PRAGMALINGUISTICS FORM of PROMISE in BARACK OBAMA SPEECHES A Pragmatics Analysis Of Promising Utterances In Barack Obama Speeches.
PRAGMALINGUISTICS FORM of PROMISE
in BARACK OBAMA SPEECHES
PUBLICATION ARTICLES
Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Getting Bachelor Degree
of Education in English Department
Proposed By
NIKEN WARDIANI SUWANDI
A320090155
SCHOOL OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA
2013
UNIVERSITAS MUI-IAMMADIYAH SU RAKARTA
FAKUTTAS KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN
Sekretariat: Jl.A.YaniTromol Pos l, Pabelan, Kartasura, Surakarta 57102
Te p. (027 11 7 17 477, 7 t9 483 ( H u nti ng), F ax. (O27 \l 7 ls M8
I
Website: http//www.ums -ac-id, E-mail : r-lms@ ums.ac-id
Yang bertanda mgqil dibawatr ini pembimbing skripsi/ tugas akhir:
Narna
Agus Wijayanto, P,hD.
NIK
978
Nama
Dra. Dwi Haryanti, M-Hum.
NIK
477
Telah membaca menceflnati naskah artikel publikasi ilmiah, yang merupakan
ringkasan skripsi (tugas akhir) dari mahasiswa:
Nama
Niken Wardiani Suwandi
NIM
A320 090
Program Study
Pendidikan Bahasa hggrrs
Judul Skripsi
155
Pragmalinguistics Fomr
of Promise in Barack Obama
Speeches
Naskah arikel tersebut layak dan dapat disetujui untuk dipublikasikan.
Demikian persetujuan ini dibuat, semoga dapat digunakan seperlunya.
Pembimbing
I
Agus Wijayanto, Ph.D
Surakartq Juli 2013
Pembimbing II
Dra- Dwi
M. Hum.
PRAGMALINGUISTICS FORM of PROMISE
in BARACK OBAMA SPEECHES
Niken Wardiani Suwandi (A 320 090 155)
Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta
Ken.ace91@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
NIKEN WARDIANI SUWANDI. A 320 090 155.
PRAGMALINGUISTICS FORM of PROMISE in BARACK
OBAMA SPEECHES . RESEARCH PAPER.
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA. 2013.
The study aims to describe the pragmalinguistics forms of promising
utterances in Barack Obama speeches. The object of this study is promising
utterance in five speeches of Barack Obama. This research belongs to
qualitative research. In analyzing the promising utterance, the researcher
described the pragmalinguistics forms of promising utterance; identified and
discussed illocutionary acts of promising utterance and drawing conclusion and
suggestion based on the analysis. Based on the pragmalinguistics form of
promising utterances, the writer finds 36 data of constantive form (the
percentage is 92%) and 3 data of pervormative form of promising utterance
the percentage is 8% ).
Keywords: pragmatics, promising utterance, speech act
ii
A. Introduction
Pragmalinguistics is a branch of pragmatics in linguistics study. Leech
(1983:11) states that “Pragmalinguistics is the study of "particular resources
which a given language provides for conveying illocutions”. According to
Cenzo (2007) “Pragmalinguistics refers to the ability use linguistic elements to
perform speech acts”.
There are many functions of language in daily life such as to give
speech, announces, speak, tell, etc. Presidents usually use speech to explain
their argument, ideas and point of view relating to occurrences in their
country. Barack Husein Obama is one of president that delivers his idea by
using speech. The writer is interested to study of promising utterances made
by Barack Obama in his speech. Promising utterance is a statement for
somebody to do an action in the future.
There are limited research about promising utterance such as Rahayu
(2009), Yulianti (2010), Pudjilestari (2012), Laval and Bernicot (2004) and
astington (1987). Even though there are many studies of promising utterance,
there is no research about promising utterance in Barack Obama speech.
However there was research about Barack Obama but it was only in Barack
Obama Campaign. That research was conducted by Rahayu (2009). This study
is to continue the research from Rahayu (2009) that focus to Barack Obama
Speech. Barack Obama Speech here is delivered after Obama was elected as
President of United States. This is a proof that after becoming President of
1
2
United States, Obama still given promise to his citizen or public. So the writer
conducted this research.
The background of Obama Speech is very interesting to be studied,
because Barack Obama is first African- American president. He brings new
idea to America government. His idea sometimes is controversial. So it makes
he becomes a light ray in public of America. His plan for America is different
from the other especially from Republic party. So it is very interesting to be
studied. Second his point of view in politic is very interesting. America has
improvement such as in economic, education, health, etc. From his speech in
Congress on Jobs in 2011, he gave fresh idea for America. His idea is
welcomed by American. He will create more jobs for American. Small
businesses will get a tax cut. He will get more projects for jobs in America.
Third Obama is a well- known person as president of America. Many persons
are very interesting to him. Many people give attention to him. So what he
said in speech is very interesting thing to talk. .Finally some of his statement
in speech is promise. Many people have different interpretation to his
statement in speech. So this study is conducted to make its clear the
interpretation of his statement.
3
There are some researchers that conducted study about pragmatics
analysis about speech and promising utterance. They are as follows:
Rahayu (2009) also conducted a study about speech that entitled A
Socio-Pragmatics analysis of Promising Utterance in Barack Obama
Campaign Speechs. The method of this research is qualitative research.
The result of the analysis shows that one form of utterance occurred in
Barack Obama’s Speeches that is declarative sentence, the intentions of
promising utterance are giving response, stating purpose, assuring,
persuading, describing, inviting and requesting and the reasons of
employing promising utterances are showing attention, regret, cooperative,
responsibility, relationship, mercy, affection, and prestige.
Yulianti (2010) conducted research about Promising Utterance in the
Novel of Twilight that analyzed by translation analysis. The results show
that the translation variation of language forms of promising utterances are
word translated to word, word translated to phrase, positive declarative
sentence translated to positive declarative sentence, negative declarative
sentence translated to negative declarative sentence, positive declarative
sentence translated to negative declarative sentence. The implicature found
are conventional and conversational implicature and also in the form of
equivalent and non- equivalent. The politeness strategies of directive
utterance are Bald on Record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and
off- record strategies.
4
Pudjilestari (2012) conducted a study entitled A Socio- Pragmatics
Analysis on Promising Utterance in Some Movie Manuscripts. The results
of this research are there are three kinds of sentence (declarative sentence,
imperative sentence and interrogative sentence), there are five intentions
of the speaker (to assure, to command, to request, to affirm and to
describe), and there are eight reason of the speaker (showing
responsibility, showing angry, showing relationship, showing affection,
showing hope, showing teasing, showing misunderstanding and showing
attention.
The other researchers are Bernicot and Laval (2004) conducted
research about Speech Acts in Children : the Examples of Promises. The
importance of the promise fulfillment preparatory condition is in the
comprehension of promises. Preparatory condition is satisfied facilitate the
comprehension of promise utterances for the three-year-olds and the sixyear-olds. For promise comprehension tested by means of non-verbal
behavior, it was shown here that in addition to considering the sincerity
condition, mastered from the age of 5. we had to consider the preparatory
condition mastered about the age 9 or 10. Speaker’s beliefs and listener’s
desires are two important elements for the children’s comprehension of
promises. This research is also to investigate the role of linguistic form in
the promise-making statement by comparing statements with verbs in the
future tense to statements with other verb forms.
5
Astington
(1987)
conducted
a
study
entitled
Children's
understanding of the speech act of promising. This study is for 5 - 13 years
olds of children and adults. The result of this study is 9 years of age
children could distinguish between promising and predicting in terms of
the speaker's responsibility for the outcome. 11 and 13 year olds of
children correctly said the speaker did not promise in cases of predicting,
but only a few of them were correct for asserting. Even older children said
the speaker did not promise when the promise was unfulfilled. Children do
not think of promising as simply a speech act.
The other researchers are Delaney and Gibbs (2009) conducted a
research about Pragmatic factors in making and understanding promises.
The results from this study showed that the first two of Searle's conditions
are extremely important to maintain if a promise is to be made or
understood. However, it appears that people can make promises about
actions that would be performed in the normal course of events. As such,
these studies support the idea that promises do not by themselves obligate a
speaker, but are used to reaffirm previously existing, and often unstated,
obligations.
Laval and Bernicot (1999) conducted a study entitled How French
Speaking Children Understand Promises: the Role of Future Tense. The
results of this study are the 3 and 6 years olds based their interpretation of
the promises primarily on the contextual of the communication situation,
after the age of 6 years, the children began to rely on temporal markers in
6
the utterances whenever the immediate future tense was used and promise
specific contextual information was lacking and the nine years olds always
based their interpretation of the promises on temporal cues in the
utterance.
From the previous study above, All of previous studies have
similarity to this study. The similarity is all of previous studies and this
research analyze promising utterance. But there is also difference between
each research. From Rahayu’s study, the difference is her research using
socio-pragmatics to analyze the data. The data source of Rahayu’s research
is only in Barack Obama Campaign speech. But this research, the data
source are five speeches of Barack Obama after he is elected in 2009. So it
makes this research difference. Yulianti’s research is using translation
analysis to analyze the data. Pudjilestari have conducted research about
promising utterance in some movie manuscripts using socio-pragmatics. It
makes different to the other previous study. The other researchers are
Bernicot and Laval conducted research about promising but the data is
children and adults using speech act theory. Asington also conducted
research that the data is children to understand promises using speech acts
theory. Delaney and Gibbs conducted research about promising utterance
but the data source is people in institution. The similarity to this research is
using pragmatic approach. The last previous study is Laval and Bernicot
that conducted research about promising utterance and the data source is
French children. But the promise here has role, the role is using future
tense. So from all of previous studies this study is difference from each
other.
1. Problem Statement
What are the pragmalinguistic forms of promising utterances in Barack
Obama speeches?
7
B. Literary Review
Pragmalinguistics is a branch of pragmatics in linguistics study.
Leech (1983:11) states that “Pragmalinguistics is the study of "particular
resources which a given language provides for conveying illocutions”.
According to Cenzo (2007) “Pragmalinguistics refers to the ability use
linguistic elements to perform speech acts”.
Kiseleva (in Prucha, 1983:44) states that pragmalinguistics investigates
some of the following:
“ (a) the pragmatics properties of speech expressions (i.e. , the
use of words, constructions, utterances) as well as units of the
language system at various levels (morphemes, words, word
combinations, sentences), (b) the rules and regularities of the
pragmatic functioning of language units in speech and above
all, (c) in typical extralinguistic situations, (d) with respect to
typical social aims and tasks, (e) with respect to typical social
and physical types of subject (speakers)and receivers”.
“Promising utterance is a statement to tell somebody that we will
definitely do or not to do something. Promising something is committing
someone to do it” (Egner, 2002:3). According to Mey (1993:116) “promises
are actually given without the verb to promise ever coming to play”.
Promising utterance include to the speech act and classify to the comissives
utterance. Searle (in Mey, 1993:116) states that “promise is something count
as something only in within a specified set of rules”. So it has specific
condition to call it is promise. The condition that can be called as promise are:
Condition 1 : The condition must obtain for input and output. It means that the
speaker must know what they utter with the language.
8
Condition 2 : The promise must have content. So the speaker knows what they
must do after speaking the promise and the hearer knows the
intention of the promise.
Condition 3 : The content must have to do in the future. It means there is
action from the speaker in the future because promise cannot
happen in the past.
Condition 4 : What being to be promise must have the advantage from the
promise.
Condition5 : The content of the promise must not be something which clearly
is going to happen anyway.
Condition6 : the promise has to do with the honesty of the promise in
performing the act of promising.
Condition7 : A promise intends to put him/her under the obligation of
performing the act of promising.
Condition8 : The language must apply condition where the promisee
understands the situation of promising utterance. the promise
have effect to the promise.
Condition9 : The sentence uttered must have semantical rules of the language
to make promise.
According to Austin, promise can be stated either though performative
or constantive:
Performative is utterances that are used to do things or perform acts.
Peccei (1999:45) states that “Performative is some utterances that not only
9
perform speech act but also describe the speech act itself”. Speakers have to
use pervormative verb to produce explicit performative. Pervormative verbs is
such as promise, swear, pledge,etc.
For examples of performative:
I pomise I will be there tomorrow.
I swear that she will come.
I pledge I will visit you in the hospital.
According to Levinson (1983:244) “the structure in English: “I
(hereby) V per you (that) S” where V per is a performative verb and S’ is a
complement sentence”.
Constative is utterances that can be verified as true or false. These
utterances were typically in the form of assertions or statements. According to
Peccei (1999:47) “Constative can be used to perform illocution but it is not
similar with performative”. Speakers did not use pervormative verbs to
perform constative.
For examples:
I will be there tomorrow.
I will bring your book.
I will visit you in the hospital.
C. Research Method
This is qualitative research which involves no statistical analysis; it is
associated with hypothesis generating and developing an understanding.
Qualitative research is a research which the results non- numerical. The
10
researcher uses descriptive which is conducted by collecting the data,
classifying the data and analyzing them without making general conclusion.
The object of this study is promising utterance in five speeches of
Barack Obama. They are Obama speech on the Deficit (April 13rd 2011),
Remarks by the President on Ending the War in Iraq (October 21 st 2011) ,
Obama speech to Congress on Jobs (September 8th 2011), President Obama’s
Election Night Speech (November 7th 2012), President Barack Obama's 2012
election night victory speech in Chicago (November 7th 2012) and President
Obama’s Speech on Gun Control and Reform (Desember 19th 2012). The
researcher focuses in the promising utterances that found in Barack Obama
speeches.
The data will be analyzed in this research are promising utterances,
which can be found in the five speeches of Barack Obama. The Source of the
data in this research are speeches of Barack Obama. They are Obama speech
on the Deficit (April 13rd 2011), Remarks by the President on Ending the War
in Iraq (October 21st 2011) , Obama speech to Congress on Jobs (September
8th 2011), President Obama’s Election Night Speech (November 7th 2012),
President Barack Obama's 2012 election night victory speech in Chicago
(November 7th 2012) and President Obama’s Speech on Gun Control and
Reform (Desember 19th 2012).
In conducting this study, the writer uses documentation method. It is a
method of data collection by investigating the written things such as books,
magazines, documents, and many others. The function of this method is to
11
look for the data in the nature of documentation. In other words, it is to get the
data relating to and supporting Obama’s speeches. The steps of collecting data
are as follows:
1. Browsing in the Internet.
2. Reading the Obama’s speeches.
3. Selecting the materials.
4. Sorting the related materials purposively.
From the collected data, the writer analyses the data. The data in this
research are analyzed by using descriptive method, and the writer uses nonstatistic analysis to analyze the data. The writer conducts the data analysis
with the following procedures:
1. Describing the pragmalinguistics forms of promising utterances in Barack
Obama speeches.
2. Identifying and discussing locutionary acts and illocutionary acts of
promising utterances in Barack Obama speeches.
3. Drawing conclusion and suggestion based on the data analysis.
D. Research Findings and Discussion
Based on the data analysis about promising utterance in five
speeches of Barack Obama, the writer can find, as follows:
a. The Pragmalinguistics form of promising utterance
All of promising utterances in Barack Obama speech have their own form.
The speeches are Obama speech on the Deficit (April 13rd 2011), Remarks
by the President on Ending the War in Iraq (October 21 st 2011) , Obama
12
speech to Congress on Jobs (September 8th 2011), President Obama’s
Election Night Speech (November 7th 2012), President Barack Obama's
2012 election night victory speech in Chicago (November 7th 2012) and
President Obama’s Speech on Gun Control and Reform (Desember 19th
2012). From the analysis above, the writer can show that most of his
utterance in his speeches used the word “we.
We refer to Obama,
American people and Obama’s office. It means that in his government he
always involve American people as citizen in America to work together
for solving problem in America. He is not individualistic person. Obama
also involve both Democrat and Republic party to cover problem and to
run governance in United States of America. Obama wanted to close to his
citizen. So there is no gap between government and citizen. He believed a
good government will be run well because the team works between
government and citizen.
Based on Austin, there are two kinds’ form of pragmalinguistics of
promising utterance, they are performative form and constantive form. The
detailed information of the analysis can be seen from the table below:
Pragmalinguistics
Data Number
Percentage
1, 12 and 36
8%
Form
Pervormative
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13,
Constantive
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21,
22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29,
92%
13
30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38
and 39
From 39 data numbers analysis, the researcher found 3 numbers of
performative forms of promising utterance. 36 numbers of data analyses
are constantive form of promising utterances. It can be concluded that
Obama only used few word of prerformative verb. In the other, Obama
used constantive form of promising utterance. It means that as a number
one person in Uniten States of America, Obama did not need to say that,
he promised, he pledged or he swear to show his promise to his citizen.
His citizen would understand by using constantive form of promising
utterance that Obama uttered a promise to his citizen. It is the same
powerful because he is a president in America.
Promising utterance is a statement to tell someboday that we will
definitely do or not to do something. According to Austin promise can be
stated as performative form and constantive form of promising utterance.
Performative form of promising utterance refers to an utterance that is
used to do things or perform acts. Speaker has to do perfom act if they will
promise someone and make sure the hearer. Speaker has to use
performative verb to produce explicit promise. Pervormative verbs are
promise, pledge, and swear. Constantive is an utterance that can be
verified as true or false statement. Speaker can produce promise by using
constantive form. But constantive form did not use performative verb.
14
Speaker can use auxiliary verb such as will. If speakers use contantive
form of promising, their promise would not powerful. Therefore,
performative form is more powerful than constantive form to produce
promising utterance. The hearer would feel convinced, if the speaker uses
performative form of promising utterance.
Based on the research findings, the writer can shown that the
mostly form of promising utterance in five speeches of Barack Obama are
constantive form. Contantive form is majority form in Obama speeches.
There are 36 data that the forms are constantive form. It means that Barack
Obama did not deliver powerful promise to the public. It can be concluded
that Obama would fulfill his promise or not to the public because
constantive form of promising utterance is not powerful to show promise.
It can be shown in his speech when he elected twice in 2012. His speeches
in that election have the same promise when he still became president of
America period 2009- 2012. Obama stated that he would reduce deficit in
America by using his plan and program. Until two decades of his
governance, his promise is still the same. It shows that deficit as a big
problem was faced by American people. Most of Barack Obama’s promise
can be verified as true or false statement. Therefore, his promise can or not
to be fulfilled.
Then Only 3 data are performative form. It is included to
performative form of promising utterance because Barack Obama used
performative verb when he uttered his promise such as pledge and
15
promise. As president of United States of America, Barack Obama had
charismatic when he delivered his speech in front of American people
especially and public generally. Whether he used performative or
constantive form, his promise still had power to show his idea to public
because he is president of America, the number one person in America.
Although, his peformative form of promising utterance is only 3
utterances, he still had power to assure and affirm with his promise to his
citizen because he elected again in 2012 general election.
E. Conclusion
There is two form of promising utterance in five speeches of Barack
Obama, which are constantive form and performative form. Five speeches of
Barack Obama here are Obama speech on the Deficit (April 13rd 2011), Remarks
by the President on Ending the War in Iraq (October 21 st 2011) , Obama speech
to Congress on Jobs (September 8th 2011), President Barack Obama's 2012
election night victory speech in Chicago (November 7th 2012) and President
Obama’s Speech on Gun Control and Reform (Desember 19th 2012). Although the
data is speech and the data analyzing is promising utterance, it is understandable
that the mostly form of promising utterances is constantive form. It means that as
president Barack Obama will not use verb promise, swear or pledge to deliver his
promise to American people and public people. He can show and deliver his
promise by using word will that it is included to true and false statement in
constantive form. As president of United States of America, he did not need to use
performative verb because his utterance has power. But his promise can be
fulfilled or not. There is also performative form of promising utterance but only
three data. It aimed to make sure his citizen.
16
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Akhimien. 2006. The Speech Act Theory. Vol. 3: 748-756
Astington, Janet W.1987. Children's understanding of the speech act of
promising. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bernicot, Josie and Laval, Virgine. 2004. Speech Acts in Children : the Examples
of Promises.UK: Palgrave.
DelaneSy, Suzanne M and Gibbs, Raymond W. 2009. Pragmatic factors in
making and understanding promise. California: Routledge.
Egner, Inge. 2002. The Speech act of Promising in an Intercultural Perspective.
SIL International.
Finch, Geofrrey. 2000. Linguistics Term and Concepts. UK: Palgrave.
Fromkin, Victoria, et al. 1999. An Introduction to Language. Australia. Harcourt.
Huford, James R., and Heasley, Brendan. 1990. Semantics: A Coursebook.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Laval, Virgine and Bernicot, Josie. 1999. How French Speaking Children
Understand Promises: the Role of Future Tense. UK: Palgrave.
Leech, Geoffrey. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.
Levinson, Sephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambrigde : Cambridge University Perss.
Mey, Jacob L. 1993. Pragmatics an Introduction.Cambridge : Blackwell.
Peccei, Jean Stilwell. 1999. Pragmaticcs. London and New York: Routledge.
Pudjilestari, Herdini. 2012. A Socio- Pragmatics Analysis on Promising Utterance
in Some Movie Manuscripts. Unpublished Research Paper. Surakarta:
Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta.
Purcha, Jan. 1983. Pragmlinguistics: East European Approaches. USA: John
Benjamins B.V.
Rahayu, Siti. 2009. A Socio-Pragmatics analysis of Promising Utterance in
Barack Obama Campaign Speechs. Unpublished Research Paper.
Surakarta: Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta.
Trosborg, Anna. Interlanguage Pragmatics: Requestd, Complaints and Apologies.
Berlin: Mounton de Gruyter.
Yule, George. 2006. The Study of Language. Cambrigde: Cambrigde University
Perss.
Yulianti. 2010. Promising Utterance in the Novel of Twilight. Unpublished
Research Paper. Surakarta: Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta.
17
VIRTUAL REFERENCE
Chomsky, Naom. 1980. Chomsky's Universal Grammar: An Introduction.
http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/pragmatics.htm.
Accessed: March 22th, 2012 at 3.00 P.M
Cenzo. 2007. The Acquisition of Pragmatic Competence and Multilingualism in
Foreign Language contexts.
http://nchuir.lib.nchu.edu.tw/retrieve/108194/3-1-4-10-1.
Accessed: November 19th, 2012 at 12.19 P.M
Thomas, J. 1983. Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure.
http://www.educ.utas.edu.au/users/tle/journal/articles/2006/19-2
Accessed: November 19th, 2012 at 13.00 P.M
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/political/Transcript-video-of-PresidentBarack-Obamas-2012-victory-speech-in-Chicago-after-re-election.
Accessed: November 20th, 2012 at 11.40 A.M
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/07/us/politics/transcript-of-president-obamaselection-night-speech.html?pagewanted=all
Accessed: November 20th, 2012 at 11.55 A.M
www.obamaspeeches.com. Accessed: September 10th, 2012 at 6.58 P.M
in BARACK OBAMA SPEECHES
PUBLICATION ARTICLES
Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Getting Bachelor Degree
of Education in English Department
Proposed By
NIKEN WARDIANI SUWANDI
A320090155
SCHOOL OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA
2013
UNIVERSITAS MUI-IAMMADIYAH SU RAKARTA
FAKUTTAS KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN
Sekretariat: Jl.A.YaniTromol Pos l, Pabelan, Kartasura, Surakarta 57102
Te p. (027 11 7 17 477, 7 t9 483 ( H u nti ng), F ax. (O27 \l 7 ls M8
I
Website: http//www.ums -ac-id, E-mail : r-lms@ ums.ac-id
Yang bertanda mgqil dibawatr ini pembimbing skripsi/ tugas akhir:
Narna
Agus Wijayanto, P,hD.
NIK
978
Nama
Dra. Dwi Haryanti, M-Hum.
NIK
477
Telah membaca menceflnati naskah artikel publikasi ilmiah, yang merupakan
ringkasan skripsi (tugas akhir) dari mahasiswa:
Nama
Niken Wardiani Suwandi
NIM
A320 090
Program Study
Pendidikan Bahasa hggrrs
Judul Skripsi
155
Pragmalinguistics Fomr
of Promise in Barack Obama
Speeches
Naskah arikel tersebut layak dan dapat disetujui untuk dipublikasikan.
Demikian persetujuan ini dibuat, semoga dapat digunakan seperlunya.
Pembimbing
I
Agus Wijayanto, Ph.D
Surakartq Juli 2013
Pembimbing II
Dra- Dwi
M. Hum.
PRAGMALINGUISTICS FORM of PROMISE
in BARACK OBAMA SPEECHES
Niken Wardiani Suwandi (A 320 090 155)
Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta
Ken.ace91@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
NIKEN WARDIANI SUWANDI. A 320 090 155.
PRAGMALINGUISTICS FORM of PROMISE in BARACK
OBAMA SPEECHES . RESEARCH PAPER.
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA. 2013.
The study aims to describe the pragmalinguistics forms of promising
utterances in Barack Obama speeches. The object of this study is promising
utterance in five speeches of Barack Obama. This research belongs to
qualitative research. In analyzing the promising utterance, the researcher
described the pragmalinguistics forms of promising utterance; identified and
discussed illocutionary acts of promising utterance and drawing conclusion and
suggestion based on the analysis. Based on the pragmalinguistics form of
promising utterances, the writer finds 36 data of constantive form (the
percentage is 92%) and 3 data of pervormative form of promising utterance
the percentage is 8% ).
Keywords: pragmatics, promising utterance, speech act
ii
A. Introduction
Pragmalinguistics is a branch of pragmatics in linguistics study. Leech
(1983:11) states that “Pragmalinguistics is the study of "particular resources
which a given language provides for conveying illocutions”. According to
Cenzo (2007) “Pragmalinguistics refers to the ability use linguistic elements to
perform speech acts”.
There are many functions of language in daily life such as to give
speech, announces, speak, tell, etc. Presidents usually use speech to explain
their argument, ideas and point of view relating to occurrences in their
country. Barack Husein Obama is one of president that delivers his idea by
using speech. The writer is interested to study of promising utterances made
by Barack Obama in his speech. Promising utterance is a statement for
somebody to do an action in the future.
There are limited research about promising utterance such as Rahayu
(2009), Yulianti (2010), Pudjilestari (2012), Laval and Bernicot (2004) and
astington (1987). Even though there are many studies of promising utterance,
there is no research about promising utterance in Barack Obama speech.
However there was research about Barack Obama but it was only in Barack
Obama Campaign. That research was conducted by Rahayu (2009). This study
is to continue the research from Rahayu (2009) that focus to Barack Obama
Speech. Barack Obama Speech here is delivered after Obama was elected as
President of United States. This is a proof that after becoming President of
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United States, Obama still given promise to his citizen or public. So the writer
conducted this research.
The background of Obama Speech is very interesting to be studied,
because Barack Obama is first African- American president. He brings new
idea to America government. His idea sometimes is controversial. So it makes
he becomes a light ray in public of America. His plan for America is different
from the other especially from Republic party. So it is very interesting to be
studied. Second his point of view in politic is very interesting. America has
improvement such as in economic, education, health, etc. From his speech in
Congress on Jobs in 2011, he gave fresh idea for America. His idea is
welcomed by American. He will create more jobs for American. Small
businesses will get a tax cut. He will get more projects for jobs in America.
Third Obama is a well- known person as president of America. Many persons
are very interesting to him. Many people give attention to him. So what he
said in speech is very interesting thing to talk. .Finally some of his statement
in speech is promise. Many people have different interpretation to his
statement in speech. So this study is conducted to make its clear the
interpretation of his statement.
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There are some researchers that conducted study about pragmatics
analysis about speech and promising utterance. They are as follows:
Rahayu (2009) also conducted a study about speech that entitled A
Socio-Pragmatics analysis of Promising Utterance in Barack Obama
Campaign Speechs. The method of this research is qualitative research.
The result of the analysis shows that one form of utterance occurred in
Barack Obama’s Speeches that is declarative sentence, the intentions of
promising utterance are giving response, stating purpose, assuring,
persuading, describing, inviting and requesting and the reasons of
employing promising utterances are showing attention, regret, cooperative,
responsibility, relationship, mercy, affection, and prestige.
Yulianti (2010) conducted research about Promising Utterance in the
Novel of Twilight that analyzed by translation analysis. The results show
that the translation variation of language forms of promising utterances are
word translated to word, word translated to phrase, positive declarative
sentence translated to positive declarative sentence, negative declarative
sentence translated to negative declarative sentence, positive declarative
sentence translated to negative declarative sentence. The implicature found
are conventional and conversational implicature and also in the form of
equivalent and non- equivalent. The politeness strategies of directive
utterance are Bald on Record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and
off- record strategies.
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Pudjilestari (2012) conducted a study entitled A Socio- Pragmatics
Analysis on Promising Utterance in Some Movie Manuscripts. The results
of this research are there are three kinds of sentence (declarative sentence,
imperative sentence and interrogative sentence), there are five intentions
of the speaker (to assure, to command, to request, to affirm and to
describe), and there are eight reason of the speaker (showing
responsibility, showing angry, showing relationship, showing affection,
showing hope, showing teasing, showing misunderstanding and showing
attention.
The other researchers are Bernicot and Laval (2004) conducted
research about Speech Acts in Children : the Examples of Promises. The
importance of the promise fulfillment preparatory condition is in the
comprehension of promises. Preparatory condition is satisfied facilitate the
comprehension of promise utterances for the three-year-olds and the sixyear-olds. For promise comprehension tested by means of non-verbal
behavior, it was shown here that in addition to considering the sincerity
condition, mastered from the age of 5. we had to consider the preparatory
condition mastered about the age 9 or 10. Speaker’s beliefs and listener’s
desires are two important elements for the children’s comprehension of
promises. This research is also to investigate the role of linguistic form in
the promise-making statement by comparing statements with verbs in the
future tense to statements with other verb forms.
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Astington
(1987)
conducted
a
study
entitled
Children's
understanding of the speech act of promising. This study is for 5 - 13 years
olds of children and adults. The result of this study is 9 years of age
children could distinguish between promising and predicting in terms of
the speaker's responsibility for the outcome. 11 and 13 year olds of
children correctly said the speaker did not promise in cases of predicting,
but only a few of them were correct for asserting. Even older children said
the speaker did not promise when the promise was unfulfilled. Children do
not think of promising as simply a speech act.
The other researchers are Delaney and Gibbs (2009) conducted a
research about Pragmatic factors in making and understanding promises.
The results from this study showed that the first two of Searle's conditions
are extremely important to maintain if a promise is to be made or
understood. However, it appears that people can make promises about
actions that would be performed in the normal course of events. As such,
these studies support the idea that promises do not by themselves obligate a
speaker, but are used to reaffirm previously existing, and often unstated,
obligations.
Laval and Bernicot (1999) conducted a study entitled How French
Speaking Children Understand Promises: the Role of Future Tense. The
results of this study are the 3 and 6 years olds based their interpretation of
the promises primarily on the contextual of the communication situation,
after the age of 6 years, the children began to rely on temporal markers in
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the utterances whenever the immediate future tense was used and promise
specific contextual information was lacking and the nine years olds always
based their interpretation of the promises on temporal cues in the
utterance.
From the previous study above, All of previous studies have
similarity to this study. The similarity is all of previous studies and this
research analyze promising utterance. But there is also difference between
each research. From Rahayu’s study, the difference is her research using
socio-pragmatics to analyze the data. The data source of Rahayu’s research
is only in Barack Obama Campaign speech. But this research, the data
source are five speeches of Barack Obama after he is elected in 2009. So it
makes this research difference. Yulianti’s research is using translation
analysis to analyze the data. Pudjilestari have conducted research about
promising utterance in some movie manuscripts using socio-pragmatics. It
makes different to the other previous study. The other researchers are
Bernicot and Laval conducted research about promising but the data is
children and adults using speech act theory. Asington also conducted
research that the data is children to understand promises using speech acts
theory. Delaney and Gibbs conducted research about promising utterance
but the data source is people in institution. The similarity to this research is
using pragmatic approach. The last previous study is Laval and Bernicot
that conducted research about promising utterance and the data source is
French children. But the promise here has role, the role is using future
tense. So from all of previous studies this study is difference from each
other.
1. Problem Statement
What are the pragmalinguistic forms of promising utterances in Barack
Obama speeches?
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B. Literary Review
Pragmalinguistics is a branch of pragmatics in linguistics study.
Leech (1983:11) states that “Pragmalinguistics is the study of "particular
resources which a given language provides for conveying illocutions”.
According to Cenzo (2007) “Pragmalinguistics refers to the ability use
linguistic elements to perform speech acts”.
Kiseleva (in Prucha, 1983:44) states that pragmalinguistics investigates
some of the following:
“ (a) the pragmatics properties of speech expressions (i.e. , the
use of words, constructions, utterances) as well as units of the
language system at various levels (morphemes, words, word
combinations, sentences), (b) the rules and regularities of the
pragmatic functioning of language units in speech and above
all, (c) in typical extralinguistic situations, (d) with respect to
typical social aims and tasks, (e) with respect to typical social
and physical types of subject (speakers)and receivers”.
“Promising utterance is a statement to tell somebody that we will
definitely do or not to do something. Promising something is committing
someone to do it” (Egner, 2002:3). According to Mey (1993:116) “promises
are actually given without the verb to promise ever coming to play”.
Promising utterance include to the speech act and classify to the comissives
utterance. Searle (in Mey, 1993:116) states that “promise is something count
as something only in within a specified set of rules”. So it has specific
condition to call it is promise. The condition that can be called as promise are:
Condition 1 : The condition must obtain for input and output. It means that the
speaker must know what they utter with the language.
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Condition 2 : The promise must have content. So the speaker knows what they
must do after speaking the promise and the hearer knows the
intention of the promise.
Condition 3 : The content must have to do in the future. It means there is
action from the speaker in the future because promise cannot
happen in the past.
Condition 4 : What being to be promise must have the advantage from the
promise.
Condition5 : The content of the promise must not be something which clearly
is going to happen anyway.
Condition6 : the promise has to do with the honesty of the promise in
performing the act of promising.
Condition7 : A promise intends to put him/her under the obligation of
performing the act of promising.
Condition8 : The language must apply condition where the promisee
understands the situation of promising utterance. the promise
have effect to the promise.
Condition9 : The sentence uttered must have semantical rules of the language
to make promise.
According to Austin, promise can be stated either though performative
or constantive:
Performative is utterances that are used to do things or perform acts.
Peccei (1999:45) states that “Performative is some utterances that not only
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perform speech act but also describe the speech act itself”. Speakers have to
use pervormative verb to produce explicit performative. Pervormative verbs is
such as promise, swear, pledge,etc.
For examples of performative:
I pomise I will be there tomorrow.
I swear that she will come.
I pledge I will visit you in the hospital.
According to Levinson (1983:244) “the structure in English: “I
(hereby) V per you (that) S” where V per is a performative verb and S’ is a
complement sentence”.
Constative is utterances that can be verified as true or false. These
utterances were typically in the form of assertions or statements. According to
Peccei (1999:47) “Constative can be used to perform illocution but it is not
similar with performative”. Speakers did not use pervormative verbs to
perform constative.
For examples:
I will be there tomorrow.
I will bring your book.
I will visit you in the hospital.
C. Research Method
This is qualitative research which involves no statistical analysis; it is
associated with hypothesis generating and developing an understanding.
Qualitative research is a research which the results non- numerical. The
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researcher uses descriptive which is conducted by collecting the data,
classifying the data and analyzing them without making general conclusion.
The object of this study is promising utterance in five speeches of
Barack Obama. They are Obama speech on the Deficit (April 13rd 2011),
Remarks by the President on Ending the War in Iraq (October 21 st 2011) ,
Obama speech to Congress on Jobs (September 8th 2011), President Obama’s
Election Night Speech (November 7th 2012), President Barack Obama's 2012
election night victory speech in Chicago (November 7th 2012) and President
Obama’s Speech on Gun Control and Reform (Desember 19th 2012). The
researcher focuses in the promising utterances that found in Barack Obama
speeches.
The data will be analyzed in this research are promising utterances,
which can be found in the five speeches of Barack Obama. The Source of the
data in this research are speeches of Barack Obama. They are Obama speech
on the Deficit (April 13rd 2011), Remarks by the President on Ending the War
in Iraq (October 21st 2011) , Obama speech to Congress on Jobs (September
8th 2011), President Obama’s Election Night Speech (November 7th 2012),
President Barack Obama's 2012 election night victory speech in Chicago
(November 7th 2012) and President Obama’s Speech on Gun Control and
Reform (Desember 19th 2012).
In conducting this study, the writer uses documentation method. It is a
method of data collection by investigating the written things such as books,
magazines, documents, and many others. The function of this method is to
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look for the data in the nature of documentation. In other words, it is to get the
data relating to and supporting Obama’s speeches. The steps of collecting data
are as follows:
1. Browsing in the Internet.
2. Reading the Obama’s speeches.
3. Selecting the materials.
4. Sorting the related materials purposively.
From the collected data, the writer analyses the data. The data in this
research are analyzed by using descriptive method, and the writer uses nonstatistic analysis to analyze the data. The writer conducts the data analysis
with the following procedures:
1. Describing the pragmalinguistics forms of promising utterances in Barack
Obama speeches.
2. Identifying and discussing locutionary acts and illocutionary acts of
promising utterances in Barack Obama speeches.
3. Drawing conclusion and suggestion based on the data analysis.
D. Research Findings and Discussion
Based on the data analysis about promising utterance in five
speeches of Barack Obama, the writer can find, as follows:
a. The Pragmalinguistics form of promising utterance
All of promising utterances in Barack Obama speech have their own form.
The speeches are Obama speech on the Deficit (April 13rd 2011), Remarks
by the President on Ending the War in Iraq (October 21 st 2011) , Obama
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speech to Congress on Jobs (September 8th 2011), President Obama’s
Election Night Speech (November 7th 2012), President Barack Obama's
2012 election night victory speech in Chicago (November 7th 2012) and
President Obama’s Speech on Gun Control and Reform (Desember 19th
2012). From the analysis above, the writer can show that most of his
utterance in his speeches used the word “we.
We refer to Obama,
American people and Obama’s office. It means that in his government he
always involve American people as citizen in America to work together
for solving problem in America. He is not individualistic person. Obama
also involve both Democrat and Republic party to cover problem and to
run governance in United States of America. Obama wanted to close to his
citizen. So there is no gap between government and citizen. He believed a
good government will be run well because the team works between
government and citizen.
Based on Austin, there are two kinds’ form of pragmalinguistics of
promising utterance, they are performative form and constantive form. The
detailed information of the analysis can be seen from the table below:
Pragmalinguistics
Data Number
Percentage
1, 12 and 36
8%
Form
Pervormative
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13,
Constantive
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21,
22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29,
92%
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30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38
and 39
From 39 data numbers analysis, the researcher found 3 numbers of
performative forms of promising utterance. 36 numbers of data analyses
are constantive form of promising utterances. It can be concluded that
Obama only used few word of prerformative verb. In the other, Obama
used constantive form of promising utterance. It means that as a number
one person in Uniten States of America, Obama did not need to say that,
he promised, he pledged or he swear to show his promise to his citizen.
His citizen would understand by using constantive form of promising
utterance that Obama uttered a promise to his citizen. It is the same
powerful because he is a president in America.
Promising utterance is a statement to tell someboday that we will
definitely do or not to do something. According to Austin promise can be
stated as performative form and constantive form of promising utterance.
Performative form of promising utterance refers to an utterance that is
used to do things or perform acts. Speaker has to do perfom act if they will
promise someone and make sure the hearer. Speaker has to use
performative verb to produce explicit promise. Pervormative verbs are
promise, pledge, and swear. Constantive is an utterance that can be
verified as true or false statement. Speaker can produce promise by using
constantive form. But constantive form did not use performative verb.
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Speaker can use auxiliary verb such as will. If speakers use contantive
form of promising, their promise would not powerful. Therefore,
performative form is more powerful than constantive form to produce
promising utterance. The hearer would feel convinced, if the speaker uses
performative form of promising utterance.
Based on the research findings, the writer can shown that the
mostly form of promising utterance in five speeches of Barack Obama are
constantive form. Contantive form is majority form in Obama speeches.
There are 36 data that the forms are constantive form. It means that Barack
Obama did not deliver powerful promise to the public. It can be concluded
that Obama would fulfill his promise or not to the public because
constantive form of promising utterance is not powerful to show promise.
It can be shown in his speech when he elected twice in 2012. His speeches
in that election have the same promise when he still became president of
America period 2009- 2012. Obama stated that he would reduce deficit in
America by using his plan and program. Until two decades of his
governance, his promise is still the same. It shows that deficit as a big
problem was faced by American people. Most of Barack Obama’s promise
can be verified as true or false statement. Therefore, his promise can or not
to be fulfilled.
Then Only 3 data are performative form. It is included to
performative form of promising utterance because Barack Obama used
performative verb when he uttered his promise such as pledge and
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promise. As president of United States of America, Barack Obama had
charismatic when he delivered his speech in front of American people
especially and public generally. Whether he used performative or
constantive form, his promise still had power to show his idea to public
because he is president of America, the number one person in America.
Although, his peformative form of promising utterance is only 3
utterances, he still had power to assure and affirm with his promise to his
citizen because he elected again in 2012 general election.
E. Conclusion
There is two form of promising utterance in five speeches of Barack
Obama, which are constantive form and performative form. Five speeches of
Barack Obama here are Obama speech on the Deficit (April 13rd 2011), Remarks
by the President on Ending the War in Iraq (October 21 st 2011) , Obama speech
to Congress on Jobs (September 8th 2011), President Barack Obama's 2012
election night victory speech in Chicago (November 7th 2012) and President
Obama’s Speech on Gun Control and Reform (Desember 19th 2012). Although the
data is speech and the data analyzing is promising utterance, it is understandable
that the mostly form of promising utterances is constantive form. It means that as
president Barack Obama will not use verb promise, swear or pledge to deliver his
promise to American people and public people. He can show and deliver his
promise by using word will that it is included to true and false statement in
constantive form. As president of United States of America, he did not need to use
performative verb because his utterance has power. But his promise can be
fulfilled or not. There is also performative form of promising utterance but only
three data. It aimed to make sure his citizen.
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