ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS BY THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE MOVIE LES MISÉRABLES.
ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS BY THE MAIN CHARACTER
IN THE MOVIE LES MISÉRABLES
A THESIS
Submitted to the English Department of UNIMED in Partial as Fulfillment of
the Requirements for The Degree of Sarjana Sastra
BY:
ELNISCAYA RIASETIA HULU
Registration Number 2102220004
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2014
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Praise the Lord, the writer thanks to Almighty God Jesus Christ, for His
love and mercy in this life, especially in the process of accomplishing this thesis.
In accomplishing this thesis, the writer was helped by so many beloved people
and the writer would like to express her gratitude to:
1. Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si. as the Rector of State University of
Medan
2. Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum. as the Dean of Faculty of Languages and
Arts
3. Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd. as the Head of English and Literature
Department and Dra. Meisuri, M.A. as the Head of Applied Linguistics
Program
4. Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A., Ph.D as her thesis advisor, for the advice,
guidance, comment, and precious time in supervising the draft of writing
during the completion of this thesis, the writer learns many things from him,
he is a humble figure, like in Indonesian proverb “Seperti ilmu padi, semakin
berisi semakin merunduk” Drs. Lidiman Sahat Martua Sinaga, M.Hum as
her academic advisor and also a friend who helps students, and all her
beloved lecturers in English and Literature Department
5. Her beloved family, her father, Samarudi Hulu; her mother, Rosmina
Simatupang; her beloved brother, Fasindo Justice Hulu and her sister;
ii
Yakin Ati Murni Hulu, thank you for the understanding and the big support
in prayer, love, motivation and financial while accomplished this thesis.
6. Bidikmisi Scholarship, so the writer can join to be a student in State
University of Medan, it is like a golden to be given to students like the writer
and all the receivers of scholarship promises to give the best to the Nation.
7. Her true friends, Mardohar Aritonang, Ermayani Simamora, Astuti
Mendriani, James Tambunan, thanks for your love, happiness, and
friendship. Her special thanks also go to all friends in Applied Linguistics A
and B 2010 especially for her comrades; Ester, Kidu, Ripka, and
Octhaviani and many others that she cannot mention one by one.
8. All others whose name cannot be mentioned one by one for their help and
support. Thanks for everything. May God bless.
Finally, the writer admits that this thesis still far from being perfect.
Therefore, the writer would like to invite the readers to give suggestion for the
improvement of this thesis later on.
Medan,
The writer
March 2014
Elniscaya Riasetia Hulu
Reg. No 2102220004
iii
ABSTRACT
Hulu, Elniscaya Riasetia. 2014. Illocutionary acts by the main character in
the movie Les Misérables. A Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State
University of Medan.
This study deals with the types of illocutionary acts by the main character
in the movie Les Misérables. The objectives of study were to describe the types of
illocutionary acts by the main character in Les Misérables, to derive the most
dominant type of illocutionary acts by the main character in Les Misérables, and
to explain the interpretations from each type of illocutionary acts by the main
character in Les Misérables. The data were the utterances by the main character in
the movie Les Misérables. This research was conducted by using descriptive
qualitative design and limited on the main character, Jean Valjean. The data
analysis result showed there were 5 types of of illocutionary acts that found in the
movie Les Misérables. The total number of illocutionary acts was 366 utterances.
It was found the most dominant type of illocutionary acts by the main character in
the movie Les Misérables is representatives (39.34 %). The interpretation from
each type of illocutionary acts to the main character in the movie Les Misérables
had the relationships to Jean Valjean figure as the important person in a play, he
used representatives which was also as the highest percentage of illocutionary
acts, he described the situation in France at the time where there were injustice
and social misery.
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEGDEMENT ................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. vi
LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1
A. The Background of The Study ...................................................... 1
B. The Problems of The Study ........................................................... 4
C. The Objectives of The Study ......................................................... 4
D. The Scope of The Study ................................................................ 5
E. The Significances of The Study .................................................... 5
CHAPTER II : REVIEW OF LITERATURE ................................................... 6
A. Theoretical Framework ................................................................ 6
B. Pragmatics ..................................................................................... 6
C. Speech Acts ……………………………………………………. 8
D. The Classification of Speech Acts .............................................. 10
1. Locutionary Acts ...................................................................... 10
2. Illocutionary Acts …………..……………………………….. 10
3. Perlocutionary Acts …………………………………………..12
E. Types of Illocutionary Acts ......................................................... 13
1. Declarations ............................................................................. 13
2. Representatives ........................................................................13
3. Expressives ...............................................................................14
4. Directives .................................................................................14
5. Commisives ..............................................................................14
F. Main Character .................................................................................. 18
G. Movie .................................................................................................. 19
H. Brief Summary of Les Misérables ................................................... 21
I. Brief Account of Les Misérables writer ......................................... 25
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .......................................... 28
A. Research Design .......................................................................... 28
B. The Object Of Research …………………………………….... 28
C. The Technique of Collecting Data ................................................. 28
D. Technique of Analyzing Data ........................................................ 29
CHAPTER IV : THE DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS .................................. 30
A. The Data ...................................................................................... 30
B. The Data Analysis ....................................................................... 30
C. Research Findings ....................................................................... 33
D. Discussion ....................................................................................35
iv
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION .................................... 36
A. Conclusion .................................................................................. 36
B. Suggestion ................................................................................... 36
REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 38
APPENDICES
v
LIST OF TABEL
Table 4.1 The Percentage of Illocutionary Acts ......................................... 30
vi
LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
APPENDIX A.
Iddentification of Illocutionary Acts by the main character
in the Movie Les Misérables ........................................... 41
APPENDIX B.
The Script of Les Misérables .........................................
vii
53
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
People often deliver their purpose in many ways and language is as a tool
to communicate. This communication will be effective if the purpose of the
communication can be gained well, both speaker and hearer have the same
perception of the thing they are talking about. Here, an understanding is more than
lexical meaning but it is closer to meaning based on context.
Being a student in Applied Linguistics made the writer combine two fields,
first from Linguistics which was concerned on illocutionary acts and the second
from Literature about the main character in a play. In a play, people also can find
the main character by seeing what the characters tell and show, they mostly give
more important information to the audience or reader.
In analyzing a movie, a dialogue cannot be separated from the topic of
speech acts. Through dialogue people can understand what happened in the movie
and the meaning of the speaker. To make it easier, transcription is also available,
by this transcription, the utterances can be analyzed. In the movie many utterances
are performed by particular kinds of action such as stating, promising, warning
and so on.
In discussing speech acts, it is important to distinguish between three sorts
of things that one is doing in the course producing utterances. These are usually
distinguished by the terms locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary.
1
2
Searle (1975) divided illocutionary acts into five types of general
functions, they are declarations, representatives, expressives, directives and
commissives.
The reason of choosing illocutionary acts in the movie Les Misérables is
because this movie is based on true story before the revolution in France so it has
historical value, moral teaching about social misery, injustice and to see the
phenomenon how the people in France used language in the interaction at the
time. This movie is also adapted by Tom Hooper from the novel by Victor Hugo.
It has been shown on the stage musical began in 1980 and this play is very
popular for the people who love literature but the writer thinks there are many
Applied Linguistics students have not known this play, so the writer will
introduce one of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece through this study.
It will be interesting to analyze the five types of illocutionary acts by the
main character in this movie to get the goal of his speech. The usage of
illocutionary acts in the movie is actually a representation of real conversation in
natural society. In addition, it is important to get meaning of illocutionary acts
found in the movie Les Misérables to know how the language is used by the
speaker to deliver his goal and the hearer to comprehend. It will be interesting to
analyze the five types of illocutionary acts by the main character in this movie to
find out whether the utterances have all the five types of illocutionary acts or not.
The main characters are Jean Valjean, Javert, Cossette and Marius. In this case,
this research is limited in analyzing illocutionary acts that said by Jean Valjean
because he has more important information and takes the most part during the
3
movie. Beside it, there were linguists who paid attention in language use like
Austin, the developer of the theory of speech acts and Searle was the student of
Austin who categorized illocutionary acts to be more specific.
There are some studies also support the research on illocutionary acts, like
Mcgowan wrote in her journal ‘A Partial Defense of Illocutionary Silencing
(2011)’ and the result of her research is dominantly women who got traumatic
they used expressive. The second journal, Shalev wrote ‘Illocutionary clauses
accompanying questions in Greek drama and in Platonic dialogue (2001)’ and the
result is she found that questions can be Directive purpose. Third, Corrigan in his
journal ‘Speech acts, generic differences, and the curious case of `Cymbeline'.
(2002)’. The result in his research is he found mixed between the five types of
illocutionary acts by Searle’s theory in Cymbeline which is one of the most
unwieldly of Shakespeare’s play.
Les Misérables is one of the best movies in 2012, released in December
2012. This movie is a true story that sets against the backdrop of the 19th-century
France. Les Misérables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited
love, passion, sacrifice and redemption a timeless testament to the survival of the
human spirit. There is an ex-prisoner named Jean Valjean, hunted for years by the
ruthless policemen Javert after he breaks parole. One day, Valjean meets someone
who changes his live to be better. He meets Fantine’s daughter who needs his
help. With his generosity, he takes care for Cossete and their lives change forever.
Les Misérables won 2013 Golden Globe Award for best motion
picture,best actor, best supporting actress. Nominated on 2013 Academy Awards
4
for best achievement costume design, best achievement in music written for
motion pictures, best achievement in production design, best motion picture of the
year, best performance by leading actor role and best performance by an actrees in
a supporting role.
B. The Problem of the Study
The problems of study were formulated as following.
1. What types of illocutionary acts are used by the main character in Les
Misérables?
2. What illocutionary acts is dominantly used by the main character in Les
Misérables?
3. What are the interpretations of the use of illocutionary acts to the main
character in Les Misérables?
C. The Objective of the Study
Related to the problem of the study, the objectives of the study were
1. to describe the types of illocutionary acts by the main character of Les
Misérables,
2. to derive the most dominant type of illocutionary acts by the main
character of Les Misérables, and
3. to explain the interpretations from each type of illocutionary acts by the
main character in Les Misérables.
5
D. The Scope of the Study
This study was focused on types of illocutionary acts by the main
character, Jaen Valjean in the movie Les Misérables based on Searle’s theory,
such as (1) declarations (2) representatives, (3) expressives, (4) directives (5)
commissives. Further the study was concerned with the dominant type used and
the interpretations of the speech acts.
E. The Significance of the Study
Findings of the study were expected to be useful for
1. Applied linguistics students to make them easier to analyze the types of
illocutionary acts,
2. readers who wanted to make a study on the same topic, this study might be
references, and
3. those who wanted to know the application of illocutionary acts could be
done by using movie.
36
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusions
After analyzing the data, conclusions could be drawn as the following.
1. The five types of illocutionary acts were found in the movie Les
Misérables.
They
were
declarations,
representatives,
expressives,
directives and commisives.
2. The most dominant type of illocutionary acts by the main character in the
movie Les Misérables was representatives (39.34 %).
3. The interpretations from each type of illocutionary acts to the main
character in the movie Les Misérables had the relationships to Jean
Valjean. He reflected his figure as the important person in a play, he often
used representatives which was also as the highest percentage of
illocutionary acts, he described the situation in France at the time where
there were injustice and social misery.
B. Suggestions
In relation to the conclusions, the following suggestions are staged.
1. Applied Linguistics student, it is suggested to watch Les Misérables
because it has historical value about France before revolution and to know
work of literature has been being staged annually in United Kingdom
which is very famous but some of Applied linguistics student has not
known and to see the language is used by the people at the time can been
36
37
2. seen by using illocutionary acts theory and this movie also has a good
moral teaching about forgiving.
3. The readers, it is good to know illocutionary acts in daily life, so when the
speaker and hearer have a conversation, they will not get misunderstanding
and the goal of conversation can be achieved.
41
REFERENCES
Akmajian, Adrian., Demers, Richard. A., & Harnish, Robert. M. 2001.
Linguistics: An Introduction to language and Communication.
Massachusetts: The MIT Press
Austin, J.L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: The Clarendon Press
Corrigan, Glazov. 2002. Speech acts, generic differences, and the curious case of
Cymbeline'. Ebsco: ejournal of Pragmatics. Vol. 34 Issue 2, p379, 21p
Cruse, D. Allan. 2000. Meaning in language: An Introduction to Semantics and
Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dawson, Dr Catherine. 2002. Practical Research Methods. Oxford: How to Books
Eggins, Suzanne. 2004. An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics 2nd
Edition. New York: Continuum.
Fromkin, Victoria., Robert, Rodman., & Nina, Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to
Language. New York: Cengage Learning
Halliday, M.A.K. 2002. On Grammer. London: Continuum.
Huang, Yan. 2007. Pragmatics. Oxford. University Press
Iten, Corinne. 2005. Linguistic Meaning, Truth Conditions and Relevance.
Palgrave Macmillan Books
Levinson, Stephen C. 1993. Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press
Lyons, John. 1995. Linguistic Semantics : an Introduction. Cambridge University
Press
Lyons, John. 1981. Language and Lingustic. Cambridge University Press.
Mackey, Alison and Gass, Susan M. 2005. Second Language Research:
Methodology and Design. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc
Mcgowan. 2011. A Partial Defense of Illocutionary Silencing. Ebsco: ejournal of
Pragmatics. Vol. 26 Issue 1, p132-149, 18p
Minderop, Albertine. 2011. Metode Karakterisasi Telaah Fiksi. Jakarta: Yayasan
Pustaka Obor
38
39
Minderop, Albertine. 2011. Psikologi Sastra. Jakarta: Yayasan Pustaka Obor
Nadar, F.X. 2009. Pragmatik & Penelitian Pragmatik. Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu
Nunan, David. 1992. Research Methods in Language Learning. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Peccei, Jean Stilwel. 1999. Pragmatics. London: Routledge.
Searle, John. 1976. A Classification of Illocutionary Acts. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Shalev, D. 2001. Illocutionary Clauses Accompanying Questions in Greek Drama
and Platonic Dialogue. Ebsco: ejournal of Pragmatics. Vol.54 Issue 5, p531561, 31p
Singh, Yogesh Kumar. 2006. Fundamental of Research Methodology and
Statistics. New Delhi: New Age International, Publishers.
Snape, Dawn and Spencer ,Liz. 2003. Qualitative Research Practice. London:
SEAGE Publication.
Sweetser, Eve. 1991. From Etimology to Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press
Thomas, Jenny. 1995. Meaning in Interaction : An Introduction to Pragmatics.
Longman. University Michigan
Trask, R.L. 1997. A student’s Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. London:
Arnold.
Yin, Robert. K. 2011. Qualitative Research From Start to Finish. New York: The
Guilford Press.
Yule, George. 2000. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Yule, George. 2006. The Study of Language. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Wenger, Etience. 1998. Communities of Practice. Learning, Meaning, and
Identity. Cambridge University Press.
Wierzbicka, Anna. 2003. Cross-cultural Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press.
http://www.elementsofcinema.com/screenwriting/main-character.html (accessed
on December 16, 2013, at 13:10)
40
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicor_Hugo (accessed on February 1, 2014, at 08.30)
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie (accessed on December 16, 2013, at
14:02)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/synopsis (accessed on December 16, 2013,
at 14:35)
IN THE MOVIE LES MISÉRABLES
A THESIS
Submitted to the English Department of UNIMED in Partial as Fulfillment of
the Requirements for The Degree of Sarjana Sastra
BY:
ELNISCAYA RIASETIA HULU
Registration Number 2102220004
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2014
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Praise the Lord, the writer thanks to Almighty God Jesus Christ, for His
love and mercy in this life, especially in the process of accomplishing this thesis.
In accomplishing this thesis, the writer was helped by so many beloved people
and the writer would like to express her gratitude to:
1. Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si. as the Rector of State University of
Medan
2. Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum. as the Dean of Faculty of Languages and
Arts
3. Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd. as the Head of English and Literature
Department and Dra. Meisuri, M.A. as the Head of Applied Linguistics
Program
4. Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A., Ph.D as her thesis advisor, for the advice,
guidance, comment, and precious time in supervising the draft of writing
during the completion of this thesis, the writer learns many things from him,
he is a humble figure, like in Indonesian proverb “Seperti ilmu padi, semakin
berisi semakin merunduk” Drs. Lidiman Sahat Martua Sinaga, M.Hum as
her academic advisor and also a friend who helps students, and all her
beloved lecturers in English and Literature Department
5. Her beloved family, her father, Samarudi Hulu; her mother, Rosmina
Simatupang; her beloved brother, Fasindo Justice Hulu and her sister;
ii
Yakin Ati Murni Hulu, thank you for the understanding and the big support
in prayer, love, motivation and financial while accomplished this thesis.
6. Bidikmisi Scholarship, so the writer can join to be a student in State
University of Medan, it is like a golden to be given to students like the writer
and all the receivers of scholarship promises to give the best to the Nation.
7. Her true friends, Mardohar Aritonang, Ermayani Simamora, Astuti
Mendriani, James Tambunan, thanks for your love, happiness, and
friendship. Her special thanks also go to all friends in Applied Linguistics A
and B 2010 especially for her comrades; Ester, Kidu, Ripka, and
Octhaviani and many others that she cannot mention one by one.
8. All others whose name cannot be mentioned one by one for their help and
support. Thanks for everything. May God bless.
Finally, the writer admits that this thesis still far from being perfect.
Therefore, the writer would like to invite the readers to give suggestion for the
improvement of this thesis later on.
Medan,
The writer
March 2014
Elniscaya Riasetia Hulu
Reg. No 2102220004
iii
ABSTRACT
Hulu, Elniscaya Riasetia. 2014. Illocutionary acts by the main character in
the movie Les Misérables. A Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State
University of Medan.
This study deals with the types of illocutionary acts by the main character
in the movie Les Misérables. The objectives of study were to describe the types of
illocutionary acts by the main character in Les Misérables, to derive the most
dominant type of illocutionary acts by the main character in Les Misérables, and
to explain the interpretations from each type of illocutionary acts by the main
character in Les Misérables. The data were the utterances by the main character in
the movie Les Misérables. This research was conducted by using descriptive
qualitative design and limited on the main character, Jean Valjean. The data
analysis result showed there were 5 types of of illocutionary acts that found in the
movie Les Misérables. The total number of illocutionary acts was 366 utterances.
It was found the most dominant type of illocutionary acts by the main character in
the movie Les Misérables is representatives (39.34 %). The interpretation from
each type of illocutionary acts to the main character in the movie Les Misérables
had the relationships to Jean Valjean figure as the important person in a play, he
used representatives which was also as the highest percentage of illocutionary
acts, he described the situation in France at the time where there were injustice
and social misery.
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEGDEMENT ................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. vi
LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1
A. The Background of The Study ...................................................... 1
B. The Problems of The Study ........................................................... 4
C. The Objectives of The Study ......................................................... 4
D. The Scope of The Study ................................................................ 5
E. The Significances of The Study .................................................... 5
CHAPTER II : REVIEW OF LITERATURE ................................................... 6
A. Theoretical Framework ................................................................ 6
B. Pragmatics ..................................................................................... 6
C. Speech Acts ……………………………………………………. 8
D. The Classification of Speech Acts .............................................. 10
1. Locutionary Acts ...................................................................... 10
2. Illocutionary Acts …………..……………………………….. 10
3. Perlocutionary Acts …………………………………………..12
E. Types of Illocutionary Acts ......................................................... 13
1. Declarations ............................................................................. 13
2. Representatives ........................................................................13
3. Expressives ...............................................................................14
4. Directives .................................................................................14
5. Commisives ..............................................................................14
F. Main Character .................................................................................. 18
G. Movie .................................................................................................. 19
H. Brief Summary of Les Misérables ................................................... 21
I. Brief Account of Les Misérables writer ......................................... 25
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .......................................... 28
A. Research Design .......................................................................... 28
B. The Object Of Research …………………………………….... 28
C. The Technique of Collecting Data ................................................. 28
D. Technique of Analyzing Data ........................................................ 29
CHAPTER IV : THE DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS .................................. 30
A. The Data ...................................................................................... 30
B. The Data Analysis ....................................................................... 30
C. Research Findings ....................................................................... 33
D. Discussion ....................................................................................35
iv
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION .................................... 36
A. Conclusion .................................................................................. 36
B. Suggestion ................................................................................... 36
REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 38
APPENDICES
v
LIST OF TABEL
Table 4.1 The Percentage of Illocutionary Acts ......................................... 30
vi
LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
APPENDIX A.
Iddentification of Illocutionary Acts by the main character
in the Movie Les Misérables ........................................... 41
APPENDIX B.
The Script of Les Misérables .........................................
vii
53
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
People often deliver their purpose in many ways and language is as a tool
to communicate. This communication will be effective if the purpose of the
communication can be gained well, both speaker and hearer have the same
perception of the thing they are talking about. Here, an understanding is more than
lexical meaning but it is closer to meaning based on context.
Being a student in Applied Linguistics made the writer combine two fields,
first from Linguistics which was concerned on illocutionary acts and the second
from Literature about the main character in a play. In a play, people also can find
the main character by seeing what the characters tell and show, they mostly give
more important information to the audience or reader.
In analyzing a movie, a dialogue cannot be separated from the topic of
speech acts. Through dialogue people can understand what happened in the movie
and the meaning of the speaker. To make it easier, transcription is also available,
by this transcription, the utterances can be analyzed. In the movie many utterances
are performed by particular kinds of action such as stating, promising, warning
and so on.
In discussing speech acts, it is important to distinguish between three sorts
of things that one is doing in the course producing utterances. These are usually
distinguished by the terms locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary.
1
2
Searle (1975) divided illocutionary acts into five types of general
functions, they are declarations, representatives, expressives, directives and
commissives.
The reason of choosing illocutionary acts in the movie Les Misérables is
because this movie is based on true story before the revolution in France so it has
historical value, moral teaching about social misery, injustice and to see the
phenomenon how the people in France used language in the interaction at the
time. This movie is also adapted by Tom Hooper from the novel by Victor Hugo.
It has been shown on the stage musical began in 1980 and this play is very
popular for the people who love literature but the writer thinks there are many
Applied Linguistics students have not known this play, so the writer will
introduce one of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece through this study.
It will be interesting to analyze the five types of illocutionary acts by the
main character in this movie to get the goal of his speech. The usage of
illocutionary acts in the movie is actually a representation of real conversation in
natural society. In addition, it is important to get meaning of illocutionary acts
found in the movie Les Misérables to know how the language is used by the
speaker to deliver his goal and the hearer to comprehend. It will be interesting to
analyze the five types of illocutionary acts by the main character in this movie to
find out whether the utterances have all the five types of illocutionary acts or not.
The main characters are Jean Valjean, Javert, Cossette and Marius. In this case,
this research is limited in analyzing illocutionary acts that said by Jean Valjean
because he has more important information and takes the most part during the
3
movie. Beside it, there were linguists who paid attention in language use like
Austin, the developer of the theory of speech acts and Searle was the student of
Austin who categorized illocutionary acts to be more specific.
There are some studies also support the research on illocutionary acts, like
Mcgowan wrote in her journal ‘A Partial Defense of Illocutionary Silencing
(2011)’ and the result of her research is dominantly women who got traumatic
they used expressive. The second journal, Shalev wrote ‘Illocutionary clauses
accompanying questions in Greek drama and in Platonic dialogue (2001)’ and the
result is she found that questions can be Directive purpose. Third, Corrigan in his
journal ‘Speech acts, generic differences, and the curious case of `Cymbeline'.
(2002)’. The result in his research is he found mixed between the five types of
illocutionary acts by Searle’s theory in Cymbeline which is one of the most
unwieldly of Shakespeare’s play.
Les Misérables is one of the best movies in 2012, released in December
2012. This movie is a true story that sets against the backdrop of the 19th-century
France. Les Misérables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited
love, passion, sacrifice and redemption a timeless testament to the survival of the
human spirit. There is an ex-prisoner named Jean Valjean, hunted for years by the
ruthless policemen Javert after he breaks parole. One day, Valjean meets someone
who changes his live to be better. He meets Fantine’s daughter who needs his
help. With his generosity, he takes care for Cossete and their lives change forever.
Les Misérables won 2013 Golden Globe Award for best motion
picture,best actor, best supporting actress. Nominated on 2013 Academy Awards
4
for best achievement costume design, best achievement in music written for
motion pictures, best achievement in production design, best motion picture of the
year, best performance by leading actor role and best performance by an actrees in
a supporting role.
B. The Problem of the Study
The problems of study were formulated as following.
1. What types of illocutionary acts are used by the main character in Les
Misérables?
2. What illocutionary acts is dominantly used by the main character in Les
Misérables?
3. What are the interpretations of the use of illocutionary acts to the main
character in Les Misérables?
C. The Objective of the Study
Related to the problem of the study, the objectives of the study were
1. to describe the types of illocutionary acts by the main character of Les
Misérables,
2. to derive the most dominant type of illocutionary acts by the main
character of Les Misérables, and
3. to explain the interpretations from each type of illocutionary acts by the
main character in Les Misérables.
5
D. The Scope of the Study
This study was focused on types of illocutionary acts by the main
character, Jaen Valjean in the movie Les Misérables based on Searle’s theory,
such as (1) declarations (2) representatives, (3) expressives, (4) directives (5)
commissives. Further the study was concerned with the dominant type used and
the interpretations of the speech acts.
E. The Significance of the Study
Findings of the study were expected to be useful for
1. Applied linguistics students to make them easier to analyze the types of
illocutionary acts,
2. readers who wanted to make a study on the same topic, this study might be
references, and
3. those who wanted to know the application of illocutionary acts could be
done by using movie.
36
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusions
After analyzing the data, conclusions could be drawn as the following.
1. The five types of illocutionary acts were found in the movie Les
Misérables.
They
were
declarations,
representatives,
expressives,
directives and commisives.
2. The most dominant type of illocutionary acts by the main character in the
movie Les Misérables was representatives (39.34 %).
3. The interpretations from each type of illocutionary acts to the main
character in the movie Les Misérables had the relationships to Jean
Valjean. He reflected his figure as the important person in a play, he often
used representatives which was also as the highest percentage of
illocutionary acts, he described the situation in France at the time where
there were injustice and social misery.
B. Suggestions
In relation to the conclusions, the following suggestions are staged.
1. Applied Linguistics student, it is suggested to watch Les Misérables
because it has historical value about France before revolution and to know
work of literature has been being staged annually in United Kingdom
which is very famous but some of Applied linguistics student has not
known and to see the language is used by the people at the time can been
36
37
2. seen by using illocutionary acts theory and this movie also has a good
moral teaching about forgiving.
3. The readers, it is good to know illocutionary acts in daily life, so when the
speaker and hearer have a conversation, they will not get misunderstanding
and the goal of conversation can be achieved.
41
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