Speech Acts Illocutionary Act

2.2 Concepts

Concept is a broad abstract idea or a guiding general principle. In this study there is a concept that was used that are related to the topic. This is the concept of speech act include illocutionary acts as the component of speech acts. The concept which would be elaborated was:

2.2.1 Speech Acts

According to Austin 1970, by speaking, a person performs an act or does something. Austin defined speech act as what actions we perform when we produce utterance. When the speaker produced an utterance, it means the speaker performing a certain kind of acts such as giving order, asking question, making request or promises. The point of Austin works is in the performative verbs. As the result, the act intended can be seen through the verb of the situation in which these verbs are used. The speech act is no longer focused on the sentence, but the issuing of an utterance in a speech situation. Searle 1969 state that speaking a language is engaging in a role governed from behavior . In book “Speech Act: An Essay in The Philosophy of Language” 1969 also state that speaking a language is also performing speech act, such as making a statement, giving command, asking question, asking promises, and so on and abstractly, acts such as referring and predicting. In the beginning, concept of speech act according to Austin and Searle have explained. The definition about speech act is also given by other experts who concern at this branch of science. From Yule 1996: 47., he said that speech act is actions performed via utterance Furthermore, Parker 1986: 14 defined speech act as every utterance of speech act constitutes some sort of fact. In addition, Mey 1994: 111 viewed that speech act are actions happening in the world, that is, they bring about a change in the existing state of fairs.

2.2.2 Illocutionary Act

The concept of an illocutionary acts is central to the concept of speech act. According to Austin, illocutionary act defined that the making of statement, offer, promise, etc, in uttering a sentence Levinson, 1983:236. Yule also defined illocutionary act was an utterance with some kind of function in mind. It is performed via the communicative force of an utterance Yule, 1996:48. Illocutionary act can be defined as the utterance which does not only have the semantic meaning but also has a certain force. Searle 1969:24 states that, “In performing an illocutionary act one characteristically performs propositional acts and uttering word. Another definition about illocutionary act is also given by other experts who concern in that, namely based on Leech 1986:24, he argues that illocutionary refers to a speech act identified with reference to the hearer.

2.2.3 Context of Situation