Leech’s Speech Act

31 the speaker wants to imply in hisher utterances. In addition, this classification is more specific and detail than other classifications.

5. Context

Context is an important concept in pragmatic analysis because pragmatics focuses on the meaning of words in context or interaction and how the persons involved in the interaction communicate more information than the word they use. Yule 1996: 21 mentions that context simply means the physical environment in which a word is used. Meanwhile, Mey 1993: 39-40 states that context is more than a matter of reference and of understanding what things are about. It gives a deeper meaning to utterances.

a. Situational Context

It is clear that context is important in communication. Context gives information to the addressee so that heshe understands the implicature of the speaker’s utterances and responds appropriately. Context means the situation giving rise to the discourse and within which the discourse is embedded. Nunan 1993: 8 says that there are two types of context. a. The linguistic context: the language that surrounds or accompanies the piece of discourse under analysis. b. The non-linguistic or experiential context within which the discourse takes place. Non-linguistic context includes: the type of communication event for instance, joke, story, lecture, greeting, conversation; the topic; the purpose of 32 the event; the setting including location, time of the day, season of year, and physical aspects of the situation for example, size of room, arrangement of furniture; and the participants and the relationships between them underlying the communicative event. Hymes in Wardhaugh, 1986: 238 has proposed an ethnographic framework which takes into account the various factors that have involved in context of situation. Hymes uses the acronym of S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G for the various factors he deems to be relevant. Here are the brief explanations of acronym SPEAKING. a. Setting and Scene S refers to the time and place, i.e. the concrete physical circumstances in which speech takes place, while scene refers to the abstract physiological setting, or the cultural definition of the occasion including characteristics such as range of formality and sense of play or seriousness. b. The Participants P include several of speaker-listener, addressor- addressee, or sender-receiver. It is related with the person who is speaking and the other as the listener. There are some social factors which must be considered by the participants such as age, gender, status, and social distance. c. End E refers to the conventionally recognized and expected outcomes of an exchange as well as to the personal goals that participants seek to accomplish on particular occasions. d. Act Sequence A refers to the actual form and content of what is said: the precise words, how they are used, and the relations of what is said to the topics at hand. 33 e. Key K refers to the tone, manner or spirit in which particular message is conveyed: light-hearted, serious, precise, pedantic, mocking, sarcastic, and pompous. The key may also be marked nonverbally by certain kinds of behavior, gesture, posture, or even deportment. f. Instrumentalities I refers to the choice of channel, e.g. oral, written, or telegraphic, and to the actual forms of speech employed such as the language, dialect, code, or register that is chosen. The choice of channel itself can be oral, written, or telegraphic. g. Norm of interaction and interpretation N refers to the specific behaviors and properties that attach to speaking and also to how these may be viewed by someone who does not share them, e.g. loudness, silence, and gaze return. h. Genre G refers to clearly demarcated types of utterance; such things as poems, proverbs, riddles, sermons, prayers, lecture, and editorials. Leech 1996: 13 states situational context includes relevant aspects of the physical or social setting of an utterance. In this sense, it plays an important role in understanding the meaning of an utterance because by this context, the speaker and the addressee share their background in understanding their utterances.

b. Social Context