Thesis Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment For Requirements For The Sarjana Sastra Degree in English Department By WAHYU SATOTO C1306535

COMPLAINT EXPRESSIONS USED BY THE CHARACTERS IN THE FILM ENTITLED “PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS” ( A SOCIO-PRAGMATICS APPROACH)

Thesis

Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment For Requirements For The Sarjana Sastra Degree in English Department

By WAHYU SATOTO C1306535 ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY SURAKARTA

PRONOUNCEMENT

Name : Wahyu Satoto NIM : C1306535

Stated that the thesis entitled Complaint Expressions Used by the Characters in the Film Entitled “Pursuit of Happiness” is originally made by the researcher. It is not made by other persons since the researcher truly made it by himself. Thus, it is not what people call as plagiarism. In the future, if it is proved that the researcher cheats, the researcher is ready to take the responsibility.

Surakarta, April 2011 The researcher

Wahyu Satoto

MOTTO

 Never Put off Till Tomorrow What You Can Do Today

 Ever Onward never Retreat

 You’ll Never Know Till You Have Tried

DEDICATION

This thesis is dedicated to:  My beloved mother and father  My lovely sister and brothers  My lovely friends

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

All praises are just for the Almighty God, for the blessing so that I can have the capability to complete this thesis. Many sides has given a lot of assistance from the beginning to the completion of this thesis. Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude to all people as follows:

1. The Dean of Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts, UNS, Drs. Riyadi Santosa, M.Ed, Ph.D.

2. The Head of English Non-Regular Program, Drs. S. Budi Waskito, M.Pd.

3. My thesis consultant, Dr. Sri Marmanto M.Hum, for his guidances, suggestions, and useful corrections for my thesis.

4. My academic consultant, Dyah Ayu Nila Khrisna, SS for the assistance.

5. All lecturers of English Non-Regular Program for the valuable knowledge which had been given to me.

6. My beloved mother and father for your never ending love, support, prayer, and patience.

7. My brothers and sister for giving me such a great love and support.

8. For my special friend, Wulan Sari, thanks for the love, fun time and wonderful companionship. I thank to you all who never stop to remind and support me to finish this thesis. Love you so girl.

9. Najeb, Fa’i, Takbier, Ryo, Ateng, Roby, Selly (my crazy friends of what we called as the bandit?) thanks for our fun time and your support. Love you all

10. Fahmi, Widyasari, Yaya, Tutik, Fa’i, Ngadiyo, Indah, thanks for our togetherness in Linguistics class, we have our enjoyable moment.

11. Luky, Feri, Tyas, Rika, Susi, Inul, Tiwi, Beta, Ayuk, DJ, and All my friends of English Non- Regular Program who I can’t mention one by one, good luck and thanks for everything.

12. Everyone who has sweet memories with me.

I realize that this thesis is still far from being perfect. Therefore, some advices and supporting criticism are expected to make this thesis better.

The researcher

Wahyu Satoto

F. Technique of Coding Data ..........................................................

45

G. Technique of Analyzing Data .....................................................

47

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS …………………………………………… 48

A. Introduction of Analysis ..............................................................

48

B. Types of Complaint...................................................................... 49

C. Data Analysis ………………………………………………….

51

D. Discussion ...................................................................................

81

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ……………… 90

A. Conclusion ..................................................................................

90

B. Suggestion ...................................................................................

94 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................

95

APPENDICES

ABSTRACT Wahyu Satoto. 2011. Complaint expressions used by the characters in the

movie entitled Pursuit of Happiness . Thesis: English Department of Non- Regular program. Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts. Sebelas Maret University.

This research focuses on the complaint expressions used by the characters in the film entitled Pursuit of Happiness. This research is conducted to describe the strategies of complaining used by the characters in the movie “Pursuit of Happiness ”, to describe the functions of the act of complaining employed by the speakers, and to identify the responses of the complainees towards the complaints.

This research is a descriptive qualitative research. This research uses a socio-pragmatics approach. The sampling technique used in this research is total sampling. The conversations containing complaint expressions in the film “Pursuit of Happiness ” are taken as the data.

From the result of the data analysis, the researcher draws conclusions, they

are:

There are five types of complaint strategies that are employed by the characters in the movie entitled Pursuit of Happiness, namely: hint strategy, direct accusation strategy, modified blame strategy , explicit condemnation of accused’s action strategy and explicit condemnation of the accused as a person strategy. According to the directness level of the complaint that is proposed by Anna Trosborg, Hint strategy is the mildest strategy and explicit condemnation of the accused as a person strategy is the most severe one. Anna Trosborg proposes Internal and External modification as an additional strategy. Hence, Internal modification dominates the whole data over the External ones.

There are three functions of complaint expressions employed by the characters in the film entitled Pursuit of Happiness, namely: to break relationship or create a social distance, repair the relationship and improve the situation, and show negative feeling or specific negative evaluation only. Complaint expressions produced by the speaker has particular function which is appropriate with its context.

There are eight types of responses that are employed by the complainee to respond the complaint of the complainer. They are denial, apology, tease, zero, change topic, explanation, justification, and challenge. Respond categories of “excuse” was not found in my data analysis.

Based on the conclusions above, the researcher hopes that this research gives

a contribution to the students in studying the speech act of complaints. There are still many cases on the study of complaints. It is suggested to other researchers who are interested in Socio-Pragmatics study to conduct a further research on complaints depicted in other movies or other sources such as novel and drama.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

Research Background

People need to communicate to each other in order to fulfill their own

needs, as well as to express their thoughts, feelings, and knowledge. Thus, they need language as a means of communication in social interaction. The use of language is related to social and cultural values. Sapir (in Fasold, 1996: 50) describes that language use is a guide to social reality. Furthermore, language is a means of interpersonal communication and influence. In the interpersonal interactions, language is used by speakers for thinking and for communicating with each other in many different contexts for a wide variety of purposes (Wardhaugh, 1976).

In an attempt to express themselves, people do not only produce utterances containing grammatical words, but also perform actions via those utterances. Actions performed via utterances are generally called speech acts (Yule, 1996: 47). Austin (in Levinson, 1983:236) divides three kinds of acts that are simultaneously performed in which in saying something one is doing something.

a) Locutionary act: the utterance of a sentence with determines sense and reference.

b) Illocutionary act: the making of a statement, offer, promise, etc. in uttering

a sentence by virtue of the conventional force associated with the sentence.

c) Perlocutionary act: the bringing about effects on the audience by means of uttering sentence, such as effects being special to the circumstances of utterance.

Trosborg defines complaint as an illocutionary act in which the speaker (complainer) expresses his/ her dissaproval, negative feeling, etc towards the state of affairs described in the proposition (the complainable) and for which he/she holds the hearer (the complainee) responsible, either directly or indirectly (1995: 311-312). Complaint can be expressed in daily life, in various occasions. What people need to concern is that, to express a complaint, such particular strategy must be determined without neglecting the context of situation. Complaint can naturally cause offence and highly threaten the social relationship between speaker and hearer. Therefore, it is very important for people to be able to use appropriate strategy to perform complaint in order to avoid or minimize personal conflicts in communication. Considering this,

a particular level of directness is needed also to be determined. Complaint can be expressed at various level of directness. By choosing a particular level of directness, the complainer is able to decide on the conflict potential of the complaint (Trosborg, 1995: 314)

Based on the explanation above, the researcher is interested in analyzing complaint expressions in the film entitled “Pursuit of Happiness”. This film provides

some phenomena of complaints that are expressed by the characters that can be analized. The ways the characters utter the complaints expression in this film are some phenomena of complaints that are expressed by the characters that can be analized. The ways the characters utter the complaints expression in this film are

DATA 04 /PoH / IM (Dc- App) /HINT- CT

Description of Context:

The conversation occurs in Gardner's house, early in the morning Gardner and Linda has a short conversation before they start their activity. Gardner talks to his wife Linda about being a stockbroker, but Linda feels that her husband is only dreaming. She wants Gardner to sell his entire machines before he talk about another job. Conversation runs informally. The participants here are Gardner and Linda, they are husband and wife.

Gardner : When I was a kid, I could go through a math book in a week. So I'm gonna go see about what job they got down there.

Linda

: What job?

: Not an astronaut?

Gardner : Don't talk to me like that, Linda. I'm gonna go down

and see about this, and I'm gonna do it during the day.

(Gardner does not like Linda underestimates him) Linda

: You should probably do your sales calls.

Gardner : I don't need you to tell me about my sales calls, Linda.

I got three of them before the damn office is even open. (Gardner is upset because he knows his duty and he does not want to discuss it anymore)

In the conversation above, the data belongs to Internal Modification which the

complaint is softened or weakened by Downgraders, from the words “Don’t talk to

me”, which in this case is Appealer. When Gardner talks about the new job, his wife

Linda underestimates him. Linda just wants Gardner to have responsibility with his current job and not to talk about having another job. Gardner is upset to Linda and he utters his complaints: “Don't talk to me like that, Linda. I'm gonna go down and see about this, and I'm gonna do it during the day”. In applying the complaint, he uses the Hint strategy of complaining (HINT). He actually complains about Linda’s action of underestimating him. But he does not mention the complainable thing in his statement. He hides the complainable thing into a piece of information telling about his job and wants to apply a job as a stockbroker. He delivers the complaint in usual and low intonation. His face also shows no anger since it looks so casual. Those all indicate that he uses such strategy since he does not want to attack Linda, because he loves his wife. His aim is to gain Linda’s understanding so that he can handle the situation and Gardner can also do what he wants to do.

Linda responds Gardner’s complaint immediately with a change of topic “You should probably do your sales calls.” She really has no intention to soften his up.

She wants her husband to sell his machine and to get out from that business, because it makes Linda has to work hard to fulfill their family needs. She does not want any personal conflict with her husband, since they are husband and wife.

DATA 07 /PoH / IM- ( Dc – U)/ ECAA / CT Description of Context:

The conversation occurs when Gardner at home, Linda and his son Christopher are not at home, he is so confused. Suddenly he receives a call from Dean Witter company and order him to call back to its human resources manager, but he The conversation occurs when Gardner at home, Linda and his son Christopher are not at home, he is so confused. Suddenly he receives a call from Dean Witter company and order him to call back to its human resources manager, but he

Gardner : Excuse me, did Linda and Christopher come in here? Wayne

: No, I haven't see them.1 1 9-1 20. Double overtime, Moons hits three-pointer at 1 7 seconds left. Gardner

: Wayne, Wayne, Wayne. I Can't talk to you about

numbers right now.

(Gardner is annoyed by Wayne as he has to recall phone number and suddenly Wayne talks to him about football score in the same time)

Wayne

: What's your problem with numbers?

From the conversation above Wayne does not know what happens to Gardner,

he just wants to talk with Gardner about football match, and he talks about score to Gardner when Gardner has to recall the phone number from Dean Witter Company. Gardner immediately utters a statement “Wayne, Wayne, Wayne. I can’t talk to you about numbers right now.” The data above belongs to Internal Modification which the complaint is softened or weakened by Downgrades and those are modifiers that under-represent the state of affairs denoted in the complaint. It can be found in the words “Wayne, Wayne, Wayne. I can’t talk to you about numbers right now” !”.

Which in this case is Understater. This complaint belongs to blaming complaint in Which in this case is Understater. This complaint belongs to blaming complaint in

situation, He also makes the complaint explicit. Since they are just common friends, Gardner states the complaint directly but in usual and low intonation to avoid personal conflict. He expresses his annoyance towards Wayne’s stupid action by

talking to him as he has to recall the phone number because it makes him confused.

Wayne co nsiders that Gardner’s behavior is unusual. Wayne does not understand why Gardner says something like that and he tries to understand what happen to Gardner . So Wayne changes the subject and asks Gardner to know what

happens to Gardner and says: “What's your problem with numbers?” Wayne's response shows clearly that he tries to understand what happen to Gardner by

changing the topic. But then Gardner leaves Wayne because he has to find his family and to avoid personal conflict with his friend.

From the examples above, complaint can be uttered in various ways influenced by the context of situation. The uniqueness and variety in uttering the complaint are considered by the researcher as an interesting phenomena to be observed. In accordance with that, the researcher comes to the point of thinking that it would be interesting to discuss about complaint strategies based on its directness level, and the functions of the complaining act and also the responses of the complainees toward the complaints since there are also various kinds of responses that can be found in this film. Therefore, the researcher conducts a thesis entitled

“Complaint Expressions Used By the Characters in the Film Entitled Pursuit of

Happiness” ( A Socio-Pragmatics Approach).

A. Problem Statements

Based on the background, the problem statements are arranged as follows:

1. What strategies of complaint are employed by the characters in the film entitled “Pursuit of Happiness”?

2. What are the functions of the act of complaining uttered by the speaker?

3. How do the complainees respond to the complaint?

B. Research Objectives

The objectives of the research are as follows:

1. To describe the strategies of complaints found in the film entitled “ Pursuit of Happiness.

2. To describe the functions of the act of complaining uttered by the speakers.

3. To describe how the complainees respond the complaints.

D. Problem Limitation

A number of speech acts can be found in the film entitled “Pursuit of

Happiness ”. However, the research gives focus of analysis only on the speech acts of complaints. The analysis will be based on the data taken from the film entitled “Pursuit of Happiness”. There are several non-verbal complaints in the film.

Nevertheless, the researcher only takes the verbal utterance of complaint as the data.

E. Research Benefits

This research is carried out to give contributions as follows:

1. It is expected that this research will give an input and understanding to the students in studying Speech Act, especially the complaints and complaint responses.

2. It is expected that this research can be used as a reference to conduct further research on complaints and complaint responses.

F. Research Methodology

This research employs a descriptive qualitative method. The steps in this reseach to solve the problem are collecting data, classifying data, analyzing data, and drawing the conclusion. In this research, the source of data is the film entitled

“Pursuit of Happiness”. The data are gained from the utterances containing complaint in the film “Pursuit of Happiness”. Further explanation of the research methodology

is presented in chapter III.

G. Thesis Organization

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION consists of Research Background, Problem Statements, Research Objectives, Problem Limitation, Research Benefits, Research Methodology, and Thesis Organization.

CHAPTER II : LITERATURE REVIEW consists of Sociolinguistics, Ethnography of Communication, Pragmatics, Speech Acts, Complaints, Sociopragmatics, Synopsis of the Film, and Review of Related Study.

CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY consists of Research Methodology, Data and Source of Data, Sample and Sampling Technique, Instrument of the Research, Research Procedure, Technique of Coding Data, and Technique of Analyzing Data.

CHAPTER IV : DATA ANALYSIS consists of Introduction to Analysis, Data Analysis and Discussion.

CHAPTER V

: CONCLUSSION AND SUGGESTION

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

Some theories and references are applied in the analysis in order to support this research. The details of the theories and references are as follows:

A. Sociolinguistics

1. Definition of Sociolinguistics

In a society, people speak to interact with one another. The language which is used in interaction is influenced by a number of social factors which define the relationship between the participants. A number of social factors influence the way people use language.

People need a language to communicate to others, thus language cannot be separated from the society. Speaking about language and society, there is a branch of linguistics that studies all aspects of language and society, this branch is called sociolinguistics (Biber and Finegan, 1994).

In accordance with sociolinguistics, there are some sociologists who give a definition about it. According to Holmes (1992:1), sociolinguistics is the study of relationship between language and society. It explains why people can speak differently in different social context. It also concerns with identifying the social In accordance with sociolinguistics, there are some sociologists who give a definition about it. According to Holmes (1992:1), sociolinguistics is the study of relationship between language and society. It explains why people can speak differently in different social context. It also concerns with identifying the social

Moreover, Holmes states that sociolinguistics are interested in explaining why we speak differently in different social contexts and they are concerned with identifying the social functions of a language and the ways it is used to convey social meaning (1992: 2). It means that the way someone speaks is influenced by the situational context in which the conversation or speech happens. Holmes also states that the social factors and social dimensions influence the choice of appropriate ways of speaking in different social context. Social factors involve four components as follows:

a) The participants: who is speaking and who are they speaking to?

b) The setting or social context of the interaction: where are they speaking?

c) The topic: what is being talked about?

d) The function: why are they speaking? (Holmes, 1992: 12) Thus, based on the definition above it can be pointed out that there are some

important aspects related to sociolinguistics. It concerns with analyzing how people use language in social interaction. Furthermore, when investigating the subject in the sociolinguistics area, we should consider the sociolinguistics rules of who speaks to whom, in what situation, when, and where the conversation happens.

2. The Scope of Sociolinguistics

Based on Fishman’s (1972: 242) point of view, sociolinguistics can be divided Based on Fishman’s (1972: 242) point of view, sociolinguistics can be divided

Macro-sociolinguistics is concerned with the study of language history and development in the scope of society in general. It stresses on the social aspects (Fishman, 1972: 242). It means that macro-sociolinguistics covers the inter-group interaction or large group of speakers. Furthermore, according to Trudgill, the term of macro-linguistics refers to sociolinguistics area, which involves the study of relatively large group of speech (1992: 51).

Micro-sociolinguistics concerns the study of a language in specific speech communities with the scope of discussion such as the behavior toward the language, style of speech, domains of language use, register, speech act, etc. It means that micro-sociolinguistics covers the intra-group interaction or the relatively small group of speakers (Fishman, 1972). While according to Trudgill, micro-sociolinguistics is the study on social, which emphasizes on the study of face-to face interaction, discourse analysis, conversational analysis, and other areas of sociolinguistics involving the study of relatively small group of people (1992: 51).

In this research, the researcher takes micro-sociolinguistics as the frame of the study as it is focusing to the individual interaction, especially complaining acts employed by the characters of the film entitled “Pursuit of Happiness”.

3. The Dimension of Sociolinguistics

According to Holmes (1992: 12) there are four social dimensions which related to the social factors. Holmes suggests that it is useful to take account of four different dimensions for analysis related to the social factor. These social dimensions are:

a. Solidarity/Social Distance This dimension takes account for the pattern of linguistic interaction. How

well the participants know each other is a relevant factor in language choice. Strangers with little in common are more likely to use official language for communication. Vernacular forms within a language occur more frequently in interactions where people know each other well. Standard forms often express social distance between participants. People use different words to different person based on the closeness between them, whether in intimate or distant relationship.

The social distance scale deals with participant relationships. This scale is useful to know that how well we know someone is relevant factor in linguistic choice. It means that how well the speaker knows the hearer is one of the most important factors affecting the way he/she talks to them. The dimension of social scale deals with the influence of closeness relationship between the participants in the conversation. If the participants have intimate relationship, it will probably emerge high solidarity between them. Otherwise, if the participants are not so close, it will probably emerge low solidarity between them.

b. Status/ Power

The dimension of status/ power accounts for variety of linguistic differences in the way people speak. People speak in a way which signal their social status and construct the social identity in a community where they live, whether they are superior, equal, or subordinate. The status/power scale points to the relevance or relative status in some linguistic choices.

The status scale concerned with participant relationship. The status or power dimension accounts for a variety of linguistic differences in the way people speak. The speaker speaks in such ways that signal their social status in a community. The participants who have different social status, a superior and a subordinate, will be different in their way of conversation from those participants who have the same status. The way people talk to others also reflects their relationship on this status and power dimension. Where people use non-reciprocal address forms, for instance, the reason is always due to a status or power difference.

c. Formality

Formality dimension accounts for speech variation in different setting or contexts. The formality or informality of the setting influences the use of language. The formality scale is concerned in assessing the influence of the social setting or type of interaction on language choices. Official languages are the appropriate varieties for formal government interactions and state occasions. Vernaculars are the languages of informal interaction. In monolingual communities, vernacular forms Formality dimension accounts for speech variation in different setting or contexts. The formality or informality of the setting influences the use of language. The formality scale is concerned in assessing the influence of the social setting or type of interaction on language choices. Official languages are the appropriate varieties for formal government interactions and state occasions. Vernaculars are the languages of informal interaction. In monolingual communities, vernacular forms

d. The Referential and Affective Function Scales The function of an interaction is also an important influence to the linguistic form.

Some interactions, including its linguistic features, are strongly influenced by the kinds of information they want to get. Thus, the basic functions of a language in all communities are referential and affective (or social) meaning. In referential function, language can convey objective information of a referential kind. While in affective function, language is a means of expressing how someone is feeling. In short, the more referentially an interaction is, the less expression of the felling of the speaker is.

The four social dimensions above are useful to analyze the sociolinguistics variation in different kinds of speech communities and in different context.

B. Ethnography of Communication

The ethnography of communication studies the relationship between language and culture. Hymes in Chaika defines the ethnography of communication as a study of the dynamics of communication between social groups (Chaika, 1994: 164). According to Fasold the ethnography of speaking (It is known as ethnography of communication) is the approach to the sociolinguistics of language in which the use of language in general is related to social and cultural values (Fasold, 1996: 39). From those two definitions, it can be said that the ethnography of communication The ethnography of communication studies the relationship between language and culture. Hymes in Chaika defines the ethnography of communication as a study of the dynamics of communication between social groups (Chaika, 1994: 164). According to Fasold the ethnography of speaking (It is known as ethnography of communication) is the approach to the sociolinguistics of language in which the use of language in general is related to social and cultural values (Fasold, 1996: 39). From those two definitions, it can be said that the ethnography of communication

The ethnography of communication is not simply a study of language structure or grammar. It concerns on how the speakers use utterances, whether to show deference, to get someone to do something, to display verbal skill or to give someone else information which is considered simply outside the concerns of linguistic theory.

Thus, the ethnography of communication seeks to account not merely for what can be said but for when, where, by whom, to whom, in what manner, and in what particular circumstances. It is necessary to understand the fundamental concepts of the ethnography of communication because the ways of speaking may vary from one culture to another.

1. Speech Community

Bloomfield stated that a speech community is group of people who interact by means of speech (in Hudson, 1996: 25). In other words, speech community is a group of people who communicate to each other by means of language.

Another definition of speech community is proposed by Fishman (1972), that speech community is one; all of the members of speech community share at least a single speech variety and the norms for its appropriate use. So, clusters of people do not only use the same forms of language but also use the same norms of language in Another definition of speech community is proposed by Fishman (1972), that speech community is one; all of the members of speech community share at least a single speech variety and the norms for its appropriate use. So, clusters of people do not only use the same forms of language but also use the same norms of language in

Studies of speech communities reveal the social stratification, social networks and relevant social groupings. People within one community do not necessary speak the same way. Moreover people may belong to several speech communities with consequences for changing their speech behaviors but all of members of speech communities may not use the rules of language in the same way. Different members of a speech community may have very different experiences. Some may have gone into the service where they met people of many different dialects, thus they change their own perceptions. The different attitude of a group is discovered by examining the dialects that they have copied as well as by asking people to evaluate their own

and other’s speech. From the definitions above, it can be concluded that a speech community is a

group of people who use at least a single speech variety and have the same rules in interacting each other that mutually accept way among themselves.

2. Speech Situation

Hymes (in Fasold, 1996: 42) defines speech situations as situations associated with (or marked by the absence of) speech. Speech situations are not purely communicative. They may be composed by both communicative and other kinds of events. It means that speech situations may be in the form of nonverbal context. They are not themselves subject to rule of speaking, but can be referred to by rules of Hymes (in Fasold, 1996: 42) defines speech situations as situations associated with (or marked by the absence of) speech. Speech situations are not purely communicative. They may be composed by both communicative and other kinds of events. It means that speech situations may be in the form of nonverbal context. They are not themselves subject to rule of speaking, but can be referred to by rules of

From the explanation above, the speech situation refers to the context within the speech occurances. However, it is not directly governed by the rules of speaking. The situations deal with any constellation of statuses and settings which constrain the interaction that may occur, between church and priest, clinic and doctor, class and teacher, etc. Thus, church, clinic, and class are the situations. The speech situation might affect the communicative behavior in the speech community.

3. Speech Event

Yule defines that a speech event is an activity in which participants interact via a language in some conversational way to arrive at some outcome (1996: 57). In other words, speech event involves participants, having a social relationship of some kind and it may have particular goals.

Hymes (1985: 52) describes that speech event will be restricted to activities or aspects of activities that are directly governed by rules of norms for the use of language. A speech event occurs within a speech situation. A speech event may be built from single or several speech acts. Therefore, the same type of speech act may recur in different types of speech event and the same type of speech event may occur in different context of situation.

4. Speech Act

Speech act is a part of pragmatics study. According to Searle (1969: 16), speaking a language is performing speech acts, acts such as making statement, giving command, asking questions, and making promises. Yule in “Pragmatics” (1996: 47)

defines speech act as action performed via utterances. Similarly, Austin (in Tsui, 1994: 9) states that act refers to the action performed in making an utterance. All of those statements refer to the same understanding that speech act is particular action performed when people say something.

Since this research is mostly concentrated on the study of speech act, especially on the study of speech act of complaining, further explanation of speech act focused on pragmatics area will be provided in the next sub chapter.

5. Component of Speech

The ethnography of communication studies speech acts in relation to the social context. Speech situation, speech event or speech act cannot get rid of the communication. According to Hymes (in Fasold 1996: 44), there are eight components of speech, abbreviated as SPEAKING, which reflect the relationship and the intentions of participants in communicative events. They are as follows:

a. Situation (S) Situation includes the setting and the scene. The setting refers to the concrete

of physical circumstances where speech takes place, including time and place. Scene of physical circumstances where speech takes place, including time and place. Scene

b. Participants (P)

The participants involved in the communication are not only the speaker and the hearer, but also the addressor and the audience. The distinction between the speakers and the addressor (source) can be seen, for example: when the words of the chief (addressor) are repeated by the spokesman (speaker). The addressor who is not presented would be the case, because the addressor is the head of the state whose message is read to the reporter by the press agent. Furthermore, it deals with who is speaking and who they are speaking to. For example, a telephone conversation involves a sender and a receiver.

c. Ends (E) Ends of a speech act can be divided into outcomes and goals. Outcomes are

the purpose of the event from a culture point of view. The goals are the purpose of the individual participant, for example, the personal goal of the seller is to maximize the price while the buyer wants to minimize it. Basically, its goal is to get something by exchanging value from one person to another.

d. Act Sequence (A)

Act sequence refers to message forms (how something is said) and message content (what is said). It deals with the used precise words, how they are used, and the relationship of what is said to the actual topic of conversation.. Speakers have to Act sequence refers to message forms (how something is said) and message content (what is said). It deals with the used precise words, how they are used, and the relationship of what is said to the actual topic of conversation.. Speakers have to

e. Key (K)

Key refers to the tone, manner, or spirit in which a speech act is performed, whether it is serious, mocking, sarcastic, and so on. Furthermore, it also refers to the feeling, atmosphere, and attitude. Moreover, the key may be marked by nonverbal action such as certain kinds of behavior, gesture, or posture. The definition of aspects of key is as follows:

1) Tone : It is the general spirit of the scene, such as brave, angry, afraid, etc.

2) Manner : It is the participants’ way of behaving toward others, whether it is polite, impolite, formal, informal, serious, mocking, etc.

3) Feeling : It concerns to emotion indicating happiness, anxiety, shock, anger, etc.

4) Atmosphere : It refers to the feeling that affects the mind in a place or

condition, such as good, evil, etc.

5) Attitude : It is participants’ ways of thinking and behaving toward a situation whether it is sympathetic, optimistic, pessimistic, etc.

f. Instrumentalities (I)

Instrumentalities refer to channel and form of speech. Channel is defined as the way a message travels from one person to another whether by oral or written. Messages can also be transmitted by such a means as telegraph, semaphore, and smokes signals or drumming. The form of speech refers to language and their subdivisions dialects, codes, varieties and register.

g. Norms (N)

Norms are divided into two, namely norms of interaction and norms of interpretation. Norms of interaction refer to non-linguistic rules of when, how, and how often speech occurs in the community. Norms of interaction are determined by the culture of the community. Thus, they are different in each different community. Norms of interpretation implicate the belief system of a community. It involves trying to understand what is being conveyed beyond what is in the actual words used. One has to follow both norms of interaction and norms of interpretation in order to be competent in communicating in a certain culture.

h. Genre (G) Genre refers to categories such as poems, myths, proverbs, jokes, lectures,

sermons, editorials, etc. Genres often coincide with the speech event, but genres need to be distinguished from speech events since a speech genre can occur in more than one kind of speech event. A casual genre is not the absence of any genre, but a genre sermons, editorials, etc. Genres often coincide with the speech event, but genres need to be distinguished from speech events since a speech genre can occur in more than one kind of speech event. A casual genre is not the absence of any genre, but a genre

C. Pragmatics

A branch of linguistics study that focuses in meaning of utterances is called

pragmatics. The study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by listener (or reader) is known as pragmatic (Yule, 1996:4). Thus, when people deal with pragmatics, they deal with utterances’ meaning. This is a study that

can help people to be able to figure out the meaning of particular utterances. Meanwhile Levinson (1997: 24) states that pragmatics is the study of the role of context that focuses on meaning of utterances. It means that this type of study involves the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and how the context influences what is said. The context takes important position due to its ability to give influence to the utterances’ meaning. Therefore, in order to know and understand the meaning of the speaker’s utterance, the hearer needs to concern about

the context of the conversation. Similarly, McManis (1987: 197) states that pragmatics concerns itself with how people use language within a context and why they use language in particular ways.

According to Fraser (in Schmidt, 1996: 30), pragmatics is the theory of linguistic communication. Things that are involved in linguistic communication, according to him, are what can be communicated, how the speaker goes about accomplishing the intended communication, and why certain strategies are selected under particular circumstances to bring about the communication.

From those definitions, it can be concluded that pragmatics is a study that discusses meaning of language by regarding the relation between a language and a context. Thus, it can be clearly understood that the interaction between the context and language becomes the main study in pragmatic.

1. Speech Acts

1. The Definition of Speech Act

In an attempt to express themselves, people not only produce utterances containing grammatical words, but also perform actions via those utterances. Actions performed via utterances are generally called speech acts (Yule, 1996: 47). Searle (1969: 16) states that speaking a language is performing speech acts, acts such as making statement, giving command, asking questions, making promises and so on. It means that particular actions will be performed when people state an utterance. Speech act is utterances which function to state the speaker's intention to the hearer. The speaker’s utterance here causes the hearer perform particular actions.

According to Austin in Tsui, speech acts is defined as the act that refers to the action performed in making an utterance (Tsui, 1994: 9). It means that language can

be used to perform particular actions. When we say an utterance, we actually do an action. As what Austin states in his book How To Do Things With word, in some cases and senses in which to say something is to do something; or in which by saying or in saying something we are doing something (Austin,1962: 12). Furthermore, Austin in Thomas (1995: 49) divides three kinds of acts, namely Locutionary, be used to perform particular actions. When we say an utterance, we actually do an action. As what Austin states in his book How To Do Things With word, in some cases and senses in which to say something is to do something; or in which by saying or in saying something we are doing something (Austin,1962: 12). Furthermore, Austin in Thomas (1995: 49) divides three kinds of acts, namely Locutionary,

1. Locutionary

: the actual words uttered

2. Illocutionary : the force or intention behind the words

3. Perlocutionary : the effect of the illocutionary on the hearer This is an example to give a clear understanding about the three kinds of act above. “It’s hot here” (Taken from Thomas, 1995: 49) The act of saying “it’s hot here” is the locutionary act while the illocutionary

act or the meaning of the utterance is to command the speaker might need some fresh air and the perlocutionary act might be that someone opens the window.

2. The classification of Speech Act

Based on Searle’s classification in Yule (1996, 53-54), speech act can be divided into five categories as follows:

1. Declarations Declarations are kinds of speech acts that change the world via utterances. The speaker has to have a special institutional role, in specific context, in order to perform a declaration appropriately. Declarations cover declaring war, naming, marrying, christening, etc. For example:

Priest: I pronounce you husband and wife. Referee: You’re out! Jury Foreman: We find the defendant guilty.

2. Representatives Representatives are kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the case or not. The examples of speech act included in representatives are statements of fact, assertions, conclusions, and descriptions. For example:

a. The earth is flat.

b. Chomsky didn’t write about peanuts

c. It was a warm sunny day.

3. Expressives Expressives are kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker feels. They express psychological states and can be statements of pleasure, pain, like, dislike, joy, or sorrow. They are giving compliment, congratulating, welcoming, thanking, refusing, etc. For example:

a. I’m really sorry.

b. Congratulations!

c. Oh, yes, great, mmmm, ssahh!

4. Directives Directives are those kinds of speech acts that the speakers use to get someone else to do something. They express what the speakers want including commands, orders, requests, suggestion, etc. For example:

a. Give me a cup of coffee! Make it black!

b. Could you lend me a pen, please?

c. Don’t touch that!

5. Commisives Commissives are those kinds of speech acts that the speakers use to commit themselves to some future action. They express what the speaker intends including promise, threat, and pledge. For example:

a. I’ll be back.

b. I’m going to get it right next time.

c. We will not do that.

2. Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

The direct speech acts perform their functions in a direct and literal manner (McManis, et.al, 1987: 200). They also state that the direct speech acts can be performed (a) by making a direct, literal utterance, or (b) by using a performative verb that names the speech act.

According to Yule, direct speech act occurs when there is a direct relationship between structure and a function (Yule, 1996: 55). The speaker expresses his / her intention explicitly in order to make the hearer understands and interprets what the speaker means easily.

Meanwhile indirect speech acts, in general, are the syntactic form of an utterance that does not reflect any indirect illocutionary act associated with it (Searle Meanwhile indirect speech acts, in general, are the syntactic form of an utterance that does not reflect any indirect illocutionary act associated with it (Searle

Indirect speech act, according to Fraser, are those illocutionary acts which are not directly performed in the sense in which we have used the term, but which are intended to be inferred by the speaker on the basis of what has been said, the way in which it was said, and the context of speaking (in Schmidt, 1996:46)

3. Complaint

1. The Definition of Complaint

Complaint is one of speech acts belonging to the category of expressive function. This category includes moral judgments which express the speaker’s approval as well as disapproval of the behavior mentioned in the judgment. The act of complaining is in essence retrospective in that a speaker passes a moral judgment on something which (he/she believes) the complainee has already done or failed to do, or is in the process of doing (Trosborg, 1995:311). From those definitions, complaint

can be defined as a speaker’s disapproving statement towards someone’s behavior which includes the giving of moral judgment.

According to Trosborg, complaint is defined as an illocutionary act in which the speaker (the complainer) expresses his/her disapproval, negative feeling, etc, towards the state of affairs described in the proposition (the complainable) and for which he/she holds the hearer (the complainee responsible, either directly or indirectly (page: 311-312). The speech act of complaint occurs when a speaker reacts According to Trosborg, complaint is defined as an illocutionary act in which the speaker (the complainer) expresses his/her disapproval, negative feeling, etc, towards the state of affairs described in the proposition (the complainable) and for which he/she holds the hearer (the complainee responsible, either directly or indirectly (page: 311-312). The speech act of complaint occurs when a speaker reacts