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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of background of the research, research focus, objectives of the research, and the significance of the research.
A. Background of the Research
As human beings, people need communication to socialize with others in the society. Through it, people can share information, ask something, express
feeling, suggest anything and so forth. To achieve an effective communication, people should understand the existence of language. Language itself basically has
two types: spoken language and written language. Written language is usually used in texts. Meanwhile, spoken language is found in people‘s conversation.
Conversation is a real form of language use. It is part of communication which involves few people who are doing an interaction in one situation with one topic.
A related concept of language that used as intended meaning of conversation is known as speech acts.
According to Yule 1996:47, an action is performed through saying something in a certain language known as a speech act. It implies that when a
speaker utters something, heshe actually wants to deliver the meaning of the utterances, the action, and the effect of the utterances. Based on the speaker who
produces an utterance, it consists of three kinds of acts. They are locutionary act basic of utterances by saying something, illocutionary act the intention via
saying something, and perlocutionary act the result of saying something.
The example is when the speaker directly says I want a book to the hearer. The locutionary act is when the speaker utters the statement directives that
shehe needs a book. The speaker makes an order or demand that serves as the illocutionary act or the intention of the speaker. After the hearer understands the
intention, heshe performs an action by giving the book to the speaker in order to comply the demand. The effect of saying something is called perlocutionary act.
There is one thing that often happened in a conversation between one person and another in a certain situation, when a person expresses the need or
demand for hearer to fulfill it. This case is called as speech act of request. A request can be stated by people in many occasions. It mostly happens in public
services like in the office, café, hotel, or any others. For example, when the speaker is in the café, heshe says Could you serve me a cup of hot cappuccino? In
an indirect way, the guest makes a request to order a cup of coffee and the waiterwaitress serves himher. It is a natural phenomenon in the society because
the guest can request many things to the waiterwaitress in the café. Thus, in performing a request, the addressee can carry out the demand from the speaker or
not to carry out the demand based on the reason behind it. Trosborg 1994:187 states that a request is an illocutionary act in which
the speaker wants the hearer to carry out an action that has advantages for the speaker and, sometimes, for the hearer. It can be expressed in two ways; they are
verbal and non verbal goods and services. The verbal goods and services are a request for information, whereas the non verbal goods and services are a request
for an object, action or some kind of services. The purpose of requests is the
hearer performs a future action which is an order from the speaker that has advantages for the speaker and sometimes for the hearer. The request can be said
in direct and indirect ways. It depends on the speaker‘s utterances and what action that the hearer may perform. Then, when a speaker utters a request, heshe needs a
strategy to convey the meaning of the request because every person is different in understanding the utterances. Subsequently, the requester has purpose in uttering
the request which is to explicate the meaning of it. The speech act of requests is an interesting problem to be discussed
because it can be found in daily conversation. For the representation of real life, the researcher uses a movie because what happens in the movie mostly portrays
the society. Related to the movie, the researcher chooses The Intern as the object in this research. The story is about an old man named Ben who gets a job as an
intern and a woman named Jules who is the founderboss in the office. Ben is a responsible old man and he has a mature thought whereas Jules is a workhorse
and careless woman. In this movie, Ben helps his boss as an intimate intern to accompany Jules in every occasion because she is very busy with her work and
cannot handle all of it. Jules often requests Ben to do something to fulfill her needs any time. To cover Jules
‘s activities, Ben always complies the needs of his boss surprisingly even in the marriage or family problems which are faced by
Jules. There are some reasons for choosing this movie as the object. First, the
researcher is interested in Jules, one of the main characters, which portrays Jules‘s
struggle. It is shown by Jules who becomes a successful woman to grow up a
fashion company which has 220 coworkers. However, her husband decides to be a house husband. Second, the main characters are employees and boss who have
different positions in the office. The researcher assumes that the speech acts of requests occur in the movie. Third, the movie won an award in AARP Movies for
Grownup Awards 2016 and some nominations for the best actor and actress. Hence, this movie is considered as a great movie to be analyzed.
B. Research Focus
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