REQUEST STRATEGIES ON BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH.
REQUEST STRATEGIES ON BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora
BY:
FANDY ZULMI
Registration Number: 8126 112 011
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
MEDAN
2014
REQUEST STRATEGIES ON BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora
BY:
FANDY ZULMI
Registration Number: 8126 112 011
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
MEDAN
2014
ABSTRACT
Zulmi, Fandy. Registration Number: 8126112011. Request Strategies on
Barack Obama’s Speech. A Thesis. English Applied Linguistics Study
Program. State University of Medan. 2014.
This Study deals to find out Request Strategies on Barack Obama Speech. The
objectives of this research were to find out: 1) the types of request strategies on
Barack Obama’s speech. 2) how the request strategies are used on Barack
Obama’s speech. 3) the reason why the request strategies are used on Barack
Obama’s speech. The source of this research is a speech of Barack Obama. The
data of this research are the first political victory speech on 4 November 2008 and
second political victory speech on 7 November 2012. The research design was
qualitative research design. The instruments of data collection used document
transcription from video recorded of political victory speeches of the president of
the United States Barack Obama. The result reveals that (1) The types of Request
Strategies on Barack Obama’s speech are Mood Derivable, Performatives,
Obligation Statements, Want Statements and Mild Hints. (2) The request
Strategies on Barack Obama victory speeches used positive politeness strategy.
(3) The request strategies on Barack Obama’s speech, Obama used the context of
expectation that can make the hearers trust in him. This context aims through the
social interactions in the real life.
iii
ABSTRAK
Zulmi, Fandy. Nomor Registrasi: 8126112011. Strategi-Strategi Permintaan
di Pidato Barack Obama. Tesis. Program Studi Linguistik Terapan Bahasa
Inggris. Universitas Negeri Medan. 2014.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui strategi-strategi permintaan di pidato
Barack Obama. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menemukan: 1) Tipe-tipe
dari strategi-strategi permintaan di pidato Barack Obama. 2) Bagaimana strategistrategi permintaan digunakan di pidato Barack Obama. 3) Alasan kenapa strategistrategi permintaan digunakan di pidato Barack Obama. Sumber penelitian ini
adalah pidato dari Barack Obama. Data penelitian ini adalah pidato politik
kemenangan pertama pada 4 November 2008 dan pidato politik kemenangan
kedua pada 7 November 2012. Desain penelitian ini adalah penelitian kualitatif.
Data yang di kumpulkan menggunakan transkripsi dokumen dari rekaman video
pidato-pidato politik kemenangan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa (1) tipetipe dari strategi-strategi permintaan di pidato Barack Obama adalah Mood
Derivable, Performatives, Obligation Statements, Want Statements dan Mild
Hints. (2) Strategi-strategi permointaan di pidato-pidato kemenangan Barack
Obama menggunakan strategi positif kesopanan. (3) Strategi-strategi permintaan
di pidato Barack Obama, Obama menggunakan konteks dari pengharapan yang
dapat membuat pendengar-pendengar percaya kepada nya. Konteks ini bertujuan
melalui interaksi social dalam kehidupan nyata.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillahirabbil‘alamin, giving the deepest sense of gratitude to
Allah SWT for a life full of happiness. Because the writer completed this thesis
as the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Magister
Humaniora. And also for the last prophet, Muhammad SAW, the greatest teacher
of great teacher.
The writer comes upon a lot of difficulties during the writing of this study,
due to his limited knowledge and experience. However, many people have
contributed and helped his directly and indirectly during completing of this thesis.
The writer is deeply indebted to his consultants, Prof. Dr. Busmin
Gurning, M.Pd and Prof. Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd who always help and gave
excellent advice to finish his study. He should also thank to the board of
examiners Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A, Ph.D, Prof. T. Silvana Sinar, M.A.,
Ph.D and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S For their constructive comments,
suggestions and valuable time in improving this thesis.
The writer would like to express his gratitude to the head and secretary of
English Applied Linguistics Study Program Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd
and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S and their staff Farid, for the guidance in the
process of completing the academic requirements and all lecturers for the valuable
knowledge taught during the academic years.
The greatest thanks is fully addressed to his beloved parents, Zulkifli and
Emmi Herawati, for their love, patience, care, inspiration, advice, prays and
suggestion; his beloved sister, Fitria Zulmi, S.E. and his beloved brother, Fauzi
i
Zulmi, S.kom. for their motivation that the writer really need in order to finish
this study.
The writer also would like to express his special gratitude to his beloved
wife, Rachmawati Wijaya, S.Pd. for her advice, support, ideas, care, suggestion
and motivation have made the writer get curiosity to accomplish this study; and
also my best friends, Bambang Nur Alamsyah Lubis, Balqis Wandira, Irma
Khoirot Daulay, Syafrina Panjaitan, Chitra Latiffani, Yulie Ayu Utari,
Agung Pramono, and Indra Sariman for their laughs, supports and motivation.
Last, special thank is given to all his friends in LTBI class A1, A2, B1 and
B2 XXII, who can not be mentioned one by one, thanks for help, motivation and
comment during acedemic years. Finally a million thanks to all those have given
endless contribution in the process of completing this thesis.
Medan,
November 2014
The Writer
Fandy Zulmi
8126 112 011
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................ i
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................. v
LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................. vii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION.................................................................... 1
1.1
Background of the Study .................................................... 1
1.2
The Problems of the Study ................................................. 5
1.3
The Objectives of the Study ............................................... 5
1.4
The Scope of the Study....................................................... 6
1.5
The Significance of the study ............................................. 6
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................................... 7
2.1
Request ............................................................................... 7
2.2
Request Strategies .............................................................. 9
2.3
The way of using Request Strategies ................................. 11
2.3.1
Positive Politeness .................................................. 12
2.3.2
Negative Politeness ................................................ 12
2.4
Discourse Analysis ............................................................. 14
2.5
Political Discourse ............................................................. 16
2.6
Barrack Obama Speech ...................................................... 17
2.7
Relevant Studies ................................................................. 19
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ....................................................... 21
3.1
Research Design ................................................................. 21
v
3.2
Data and Data Source ......................................................... 21
3.3
The Instrument of Data Collection..................................... 21
3.4
Procedure of Data Collection ............................................. 22
3.5
Technique of Data Analysis ............................................... 22
3.6
3.5.1
Data Reduction ....................................................... 22
3.5.2
Data Display ........................................................... 23
3.5.3
Data Verification/Conclusion Drawing.................. 24
Trustworthiness of the study .............................................. 24
3.6.1 Credibility............................................................... 24
3.6.2 Transferability ........................................................ 24
3.6.3 Dependability ......................................................... 25
3.6.4 Confirmability ........................................................ 25
CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................ 26
4.1
Data Analysis ..................................................................... 26
4.1.1
Request Strategies .................................................. 26
4.1.2
The way of using Request Strategies are used on
Barack Obama’s Speech......................................... 34
4.1.3
The reason of Request Strategies are used on Barack
Obama’s speech...................................................... 35
4.2
Findings .............................................................................. 36
4.3
Discussions......................................................................... 36
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS.............................. 39
5.1
Conclusions ........................................................................ 39
5.2
Suggestions ........................................................................ 39
REFERENCES
vi
LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX I ..................................................................................................... 43
APPENDIX II .................................................................................................... 56
vii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Communication is any act by which one person gives to or receives from
another person information about that person's needs, desires, perceptions,
knowledge, or affective states. Communication may be intentional or
unintentional, may involve conventional or unconventional signals, may take
linguistic or nonlinguistic forms, and may occur through spoken or other modes,
taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication. With communication
we can interchange in different ways, feeling, persuading, advising, warning,
teaching and so on. In communication there is an action to get someone else to do
something. One of the ways to do an action to someone to do something is by
using request.
Request is a speech act expressing the speaker’s desire for the hearer to do
something with the added proviso that the hearer takes this expressed desire as the
reason to act, Bach and Harnish (1984: 48). Based on Bach and Harnish’s
definition, Kuang et al. (2006) redefined requests as verbal instructions performed
by the speaker expressing a desire for the addressee to do a particular thing and
usually aim for the addressee to intend to do it and actually to do it.
According to Blum-Kulka (1984), a request is a prevent act that expresses
a speaker’s expectation about some prospective action, verbal or nonverbal, on the
part of the hearer. The goals of a request include action (e.g., “Can you open the
window?”), goods (e.g., “Can you pass me the salt?”), information (e.g., “Do you
know who our teacher is going to be this semester?”), and permission (e.g., “May
I leave early?”), and the appropriateness of a particular goal is determined by the
social norms of the society in which the speech act is made.
In order to categorize the wide range of request types, Blum-Kulka,
House, and Kasper (1989) developed a scale in the Cross Cultural Speech Act
Realization Project (CCSARP). The scale is composed of nine subcategories
grouped into three broad categories of request strategies depending on the degree
of directness. The nine subcategories groups are; (1) Mood Derivable (2)
Performatives (3) Hedged Performatives (4) Obligation Statements (5) Want
Statements (6) Suggestory Formulae (7) Query Preparatory (8) Strong Hints and
(9) Mild Hints.
They pull together the five most direct request strategies (Mood derivable,
performatives, hedged performatives, obligation statements and want statement)
called impositives, and combined original types (Suggestory formulae and Query
Preparatory) called conventionally indirect. They treat the two types of hints
(Strong Hints and Mild Hints) as one strategy type, hints.
According to Khalid (2013) the significance of political speech in present
world lies in keeping the good relations among countries, nations, and also it
saves external and internal policies. Political discourse is a tool by politicians’
hands, through political speech the politicians can give warring, advice, or declare
to do something, according to international interest requirements, the politicians
are trying to request from his counterpart to share with them to do something
which brings benefits to both nations.
This study investigates how request strategies are used on Barack’
Obama’s speech. It is become an interesting research because the writer tries to
find request strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech. In his background as
African American, he can be a president of the United States defeated his entire
opponent and takes the people’s trust in him. So, the writer tries to find request
strategies on his speech that can make the people trust in him.
Based on Scientific Text Analysis of 2012 Debates, Barack Obama’s
speech can persuade the audiences, Barrack Obama is more persuasive. Obama’s
speech is also more likely to contain causation.
Examples below show us some of his request strategies used in his
campaign speech in Columbus, Ohio on November 5th 2012:
“I'm asking for your vote, and if you're willing to work with me again.”
This utterance shows the request strategies of Performatives, which the
illocutionary force is explicitly named.
“I'm not ready to give up on the fight. I've got a whole lot of fight left in
me, and I hope you do too.” This utterance shows the request strategies of Query
Preparatory, which the utterance containing reference to preparatory conditions of
willingness.
“I want to cut the growth of tuition so our young people aren't burdened
with debt. I want to recruit 100,000 math and science teachers so our kids don't
fall behind. I want to train 2 million Americans at our community colleges with
the skills that businesses are looking for right now.” The utterances show the
request strategies of Want Statements, which state the speaker’s desire that he
wants to carry out the act.
All of examples show the request strategies that express ability,
willingness and wish or desire in Barack Obama speech to persuade the audience.
Barack Obama is an amazing leader and many of his strong qualities are
comparable with those of other great leaders throughout history. Obama is able to
inspire through speaking. Getting straight to the hard issues while still creating the
feeling of national unity for his listeners is a skill amazing speaking abilities.
Obama won his campaign by creating hope of a better tomorrow for his country.
His catch phrase, "Yes We Can," and inspirational posters all helped to promote
his ideals for change in America. With his phrase Obama can persuade the
audiences.
Based on the previous research about The Modals Verbs: A Speech Act of
Request in The Speech of The President of The United States Barack Obama”
from Khalid Wahaab Jabber and Zhang Jinguan, the researcher attempted to
explore the speech acts of request of political speech which has been delivered by
president Obama. He uses them into two kinds of sentences, the declarative and
interrogative, the study showed that the illocutionary force plays a major role in
the speech, the function of the request is the only act which has been dominated
the context of the considered speech acts, the aim of two different sentences is
contrary to the internal meaning, therefore, the illocutionary forces appeared as a
request said in indirect way .Due to the style of the political speech and for the
sake of international significance, this indirect speech act which tackled by the
speaker has been said in a politeness which always emerge with illocutionary
speech acts.
And another research about “Metaphors in Barack Obama’s Spechees”
from Syafarudin Marpaung, conclude that the use of metaphors in Barack
Obama’s speeches are to convey the message and to persuade his people, to make
message more vivid and increase its retention and to satisfactorily perform as
political values in reflected patriotism and liberalism.
From the explanation above, the researcher focus on the types of request
strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech, how request strategies are used on
Barack Obama’s speech and the reason why the request strategies are used on
Barack Obama’s speech.
1.2 Problems of the Study
The problems to be answer in this study are formulated as the following.
1. What types of request strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech?
2. How are the request strategies used on Barack Obama’s speech?
3. In what contexts are the request strategies used on Barack Obama’s
speech?
1.3 The Objectives of the Study
With reference to the problems previously, the objectives of the study are:
1. to find out the types of request strategies on Barack Obama’s speech.
2. to find out how the request strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech.
3. to explain the reason why the request strategies are used on Barack
Obama’s speech.
1.4 The Scope of the Study
The scope of the study is focused on the types of request strategies which
are found on the first and second political victory speech of the president of the
United States Barack Obama. Further, the analysis of the study intends to find the
objective and explanative of the types of request strategies used on Barack
Obama’s speech.
1.5 The Significance of the Study
The findings of this study are expected to be useful theoretically and
practically. Theoretically, the lecturer can improve the ability to teach English and
enlarge their knowledge about the request strategies that are used in speech. And
for the readers can enlarge their knowledge and understanding about request
strategies are used in speech, especially in Barack Obama’s speech.
Practically, the readers can understand how request strategies are used on
speech. It is hope that the result of the study will contribute for the other people to
understand why the request strategies are used on speech. And for other researcher
who will conduct the relevance study, this research will be very a useful aid.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
1.1 CONCLUSIONS
After analyzing, the data conclusions are drawn as the following.
1. There are five of nine types of request strategies in the theory stated by
Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (1989:18) on Barack Obama’s victory
speeches.
Namely;
Mood
Derivable,
Performatives,
Obligation
Statements, Want Statements and Mild Hints. The other, such as
Suggestory Formulae, Hedged Performatives, Query Preparatory and
Strong Hints were not found in Barack Obama’s speech.
2. The request strategies on Barack Obama victory speeches tend to use
positive politeness strategy than negative politeness strategy.
3. There are some contexts that speakers bring when they are use the
language.
This
context
includes
experiences,
assumptions
and
expectations. The request strategies on Barack Obama’s speech, Obama
used the context of expectation that can make the hearers trust in him. This
context aims through the social interactions in the real life
1.2 SUGGESTIONS
In relation to the conclusion above, suggestions are stated as the following.
1. It is essential to conduct other research relating to request strategies, not
just on the component of head act but from any other components in the
request sequence; preposed supportive moves , optionally elaborated with
down graders, upgrades and postposed supportive moves, so that it will
enrich our understanding of request strategies.
2. It is also important to investigate to what extent directness of request relate
to politeness in Barack Obama’s speech as well as speeches of Indonesian
people, for there is an assumption that the more indirect the request the
more polite it will sound. The question is whether it occurs in Barrack
Obama’s speech and other Speeches of Indonesian people. Of course, this
should be proven.
REFERENCES
Bach, Kent and Harnish, Robert M. 1984. Linguistic Communication and Speech
Acts. Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
Bell, D. (1975). Power, Influence and Authority. New York; London; Toronto:
Oxford University Press
Blum-Kulka, S. (1987). Inderectness and Politeness in requests: Same or
different? Journal of Pragmatics 11:131-46
Blommaert,Jan (2005). Discourse: A Critical Introduction.
Cambridge University Press. Print.
Cambridge:
Blum-Kulka, S, & House, J. (1989). Cross-cultural and situational requesting
behavior. In S. Blum-Kulka, J. House, & G. Kasper, Cross-cultural
pragmatics: Requests and Apologies. Norwood. NJ: Ablex.
Blum-Kulka, S., & Olshtain, E. (1984). Requests and Apologies: A Cross-Cultural
Study of Speech Act Realization Patterns (CCSARP). Applied Linguistics,
5(3), 196-213.
Bogdan, c. Robert and Biklen, k. Sari. (1992). Qualitative Research for
Education; an introduction to theory and methods. Boston: allyn and
bacon.
Brown, Gillian& Yule, George (1983). Discourse Analysis. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. Print.
Brown, P. and S. Levinson (1978). Universal in Language usage. Politeness
Phenomena. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Darwish ,Abdullah (2011). SA Discoursal Analysis of Selected American/Iraq
Presidential Speeches.
Ervin-tripp, susan. 1976. Is Sybil there?: The structure of some American English
directives. Language in Society 5.25-66.
Katsura Aoyama. 2010. Request Strategies at a Japanese Workplace
Khalid Wahaab Jabber and Zhang Jinquan (2012). The Modal Verbs: A Speech
Act of Request in the Speech of the President of the United States Barak
Obama. An International Journal in English.
Kuang, Ching Hei, David, Maya Khemlani and Zuraidah, Mohd Don. (2006).
Requests: Voices of Malaysian children. Multilingua, 25(1/2), 27-42.
Lakoff, R. T. (1990). The Politics of Language in our Lives. New York: Basic
Books.
Levelt, willem J. M. 1989. Speaking: From intention to articulation. Cambridge,
MA: The MITPress.
Lincoln, YS. & Guba, EG. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Publications.
McCarthy, Michael. Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. 2000. Print.
Miles, MB. & Huberman, AM. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Potter, J. (2003). Discourse analysis and discursive psychology. In P. M. Camic,
J. E. Rhodes & L. Yardley (Eds.), Qualitative research in psychology:
Expanding perspectives in methodology and design (pp. 73-94).
Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Syafarudin Marpaung (2011). Metaphors in Barack Obama’s Spechees”
Saragih, Erison. (2004). Request Strategies in Bahasa Indonesia a Pragmatic
Study
Schiffrin,D. Approaches to Discourse. USA: Blackwell publishers Ltd. 1994.
Print.
Schäffner, Ch. (ed.) (1997). Analysing Political Speeches. Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters LTD
Searle, J. 1975. Indirect Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press.
Woods,Nicola .Describing Discourse: A Practical Gide to Discourse Analysis.
Oxford University Press. 2006. Print.
Widdowson, H. G. (2007). Discourse analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Print.
Willig, C. (2008). Introducing qualitative research in psychology. Berkshire:
McGraw-Hill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication accessed on Jan 8th 2014
http://blog.odintext.com/Scientific_Text_Analysis_of_2012 accessed on Jan 9th
2014
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama accessed on May 12th 2014
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora
BY:
FANDY ZULMI
Registration Number: 8126 112 011
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
MEDAN
2014
REQUEST STRATEGIES ON BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora
BY:
FANDY ZULMI
Registration Number: 8126 112 011
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
MEDAN
2014
ABSTRACT
Zulmi, Fandy. Registration Number: 8126112011. Request Strategies on
Barack Obama’s Speech. A Thesis. English Applied Linguistics Study
Program. State University of Medan. 2014.
This Study deals to find out Request Strategies on Barack Obama Speech. The
objectives of this research were to find out: 1) the types of request strategies on
Barack Obama’s speech. 2) how the request strategies are used on Barack
Obama’s speech. 3) the reason why the request strategies are used on Barack
Obama’s speech. The source of this research is a speech of Barack Obama. The
data of this research are the first political victory speech on 4 November 2008 and
second political victory speech on 7 November 2012. The research design was
qualitative research design. The instruments of data collection used document
transcription from video recorded of political victory speeches of the president of
the United States Barack Obama. The result reveals that (1) The types of Request
Strategies on Barack Obama’s speech are Mood Derivable, Performatives,
Obligation Statements, Want Statements and Mild Hints. (2) The request
Strategies on Barack Obama victory speeches used positive politeness strategy.
(3) The request strategies on Barack Obama’s speech, Obama used the context of
expectation that can make the hearers trust in him. This context aims through the
social interactions in the real life.
iii
ABSTRAK
Zulmi, Fandy. Nomor Registrasi: 8126112011. Strategi-Strategi Permintaan
di Pidato Barack Obama. Tesis. Program Studi Linguistik Terapan Bahasa
Inggris. Universitas Negeri Medan. 2014.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui strategi-strategi permintaan di pidato
Barack Obama. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menemukan: 1) Tipe-tipe
dari strategi-strategi permintaan di pidato Barack Obama. 2) Bagaimana strategistrategi permintaan digunakan di pidato Barack Obama. 3) Alasan kenapa strategistrategi permintaan digunakan di pidato Barack Obama. Sumber penelitian ini
adalah pidato dari Barack Obama. Data penelitian ini adalah pidato politik
kemenangan pertama pada 4 November 2008 dan pidato politik kemenangan
kedua pada 7 November 2012. Desain penelitian ini adalah penelitian kualitatif.
Data yang di kumpulkan menggunakan transkripsi dokumen dari rekaman video
pidato-pidato politik kemenangan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa (1) tipetipe dari strategi-strategi permintaan di pidato Barack Obama adalah Mood
Derivable, Performatives, Obligation Statements, Want Statements dan Mild
Hints. (2) Strategi-strategi permointaan di pidato-pidato kemenangan Barack
Obama menggunakan strategi positif kesopanan. (3) Strategi-strategi permintaan
di pidato Barack Obama, Obama menggunakan konteks dari pengharapan yang
dapat membuat pendengar-pendengar percaya kepada nya. Konteks ini bertujuan
melalui interaksi social dalam kehidupan nyata.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillahirabbil‘alamin, giving the deepest sense of gratitude to
Allah SWT for a life full of happiness. Because the writer completed this thesis
as the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Magister
Humaniora. And also for the last prophet, Muhammad SAW, the greatest teacher
of great teacher.
The writer comes upon a lot of difficulties during the writing of this study,
due to his limited knowledge and experience. However, many people have
contributed and helped his directly and indirectly during completing of this thesis.
The writer is deeply indebted to his consultants, Prof. Dr. Busmin
Gurning, M.Pd and Prof. Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd who always help and gave
excellent advice to finish his study. He should also thank to the board of
examiners Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A, Ph.D, Prof. T. Silvana Sinar, M.A.,
Ph.D and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S For their constructive comments,
suggestions and valuable time in improving this thesis.
The writer would like to express his gratitude to the head and secretary of
English Applied Linguistics Study Program Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd
and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S and their staff Farid, for the guidance in the
process of completing the academic requirements and all lecturers for the valuable
knowledge taught during the academic years.
The greatest thanks is fully addressed to his beloved parents, Zulkifli and
Emmi Herawati, for their love, patience, care, inspiration, advice, prays and
suggestion; his beloved sister, Fitria Zulmi, S.E. and his beloved brother, Fauzi
i
Zulmi, S.kom. for their motivation that the writer really need in order to finish
this study.
The writer also would like to express his special gratitude to his beloved
wife, Rachmawati Wijaya, S.Pd. for her advice, support, ideas, care, suggestion
and motivation have made the writer get curiosity to accomplish this study; and
also my best friends, Bambang Nur Alamsyah Lubis, Balqis Wandira, Irma
Khoirot Daulay, Syafrina Panjaitan, Chitra Latiffani, Yulie Ayu Utari,
Agung Pramono, and Indra Sariman for their laughs, supports and motivation.
Last, special thank is given to all his friends in LTBI class A1, A2, B1 and
B2 XXII, who can not be mentioned one by one, thanks for help, motivation and
comment during acedemic years. Finally a million thanks to all those have given
endless contribution in the process of completing this thesis.
Medan,
November 2014
The Writer
Fandy Zulmi
8126 112 011
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................ i
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................. v
LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................. vii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION.................................................................... 1
1.1
Background of the Study .................................................... 1
1.2
The Problems of the Study ................................................. 5
1.3
The Objectives of the Study ............................................... 5
1.4
The Scope of the Study....................................................... 6
1.5
The Significance of the study ............................................. 6
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................................... 7
2.1
Request ............................................................................... 7
2.2
Request Strategies .............................................................. 9
2.3
The way of using Request Strategies ................................. 11
2.3.1
Positive Politeness .................................................. 12
2.3.2
Negative Politeness ................................................ 12
2.4
Discourse Analysis ............................................................. 14
2.5
Political Discourse ............................................................. 16
2.6
Barrack Obama Speech ...................................................... 17
2.7
Relevant Studies ................................................................. 19
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ....................................................... 21
3.1
Research Design ................................................................. 21
v
3.2
Data and Data Source ......................................................... 21
3.3
The Instrument of Data Collection..................................... 21
3.4
Procedure of Data Collection ............................................. 22
3.5
Technique of Data Analysis ............................................... 22
3.6
3.5.1
Data Reduction ....................................................... 22
3.5.2
Data Display ........................................................... 23
3.5.3
Data Verification/Conclusion Drawing.................. 24
Trustworthiness of the study .............................................. 24
3.6.1 Credibility............................................................... 24
3.6.2 Transferability ........................................................ 24
3.6.3 Dependability ......................................................... 25
3.6.4 Confirmability ........................................................ 25
CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................ 26
4.1
Data Analysis ..................................................................... 26
4.1.1
Request Strategies .................................................. 26
4.1.2
The way of using Request Strategies are used on
Barack Obama’s Speech......................................... 34
4.1.3
The reason of Request Strategies are used on Barack
Obama’s speech...................................................... 35
4.2
Findings .............................................................................. 36
4.3
Discussions......................................................................... 36
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS.............................. 39
5.1
Conclusions ........................................................................ 39
5.2
Suggestions ........................................................................ 39
REFERENCES
vi
LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX I ..................................................................................................... 43
APPENDIX II .................................................................................................... 56
vii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Communication is any act by which one person gives to or receives from
another person information about that person's needs, desires, perceptions,
knowledge, or affective states. Communication may be intentional or
unintentional, may involve conventional or unconventional signals, may take
linguistic or nonlinguistic forms, and may occur through spoken or other modes,
taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication. With communication
we can interchange in different ways, feeling, persuading, advising, warning,
teaching and so on. In communication there is an action to get someone else to do
something. One of the ways to do an action to someone to do something is by
using request.
Request is a speech act expressing the speaker’s desire for the hearer to do
something with the added proviso that the hearer takes this expressed desire as the
reason to act, Bach and Harnish (1984: 48). Based on Bach and Harnish’s
definition, Kuang et al. (2006) redefined requests as verbal instructions performed
by the speaker expressing a desire for the addressee to do a particular thing and
usually aim for the addressee to intend to do it and actually to do it.
According to Blum-Kulka (1984), a request is a prevent act that expresses
a speaker’s expectation about some prospective action, verbal or nonverbal, on the
part of the hearer. The goals of a request include action (e.g., “Can you open the
window?”), goods (e.g., “Can you pass me the salt?”), information (e.g., “Do you
know who our teacher is going to be this semester?”), and permission (e.g., “May
I leave early?”), and the appropriateness of a particular goal is determined by the
social norms of the society in which the speech act is made.
In order to categorize the wide range of request types, Blum-Kulka,
House, and Kasper (1989) developed a scale in the Cross Cultural Speech Act
Realization Project (CCSARP). The scale is composed of nine subcategories
grouped into three broad categories of request strategies depending on the degree
of directness. The nine subcategories groups are; (1) Mood Derivable (2)
Performatives (3) Hedged Performatives (4) Obligation Statements (5) Want
Statements (6) Suggestory Formulae (7) Query Preparatory (8) Strong Hints and
(9) Mild Hints.
They pull together the five most direct request strategies (Mood derivable,
performatives, hedged performatives, obligation statements and want statement)
called impositives, and combined original types (Suggestory formulae and Query
Preparatory) called conventionally indirect. They treat the two types of hints
(Strong Hints and Mild Hints) as one strategy type, hints.
According to Khalid (2013) the significance of political speech in present
world lies in keeping the good relations among countries, nations, and also it
saves external and internal policies. Political discourse is a tool by politicians’
hands, through political speech the politicians can give warring, advice, or declare
to do something, according to international interest requirements, the politicians
are trying to request from his counterpart to share with them to do something
which brings benefits to both nations.
This study investigates how request strategies are used on Barack’
Obama’s speech. It is become an interesting research because the writer tries to
find request strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech. In his background as
African American, he can be a president of the United States defeated his entire
opponent and takes the people’s trust in him. So, the writer tries to find request
strategies on his speech that can make the people trust in him.
Based on Scientific Text Analysis of 2012 Debates, Barack Obama’s
speech can persuade the audiences, Barrack Obama is more persuasive. Obama’s
speech is also more likely to contain causation.
Examples below show us some of his request strategies used in his
campaign speech in Columbus, Ohio on November 5th 2012:
“I'm asking for your vote, and if you're willing to work with me again.”
This utterance shows the request strategies of Performatives, which the
illocutionary force is explicitly named.
“I'm not ready to give up on the fight. I've got a whole lot of fight left in
me, and I hope you do too.” This utterance shows the request strategies of Query
Preparatory, which the utterance containing reference to preparatory conditions of
willingness.
“I want to cut the growth of tuition so our young people aren't burdened
with debt. I want to recruit 100,000 math and science teachers so our kids don't
fall behind. I want to train 2 million Americans at our community colleges with
the skills that businesses are looking for right now.” The utterances show the
request strategies of Want Statements, which state the speaker’s desire that he
wants to carry out the act.
All of examples show the request strategies that express ability,
willingness and wish or desire in Barack Obama speech to persuade the audience.
Barack Obama is an amazing leader and many of his strong qualities are
comparable with those of other great leaders throughout history. Obama is able to
inspire through speaking. Getting straight to the hard issues while still creating the
feeling of national unity for his listeners is a skill amazing speaking abilities.
Obama won his campaign by creating hope of a better tomorrow for his country.
His catch phrase, "Yes We Can," and inspirational posters all helped to promote
his ideals for change in America. With his phrase Obama can persuade the
audiences.
Based on the previous research about The Modals Verbs: A Speech Act of
Request in The Speech of The President of The United States Barack Obama”
from Khalid Wahaab Jabber and Zhang Jinguan, the researcher attempted to
explore the speech acts of request of political speech which has been delivered by
president Obama. He uses them into two kinds of sentences, the declarative and
interrogative, the study showed that the illocutionary force plays a major role in
the speech, the function of the request is the only act which has been dominated
the context of the considered speech acts, the aim of two different sentences is
contrary to the internal meaning, therefore, the illocutionary forces appeared as a
request said in indirect way .Due to the style of the political speech and for the
sake of international significance, this indirect speech act which tackled by the
speaker has been said in a politeness which always emerge with illocutionary
speech acts.
And another research about “Metaphors in Barack Obama’s Spechees”
from Syafarudin Marpaung, conclude that the use of metaphors in Barack
Obama’s speeches are to convey the message and to persuade his people, to make
message more vivid and increase its retention and to satisfactorily perform as
political values in reflected patriotism and liberalism.
From the explanation above, the researcher focus on the types of request
strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech, how request strategies are used on
Barack Obama’s speech and the reason why the request strategies are used on
Barack Obama’s speech.
1.2 Problems of the Study
The problems to be answer in this study are formulated as the following.
1. What types of request strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech?
2. How are the request strategies used on Barack Obama’s speech?
3. In what contexts are the request strategies used on Barack Obama’s
speech?
1.3 The Objectives of the Study
With reference to the problems previously, the objectives of the study are:
1. to find out the types of request strategies on Barack Obama’s speech.
2. to find out how the request strategies are used on Barack Obama’s speech.
3. to explain the reason why the request strategies are used on Barack
Obama’s speech.
1.4 The Scope of the Study
The scope of the study is focused on the types of request strategies which
are found on the first and second political victory speech of the president of the
United States Barack Obama. Further, the analysis of the study intends to find the
objective and explanative of the types of request strategies used on Barack
Obama’s speech.
1.5 The Significance of the Study
The findings of this study are expected to be useful theoretically and
practically. Theoretically, the lecturer can improve the ability to teach English and
enlarge their knowledge about the request strategies that are used in speech. And
for the readers can enlarge their knowledge and understanding about request
strategies are used in speech, especially in Barack Obama’s speech.
Practically, the readers can understand how request strategies are used on
speech. It is hope that the result of the study will contribute for the other people to
understand why the request strategies are used on speech. And for other researcher
who will conduct the relevance study, this research will be very a useful aid.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
1.1 CONCLUSIONS
After analyzing, the data conclusions are drawn as the following.
1. There are five of nine types of request strategies in the theory stated by
Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (1989:18) on Barack Obama’s victory
speeches.
Namely;
Mood
Derivable,
Performatives,
Obligation
Statements, Want Statements and Mild Hints. The other, such as
Suggestory Formulae, Hedged Performatives, Query Preparatory and
Strong Hints were not found in Barack Obama’s speech.
2. The request strategies on Barack Obama victory speeches tend to use
positive politeness strategy than negative politeness strategy.
3. There are some contexts that speakers bring when they are use the
language.
This
context
includes
experiences,
assumptions
and
expectations. The request strategies on Barack Obama’s speech, Obama
used the context of expectation that can make the hearers trust in him. This
context aims through the social interactions in the real life
1.2 SUGGESTIONS
In relation to the conclusion above, suggestions are stated as the following.
1. It is essential to conduct other research relating to request strategies, not
just on the component of head act but from any other components in the
request sequence; preposed supportive moves , optionally elaborated with
down graders, upgrades and postposed supportive moves, so that it will
enrich our understanding of request strategies.
2. It is also important to investigate to what extent directness of request relate
to politeness in Barack Obama’s speech as well as speeches of Indonesian
people, for there is an assumption that the more indirect the request the
more polite it will sound. The question is whether it occurs in Barrack
Obama’s speech and other Speeches of Indonesian people. Of course, this
should be proven.
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