgment or evaluation of certain people, object, event, states of affair and so on. The subclasses are:
a Compliment. It is the assessment in which the speaker evaluates
the addressee positively. Example: “You are a very diligent student.”
b Criticism. It is labeled for the utterance in which the speaker judges
the addressee negatively. Example: “You are ugly with that dress”
c Self-commendation. It is the assessment in which the speaker
evaluates himself positively. Example: “You have to learn from me. I can make a yummy cake”
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d Self-denigration. It is the name of assessment when the speaker
judges himself negatively. Example
: “I forget about it. I think I‟m getting old” e
Assessing. The evaluation is directed neither speaker nor addressee.
For example: “Suzan is a very sexy and smart girl” 3
Expressive are ritualistic which speakers express civility and goodwill toward each other. The subclasses are:
a Emphaty. The speaker shows concern and empathies to the
addressee. Example: “I hope you will get better soon”
b Debt-incured. The speaker expresses his feelings toward debt,
which he was incurred. Example: “Sorry to trouble you”
Based on the explanation above, the researcher is interested to conduct a research based on Tsui‟s classifications of speech act. It is speech act of
compliments.
D. Direct and Indirect Speech Act
