The data findings of the kinds of Speech Acts presented in Emma
victimized by the stereotypes. She added that it would be nice if the condition changes in the near future. Therefore, by creating a logical and
emotional arguments, Emma successfully made her speech very effective in gaining people’s attention towards gender issues. The data findings
regarding the speech acts in Emma Watson’s HeForShe are presented in the
table below.
Table 4: The Data Findings of The Kinds of Speech Acts Presented in Emma Watson’s HeForShe
NO. Illocutionary Acts Illocutionary Force
Frequency 1.
Declaration 1.
Declaring 1
Total 1
2. Representative
1. Opening
2. Informing
3. Convincing
4. Insisting
5. Clarifying
6. Protesting
7. Criticizing
8. Guessing
9. Predicting
1 49
7 5
1 1
1 1
3
Total 69
3. Commissive
1. Guaranteeing
2. Threatening
1 3
Total 4
4. Directive
1. Commanding
2. Inviting
3. Requesting
1 2
2
Total 5
5. Expressive
1. Addressing
2. Relieving
3. Deploring
4. Regretting
5. Praising
6. Thanking
1 2
3 2
2 1
Total
11
Total of Illocutionary Act occurrences 90
Based on the table above, representative is the most frequently used illocutionary act which was used by the speaker for 69 times. It is because
the main goal of Emma’s speech in the UN General Assembly was to tell the people that the world is no longer safe. One of the most dangerous
problems still exists in the status quo right now which is the gender inequality. We, as the current human beings who live in this world, should
do something to stop it. It is needed for us to prevent the world to be more deteriorated. Telling the audience about the information and making people
aware of the problem existing in the current status quo are mostly effective to be delivered by using representative. That is why in this speech Emma
utilized representative the most in order to convey her message. Representative consists of 9 illocutionary forces which are opening,
informing, convincing, insisting, clarifying, protesting, criticizing, guessing and predicting. Informing was seen as the most frequent force with 49
occurrences. Based on the research that had been conducted by Emma, it proved that most of the people are not familiar with the feminism term. They
only understand it as something which is bad, aggressive and man-hating. Therefore, Emma wanted to clarify the meaning of feminism. She also
wanted to direct the people’s mind that being feminism does not necessarily mean they hate men but simply fighting for the equality that both men and
women deserve to get. Therefore, in order to transfer this important issues to the audience with the highly educated background, informing was used
more frequently than any other types of representative because it was less offensive.
On the other hand, it was found that declaring came as the least frequent type to be seen in the table. The function of declaring is to state
oneself about something that may change how the world perceives them. Emma was only known as the Hollywood actress who was seen less
contributive in any political situations. In the UN General Assembly Hall, she was trying to make a social and political approach to the audience by
bringing up the gender issue. She made a declaration which was done by telling the audience that she is the goodwill ambassador of the UN Women.
Exactly after hearing that statement, the audience suddenly changed their perception about Emma and gave more attention and respect to her. This
statement was really effective to make a good sudden change of perception about
Emma in the audience’s eyes just in one second. Therefore, the use of declaration should be just right, effective, and not too much.