Submitted to the board of examiners as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd) English Education Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty State Institute for Islamic Studies of Salatiga

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH LECTURERS’
SUGGESTION FOR ENGLISH INTENSIVE STUDY
PROGRAM OF IAIN SALATIGA IN THE ACADEMIC
YEAR OF
A GRADUATING PAPER

Submitted to the board of examiners as a partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd)
English Education Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty
State Institute for Islamic Studies of Salatiga

By:
SUGENG ISKANDAR
- -

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY

STATE INSTITUT FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES OF
SALATIGA
i

DECLARATION

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,
In the Name of Allah the Most Gracious the Most Merciful.
Hereby, the writer declares that this graduating paper is written by the writer
himself under the title “Discourse Analysis of English Lecturers‟ Suggestion for
English Intensive Study Program of IAIN Salatiga in the Academic Year of
”. This paper does not contain any materials which have been published by
other people and it does not cite any other people‟s ideas except the information from
the references.
This declaration is written by the writer to be understood.

Salatiga, August

The Writer,

Sugeng Iskandar
NIM.

ii

th

Ruwandi, M.A.
The Lecturer of English Education Department
State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Salatiga
ATTENTIVE COUNSELOR‟S NOTE
Case: Sugeng Iskandar’s Graduating Paper
Dear,
Dean
of
Teacher
Training
and
Education Faculty
Assalamu‟alaikum wr.wb.
After reading and correcting Sugeng Iskandar‟s graduating paper entitled
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH LECTURERS’ SUGGESTION FOR
ENGLISH INTENSIVE STUDY PROGRAM OF IAIN SALATIGA IN THE

ACADEMIC YEAR OF

, I have decided and would like to propose that

this paper can be accepted by the Teacher Training and Education Faculty. I hope
this paper will be examined as soon as possible.
Wassalamu‟alaikum wr.wb.

Salatiga, August
Counselor,

Ruwandi, M.A.
NIP.

iii

th

MINISTRY OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS
STATE INSTITUTE FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES (IAIN) SALATIGA

TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
Jl. TentaraPelajar No. Telp.(
)
Fax.
KodePos
Salatiga
Website: http://iainsalatiga.ac.id e-mail: administrasi@iainsalatiga.ac.id

A GRADUATING PAPER
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH LECTURERS’ SUGGESTION
FOR ENGLISH INTENSIVE STUDY PROGRAM OF IAIN SALATIGA IN
THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF
WRITTEN BY:
SUGENG ISKANDAR
NIM:
Has been brought to the board of examiners of English education department of state
th
institute for Islamic studies (IAIN) Salatiga on September
, and hereby
considered to complete the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd).

Head

Board of Examiners,
: Rr. Dewi Wahyu Mustikasari, M.Pd.

Secretary

: Ruwandi, M.A.

First examiner

: Sari Famularsih, M.A.

Second examiner : Noor Malihah, Ph.D.
Salatiga, September th
Dean of Teacher Training and
Education Faculty

Suwardi, M.Pd

NIP.

iv

MOTTO

LIVE ONCE LIVED MEANING


RASULULLAH SAW SAID “THE BEST OF MAN IS USEFUL FOR OTHERS”
(HR.AHMAD)

v

DEDICATION

This graduating paper is sincerely dedicated to:
My beloved parents in my life, Mr. Askan Iskandar and Mrs. Atik Trisnawati,
thank you for everything you struggle for me. The words could not explain how
important you are in my life.


My beloved older sister Lina Suciana, she always supports and advises me to
continue my study to the higher level.

And everybody who has helped the writer in finishing a graduating paper.
Thanks for all support, suggestions, and other helps that you all give to me.

vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Bismillahirrahmanirrahin,
In the Name of Allah The Most Gracious the Most Merciful. The Lord of the
universe. Because of Allah, the writer could finish this graduating paper.
Graduating paper entitled “Discourse Analysis of English Lecturers‟ Suggestion
for English Intensive Study Program of IAIN Salatiga in the Academic Year of
” is presented to the Teacher Training and Education Faculty of IAIN
Salatiga as one of the requirements for Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd) of English
Education Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of IAIN Salatiga.
However, this success would not be achieved without those supports, guidance,

advices, helps, and encouragement from individual and institution. It is an appropriate
moment for the writer to deepest gratitude for:
. Dr. Rahmat Hariyadi, M.Pd. as the Rector of IAIN Salatiga.
. Suwardi, M.Pd. as the Dean of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of IAIN
Salatiga.
. Noor Malihah, Ph.D., as the Head of English Education Department of IAIN
Salatiga.
. Ruwandi, M A. as his Consultant. Thanks for all the times in guiding this
graduating paper.
. Setia Rini, M.Pd. as my academic counselor who always supports him to finish
his study on time and to continue to the master degree.
. All my lecturers of International Class Program of IAIN Salatiga. They have
taught and guided him in studying to be a better person and
. All lecturers in English Education Department of IAIN Salatiga.

vii

Eventually, this graduating paper is expected to be able to provide the reader a
useful knowledge and information. So, the writer is pleased to accept more suggestion
and contribution for the improvement of this graduating paper.

Salatiga,

August

The writer,

Sugeng Iskandar
NIM.

viii

th

ABSTRACT
Iskandar, Sugeng.
. “Discourse Analysis of English Lecturers‟ Suggestion for
English Intensive Study Program of IAIN Salatiga in the Academic Year of
”. Graduating paper. English Education Department, Faculty of
Teacher Training and Education, State Institute for Islamic Studies of

Salatiga. Consultant: Ruwandi, M A.
Keywords: discourse analysis, English lecturers‟ suggestion of English intensive study
program, suggestion strategy, suggestion modification.
This research is aimed to study about the kind of suggestion strategies and the
internal and external modification strategies of suggestion also the frequent strategies
and the frequent internal and external modification produced by English lecturers in
the classroom activity in other to bring up English lecturers‟ pragmatic awareness.
Within the classroom activity, the writer choses the English lecturers which they
were teaching in English intensive study program in IAIN Salatiga and they had
already at least

year of English teaching experiences. In the framework of task-based

language teaching, lecturers may adopt the instrument provided about teaching
situation. Certainly, the writer uses the pragmatic analysis and qualitative approach.
The findings suggest that the using of discourse in suggestion linguistic that
contribute to the development of lecturers‟ pragmatic competence. Further, the writer
has found the result of this study about the English lecturers‟ suggestion perception.
Most of English lecturers prefer used the direct strategy than the other strategies of
suggestion and they also prefer used the external modification than the internal

modification because the direct and the external were effectiveness and simple for
them as the EFL lecturers.

ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER ...................................................................................................................... i
DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... ii
ATTENTIVE COUNSELOR’S NOTE ................................................................... iii
PAGE OF CERTIFICATION ................................................................................. iv
MOTTO ..................................................................................................................... v
DEDICATION ........................................................................................................... vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ........................................................................................... vii
ABSTARCT ............................................................................................................... ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... x
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURE .......................................................................... xii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study ................................................................................
B. Problem of the Study ......................................................................................
C. Objectives of the Study ...................................................................................
D. Significance of the Study ................................................................................
E. Definition of Key Terms .................................................................................
F. Organization of Graduating Paper ..................................................................
CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Discourse Analysis..........................................................................................
B. Review of Utterances Theories .......................................................................
C. Review of Speech Acts ...................................................................................
. Definition of Speech Acts .........................................................................
. Theory of Speech Acts ..............................................................................
. Types of Speech Acts................................................................................
. Speech Acts Function ...............................................................................
D. Theories of Suggestion ...................................................................................
. Directives ..................................................................................................

x

. Research on Speech Act of Suggestion ....................................................
. Taxonomy of Suggestion Strategy ............................................................
. Taxonomy of Downgraders to Soften Suggestion ....................................
. Internal and External Modifiers of Suggestion .........................................
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Location ...........................................................................................
B. Research Approach .........................................................................................
C. Subject of the Study ........................................................................................
D. Technique of the Data Collection and Instrument ..........................................
E. Unit of Analysis ..............................................................................................
F. Procedures of Analysis ...................................................................................
G. Technique of the Data Analysis ......................................................................
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
A. Data Findings ..................................................................................................
. Suggestion Strategies of English Lecturers‟ Suggestion ..........................
. English Lecturers‟ Perspective on Suggestion Strategies .........................
. Internal and External Modifiers Used by English Lecturers ....................
B. Data Analysis ..................................................................................................
. Suggestion Strategies of the English Lecturers‟ Suggestion ....................
. Internal and External Modifiers Used by English Lecturers ....................
C. Discussion .......................................................................................................
D. Summary .........................................................................................................
CHAPTER V CLOSURE
A. Conclusions .....................................................................................................
B. Suggestions .....................................................................................................
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CURRICULUM VITAE
APPENDIXES

xi

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table

.

Force levels of directives

Table

.

Taxonomy of suggestion linguistic realization strategies

Table

.

Taxonomy of downgraders selected to soften suggestions

Table

.

List data of the subjects

Table

.

Taxonomy of the suggestion strategies

Table

.

External and internal modification strategies

Table

.

Strategy of English lecturers‟ suggestion linguistic

Table

.

English lecturers‟ suggestion perspective on interviewing

Table

.

Distribution of English lecturers‟ suggestion from WDCT
questionnaire

Table

.

Distribution of internal and external modifiers of suggestion

Table

.

Distribution of direct suggestion strategy

Table

.

Distribution of conventionalized forms strategy of suggestion

Table

.

Distribution of indirect suggestion strategy

Table

.

Distribution of internal modification of suggestion

Table

.

Distribution of external modification of suggestion

xii

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

This chapter represents an introduction to the study of speech act about suggestion
production that produced by English lecturers of English Intensive Study Program as an
explicit instruction in the teaching process. It describes how the writer conducts this study
about Speech Act competence toward lecturers‟ utterance of suggestion while teaching in
the class of English Intensive Study Program in IAIN Salatiga. The fundamental details
of study are described as following topics: Background of the Study, Problem of the
Study, Objectives of the Study, Significance of the Study, Scope of the Study, Definition
of Key Terms, and Organization of Graduating Paper.
A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
English Intensive Study Program or usually called as “SIBI”. This term is an
Indonesian abbreviation from several words is “Studi Intensif Bahasa Inggris” in
IAIN Salatiga which held by language service unit of IAIN Salatiga. This is the
program which helps the first and second semester students to learn about English
language intensively and obligated to the all students of IAIN Salatiga. This program
is aimed to increase students‟ quality especially in English language proficiency to
confront the globalization era which an English language became an international
language in the all aspects of interaction with the people in this world.
Viewing to the background of the subject, teacher or lecturer is a central figure
in the classroom. He plays the important role to conduct learning process of the
classroom activity. He also creates the atmosphere of the class, whether it is
comfortable for the students or not. According to Harden and Crosby (

), the

teacher/lecturer has six areas of classroom activity that can be summarized as an
information provider, role model, facilitator, assessor, planner, and resource
developer.
According to the English learning about speech act suggestion as the theory of
this research, it will need lecturers that expert in English language to perform this
theory in the class activity. Therefore, the writer will conduct a research toward
English lecturers‟ utterance of IAIN Salatiga about their suggestion act production
while teaching activity to students to convey suggestion utterance and English
lecturers‟ perception about the kind of suggestion strategies that used in the teaching
activity. English lecturer of English intensive study program is a person who teaches
about English language in the program of English Intensive Study Program.
English lecturer of English Intensive Study Program is a central figure for
students in the classroom. He plays the important role to conduct learning and
teaching processes of the classroom activities. He also creates the atmosphere of the
classroom, whether it is comfortable for the students or not. According to Harden and
Crosby (

), a lecturer has six areas of classroom activities that can be

summarized as an information provider, role model, facilitator, assessor, planner, and
resource developer.
Reviewing the lecturer as a role model, Squires (
cited in Dogarel and Nitu,

) and Alexander (

,

) notes that lecturers may not see themselves as

models, and may even regret the very idea as pretentious and paternalistic, but it is
difficult for learners not to be influenced by the living example set before them. For
the reason, it doesn‟t matter what the lecturer‟s role in the classroom, he always acts
as the model and the center of students‟ attention (Bruner,

). It is lectures‟

obligation of delivering knowledge, good message, behavior and attitude

appropriately. Students get models of language not only from textbooks, reading
materials and of all sorts and from audio and video tapes, but also from the lecturer‟s
way of teaching and speaking (Harmer,

). The students will adopt what

their lecturer usually speaks in the classroom. A lecturer should be continuously
conscious of his potential as the model for language use. The language that lecturer
uses and the way he uses can have a powerful influence on students‟ language
development, their motivation to use language, and the development of their facility
for language.
A lecturer uses two types of communication to transmit the message to the
students in the class. The types are verbal and nonverbal communication. Tubbs and
Moss (

) stated that verbal communication is all kinds of oral communication

that use one word or more. On the other hand, nonverbal communication refers to a
process of communication form without using words to generate meaning (Pearson,
et al.,

; Pan,

). Many of the research in communication studies (Anderson

; McCroskey, Richmond, Plax, & Kearney,

, cited in Seachou,

)

discover that verbal and nonverbal communication affect cognitive, affective, and
behavioral learning. Therefore, a lecturer should consider their communication ways
that produces different effects to the students.
Generating good communication with the students could be fascinating and
challenging at the same time. This situation could happen because the student might
have a different interpretation when the lecturer produces utterances. The meanings
of the word “utterance” are an action of saying or expressing something aloud and an
uninterrupted chain of spoken or written language. According to Bussmann (

),

an utterance is the string of sounds or written symbols produced by a speaker
between two pauses. It refers to a stretch of speech preceded and followed by silence

or a change of speaker (Crystal,

). Schiffrin (

) considered that utterance is

units of language production as quoted below.

Regardless of these difficulties, the view that I will take in
this book is that discourse can best be thought of as
“utterances”. I will view utterances as units of language
production (whether spoken or written) that are inherently
contextualized; whether (or how) they are related to
sentences (Schiffrin,
).

Therefore, the teachers have to negotiate the meaning between them. In
producing utterances, such as “Would you like to take the chalks?”, “Please, close
the door!” or “Could you be silent?”, the teacher is not only produce the grammatical
and lexical forms of what is said (McCarthy,

) but also produce actions to

ask the students to perform actions. Action produced by utterances is called speech
acts (Allen and Perrault,
Searle (

).

, cited in Wardhaugh,

) declares that speech acts can

be divided into three different kinds. There are utterance acts, propositional acts, and
illocutionary acts. In this study, I will focus on the discussion of Illocutionary act.
Illocutionary acts have to do with the intents of speakers. It includes report,
announce, predict, admit, ask, reprimand, suggest, order, propose, express,
congratulate, promise, thank, exhort, and request (Leech,

).

Based on the explanation above, the writer would like to conduct a study about
the types of suggestion modification used by English lecturers of English Intensive
Study Program and the various strategies by which suggestion strategies are
produced in the classroom entitled “DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH
LECTURERS‟ SUGGESTION FOR ENGLISH INTENSIVE STUDY PROGRAM
OF IAIN SALATIGA IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF

”.

B. PROBLEM OF THE STUDY
Based on the background of the study, the writer will attempt to analyze the
study of speech act competence about the taxonomy of suggestion linguistic
realization strategies and internal and external modification strategies. Further, the
writer has formulated the problems of the study to answer the following questions:
.

What are the kinds of suggestion strategies produced by English lecturers of
English intensive study program?

.

What are the internal and external modifiers of suggestion produced by
English lecturers of English intensive study program?

.

What is the most frequent suggestion strategies and the internal and external
modifiers of suggestion used by English lecturers of English intensive study
program?

C. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The focus of this study is on English lecturers‟ suggestion of English Intensive
Study Program of IAIN Salatiga and the objectives of the study are listed below:
.

To describe and analyze about the kinds of suggestion strategies produced by
English lecturers of English intensive study program.

.

To describe and analyze about the internal and external modifiers of
suggestion produced by English lecturers of English intensive study program.

.

To find the most frequent suggestion strategies and the internal and the
external modifiers of suggestion used by English lecturers of English
intensive study program.

D. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
According to Creswell (

:

), the significance of the study should

describe the importance of the study for selected audiences. Therefore, the writer
expects that this study meaningfully contributes to give some benefits to the
discourse analysis focused on English lecturers‟ suggestion of English Intensive
Study Program. They are:
. Theoretically
This form of the study will provide the reader how is the role of suggestion
types and strategies in the speech act competence. The results of this study can
provide information to the English lecturers of English Intensive Study Program
dealing with what they should deliver to the students from their utterances of
suggestion. Thus, this study can become a guideline for the English lecturers to
improve their materials.
. Practically
This speech act study about suggestion linguistic strategy was practiced and
conducted in the classroom activity. The writer will provide a questionnaire
papers for each of twelve lecturers in the classroom for practicing some learning
situations as the writer has provided it in the questionnaire papers in order to
produce suggestion utterances. Based on questionnaire papers that the writer
made, lecturer has to attempt to create a suggestion act of situation through his
utterance while learning process. The result of this practicing will give an
additional information to the readers or English lecturers who are interested in
studying discourse analysis in pragmatic-linguistic. Finally, they will gain

knowledge on the discourse analysis of the English lecturers‟ suggestion of
English Intensive Study Program.
E. DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

. Discourse
The term of the word “discourse” was derived from the Latin verb
„discurrere‟ which means „to run back and forth‟. Discourse is a term used in
linguistics to refer to a continuous stretch of language larger than a sentence.
Moreover, Tannen (

, cited in Schiffrin,

) explains about the

definition of discourse as language beyond the sentence:
Discourse – language beyond the sentence – is simply
language – as it occurs, in any context (including the
context of linguistics analysis), in any form (including two
made-up sentences in sequence; a tape recorded
conversation, meeting, or interview; a novel or play). The
name for the field „discourse analysis‟, then, says nothing
more or other than the term „linguistics‟ the study of
language.

In addition, Crystal (

) explains that discourse is a set of utterances

which connected with speech events such as a conversation, a joke, a sermon, an
interview. On the other hand, the word analysis was derived from Latin „analusis‟
which means „unloose‟. Analysis was detailed study or examination of the
elements or structure of utterance or sentences in order to understand more about
the result of the study. Further explanations about discourse analysis will be
discussed in theoretical framework of chapter two.

. Suggestion Act
According to Searle (

), suggestion act belongs to the group of directive

speech acts which the speaker‟s purpose is to get the hearer to commit him herself
to some future course of action. Puts more simply, directives are attempts to make
the world match the words. Bach and Harnish‟s (

) definition of directives

also implies that the speaker‟s attitude and intention when performing an utterance
must be taken as a reason for the hearer‟s action. In this sense, suggestion acts are
regarded as an imposition upon the hearer by affronting his/her negative face
(Banerjee and Carrel

).

F. ORGANIZATION OF GRADUATING PAPER
This linguistic study contains five chapters, namely: introduction, theoretical
framework, research methodology, findings and discussion, and conclusion (closure).
Chapter I is introduction. It contains the background of this study that
describes the reason why the writer conducts the study on the discourse analysis of
English lecturers‟ suggestion of English intensive study program. This chapter also
contains statement of the problems, objective of the study, the significance of the
study, the definition of key terms, and organization of the paper.
Chapter II is theoretical framework. It presents the explanation of beliefs
nature that focus on lecturers‟ beliefs especially about grammar teaching and the
sources of their beliefs. It also covers the explanations of grammar (definition and
the importance of grammar) and grammar teaching (approaches, methods, instruction
of grammar teaching and also the error grammar correction) through the analysis of
speech act of suggestion and its components.

Chapter III describes the research methodology. It tells about why and how
this study used descriptive quantitative research as the type of this study. The design
of the research, subject of the research, data collection, data analysis, and procedure
of the research are also presented in this chapter.
Chapter IV is findings and discussion. It presents the data findings that have
been gained through documentation and recorder from the English lecturers of
English intensive study program (SIBI) regarding their beliefs about grammar
teaching. This chapter also covers the discussion of the data findings.
Chapter V is closure. It contains the conclusion which covers also the closure
of this study. This chapter will explain the beneficial of the results from the study
and suggestion for the development on the field of the pedagogical beliefs studies
and especially about grammar teaching.

CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter presents the comprehensive theories which will be the basis for this
study. It takes a part as the foundation in determining the extent of the research. Since the
research concerns on the discourse analysis of English lecturers‟ suggestion of English
Intensive Study Program, this research will be included into some theories of suggestion
strategies that according to the concepts of pragmatics area such as speech acts and the
study of discourse analysis. This chapter likely covers the discussion of discourse
analysis, review of utterance theories, and review of speech acts, theories of suggestion
and internal external modifiers of suggestion.
A. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Discourse analysis is a board term for the study of the ways in which language
is used in texts and contexts. Also called discourse studies. According to Abraham
s, discourse analysis is concerned with “the use

and Harpham Developed in the

of language in a running discourse, continued over a number of sentences, and
involving the interaction of speaker (or writer) and auditor (or reader) in a specific
situational context, and within a framework of social and cultural conventions” (A
Glossary of Literary Terms,
McCarthy (

).

) explains that discourse analysis is a vast subject area within

linguistics, encompassing the analysis of spoken and written language such as the
structure of the clause or sentence. Discourse analysis concerned with the study of
the relationship between language and the context in which it is used. It includes
linguistics, semiotics, psychology, anthropology, and sociology. Schiffrin (

)

adds that linguistic features such as sociolinguistics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics,

etc. identified by discourse analysis to characterize different social and cultural
factors which aid in the interpretation and understanding of different texts and types
of talk.
The scope of discourse analysis is not restricted only with the description and
analysis of written data, but also the organization of spoken from such as talk,
conversation, communicative event, etc. (McCarthy,
Jinquan). Furthermore, cook (

, cited in Prokopova,

, cited in Jabber and
) states that discourse

analysis examines how wide are the discussion of it by considering its textual, social,
and psychological context that become meaningful for the users.
Therefore, there are so many definitions related to the discourse analysis. It has
different definitions according to different fields or academic disciplines, but most of
them explain that the definition of the discourse analysis is about the meaning
beyond the sentences, the study of language use, and the investigation of what that
language is used for in social practice (Brown and Yule,

; Schiffrin,

; Gee,

).
B. REVIEW OF UTTERANCE THEORIES
There is not a consensus to give clear explanation about the definition of an
utterance. Some experts provided several different descriptions dealing with the
discussion. According to Hurford et al. (

), utterance is any stretch of talk before

and after which there is silence on the part of that person. It is used by a particular
speaker, on a particular occasion, of a piece of language, such as a sequence of
sentences, or a single phrase, or even a single word.
On the other hand, Traum and Heeman (

) describe utterance as stretches

of speech bounded by the boundary tones and silent pauses. Furthermore, they
attempt to define it with the several factors. These are speech by single speaker,

speaking without interruption by speech of the other, constituting a single turn. Then,
it has semantic completion, defines a single speech act and separated by a pause.
Utterance could be said as core point in speech. Utterance means what is said
by any one person before or after another person begins to speak. It commonly
defines as a sequence of words within a single person‟s turn at talks. (Richards and
Schmidt,

). It means that when people have a conversation, utterance exists

in it. It is also executed in order to have some effects on the hearer. This effect
typically involves modifying the hearer‟s beliefs or aims. It produced an action and
took a result or effect to perform actions for the hearers. In addition, Capone (
cited in Mey,

,

) in the book of Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics also explains

the purpose of utterance‟s use in the conversation between speaker and hearer
“To speak a language is to express thoughts in the form of
linguistic utterances that employ words and follow combinatorial
rules. When a person A speaks communicatively, she transmits a
thought to a hearer H with a certain official aim and possibly with
other consequential effects. By an utterance, a speaker can inform
the hearer of a certain situation, express an inner state of mind
(emotions or feelings), or modify the behavior of the recipient. In
all cases, a certain thought is expressed by the vocalization of an
utterance. (Capone,

)”.

People perform actions through utterance and actions performed via utterances
is called speech act (Yule,
discussed in the next sub-chapter.

). The further discussion about speech act will be

C. REVIEW OF SPEECH ACTS
. Definition of Speech Acts
Speech act is a kind of verbal communication. The words speech acts are
derived from two words „speech‟ and „act‟. Speech is the utterance that occurs
and act means action. That is the reason why people have to interpret the meaning
of communication or language through speech acts. People do not only produce
utterances which contain grammatical structure and lexical form when they speak,
but also perform action through those utterances (McCarthy,
Austin (

). Similarly,

) states that speech acts are an act refers to the actions that is

performed in producing an utterance. Based on these opinions above, it can be
concluded that speech act is the act performed by a speaker in uttering a sentence.
The functions of the speech act itself is to state the speaker‟s intention to the
hearer.
Yule (

) proposes that speech acts is performed action via utterance.

Another definition from Soekemi (

) mentions that speech act is a theory

which analyses the role of utterance in relation to the behavior of speaker and
listener in interpersonal communication.
According to Austin (

), speech act is theory of performative language

in which to say something is to do something. In brief when speakers are saying
words, they not only produce utterance containing words and grammatical
structure, but they also perform action in those utterances.
Speech acts reveal the intentions of speakers and the effects the speaker‟s
utterances and expressions have on the hearers. The implication of speech acts is
that every utterance has a purpose which derives from the specific context. It has
been observed that language use depends on such contextual factors as social and

physical condition, attitudes, abilities, beliefs and the relationship existing
between the speaker and the listener.
According to Searle (

, cited in Justova,

), an American language

philosopher, speaking a language is performing speech acts, acts such as making
statements, giving commands, asking questions, making suggestion or making
promises. He states that all linguistic communications involve speech acts. In
other words, speech acts are the basic or minimal units of linguistic
communication.
. Theory of Speech Acts
Sadock (

) mentioned that Austin was a former expert who begins the

modern study of speech acts. Speech act theory was developed by Austin in an
endeavor to explain how particular utterances apply within natural language. He
begins the study engaging monograph „How to Do Things with Words‟, the
published version of his William James Lectures delivered at Harvard in

.

The book is a cited work starts with the observation included the certain sorts of
sentences such as “I christen this ship the Joseph Stalin; I now pronounce you
man and wife”. These both sentences seem designed to do something rather than
to say something. Such sentences are dubbed by Austin with performative and, on
the contrary, dubbed with constative for such sentences like “my daughter is
called Elizabeth” that only to say something and make statement or assertion.
In addition, Austin (

) was interested in how words produced not only to

provide information and facts, but also how these words performed action. For
instance, the different both utterances like “I see a boy” and “I promise that I will
come tomorrow”. In the first utterance, the speaker provides information about
only what he is seeing about and nothing more. Another utterance, the speaker not

only gives information about plans tomorrow, but also offers a promise. The verb
“promise” has a different function of the force contained within the words. Austin
classified the special types of „force-word‟ as performatives, which clearly
different with normal statements and assertion like in the first example. The other
examples of „force-word‟ includes „beg, warn, apologize, declare, etc.‟ Then, by
using these words of performatives, the speaker is performing the utterances
which are called speech acts.
. Types of Speech Acts
There are three types of speech acts:
) Locutionary Acts
A locutionary act is the performance of an utterance, and hence of
speech act. The term equally refers to the surface meaning of an utterance,
because according to Austin (

) “How to Do Things with Words”, a

speech act should be analyzed as a locutionary act (i.e. the actual utterance
and its ostensible meaning, comprising phonetic, phatic and rhetic acts
corresponding to the verbal, syntactic and semantic aspects of any meaningful
utterance). It can be recognized by the hearer.
Example:
If someone says „knock the door!‟ the locutionary acts is the
realization of the speaker‟s utterance.
) Illocutionary Acts
An Illocutionary act is performing an act in saying something, what is
done in uttering the word, the function of the word, the specific purpose that
the speaker‟s have in mind. Searle (
of illocutionary speech acts:

) set up the following classification

a) Assertive: an illocutionary act that speech acts commit to a speaker to the
truth of the expressed proposition. The acts are stating, claiming,
hypothesizing, describing, telling, insisting, suggesting, asserting, and
asserting that something is the case.
Example:
Stating: staff and VIP permitted here
b) Directive: an illocutionary act for getting the addressee to do
something by responding to an utterance or by performing some physical
actions. The acts are ordering, commanding, defying, advising, asking,
begging, challenging, daring, demanding, forbidding, insisting, inviting,
permitting, recommending, requesting, suggesting, etc.
Example:
Command: Close the door please!!!
Forbid, Prohibit Don‟t close the door!!! Don‟t go to the party!
c) Expressive: an illocutionary act that expresses the speakers feeling and
attitudes toward events or affairs. The acts are congratulating, thanking,
deploring, condoling, welcoming, apologizing.
Example:
Condoling : I am sorry to hear that.
Congratulating : Hey Bro, congrats for your success
d) Declaration: an illocutionary act that brings into existence the state of
affairs to which it refers. The speaker brings about a change in the word
by uttering an Illocutionary act. The acts are blessing, firing, baptizing,
bidding, passing sentence, excommunicating, marriage, arresting,
approving, naming, etc.

Example:
Naming : I named my baby Amanda.
e) Verdictive: an illocutionary acts in which the speaker makes an
assessment or judgement about the acts of another, usually the addressee.
The acts are ranking, assessing, appraising, condoning. Verdictive verbs
include accuse, charge,excuse, thank in the explicit.
Example:
Assessing: you have low score in undestanding Syntax.

) Perlocutionary Acts
Perlocutionary act is an act that is uttered to affect the listener. An
utterance that is uttered by someone often has effect to the listener. Which
can be expected or unexpected affect that created by the speaker. So, in other
word, a perlocution is listener behavioral response to the meaning of the
utterance, not necessarily physical or verbal response, perhaps merely a
mental or emotional response.
There is an example of speech acts. A child refuse to lie down and go to
sleep, then his mother says, “I‟ll turn your light off”. The locutionary act is
utterance of this sentence “I‟ll turn your light off”. However, the mother may
be intending that the utterance to be interpreted as a threat. The threat here is
the illocutionary acts. It means that child does not sleep, his mother will turn
off the light. As consequence behavior of that child, he must be frightened
into silence and sleep is Perlocutionary act.

. Speech Acts Function
In contrast to Austin, who focused more on the speaker‟s intention in their
speaking, Searle more focuses on how listeners respond what are the speakers
intended to (Wardaugh,

). The concept of the illocutionary act is central

to Searle‟s understanding of speech acts. According to Wardaugh (

),

“Searle has concentrated his work on speech acts on how a hearer perceives a
particular utterance to have the force … an utterance”. Searle (
mentioned by Celce-Muria and Olstain (

), as

), proposes five functions to describe

the illocutionary acts. These are:

a. Representatives
Representatives commit the speaker to the truth value of the expressed
proposition. These kinds of speech acts state what the speaker believes to be
the case or not (Yule,

). Representatives are statements of fact

including assertion, conclusion, description, reporting, explanation, etc.
consider the following examples of representatives:
) The sun sets to the west.
) Adam Levine is not a dancer but a top singer.
) It‟s cloudy here.

b. Directives
Directives are attempts by the speaker to get the hearer to do something.
They express what the speaker wants to be performed by the hearer. It can be
command, an order, a request, a suggestion, etc. Notice the following
example of directives:

) You should say something to her.
) Go to the bathroom right now!
) Would you mind to hang out with me?

c. Commissives
Commisives commit the speaker‟s intention to some future course of
action. It can be performed by himself or as or the representation of a member
of a group. They are promises, threats, refusals, pledges, etc (Yule,

).

These are the examples of commissive acts:
) I will not come to your wedding party.
) I promise I will never make affair again.
) I will back as soon as possible.

d. Expressives
Expressives are used to show, state, and express the speaker‟s
physiological feelings. It refers to the speaker‟s experiences, whether is his
own experiences or the hearer‟s experiences. It can be the statement of
pleasure, pain, likes dislike, joy, or sorrow (Yule,

). Expressives are

among the most important speech acts for English foreign and second
language learners Celce-Muria and Olstain (
the examples of expressive:
) Congratulations, you got the top position.
) I am sorry, betrayed my promise.
) I really enjoy the party.

). The following will show

e. Declarations
Declarations are kinds of speech acts that change the world via
utterance (Yule,

). The speaker has to have a special institutional role

in a special context to perform a declaration. It‟s only effective when stated
by the appropriate authority. It includes declaring war, marrying, firing and
hiring from employment, etc. the examples of declarations are as follows:
) Umpire: the shuttle cock is out!
) The dictatorial leader: I declare a war with your clan.

D. THEORIES OF SUGGESTION
Suggestion belong to the group of directive speech acts which according to
Searle (

), are those the speaker‟s purpose is to get the hearer to follow what the

aim of the speaker by the action in the future. Bach and Harnish‟s (

) definition

of directives also implies that the speaker‟s attitude and intention when performing
an utterance must be taken as a reason for the hearer‟s action. Moreover, one relevant
feature affecting directives in opposition to other speech act, such as representatives
or commissives (Searle

), refers to the necessary interaction between the speaker

and the hearer in order to get the speech act performed. As Trosborg (

:

)

points out, “only in the case of directives is the hearer‟s subsequent act (getting
things done) part of the speaker‟s intentions. As stated by Thomas (

), both

speaker and hearer are to be taken into account when producing directive speech
acts.
Focusing specifically on the different speech acts included within the group of
directives, Schmidt and Richard (

) claim that it contains speech acts such as

requests, commands suggestions, the main goal of which is to get the hearer to do
something, although the force of the attempt can differ from one speech act to

another. Taking into account the assumption that there are different kinds of
directives, Haverkate (

) provides a specific definition for exhortative speech acts

which also implies that the speaker wants the hearer to do something. This author
distinguishes between impositive and non impositive directives. The former group
includes more threatening acts, such as requesting, pleading and ordering, whereas
non-impositives directives refer to suggestions and instructions. The main difference
between these two groups lies in the fact that the benefits obtained by carrying out an
impositive speech act are exclusively for the speaker, whereas the objective of the
non-impositive speech acts is to benefit the hearer. Thus, a clear distinction between
request and suggestions is important, since both speech acts belong to the same
category of directives and as suggested by Thomas (

), one relevant principal of

pragmatics involves the fact that some speech acts may overlap. For this reason,
previous literature addressing directives has already distinguished request and
suggestion on the basis of the benefit of the action (Searle
Edmonson and House
(

;

; Banerjee and Carrell

; Trosborg

; Rintell

;

). As Rintell

) states, “in a suggestion, the speaker asks the hearer to take some action

which the speaker believes will benefit the hearer, even one that the speaker should
desire”.
.

Directives
Directives express the speaker‟s attempt to get the hearer doing something
because of the speaker‟s intention. Searle (

) gives the notion of

directives as the utterance that uttered by the speaker to get the hearer doing
what the speakers wants to do to him or her. Austin‟s behabitives and exercitives
are including in this Searle‟s directives. Directives include in the form of asking,
ordering, commanding, requesting, suggesting, begging, praying, entreating,

inviting, permitting, advising, etc. that give the direction to the hearer to do
something in accordance with the speaker‟s instruction.
The forms of directives are various because they different way to get the
hearer do what the speaker wants or intends to do. The speaker as a person who
forces the hearer to do something can choose the way how he/she states the
directives. According to Holmes (

, cited in Mustikasari,

), there

are several scales of directives that show different various level of directives to
force the hearer do the speaker‟s intention. It can be showed by the figure below.

Figure
Speech function
Speech act

Force Levels of Directives
:
:

Directive
Command, order
Request
Advise, recommend
Invite
Suggest
Hint

Increasing force

The above figure shows the levels of speech act force. The force‟s levels
are getting higher from the bottom to the top. The level of force that starts from
the lower to the higher position is hint, suggest, invite, advise/recommended,
request, and command/order. The discussion about the levels of suggestion will
be presented in the further explanation.

. Research on Speech Act of Suggestion
With regard to research dealing with the speech act of suggesting, Schmidt
et al. (

) claim that suggestions have received less attention in comparison to

the speech act of requesting, this has been extensively investigated. In their own
words, the authors (

:

-

) state that “in analyzing commercials as

suggestions, we are somewhat hampered by the lack of detailed studies of this
speech act and requests have been investigated intensively, but the speech act of
suggestion, a cousin of the request, has been much less studied”. Moreover, most
of the research that has dealt with this speech act, as well as the studies that have
regarded suggestions as advice acts, consist of cross-cultural pragmatic studies
(Rintell

; Boatman

Grove

; Wierzbicka

; Banerjee and Carrell
; Hinkel

,

the field of ILP (Bardovi-Harlig and Hartford
Alcon

; Matsumura

,

; Altman

; Hu and

), with only a few studies from
,

; Koike

,

;

). A detailed description of these studies is

provided in the two subsections that follow.

. Taxonomy of Suggestion Strategy
The pragmalinguistic forms of strategies for performing the speech act of
suggestions in this study have been taken from Fauzul aufa‟s (

) journal and

he was also adopted his resource of his journal from Martinez-Flor‟s (

)

taxonomy. Such taxonomy is based on speech act and politeness theories, as
well as previous studies on this speech act. On the one hand, speech act theory is
taken into account, since the different linguistic realizations for suggestions
address the universal pragmatic strategies of direct and indirect types mentioned
by Kasper and Schmidt (

) and are related to the terms of on record and off

record proposed in the politeness theory (Browen & Levinson,

). On the

other hand, they adopt the variety of pragmalinguistic formulae that have been
examined in previous research on pragmatics (Edmonson and House,
Wardhaugh,
et al.,
(

; Banerjee & Carrel,

; Koester,

; Koike,

; Tsui,

;

; Schmidt

; among others) and Bardovi-Harlig and Hartford‟s

) maxim of congruence, which involves the appropriateness of the specific

strategies according to the speaker‟s status relative to one another in a given
situation. For the clear information about taxonomy of suggestion strategies,
Table . presents such taxonomy of suggestion linguistic realizatio