SPEECH ACTS OF MAIN CHARACTER IN AVATAR MOVIE SCRIPT.

SPEECH ACTS OF MAIN CHARACTER IN
AVATAR MOVIE SCRIPT

A THESIS

Submitted to English Department, Faculty of Language and Art
In Partial Fulfillment Of The Requirements For
The Degree Of Sarjana Sastra

By:

ROY MARTIN SITANGGANG
Registration Number: 208222055

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2013

DECLARATION
Except where appropriately acknowledge, this thesis is my own work, has

been expressed in my own words and has not previously been submitted for
assessment.
I understand that this thesis may be screened electronically or otherwise
for plagiarism.

Medan,

Maret 2013

Roy Martin Sitanggang
NIM. 208222055

ABSTRACT
Sitanggang, Roy Martin. Reg. No. 208222055. Speech Acts of Main Character
in Avatar Movie Script. A Thesis, English Department, Faculty of Languages
and Arts, State University of Medan. 2013
This study is about the types of Speech acts used in Avatar movie script. The
purpose of this study is to find out the types of speech acts base on George Yule’s
theory and to find out which types are dominant in the script. The object of this
study is a Avatar. This study analyzed the main character’s utterance. Jake Sully

is the main character in Avatar movie. The study was conducted by using
descriptive qualitative approach. They are five types of speech acts in Avatar
movie script. They are declaratives acts are 3 items (0.85%), representatives acts
are 176 items (50.28%), expressives acts are 48 items (13.71%), directives acts
are 96 items (27.42%), and commissives acts are 27 items (7.71%). The data
findings shown that representatives acts is dominantly used in this movie. There
are 176 (50.28%) utterance that uttered by Jake Sully in Avatar movie script.

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Jesus Christ, the most gracious and merciful, all praise for
His mercy, guidance and loving care which have been given to the writer so this
thesis entitled “Speech Acts of Main Character in Avatar Movie Script” could be
completed well. This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the
Degree of Sarjana Sastra at English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts,
State University of Medan.
This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the
help of several individuals who always contributed and extended their valuable
assistances in the preparation and completion of this thesis. The writer’s special

appreciation goes to:
 Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si. as the Rector of State University
of Medan.
 Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum. as the Dean of Faculty of Languages and
Arts State University of Medan and to all her staffs.
 Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd. as the Head of English Department. Dra.
Rahmah, M.Hum. as the Secretary of English Department.
 Dra. Meisuri, MA as the Head of Applied Linguistics Program
 Dra. Masitowarni, M.Ed. thanks for their administrative help during the
writer’s study in English Department State University of Medan.
 Drs. Muhammad Natsir, M.Hum. as the writer’s Thesis Supervisor and
Academic Consultant who always gave the encouragement, constant
support, constructive comments, and suggestions to the writer in finishing
this thesis.
 Mam Endah who have helped the writer in providing the academic
administration.
 The writer’s greatest family, my Dad, the lovable, Horfikran Sitanggang
and my Mom, the greatest woman and the truly inspiring, Dormauli br.
Manik and also to my brothers and sisters Maslin Sitanggang/ F.Sibuea,
Ranto Sitanggang/ K.Hutauruk, Rikki Sitanggang/ S.Tambunan, Eva

Sitanggang/ N.Sihombing and my nephew/ niece (Gerhard, Yobel,
Shella, Silvia, Yosia) for their endless love, prayers, advises, and
encouragement. Without them, the writer may never have overcome this
long journey, because when he felt down, their love will always give him
strength in facing all complications happened in his life
 The writer’s best friend in NHKBP Dame Purwodadi Zev Nadeak,
Marihot Simanjuntak, Folo Sianipar, Martin Pasaribu, Melva
Simanjuntak, Nimbo Nadeak, Medicom’s Gang who always support and

ii





motivates me in finishing and completing this study and thank you so
much for the friendship, hospitality, moral support, and for all the fun and
happy memories they shared. And loyal support and motivation from my
lovely girl Sebrina Nuriani Nainggolan.
The writer’s special colleagues: Agus, Anton, James, Jansen, Mario,

Tohom, Wira, Manna, Etha, Meilyna and All of the writer’s friends in
Applied Linguistics A and B 2008, for studying together in classroom,
discussing around and studying together under the ladder have motivated
the writer to finish her study.
The people who direct or indirectly contributed in this research, your
kindness means a lot to her. Thank you very much. May God bless us.
Amen.
Medan, March 2013
The Writer,

Roy Martin Sitanggang
Reg No. 208222055

iii

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................ i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................. ii
TABLE OF CONTENT ...................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. vi
LIST OF APPENDICES ..................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER I
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.

INTRODUCTION ......................................................................
The Background of the Study ........................................................
The Problem of the Study ..............................................................
The Objective of the Study ...........................................................
The Scope of the Study ................................................................
The Significance of the Study .......................................................

CHAPTER II

A.
B.
C.

REVIEW OF LITERARURE .....................................................
Linguistics ...................................................................................
Pragmatics ....................................................................................
Speech Acts ..................................................................................
1. Elements of Speech Acts .........................................................
a. Locutionary act ..................................................................
b. Illocutionary act ..................................................................
c. Perlocutionary act ..............................................................
2. Classification of Speech Acts ..................................................
a. Declarations .......................................................................
b. Representatives ..................................................................
c. Expressives ........................................................................
d. Directives ..........................................................................
e. Commissives .....................................................................
D. Characters ....................................................................................
E. Movie ..........................................................................................

1. Movie Script ...........................................................................
F. Avatar Movie ...............................................................................
1. The Summary of Avatar Movie ...............................................
2. Biography of James Cameron...................................................

iv

1
1
3
4
4
4
6
6
7
10
11
12
12

12
13
13
14
14
15
15
15
17
19
19
21
24

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ...........................................................
A. Research Design ..........................................................................
B. The Source of Data .......................................................................
C. The Technique of Collecting Data ................................................
D. The Technique of Analyzing the Data ..........................................

26
26
26
26
27

CHAPTER IV THE DATA AND THE ANALYSIS OF DATA ......................
A. The Data ......................................................................................
B. The Analysis of Data ...................................................................
1. The Analysis of The Occurrence Types of Speech Acts ............
C. Research Findings ........................................................................

28
28
28
42
45

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ................................... 47
A. Conclusion ................................................................................... 47

B. Suggestions .................................................................................. 48
REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 49
APPENDICES ..................................................................................................... 50

v

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix
A

Page
The script of Avatar ................................................................... 50

vii

1

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Language is one of media which cannot be separated from human life.
Human uses language in their speech, either spoken or written. Language is used
every day by everybody to communicate with others, by using language in our
daily life, it can be define as communication as human being. Communication is
one ways to express our mind, feelings, ideas, and emotions. We can also express
it by using gesture or body movement, action, signal and sound.
Austin (1962) stated that there are many different things that speakers can
do with word and some utterance, the speakers produce are not statement or
question about some piece of information, but an actions. It shows that words are
not only something the speakers use to say things but also to do thing. Sometimes
when the speakers say something, the speakers do not just say it exactly, but there
is an implicit meaning behind it. Therefore, the words or utterance that we
produce also can lead to misunderstanding.
The communicative act or verbal communication is usually represented by
the utterances of the speakers. In attempting to express themselves, people do not
only produce utterance containing grammatical structure and words, they perform
action via those utterance ( Yule: 1996: 47). From this explanation, it shows that
every word, phrase or sentence that is human uttered perform different implicit
action or meaning in it and if the hearer cannot get the intention of every
utterance, it will lead a misunderstanding.

2

This research takes pragmatic approach as the way of analysis, considering
how the speakers use the language in the social interaction with others. According
to Leech (1983) pragmatics can be stated as astudy of a language used in certain
time and condition. Pragmatics is the study of speakers meaning base on situation.
Pragmatics generally is the study of the natural understanding and specifically the
study of how people comprehend and produce a communicative or speech act.
Speech act is concern with the speaker’s communicative intention in
producing an utterance and it is defined by the purpose for which the speakers use
the language, for example to make a request, to apologize, and to report (Yule,
1996). Speech act is the key concept in the field of pragmatics, the study of
speaker’s intentions and what the speakers mean when they use the particular
linguistics in context (Hatch, 1992). People do not use language just to state
things but to do things, and to perform actions (Thomas, 1995).
The writer realizes that in our daily life, we also always use the speech act
function when we have communication with others. For example, we say the
weather is hot today; it means there is some implicit meaning to request to do an
action that is to switch on the fan or maybe open the window.
The

writer

chooses

main

character

in

Avatar

movie

to

analyze. A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of
art (such as a novel, play, or film). Characters may be flat, minor characters;
or round, and major. The main character in a story is generally known as
the protagonist. The character who opposes him or her is the antagonist. The main
character in Avatar movie is Jake Sully he is a former of US army.

3

The writer uses Avatar movie script as media for this analysis. Movie
script is commonly understood as the written text which is spoken by the actor or
player in movie. The movie script sometimes defines as the whole of utterance
which is written in a piece of paper or more to be spoken by the actors or actress
in the movie.
Concerning to the problem above, the writer takes “Avatar” movie to
represent the different use of speech act. Avatar tell about the earth have severely
depleted Earth's natural resources and Pendora still have much mineral so The
RDA Corporation mines try to take mineral from Pendora. The writer chooses this
movie because Avatar movie is one of the most popular movies in the box offices
in the world. Avatar movie has got many awards such as Saturn Awards, Golden
Globe Awards and earn more than $2 billion. The writer chooses Jake Sully
character because he is the main character in Avatar movie.

B.

The Problem of the Study
The problems of the study are formulated as the following:
1. What are the classifications of speech act uttered by Jake Sully in Avatar’s
movie script?
2. What is the dominant classification of speech act uttered by Jake Sully in
Avatar movie script?
3. What makes the most dominant classification of speech acts used in
Avatar movie script?

4

C. The Scope of the Study
In order to have specific research, this study is limited on the main
character in Avatar movie script. The main character in Avatar movie is Jake
Sully. The writer uses George Yule’s theory to identify the Speech Act that is
found in Avatar movie script. All the kinds of speech act that are classified
according to its function become the scope of the study such as; declarations,
representatives, expressives, directives, and commissives, which are found in
Avatar movie script.

D. The Objective of the Study
The objectives of the study are:
1. To find out the classification of speech act that uttered by Jake Sully in
Avatar movie script.
2. To find out the classification of speech act that is dominantly uttered by
Jake Sully in Avatar movie script.
3. To describe the most dominant classification of speech act used in Avatar
movie script.

E.

The Significance of the Study
1. For Student of English Department. It is expected that the student can
obtain more information about communication, especially in choosing
speech act of action based on appropriate situational context.

5

2. For readers, this research will give information and enrich their
knowledge about speech act and how speech act used in the daily
communication.
3. For further researches, this research can be used as a reference for further
research about analysis of speech act.

47

CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
Based on the findings of this research, it can concluded that:
1. The five types of Speech Acts are found in Avatar Movie script. They are
(1) Declarative that it is intended for declaring war, firing, marrying,
bidding, etc. (2) Representative that it is intended for assertions, facts,
claims conclusions, descriptions, inform report, suggests, and claims. (3)
Expressives that it is intended for thanking, apologizing, welcoming, joy,
like,

dislike,

complaining,

deploring,

condoling,

sorrow,

and

congratulating. (4) Directive that it is intended for requesting,
commanding,

warning,

permitting,

urging

questioning,

ordering,

suggesting, advising, begging, challenging, insisting, and pleading, and (5)
Commisive that it is intended for promising, threatening, swearing and
offering in future action. The total number of those five types speech acts
that uttered by Jake Suly are 350 utterances. The total number of
declaratives acts are 3 items (0.85%), representatives acts are 176 items
(50.28%), expressives acts are 48 items (13.71%), directives acts are 96
items (27.42%), commissives acts are 27 items (7.71%).
2. The data findings shown that representatives acts is dominantly used in
this movie. There are 176 (50.28%) utterance that uttered by Jake Sully in
Avatar movie script.

48

3. Representatives act is the most dominant used in avatar movie script
because avatar movie is tell about science and military. So there are many
sentences containing facts, assertions, claims conclusions, descriptions,
inform report, suggests, and claims.

B. Suggestions
In relation to the conclusion above, some suggestions are given as following:
1. For readers, this research will give information and enrich their
knowledge about speech act and how speech act used in the daily
communication.
2. For Student of English Department. It is expected that the student can
obtain more information about communication, especially in choosing
speech act of action based on appropriate situational context.
3. For further researches, this research can be used as a reference for further
research about analysis of speech act.

REFERENCES

Austin, J.L. 1955. How to Do Things with Words. London: Oxford University.
Black, Elizabeth. 2006. Pragmatic Stylistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press Ltd.
Chapman, Siobhnan and ChristopherRoutledge. 2009. Key Ideas in Linguistics
and The Philosophy of Language. Edinburg: Edinburg University.
Clark and Clark. 1977. Psychology and Language: An Introduction to
Psycholinguistics. United States of America: Harcourt Brace Jovanovic.
Cummings, Louis. 2009.Clinical Pragmatics. New York: Cambridge University.
Curse, D. Alan. 2000. Meaning Language: An Introduction to Semantic and
Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University.
Grundy, Peter. 2000. Doing Pragmatics. London: Oxford University Press.
Levinson, S.C. 1983. Pragmatic. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Peccei, J.s. 1999. Pragmatics. London: Routledge.
Searle, J.R. 1979.Expression and Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Yule, George. 1996. The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar. ( accessed on Wednesday 4 April 2012 )
http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cameron. ( accessed on Friday 18 April 2012 )
http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/movie. ( accessed on Sunday 1 April 2012 )
http:/imsdb.com/scripts/avatar.html. ( accessed on Wednesday 23 May 2012 )
http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/common.html ( accessed on Saturday 31
Maret 2012 )

49