4. The Act of Request
a. The Definition of Request
Directive covers three illocutionary forces, i.e. request, command, and suggestion. The function of directives act is to get somebody to do something.
According to Searle 1979: 3, commands and requests have a similar purpose which manages the hearer to carry out something. However, the illocutionary
forces are totally different. Command states directly that the speaker wants something and the hearer should complete the desire because the hearer has a duty
to perform it. According to Cruse 2006: 62, a power should have by a commander to control the command above the comandee.
According to Bach and Harnish in Shams, 2011: 280, request is a part of speech acts which express the requester
‘s desires for the requestee why the requestee should perform the action as a reason to act. Thus, requests are
performed by the requester in which aims to perform a certain thing. It is believed that a request mostly about the
requester‘s demands and the requestee‘s responses. In addition, request is an action that is used to communicate with people in
society Wang, 2007:11. In fact, request is usually used by people to conduct a conversation such as someone who asks for help. People often use some verbs to
indicate a request such as ask, order, command, request, beg, plead, pray, entreat, invite, permit, and advise Sofwan, 2011:69. A person uses request as a way to
ask help when heshe needs a particular thing. By the definitions, it can be concluded that request happens in daily life. It is to fulfill the
requester‘s desires which need to be done by the requestee.
In requests, when the requester wants someone to carry out himher interest, this is called cost of the requestee. The requester imposes on the
requestee in certain ways to comply the desires of the requester. It seems that by imposing the requestee, the requester gets the benefits from the latter
performance. Haverkate in Trosborg, 1995:188 states that in impositive speech act, the requester carries out a speech act towards the requestee for gaining the
performance which has advantages for the requester. By this statement, impositive speech act imposes the requestee to perform the
requester‘s desires which is to get lot of advantages for the requester by the circumstances. The degree in which the
requester enforces on the requestee is called degree of imposition. It makes difference compared to demanding acts.
Imposition is determined by a number of factors. For example, if the requester asks for something expensive such as diamond, the financial burden on
the requestee may be big. In such a case, the degree of imposition of the requested act is high. A burden is not always financial, but it is also psychological about the
thing. Request should be performed in appropriate circumstances. The
circumstances of speech acts are known as felicity conditions. Felicity conditions are the conditions that need to apply in performing speech acts in order to be
appropriate Cruse, 2006:62. Moreover, Searle in Trosborg, 1995:191 explains the conditions are participant roles and propositional contents. Participant roles
are actors that participate in a conversation, i.e. the requester and the requestee. A propositional content in request means the future acts performed by the requestee.
There are four assumptions of performing request. First, the requester wants the requestee to perform an action. Second, the requester assumes the
requestee can perform an action. Third, the requester assumes the requestee is willing to perform an action. Last, the requester assumes the requestee will not
perform an action in the absence of the request. By these conditions, it conveys the illocutionary forces of a request. In line with Searle, Labov
– Fanshel in Trosborg, 1995:191 add the requester has the capacity to tell the requestee to
perform the desired act and the requestee has the responsibility to realize it. In conclusion, request has three results. Firstly, the requester says hisher
request and wants the requestee to carry out the desired act. Secondly, the requester may perform the desired act. Thirdly, it is indefinite that the requestee
will carry out the desired act.
b. Types of Request