mother and father were. He will know that she never knew how difficult her parent’s lives had been.
4.1.4 Expressive
Expressive is speech acts that express the speakers attitudes and emotions towards the proposition.
a. Apologizing
1. Mr Carton said : ‘I know you are anxious about Miss Manette. She is
better now.’ Charles Darnay : ‘I am very sorry that I caused her to faint….’ page 26
The utterance of Charles Darnay performs representative of apologizing.
Charles Darnay expresses an apology that caused her to faint.
b. Thanking
1. Miss Manette : ‘Thank you very much, sir….’
Mr. Lorry : ‘Miss Manette, I am a businessman. I am doing my job.
Don’t think of me as a man with human feelings. You must think that I am just a machine that can speak. I
will now tell you the story of one of our clients. He was a French gentleman, a clever man, a doctor.’ page 2
The utterance of Miss Manette performs representative of thanking. Miss
Manette thanks Mr. Lorry for his preparedness to accompany her to go to France.
2. Mr. Carton
: ‘Yes, I could. I will do it if you ask me.’ Charles Darnay : ‘… Thank you for your kindness.’ page 26
The utterance of Charles Darnay performs representative of thanking.
Charles Darnay thanks for Mr. Carton’s kindness.
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c. Deploring
1. Miss Manette
: ‘I am sad to have made you more unhappy than you were before you knew me, Mr. Carton.’
Mr. Lorry : ‘Don’t say that, Miss Manette. If anyone could have
helped me, it would have been you. You will not be the cause for my becoming worse.’ page 47
The utterance of Charles Darnay performs representative of deploring.
Miss Manette deplores that she has made Mr. Carton more unhappy than he was before he knew her.
After analyzing each utterance of the two main characters, Miss Manette and Charles Darnay found that there are 107 utterances which can be included as
speech acts and determined into its own category that appears in Charles Dickens’ novel entitled A Tale of Two Cities from page 1-112. There are four categories of
illocutionary acts found in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. 1.
Categories representative found in the two main characters’ utterances, Miss Manette and Charles Darnay are representatives with sub category of
believing, denying, asserting, describing, stating, telling, rejecting, affirming, explaining, convincing, and accusing.
2. Categories of directive found in the two main characters’ utterances, Miss
Manette and Charles Darnay are directives with sub category of asking, begging, commanding, requesting, ordering, inquiring, warning, advising,
calling, and offering. 3.
Categories of commissive found in the two main characters’ utterances, Miss Manette and Charles Darnay are commissive with sub category of pledging,
promising, and predicting.
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4. Category of expressive found in the two main characters’ utterances, Miss
Manette and Charles Darnay are expressives with sub category of apologizing, thanking, and deploring.
5. Category of declarative is not found in the two main characters’ utterances,
Miss Manette and Charles Darnay.
4.2 Performative Verb PV
