characters in The Intern movie. The detail explanation of request is presented below.
1. Types of Requests Expressed by the Main Characters in The Intern Movie
The findings show that four types of request are applied by the main characters, Jules and Ben, in The Intern. They are unconventionally indirect
requests, conventionally indirect requests based on the hearer, conventionally indirect requests based on the speaker, and direct requests. Those are explained as
follows.
a. Unconventionally Indirect Requests
Unconventionally indirect request is never formulated explicitly. It means there is a difference between what the requester said and what is actually implied
in the utterance. The requester often makes a statement or asks a question that indicates a request. Sometimes the requestee does not notice the request uttered by
a requester. Therefore, a requestee should be careful when interpreting the request which is addressed to himher by translating it by himherself. In addition, how
close the relation between a requester and the requestee are needed to be considered.
The conversation happens between Jules and her mom. When Ben drives the car, Jules‘s mother calls her. Actually, she does not like a phone call from her
mom because her mom always talks about her research of sleeping habits. However, she should hang the telephone in order to respect her mom. The
conversation is presented below.
Jules : Are you kidding me You know I hav
en‘t slept in two years.
Jules Mom : I can‘t change the facts, dear.
Jules : typing Look, Mom,
I‘m rushing into the city for a
meeting and I need to prepare. Can I call you when I get home?
Jules Mom : You don‘t have to.
Jules : Okay. Love you.
Jules Mom : Thank you.
Datum 10 Jules employs unconventionally indirect request to make another call to
her by saying Can I call you when I get home? Jules makes her request by
asking a question to her mom with the word Can. Before she asks the question, she states the reason why she needs to call her later. She rushes into the city for a
meeting and she needs to prepare it. Actually, she wants to stop the conversation between her and her mom. She avoids to have conversation with her mom in order
to ignore the suggestion which given by her mom. Thus, she uses unconventionally indirect request to hang up the phone.
In the next example of unconventionally indirect request, Ben takes some cups of coffee from the barista in the coffee shop. Meanwhile, Jules looks for and
comes to the coffee shop. She meets Ben and apologizes to him about the problem that she did before and she wants to repair it. She will move his position beside
Becky‘s position in order to help Becky‘s work. Ben responds it happily to come back to the office.
Jules : Can I give you a lift back to the office?
Ben : Sure, thanks.
Datum 16 From the expression in Datum 16, Jules as a boss and Ben as an intern
have a misunderstanding. Jules says Can I give you a lift back to the office?,
because she feels that she makes a mistake to Ben. The intention of Jules‘s
utterance is requesting Ben to go back to the office with her. Jules‘s utterance belongs to unconventionally indirect request because it depends on the intimate
relationship between requester and requestee which are related. In eve ryday‘s life,
Ben always becomes a driver of Jules. Therefore, in the situation of Datum 16, Jules feels guilty to Ben. Jules requests Ben to go back to the office together
although she knows that Ben has a duty to escort her back to the office. Thus, by saying the utterance, Jules ensures Ben really wants to go back to the office.
In fact, unconventionally indirect request is rarely used by the main characters to avoid misleading between other characters. Thus, the main
characters only use 4 times to indirectly question in order to be polite to the requestee. Thus, it can be concluded that a requester is not asserting the request to
the requestee.
b. Conventionally indirect request based on the hearer
