Background of The Study
the act of making an utterance in which the speakers are performing a certain kind of acts, such as : giving, asking, questioning, promising, offering, etc.
Austin 1962 also classified speech act into 3 levels : i locutionary act or the act of saying something, ii illocutionary act or an act the speakers intend to do
something by producing an utterance, and iii perlocutionary act or the act done by the hearers affected by what the speakers have said. Below is the example of
the three types of speech acts : John : “Darling, do you want to go out to the show tonight ?”
Laura : “I’m feeling ill.”
John : “That’s ok. You stay there and I’ll make soup.” The locutionary act in the conversation is what she actually said – “I’m feeling
ill”. At the same time, by saying that, Laura was telling John that she does not want to go out and considered as an illocutionary act as it is what a person does
Laura, in particular in saying something else. Beyond communicating the state of her health and the answer to John’s question, Laura accomplished one more
thing through saying I’m feeling ill. She got John to make her some soup, and it is an example of perlocutionary act in which is focused on the response others have
to a speech act. Schiffrin 1994 also proposed that speech acts basically concern with what people do with language with the function of it.
Illocutionary act is considered to be the core of speech acts. It is closely related with the speakers’ intention. It is the act of making a statement, offer,
promise, etc. This act can be broken down into 5 categories according to Searle 1979 namely assertive, directive, commissive, declarative, and expressive.
Looking at the explanation about speech act and illocutionary act, it is found very interesting to explore by looking at the complexity meaning conveyed.
Therefore, conducting a research that elaborates about this is exciting in which the focus is not only about illocutionary acts, but also to the influence of the context
of situation to the meaning. This study analyzed dialogues in Steel’s novel, The Cottage, with purpose
to investigate the types of illocutionary acts used in the novel published in 2002. Many kinds of speech acts are found in the novel, but this study more focuses on
two kinds of illocutionary acts, they are commissive and expressive illocutionary acts.
Besides, this study was also purposed to find out how the context of situation supports the intended meaning. It was also considered necessary to point
out the response of the hearer after the illocutionary acts were uttered to know how successful the acts were.