AN ANALYSIS OF COMPLIMENTS AND RESPONSES TO COMPLIMENTS IN THE FILM ENTITLED THE HOLIDAY (A Pragmatics Study)
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AN ANALYSIS OF COMPLIMENTS AND RESPONSES TO COMPLIMENTS IN THE FILM ENTITLED THE HOLIDAY
(A Pragmatics Study)
THESIS
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Sarjana Sastra Degree in English Department
Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts Sebelas Maret University
By:
IKHA OKTAVIANTI C0306034
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
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AN ANALYSIS OF COMPLIMENTS AND RESPONSES TO COMPLIMENTS IN THE FILM ENTITLED THE HOLIDAY
(A Pragmatics Study)
By
IKHA OKTAVIANTI C0306034
Has been approved by the thesis consultant:
Thesis Consultant:
Drs. Agus Hari Wibowo, M.A NIP. 196708301993021001
The Head of English Department
Dr. Djatmika, MA NIP. 196707261993021001
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AN ANALYSIS OF COMPLIMENTS AND RESPONSES TO COMPLIMENTS IN THE FILM ENTITLED THE HOLIDAY
(A Pragmatics Study)
By
IKHA OKTAVIANTI C0306034
Accepted and Approved by the Board of Examiners Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts Sebelas Maret University
March, 2011
The Board of Examiners
Position Name Signature
Chairman Dr. Tri Wiratno, MA ( ) NIP. 196109141987031001
Secretary Agus Dwi Priyanto, SS. M.CALL ( ) NIP.19740818200012 1 001
First Examiner Dr. Agus Hari Wibowo, MA ( ) NIP. 196708301993021001
Second Examiner Drs.Budi Waskita, M.Pd ( ) NIP.195211081983031001
Dean of Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts Sebelas Maret University
Drs. Sudarno, M.A NIP 19530314198506 1 001
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PRONOUNCEMENT
NAME : IKHA OKTAVIANTI NIM : C0306034
Stated whole-heartedly that the thesis entitled “An Analysis of Compliments and Responses to Compliments in the Film Entitled The Holiday” is originally made by the researcher. It is neither a plagiarism nor made by others. The belongings related to other people‟s work are written in quotations and included within the bibliography.
If it is subsequently proved that the researcher cheats, the researcher is ready to take the responsibility, including the withdrawal of my academic degree.
Surakarta, March 2011
Ikha Oktavianti (C0306034)
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MOTTO
Verily with every difficulty, there is a relief
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DEDICATION
I whole-heartedly dedicate this thesis to:
My beloved mom and dad
My wonderful sister
My incredible man
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT Alhamdulillahirobbil‟alamin,
All praises are just for the Almighty God, Allah SWT for the blessing and the guidance and for the prophet Muhammad SAW for his great inspiration to my ordinary life. Finally, one of my dreams comes true. It was a challenging task for me to complete this thesis. It took a lot of time, energy, and patience. I realized that without supports from the people surrounding me, I am sure that I am not able to accomplish this thesis successfully. Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude to all people as follows:
1. Drs. Sudarno, M.A as the dean of faculty of Letters and Fine Arts of Sebelas Maret University for approving this thesis.
2. Dr. Djatmika, M.A as the head of English Department of Sebelas Maret for providing the opportunity to write this thesis.
3. Drs. Agus Hari Wibowo, M.A as my thesis consultant for his concern, guidance, and critical advice.
4. Drs. Riyadi Santosa, M.Ed, P.hD as my academic consultant for the advice and guidance during my study in Sebelas Maret University.
5. All the lecturers of English Department for the valuable knowledge and experiences which you had shared with us.
6. My beloved father and mother. I deeply give thanks and love for their never ending love, support, prayer, and patience. I am so lucky to be yours.
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7. My lovely sister for her support and her kindness. I am happy to live this ordinary life with you, dear.
8. My incredible man, my haniy, my motivator, my partner of life, the one who paints my ordinary life. Thanks for your patience waiting for my graduation, I am sorry for the missing target.
9. Mba Tina Styani, Mba Anggi, Mba Esti... I give a bunch of thanks for your enlightenment, sorry to bother you with my questions.
10.Cynditia and Novika Trisky, my beautiful ladies, my lovely gank, thanks for sharing everythings. I miss you both, dear.
11.My beloved ladies.. my boo‟s… Anita, Beckha, Farida, Ima, Ata, Rini, Chandra, you are all wonderful companions. Thanks for the support. I love
you, boo…
12.All my friends of English Department, thanks for the support and the friendship for the years.
13.All people who have helped me in completing this thesis.
At last, I do realize that this thesis is far from being perfect. Therefore, suggestion and criticism will be kindly accepted. Hopefully, this thesis will be beneficial for English Department students and for those who are interested in Linguistics.
Surakarta, March 2011
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE ... i
APPROVAL BY THE THESIS SUPERVISOR. ... ii
APPROVAL BY THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS. ... iii
PRONOUNCEMENT. ... iv
MOTTO. ... v
DEDICATION. ... vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENT. ... vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ix
LIST OF TABLES. ... xii
ABSTRACT. ... xiii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Research Background... 1
B. Problem Statements... ... 5
C. Research Limitation... ... 6
D. Research Objectives. ... 6
E. Research Benefits.. ... 7
F. Research Methodology... 7
G. Thesis Organization. ... 8
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW A. Pragmatics. ... 9
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C. Speech Acts ... 11
D. Direct and Indirect Speech Acts ... 18
E. Ethnography of Speaking ... 20
F. Compliments ... 24
G. Kinesics ... 31
H. Theory of Film………..33
I. Synopsis of the Film “The Holiday”………...34
J. Review of Related Studies………35
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Type of Research... 37
B. Data and Source of Data ... 37
C. Sample and Sampling Technique ... 38
D. Research Procedures ... 38
E. Technique of Analyzing Data ... 39
CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION A. Data Analysis ... 41
1. Topics of Appearance………41
a. Topic of Personal Appearance………..42
b. Topic of Possession………..51
2. Topics of Ability………...57
a. Topic of General Ability……….57
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B. Discussion ... …..73 1. The Topics of Compliments in the Film “The Holiday”...74
2. The Functions of each Types of the Compliments………76 3. The Responses of the Compliments from the Addressee…………..78
CHAPTER V: CONCUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusion ... …81 B. Suggestions ... 83 BIBLIOGRAPHY
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Topics of Compliments ... 75 Table 2 Functions of Compliments ... 77 Table 3 Responses of the Compliments ... 79
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xiii ABSTRACT
Ikha Oktavianti. C0306034. An Analysis of Compliments and
Responses to Compliments in the Film Entitled “The Holiday”. (A Pragmatic Study). Thesis: English Department, Faculty of Letters
and Fine Arts. Sebelas Maret University. 2011
This research focuses on the compliments used by the characters in the
film entitled “The Holiday”. This research was conducted to describe the types of topics of compliment employed by the characters in the film entitled “The
Holiday”, the functions of each type of topics of compliment, and also the compliment responses expressed by the addressees in the film.
This research is a descriptive qualitative research. This research uses pragmatic approach. The technique of sampling used is total sampling. All conversations containing compliments and the compliment responses were taken as the data.
Based on the data analysis, the researcher draws conclusions as follows: There are four types of topics of compliments employed by the characters
in the film entitled “The Holiday”. They are topic of personal appearance, topic of
possession, topic of general ability, and topic of specific-act ability.
Based on Wolfson‟s classification of compliment functions, there are six functions of compliment proposed by Wolfson found in this research. They are: to affirm solidarity, to create or maintain rapport, to express admiration or approval, to encourage, to express positive evaluation, and also to strengthen or replace other speech act formulas.
In responding the compliments, most of the addressees accept the compliments. The response acceptance of the compliment includes verbal and non verbal acceptance. In verbal acceptance, the addresses deliver the word thanks to
respond to the speaker‟s compliment. Meanwhile, the addressees respond to the
compliment by smiling in the non verbal acceptance. Other upgrade, down grade, reassignment, question, and giving no acknowledgement. In the comment acceptance, the addressees accept the compliment and offer a relevant comment on the compliment. In the praise upgrade, the addressee accepts and asserts
insufficiently of the compliment‟s force. Meanwhile, in down grade, the
compliment is not worth. In response of question, the addressee questions the
sincerity or the appropriateness of the speaker‟s compliment. Finally, in No
Acknowledgment, the addressees give no indication of having heard the compliment, shift the topic, and even give no response.
Based on the conclusions above, the researcher hopes that this research will give a contribution to the students in studying the speech act of compliments. There are still many cases on the study of compliments. It is suggested to other researchers who are interested in compliment speech act to conduct a further research on compliment structure and its vocabulary.
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Research Background
The nature of human as a social creature requires a means to interact and to communicate with others in their daily live. One of communication means is language. Language is a significant medium to express what people feel and what people think.
When someone communicates with another person, he/she can measure the success of the communication from the response he/she gets. The communication is considered successful, when the speaker is aware of what he/she is doing with the language and the hearer is able to recognize the intended meaning what the speaker means. Actually, when someone says something to another person, he/she performs not only the certain purpose but also the act . That is the realization of certain social communication called speech act.
There are some classifications of speech acts. Compliments and responses to compliments are among the most investigated speech acts, along with apologies, requests, and refusals. Holmes defines a compliment as a speech act which either explicitly or implicitly attributes credit to someone other than the speaker. Usually, the person who is addressed for some good (possession, character, skill, etc) and it is positively valued by both the speaker and hearer. Furthermore, he states that the primary function of a compliment is affective and
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social rather than referential or informative. It explains that the causes of misunderstanding and miscommunication breakdown include different norms of complimenting and responding to compliments (Holmes, 2003:177).
In addition, Brown & Levinson also confirm that compliment is a main example of speech acts that is frequently used to express positive politeness strategy, which notices and attends to the hearer‟s interests, wants, needs, and goods (1987: 102). Compliments are also used to maintain the relationship in society. It can be a teacher who gives compliment to the student on his/her good mark. The expression of compliment such as “You‟re a smart boy” shows that the teacher appreciates the student‟s good mark and it will encourage the student to keep on studying in order to have good mark. Buddies often exchange compliment when they meet each other by saying “You look so fresh today” or give compliment on their new belonging. These simple expressions of compliments can create good feeling between them.
Compliment is formulaic in English; it represents a social strategy in that the speaker attempts to create or maintain rapport with the addressee by expressing admiration or approval (Wolfson & Judd, 1983). Compliments are intended to make the addresses feel good, but it may serve other function in different interactions. Even in some contexts, compliment may be experienced negatively.
Since compliment has many variations, it is important for the people to know on what cases people could deliver compliment. Wolfson (in Wolfson & Judd, 1983) points out that what members of particular cultural groups thank or
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apologize for, or compliment on, usually reflects values, because in performing these speech acts, people are often implicitly assessing the behavior, possessions, accomplishments, character, or appearance of others. Moreover, specific relationship between the speaker and the addressee also affects the choice of type of compliment considered appropriate. It can be said that there is a basis for the people to deliver compliment, it may be based on the appearance, possessions, etc. Film is a kind of entertainment medium. The film is considered as a life-image that is acted by the characters on the screen. The story is often taken from reality including the conversation. „The Holiday‟ is a film which tells about the journey of two desperate young ladies to get their true loves. The researcher finds many expressions of compliment used by the characters. The compliments are applied in various ways, that is why the researcher is interested to conduct a research on that film. To clarify the research background, the following examples will give understanding about it.
Example 1:
Iris : Your house is lovely. Arthur : I've lived here 47 years.
The conversation happens in front of Arthur‟s house. The participants are
Iris and Arthur. Iris Simpkins is a writer of popular wedding column for London's Daily Telegraph, while Arthur is a noted screenwriter from Hollywood's Golden Era. Since they are stranger to each other, they have distant relationship.
Based on the dialogue above, Iris‟s words „Your house‟ refers to the
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Entering Arthur‟s house, Iris feels amazed with the house. Spontaneously she expresses her amazement by saying that Arthur‟shouse is lovely. Iris‟s admiration toward the house is indicated as compliment toward Arthur‟s possession. In this context, Iris uses the positive adjective word „lovely‟ to show her amazement toward the house. From the explanation, it can be concluded that the compliment has topic of appearance, especially deals with possession. Since the speaker delivers the compliment sincerely, the compliment functions as expression of admiration or approval.
The addressee of the compliment is Arthur. The type of his response is mitigate. It can be seen from addressee‟s behavior which is commenting of the
history of the referent by saying „I've lived here 47 years.‟ Example 2:
Amanda : And you're funny, which is, like, a bonus. Graham : Yeah? Never meet me when I'm sober.
The conversation happens in Rose Hill Cottage, Iris‟s home. The participants are Amanda and Graham. Amanda is a desperate young lady who was trapped on her lonely vacation. Meanwhile, Graham is a warm-hearted guy who suddenly became an interesting companion for Amanda. They have distant relationship before, but after involving on a nice chit chat, then they become very intimate to each other.
In this dialog above, Amanda delivers compliment toward Graham by saying that he is funny which is like a bonus on her boring holiday. Amanda says that she is desperate on her holiday, and then it turns to be an exciting holiday
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because of Graham. She thinks that Graham is funny guy which is like a bonus for her holiday package.
From the explanation above, it can be concluded that the compliment has a topic of general ability which deals with personal qualities. The speaker uses adjective word „funny‟ to show that the speaker is interested with the addressee‟s personality. The compliment functions to create and maintain rapport.
The addressee of the compliment is Graham. The types of his response is mitigate because the addressee shifts the compliment into a joke. The addressee implicitly says that when he is sober, he might be not that funny.
“The Holiday” is one of the examples of movies which have real communication in a real social context. The genre is romantic, where the language used in the dialog has an important role in creating romantic situation. There are many compliment expressions in the dialogue as shown in the two examples above. Thus, the researcher intends to conduct a research entitled: An Analysis of Compliments and Responses to Compliments in The Film Entitled “The Holiday”.
B. Problem Statements
Referring to the research background stated previously, the researcher formulates the problem statements as follows:
1. What are the topics of compliments used in the speeches among the characters
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2. What are the functions of speech act compliments employed by the characters
of the film entitled „The Holiday‟?
3. How do the characters respond to the compliments in the film entitled „The
Holiday‟?
C. Research Limitation
There are many kinds of speech acts found in the film entitled „The Holiday‟. However, this research is only focused on the speech act of giving and responding to compliments. Further, this research takes the conversation containing speech act compliments in the film as the data including verbal and written form. The researcher identifies the topics, the functions, and also the responses of the speech act compliments used by the characters in the film.
D. Research Objectives The objectives of this research are:
1. To reveal the topics of compliments employed by the characters in the
film entitled „The Holiday‟.
2. To reveal the functions of speech act compliments in the film entitled „The Holiday‟.
3. To explain the responses to the compliments by the characters in the film entitled „The Holiday‟.
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E. Research Benefits
This research is expected to give contribution as follows: 1. The readers
I hope that this research will give an understanding to the readers about the types of topics of compliments that they can use in complimenting others. This research is also important to give understanding about the way issuing appropriate compliment to others because sometimes compliments may become an insult and hurt others‟ feel if it is not relevant with the certain condition.
2. Other researchers
This research is expected to be a reference for other researchers to conduct further research about the employment of politeness strategy in compliments.
F. Research Methodology
The type of this research is descriptive qualitative research. It is descriptive since the researcher merely collected the data, made an analysis afterward, and at last drew the conclusion (Moleong, 2001:6). Qualitative means that it is not dealing with numerical measurement.
The source of the data is taken from the dialogues among the characters in the film „The Holiday‟. The sampling technique applied in this research is total sampling technique since the whole data collected are the conversation containing speech act compliments including verbal and written form.
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G. Thesis Organization
This thesis is divided into five chapters in which each chapter consists of further division. This thesis research is arranged systematically as follows:
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. This chapter discusses Research Background, Problem Statements, Research Limitation, Research Objectives, Research Benefits, Research Methodology, and Thesis Organization.
CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW. This chapter covers theories about Pragmatics, Context, Speech Act, Ethnography of Speaking, Compliments, Kinesics, Theory of the Film, Synopsis of the Film, and Review of Related Study.
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. This chapter describes Type of Research, Data and Source of Data, Sample and Sampling Technique, Instrument of the Research, Research Procedures, Technique of Analyzing Data.
CHAPTER IV. DATA ANALYSIS. This chapter consists of Data Analysis and Discussion.
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION. The last chapter consists of conclusion of the research and suggestion for other researcher.
BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES
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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter II covers some theories and references which are related to the research. The researcher takes compliment expression to carry out this research. Thus, Pragmatics approach is needed as the way of analyzing the data. The references related to pragmatics are necessary to guide the researcher to interpret and to dig up the meaning of data. The references which are discussed in this chapter are Pragmatics, Context, Speech Act (including the classification of speech acts and each of the examples), Components of Speech, Kinesics and its repertoire, The Act of Complimenting (including topics, functions, and responses to compliments), Theory of Film, and Review of Related Study.
A. Pragmatics
According to Leech (1983), pragmatics can be usefully defined as the study of how utterances have meanings in situations. It means that pragmatics is concerned with the meaning of utterance, in which the meaning depends on the situation where the utterance occurs.
In addition, Yule defines pragmatics as the study of contextual meaning (1996:3). This type of study necessarily involves the interpretation of what the speaker means in the particular context and how the context influences what is said. It also requires a consideration of how the speaker organizes what she/he would liketo say in accordance with to whom the speaker talks, where, when and
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under what circumstances the speech act takes place. Similarly Leech (1983), gives a definition that pragmatics can be usefully defined as the study of how utterances have meaning of utterance, in which the meaning depends on the situation where the utterance occurs.
Based on definition above, it can be concluded that pragmatics is a study that discusses a meaning of language by regarding the relation between language and context. It means that the interactions between the context and language become the main concern in pragmatics.
B. Context
Context plays an important role in understanding the meaning of utterances. The importance of context in language can be seen from the opinion of Leech. He says that context is a relevant aspect of the physical or social setting of an utterance (1999:13). Context is a background knowledge which is shared by the speaker and hearer in understanding their utterance.
Meanwhile, Levinson points out the importance of context which is included in the definition of pragmatics, as the study of the ability of language user to pair sentences with the context in which it would be appropriate (1986:24). It means that the role of context in language is studied in pragmatics. It is necessary to pay attention to the context that is surrounding the happening of the conversation.
Malinowsky (in Halliday & Hasan, 1985:6) states that there are two notions of context, namely context of situation and context of culture. Context of
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situation is the situation in which the text is uttered. Meanwhile, context of culture is the cultural background behind the participants.
From the statement above, it can be concluded that speech context of linguistics research is a context in all physical aspects or social background related to the speech, time, place, social environment, political condition, etc.
C. Speech Act
Speech act is a part of pragmatics study. It focuses on how to do something by saying utterances. It means that the speaker uses a language to get the hearer to do something and expects that the hearer will understand his/her communicative intention.
According to Searle (1976: 16), speaking a language is performing speech acts, acts such as making statements, giving commands, asking questions, and making promises. While, Yule (1996: 47) defines speech acts as action performed via utterances such as apology, complaint, invitation, promise or request.
Austin (1962) divides three kinds of acts that are performed in which in saying something someone is doing something.
a. Locutionary act is the literal meaning of the utterance. It is the basic act of utterance.
b. Illocutionary act is the act of getting the audience to recognize the
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c. Perlocutionary act is the bringing about of effect on the audience by means of uttering the sentence, such effect being special to the circumstances of utterance.
In simple way, locutionary act is the act of saying something, illocutionary act is what is done in the act of saying something, and perlocutionary act is the effect produced by saying something. The example below will give clear understanding of it.
A: You look beautiful tonight. B: Thank you.
The act of saying „You look beautiful tonight‟ is the locutionary act. A
complimenting B is the illocutionary act. The acceptance of the compliment by B is the perlocutionary act.
In attempting to further development to further analysis of speech act, Searle in Leech (1983) provides classification of speech acts in which he calls as five macro-classes of illucotionary acts. They are:
1. Declarations : utterances which effect immediate changes in the institutional state of affairs and which tend to rely elaborate extra linguistics institutions.
For example: Priest: I baptize you….
I pronounce you husband and wife. I name this baby “David”.
2. Assertives : utterances which commit someone to the truth of the expressed proposition: e.g. stating, suggesting, boasting, complaining, claiming, and
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reporting. The point is expressing a belief, making words fit the words, and committing the speaker to the truth of what is asserted.
For example: a. The earth is flat. b. Today is cool.
c. Sophie is a beautiful girl.
3. Expressives: utterances which express a psychological condition. It means that the speaker expresses his feeling; it can be statements of pleasure, pain, like and dislike. The examples of the speech act included in expressives are compliment, congratulating, thinking, apologizing, refusing, etc.
For example: a. I really like your haircut. b. Thank you for your help. c. I am sorry I can‟t go with you.
4. Directives : utterances which are attempted the speaker to get the hearer to do something. Directives cover command, order, request, suggestion, etc. For example: a. Open the door, please!
b. Could you take me a drink, please?
c. Don‟t throw the rubbish to the river!
5. Commisives : utterances which commit the speaker to some future course of action. Examples of speech act which are included in commisives are promise, threat, and pledge.
For example: a. I‟ll be back.
b. I will finish my homework tomorrow. c. I promise him I would come.
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To give a comparation, Tsui (1994:52) defines the primary acts on the basis
of where they occur in the exchange structure. Tsui‟s classification about speech
acts are:
a)Elicitation
It is used to describe any utterances which functions to elicit an obligatory verbal response or its non-verbal surrogate.
i)Elicit: inform.
It is a kind of elicitation which invites the addressee to supply a piece of information. For example:
X : Where is the key? Y : It‟s on the table. ii)Elicit: confirm
It is a kind of elicitation which invites the addressee to confirm the
speaker‟s assumption. For example:
X : Is it your book? Y : Yes, that‟s right. iii) Elicit: agree
It is a kind of elicitation which invites the addressee to agree with
the speaker‟s assumption that the expressed preposition is self evidently true. For example:
X : It‟s hot today, isn‟t it? Y : Yes, it is.
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iv) Elicit: commit
It is a kind of elicitation which not only invites a verbal response but also invites commitment on the part of the addressee to further interaction. For example:
X : Can you help me, Mom? Y : Yes, sure.
b) Requestives
It refers to the utterances which solicit non verbal actions and the addressee is given the opinion of carrying out the solicited action.
i) An offer. For example:
A : I have a new novel, would you like to? B : Oh, sure!
ii)A request for permission. For example: A : do you mind if I smoke? B : go ahead.
iii) An invitation.
For instance: Would you like to come to my wedding party? iv) A request of action. For example:
A : I wonder if you might give me apology for that mistakes that I‟m not going to make it tomorrow.
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c) Directives
Directives are acts which prospect a non-verbal action from the addressee without giving him or her option of non-compliance. The subclasses of directives are:
1) Advisives are directives which direct the addressee to perform an action for the benefit of his own. There are two kinds of advisives: a) Advice is directives which advocates a course of action for the
benefit of the addressee, in which the consequence of compliance
is desirable. For example: “You had better do it by yourself. You will be very satisfied with your own result.”
b) Warning is directives which advocate the hearer to perform an action for the benefit of him/herself and which either explicitly or impliedly specifies the undesirable of non-compliance. For
example: “Do not pick up this cattle. It‟s burning hot!
2) Mandatives are directives by which the speaker attempts to get the addressee to perform, or to refrain from performing, an action for the benefit of the speaker him/herself. The kinds of mandatives:
a) Instruction
The speaker usually has the authority over the addressee to get the addressee to comply. For example the customers to the waitress:
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b)Threats
It is a kind of directives that the speaker commits to perform a
future action to the detriment of the addressee. For instance: “Put
your gun or I‟ll shoot her!”
d) Informatives
Informatives cover utterances which provide report of events or states of affair, recount, personal experiences, express belief, evaluate judgment, feeling, and thought. The subclasses of informatives are:
1) Report gives an account of certain events, states of affairs or personal experiences in the past, present, or future.
For example: “She is the cleverest student in the class.”
2) Assessment asserts his judgment or evaluation of certain people, object, event, states of affair and so on. The subclasses are:
a) Compliment. It is the assessment in which the speaker evaluates the addressee positively.
Example: “You are a very diligent student.”
b) Criticism. It is labeled for the utterance in which the speaker judges the addressee negatively.
Example: “You are ugly with that dress”
c) Self-commendation. It is the assessment in which the speaker evaluates himself positively.
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d) Self-denigration. It is the name of assessment when the speaker judges himself negatively.
Example: “I forget about it. I think I‟m getting old”
e) Assessing. The evaluation is directed neither speaker nor addressee.
For example: “Suzan is a very sexy and smart girl”
3) Expressive are ritualistic which speakers express civility and goodwill toward each other. The subclasses are:
a) Emphaty. The speaker shows concern and empathies to the addressee.
Example: “I hope you will get better soon”
b) Debt-incured. The speaker expresses his feelings toward debt, which he was incurred.
Example: “Sorry to trouble you”
Based on the explanation above, the researcher is interested to
conduct a research based on Tsui‟s classifications of speech act. It is speech act of
compliments.
D. Direct and Indirect Speech Act
Direct and indirect speech act are concerned with the way the speaker uses various linguistic forms with certain functions.
a. Direct Speech Act
Direct speech act occurs when there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function. Hurford and Heasley (1996, p.256) state that the direct
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illocution of an utterance is the illocution most directly indicated by literal reading of grammatical form and vocabulary of the sentence uttered.
Example: a) Did you eat the food? (interrogative) b) Eat the food! (imperative)
c) You eat the food. (declarative)
In (a) the speaker asks a question to the hearer, that is, whether or not the speaker eat the food. In (b) the speaker request the hearer to eat the food. In (c) the speaker states that the hearer eats the food.
Thus, a declarative used to make statement, an interrogative used to make question and an imperative used to make a command are direct speech acts.
b. Indirect Speech Act
An indirect speech act occurs when there is an indirect relationship between a structure and a function. Thomas states that indirectness occurs when there is a mismatch between the expressed meaning by the words and the implied meaning (1995: 119). For instance, a declarative and an interrogative used to make a request is an indirect speech act. In addition, Allan (1986) states that in indirect speech acts, the speaker communicates to the hearer more than he/ she actually says. It means that the speaker expresses his/her intonation implicitly. Example: a) Move out the TV! (imperative)
b) Do you have to stand in front of the TV? (interrogative) c) You are standing in front of the TV. (declarative)
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The sentences above have different structure (imperative, interrogative, and declarative), but the different structure can be used to accomplish the same basic function. Thus the function of all utterance above is a command/request, where the speaker wants the hearer not to stand in front of the TV. Based on the basic example above, only imperative structure in (a) represents a direct speech act. The interrogative structure in (b) is not being used only as a question: hence it is an indirect speech act of request. The declarative structure in (c) also represents an indirect request.
E. Ethnography of Speaking
Ethnography of speaking or, more generally, the ethnography of communication deals with the use of language in general related to social and
cultural values. Hymes in Fasold (1996) defines „The ethnography of speaking is
concerned with the situations and uses, the patterns and functions, of speaking as
an activity in its own right‟.
The way of speaking can vary substantially from one culture to another. In order to study communicative behavior within a speech community – the group to which a particular ethnographic description applies – it is necessary to work with a nested hierarchy of units called the speech situation, speech event and speech act. Speech acts are part of speech events which are, in turn, part of speech situation. Hymes describes speech situation as situations associated with (or marked by the absence of) speech. The examples given are ceremonies, fights or
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hunts. Speech situation may be composed of both communicative and other kinds of events.
Speech events are both communicative and governed by rules for the use of speech. A speech event is composed of one or more speech acts. The example is joke. It might be a speech act that is part of a conversation (a speech event) which takes place in a party (a speech situation).
Hymes in Wardhaugh (1998) proposes an ethnographic framework which takes into account the varios factors that are involved in speaking. Hymes uses the word SPEAKING as an acronym for the various factors he deems to be relevant: a. Situation (S)
Situation includes the setting and the scene. The setting refers to the concrete physical circumstances in which the speech takes place. It includes the scene and place. Scene refers to the abstract psychological setting, or cultural definition of the occasion. It may be formal or informal, serious or festive. For example, the seating arrangement of a meeting room, whether it is in straight rows or in a circle, may signal the appropriate level of formality.
b. Participant (P)
The participants include combinations of speaker-listener, addresser-addressee, or sender-receiver. They generally fill certain specific roles. It deals with who is speaking and who are they speaking to. Their presence in communicative event may influence on what is said and how it is said. Each of them has his/her own behavior toward language and language choice according to the social and culture factor.
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The description of participants includes not only their characteristics, but also their background information such as age, gender, social class, status, background, etc. The style of dress of participants may also be a determiner of their communicative behavior. For example, people will talk more formally to one wearing a formal dress than to one in a sporty dress.
c. Ends (E)
Ends of a speech event are divided into outcome and goal. Outcome refers to the purpose of the event from a cultural point of view, e.g. trade, business, contract, interview, etc. Meanwhile, goal refers to the purpose of the individual participants. For example, the goal of seller in bargaining event is to maximize the price, while the customers want to minimize it.
d. Act Sequence (A)
Act Sequence discusses the messages of an event. It comprises message form and message content. Message form refers to how thing is said by the participants. Meanwhile, message content deals with what participants talk about; it is simply called as topic of a conversation.
Furthermore, the topic of a conversation can determine how close the participants to each other. For example, individual does not normally ask strangers their age, marital status or salary in the first meeting in America or English.
Both message form and message content involved communicative skills that vary from one culture to another. Speakers should know how to formulate speech events and speech acts in their culture appropriately.
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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. Key also refers to the feeling, atmosphere, and attitude. Furthermore, the key may be marked by non-verbal action such as wink, smile, gesture, or posture.
Key plays an important part in affecting the use of language. For example, one might show his/her annoyance by speaking with rude words in a high tone and bad manner.
The aspect of key is as follows:
1. Tone refers to the general spirit of the scene such as angry, afraid, brave, etc.
2. Manner refers to the participant‟s way of behaving toward others, whether it is polite, impolite, formal, informal, serious, mocking, etc.
3. Feeling refers to emotion indicating happiness, shock, anger, anxiety, etc. 4. Atmosphere refers to the feeling that affects the mind in a place or
condition, such as good, evil, etc.
5. Attitude refers to the participants‟ ways of thinking and behaving toward a situation whether it is sympathetic, pessimistic, etc.
f. Instrumentalities (I)
Instrumentalities refer to channel and form of speech. Channel means the way a message travels from one person to another whether by oral or written. Message can also be transmitted by such means as telegraph, semaphore, smoke
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signal, or drumming. Meanwhile, the form of speech refers to language and their subdivision, dialect, codes, varieties, and register.
g. Norms (N)
Norms include 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 interpretation are determined by the culture of the community. Norms of interaction involves trying to implicate the belief system of a community. Interpretation involves trying to understand what is being conveyed beyond what is in the actual words used.
h. Genre (G)
Genre refers the type of communicative event such as poems, myths, jokes, lectures, sermons, editorials, etc. Genre is performed for specific purposes in specific places with particular participants. For example, the lecture as a genre is typically identified with a certain place in a course. The lecturers and the students as the participants may be involved in serious or humorous effect in other situation.
F. Compliment 1. Definition of Compliment
In most speech communities, the speech act of complimenting is intended to make others feel good. A compliment is a speech act which explicitly or implicitly attributes credit to someone other than the speaker, usually the person
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positively valued by the speaker and the hearer (Holmes, 2003). Moreover, Wolfson (in Wolfson & Judd, 1983) states that in general; a compliment requires
adjectives to express the speaker‟s positive evaluation. Adjective is the frequently used in the compliment. Meanwhile, in a few compliments which do not make use of an adjective or verb, positive evaluations are carried by nouns (e.g. genius, angel, etc) or adverb well.
2. Types of Topics of Compliment
Wolfson ( in Wolfson & Judd, 1983:90) divides the topics of compliment into two major categories, namely appearance and ability.
a. Topic of Appearance. The topic of compliments is divided into two types: 1. Personal appearance
The type of topic compliment on personal appearance usually deals with apparel
Example: That‟s a very elegant dress. Did you just get it? I love that blouse.
There is also expression on other aspects of personal appearance other than apparel.
2. Possession
The type of compliment on possession usually deals with material possession.
Example: The living room looks good. I haven‟t seen it this way.
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There are also favorable comments on something that appear to parallel comments concerning possession.
Example: Your baby is adorable.
Your husband is such a nice guy.
b. Topic of Ability. Compliments concerning on ability are divided into two broad types: those, which are general, and those which refer to a specific act well done.
1. General ability
The general ability includes categorical reference to skill, talent, personal qualities, and taste.
Example: You‟re so honest and you explain things so beautifully You do this kind of writing so well.
You have good taste. 2. Specific- act ability
Specific-act ability contains all compliments which are specific-act.
Example: You‟re being so nice about this.
You are really did a good job. This is really nice. 3. The Function of Compliment
Noriko Ishihara sums up a variety of reasons of using compliments in American English:
To express admiration or approval of someone‟s work/appearance/taste
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To establish/confirm/maintain solidarity (Manes & Wolfson, 1981; Wolfson, 1989).
To replace greetings/gratitude/apologies/congratulations (Wolfson, 1983, 1989).
To soften face-threatening acts such as apologies, requests and criticism (Brown & Levinson, 1987; Wolfson, 1983).
To open and sustain conversation (conversation strategy) (Wolfson, 1983; Billmyer, 1990; Dunham, 1992).
To reinforce desired behavior (Manes, 1983).
(http://www.carla.umn.edu/cgi-bin/carla/anchor.pl?/speechacts/compliments/ref.) While, Wolfson (in Wolfson & Judd, 1983) defines several functions of compliment because compliments may play different roles on different occasion in the interaction. The speaker from higher status tends to make a compliment concerning some activities or piece of works of others who are in the lower positions. It frequently functions as encouragements. Moreover, the person of upper status commonly gives a compliment commenting on the quality of
something produced through addressee‟s ability to an addressee of lower status. The compliment may also function to express a positive evaluation to the addressee. The addresser frequently uses the adjective nice and good to express a positive evaluation. However, the use of the compliment functioning to encourage other is not limited to the interlocutors having unequal status. Teammates and the same status of colleagues may use a compliment in order to encourage the
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addressee as well as to let them know that they are appreciated and they should keep up good works.
Compliments are kinds of flattery given in all attempts to gain some advantages for the speakers. In this case, the statuses of the participants are unequal. The person of lower status tends to make use of a compliment for the purpose of manipulating the addresses. However, the great majority of compliments which occur in interaction between unequal statuses are given by the person in higher position. For example, the boss gives a compliment on his
employee‟s ability in order to encourage them to keep the good work. This type of topics of compliment is used to make the addressee in workplace. Meanwhile, a true compliment generally has a great deal with apparel or appearance. In this case, women are far more likely to be the recipients of compliments than men. For
example, the speaker gives a compliment on the addressee‟s appearance when the
addressee wears an elegant dress.
In interaction between sexes where the setting is the workplace, women are most likely to be inferior in status to the men with whom they interact. The compliment from person of upper to those who are in some sense their inferiors tends to be related to ability or performance more often than to appearance. For
example, a boss gives a compliment on his employee‟s good work when the addressee does his/ her job well.
The major function of compliment is to create or to maintain solidarity between interlocutors. Compliment generally serves a powerful device for mutual support and solidarity. It is used as a means to create and to reinforce good social
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relationship and hence solidarity and sympathy among people in a wide range of situations. The objects or actions complimented must be one which any member of the speech community will recognize as positive.
In particular occasion, a compliment may have social function to replace or to strengthen other speech act formulas, for instance, apologies, thanks, greetings, etc. They are often accompanied by a compliment. For examples:
1. “Thanks for the flowers. We really like them.”
2. “Great dinner. Thanks for having us.”
It can be seen as parts of expression gratitude.
Compliment can also be a means to soften criticism, particularly when the participants are in the relationship still want to continue and to maintain a social harmony. This compliment is usually combined with but or though. This
compliment such as “You‟re doing good job, but you put much time on it.” In this
case, the criticism is uttered in polite manner, since it is combined with the compliment. It indicates that the speaker wants to minimize the irritating effect of
the speaker‟s criticism.
Compliment may be used to modify the behavior of another has to do with sarcasm. In this case, a comment structured in the form of a compliment may quite easily be turned into a reprimand or even an insult. This kind of compliment is also called the left-handed compliment. For example, “You play a good game of tennis – for a woman.”
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The other function of compliment is as a spontaneous expression of admiration and/ or approval. The spontaneity and the newness are usually linked with the originality of expression.
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that a compliment may serve more than one function. It depends on many aspects. The types of compliments, status, age, sex of the participants, and the context or setting are some factors influencing the interpretation of compliments function. For example,
the utterance “You are so wonderful”, this compliment may be interpreted as admiration and as an expression of gratitude of the speaker.
4. Compliment Response Strategies
Noriko Ishihara also sums up several types of compliment responses according to Nelson, Al-Batal, & Echols (1996) and Herbert, (1990). The explanations are as follows:
A. Accept
o Appreciation Token (Thanks/Thank you)
o Comment Acceptance (Yeah, it‟s my favorite, too)
o Praise Upgrade (Really brings out the blue in my eyes, doesn‟t it?)
B. Mitigate
o Comment History (I bought it for the trip to Arizona)
o Shift credit (My brother gave it to me/It really knitted itself)
o Questioning or Request Reassurance/Repetition (Do you really like
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o Return (So‟s yours)
o Scale Down/Downgrade (It‟s really quite old)
C. Reject
o Disagreeing Utterance (A: You look good and healthy. B: I feel fat)
D. No Response
E. Request Interpretation
o Addressee interprets the compliment as a request: (You wanna
borrow this one too?)
(http://www.carla.umn.edu/cgi-bin/carla/anchor.pl?/speechacts/compliments/ref.)
G. Kinesics
Kinesics is the study of body motion. It is the technical term for all aspects of the silent language. All matters of interaction which are not carried out by actual words are under the study of kinesics.
Kinesics is the most obvious non-verbal communication form. The basic repertoires of kinesics are body motion, eye contact, facial expressions, smile, touching, and proxemics. Although humans share the same kinesics, each social group may have different rules in using its kinesics. It means that kinesics conveys specific meanings and many interpretations. They depend on its culture of each society. Different interpretations on the same repertoire of kinesics may cause misunderstanding and cross-cultural difficulties (Chaika, 1994: 123).
Some kinesics repertoires are as follows : a. Body Language
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Communication is not achieved by voice alone. In fact, it is difficult to talk without using body motion and expression. One example is the brief raising of eyebrows. It may have different emotional meaning to particular cultures. It may mean yes, indicate recognition, or express flirting. Eyebrows flirting also mean the disapproval of a particular behavior.
b. Smiles
The basic human repertoire for expression may be the same, but there is plenty of evidence showing that each culture modifies that repertoire. Smiling is one of the examples. There are many kinds of smiles in different ways for different purposes. There are friendly smiles, sly smiles, skeptical smiles, derisive, threatening, sick smiles, and grins. Some cultures demand a wide smile, teeth showing for greeting. Others greet people with close-mouthed or only narrowly open-lipped smiles. The situations that emerge smile and its kinds of smile are various from one culture to other.
c. Proxemics
Proxemics is the study of humankind‟s perception and use of space. In a
conversation, people have to know the correct patterns for their society by learning how near or far to stand from those with whom they are conversing. Normal distance between speakers varies from culture to culture and between subcultures of the same society. The amount of space one take gives messages about dominances.
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Within cultures, there are differences in eye contact between sexes, different age group, and status. In a common interaction, the subordinate person looks at the superior more than the superior looks at the subordinate. Looking to the superior is a way of getting approval, of gauging the effect they are having on the one whom they wish to please.
H. Theory of Film
Film is a kind of entertainment medium. The story of the film is a social phenomenon. The film is like a life-image acted by the characters on the screen.
Allen and Gomery state that the movies somehow reflect the desires, needs, fears and aspirations of a society at a given time (1993: 154). Movies are social representations. They derive their images and sounds, themes and stories ultimately from their social environment (1993: 158).
There is a close relationship between film and society. Allen and Gomery explain that the making of films has a social dimension for several reasons. Filmmakers are members of society, and are not less subject to social pressures and norms than anyone else. Furthermore, all filmmaking occurs within some social context (Allen & Gomery, 1993: 154). It is concluded that film is made by the society; it figures the life story of the society with the aim of entertaining and conveying messages to the society. In short, film production is a reflection of social phenomena.
As social representations, in fictional films, characters are given attitudes, gestures, sentiments, motivations, and appearance that are, in part at least, based
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on social roles and on general notions about how policeman, factory worker, debundante, mother, or husband is „supposed‟ to act (Allen & Gomery:1993:158).
Related to the above explanation, any kinds of films are the reflection of social life since they represent the norms, believes, values, and phenomena of the life. Life is depicted through the story, the characters, the setting, etc. What is on the film is something we face in the real life; therefore we understand that film reflects the aspects and ideology in the society.
I. Synopsis of the Film ‘The Holiday’
Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz), the owner of a prospering advertising firm that creates movie trailers, lives in Southern California. Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) writes the popular wedding column for London's Daily Telegraph and resides in a charming cottage in the English countryside. Though Iris and Amanda live 6,000 miles apart, they are in exactly the same place: Just before Christmas, Iris and Amanda decide to take a needed break from the men in their lives (played by Edward Burns and Rufus Sewell) — and neither is much in the mood for a nostalgic chorus of "Auld Lang Syne." Amanda, wanting to get out of town for the holidays, stumbles onto an internet site that specializes in home exchanges, and finds Iris' English cottage to be the perfect antidote to her troubles. On impulse, Amanda and Iris agree to crisscross continents and move into each other's homes for two weeks. Iris lands in Los Angeles on a spectacularly clear day warmed by the gusts of the seasonal Santa Ana winds. Not long after she arrives at Amanda's Brentwood home, she is befriended by Arthur (Eli Wallach),
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a noted screenwriter from Hollywood's Golden Era, and Miles (Jack Black), a film composer who works with Amanda's ex-boyfriend. In England, where it is anything but balmy, Amanda is just settling into the cozy solitude of the snow-covered Rose Hill Cottage, when Iris' handsome brother Graham (Jude Law) comes knocking at the cottage door. In an unexpected turn of events, both women discover that the best trips are the ones where you leave your baggage behind. Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures Present in association with Relativity Media, A Waverly Films Production, The Holiday starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach, Edward Burns and Rufus Sewell. The film is written and directed by Nancy Meyers. The producers are Nancy Meyers and Bruce A. Block and the executive producer is Suzanne Farwell. The director of photography is Dean Cundey ASC. The Holiday was released by Columbia Pictures on December 8, 2006.
J. Review of Related Study
A study about compliment has been done by previous researcher. This has been done by Nurharjanti (2005) in her thesis entitled The Use of Compliments as Positive Politeness Strategy in Speeches of Men and Women Characters in the
Film “Notting Hill”. This research is intended to describe the compliments of
women and men, to show the topics of compliments expression and to describe the function of compliments as positive politeness strategy.
The result of the study covered by the findings that women receive more compliments than men as their positive politeness strategy in language use.
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Therefore, women are linguistically more polite than men. There are three topics of compliments; appearances/ possession, performance/ skill/ abilities, and personality traits/ friendliness topics. The functions of the compliments are to increase and consolidate solidarity between interlocutors, to ease communication, to express positive evaluation/ admiration and to replace other speech act formulas.
A study about compliment has also been done by Sularsih (2005) in her thesis entitled “The Analysis of Compliments and Their Responses in the Film Entitled Never Been Kissed”. It describes the topics of the compliment used by the speaker through the dialog of the sequence and also describes the functions of each topic of the compliments in the film and figures out the responses launched by the addressees.
The results of the study show that there are two topics of the compliments namely the topic of appearance and the topic of ability. Each topic is divided into two types. Therefore, there are four topics of compliments, namely personal appearance, possession, general ability, and specific act ability. Furthermore, there are eight types of compliment functions: as social lubricant to create or maintain the rapport, as spontaneous expressions of admiration and or approval, as encouragement, to express the positive evaluation, to strengthen or even to replace other speech act formulas, to soften criticism, to modify the sarcasm. In her research, Sularsih applied eight of 12 types of compliment responses proposed by Herbert, namely: Appreciation token, Comment Acceptance-single, return, Scale down, Question, Disagreement, Qualification, and No Acknowledgment.
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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the researcher will present the research methodology. Research methodology deals with the method used in reaching the goals of the research. The goals of this research are to analyze the compliments expression in the dialog of the characters in the movie and the way the addressees respond to the compliments.
A. Type of Research
This research belongs to a descriptive qualitative method, since this research is objected to collect the data, to analyze the data and to draw conclusion. Surakhmad (1994:147) states that a descriptive method is a kind of research method using technique of searching, collecting, classifying, analyzing the data, interpreting them, and finally drawing conclusion.
Moreover, it is a qualitative research because this research aims at describing a non-statistical or descriptive data. Sutopo (2002: 35) states that in qualitative method, data were collected in the forms of words, sentences or pictures in which the meaning is more significant than numbers.
B. Data and Source of Data
Source of data refers to the subject from which the data are obtained (Arikunto, 2002:107). Data themselves may appear in the form of discourse,
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sentences, clauses, phrases or words which can be obtained from magazines, newspaper, books, etc (Subroto, 1992: 7).
In this research, the researcher employs the film entitled The Holiday as source of data. Meanwhile, the data in this research are the conversation containing speech act compliments employed by the characters in the film entitled The Holiday including oral and written form. The film is chosen since the characters in the film frequently employ speech act compliments.
C. Sample and Sampling Technique
In qualitative research, samples are not taken from the population since the selection is the intended to take the generalization of the population but to gain the depth of information of the field of study. According to Sutrisno Hadi, sample is a part of representation of the data being observed (1983: 112), whereas, sampling technique is the way used by the researcher to select the samples of the data (Hadi, 1983: 75).
A total sampling technique was employed to get the samples of data. Therefore, the researcher takes all the conversations containing compliments in
the film entitled “The Holliday”
D. Research Procedures
The research procedure functions to set up the direction in conducting the research. It contains a list of description of each steps conducted in the research. This research is conducted in the following steps:
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1. Replaying the VCD of the film entitled The Holliday several times. This step is conducted firstly to understand the whole story of the film.
2. Finding the subtitles of the film from the internet. (www.AllSubs.org). This step is conducted to make a transcript of film.
3. Identifying the speech act of giving and responding to compliments in the dialogues by giving marks.
4. Classifying the data to find the topics, the functions, and the responses to compliments.
5. Classifying the data of speech act compliments 6. Giving a code on each classified data.
7. Analyzing and interpreting data to answer the problem statements. 8. Drawing conclusion from the result of the analysis.
E. Technique of Analyzing Data
The collected data were analyzed by conducting the following steps:
1. Classifying the topics of compliments employed by the characters in the conversation of the film entitled The Holiday.
2. Describing the situational context of the speech act giving and responding to compliments.
3. Analyzing and interpreting the function of each compliment. 4. Analyzing the compliment responses
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CHAPTER IV
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
In the first chapter, it is clearly stated that the objectives of this research are to find out the topics, the functions, and responses to compliments in the speeches among characters in the film entitled The Holiday.
The most important part of the research is data analysis. The analysis is conducted in two subchapters. They are data analysis and discussion.
1. Data analysis is arranged as follows:
a. Description of context. It describes the context of situation and the participants of the dialog.
b. Analysis of compliment. It describes the topic of the compliment and the function of the compliment.
c. Analysis of compliment response. It describes the response to the compliment by the addressee.
2. Discussion. It discusses the result of the data analysis.
By considering the steps above, the researcher answers the problem statements of the research. The answers found in the analysis are drawn into the conclusion of the research.
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A.
Data Analysis
1. Topics of Appearance
The topic of appearance is divided into two: a. Personal Appearance
The topic of personal appearance deals with apparel or clothing and other aspects of personal appearance such as physical appearance. From all data, the topic of personal appearance is found in the compliment in which the speakers positively value the appearance. The physical appearance of the addressees usually deals with their apparel and personal trait. The data classifications are as follow:
Datum 10 1. Personal appearance
Arthur : I'm wondering why a beautiful girl like you would go to a stranger's house for her Christmas vacation and on top of that, spend Saturday night with an old cocker like me.
Iris : Well, I... I just wanted to get away from the people I see all the time. Well, not all the people. One person. I wanted to get away from one guy. An ex-boyfriend who just got engaged and forgot to tell me.
Description of Context
The conversation happens at Saturday night in a restaurant in Los Angeles. The participants are Arthur and Iris. Arthur is an old man who is wobbly walking, while Iris is a beautiful twenties girl. They just met each other at the street in the
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afternoon and then go for a dinner at night. So, it can be concluded that they are totally strange to each other.
In this part of story, Iris who just landed in Los Angeles is befriended with her new neighbor, Arthur. In her new place, she does not have a close friend except Arthur, so she intends to arrange a dinner with him who in fact is too old for being her dating partner. In the restaurant, they introduce themselves to each other. They share about their own life and their conversation runs pleasantly. Analysis of compliment
Iris is a beautiful young lady from English countryside. Meanwhile, Arthur is an old man who stays alone in his ancient Brentwood home. At that time, Iris gets in trouble with her adoring guy namely Jasper. Jasper betrays Iris‟s love, so that she feels desperate. She cannot control her emotion. She needs a holiday far away from her place. As a hint, she then decided to show off her charming cottage on the internet site that specializes in home exchanges. On impulse, Amanda, a
young lady who lives in Southern California, finds Iris‟s English Cottage to be her
suitable place to get a holiday. So both of them agree to crisscross continents and move into each other's homes for two weeks.
Iris lands in Los Angeles on a spectacularly clear day. Not long after she arrives at Amanda's Brentwood home, she is befriended by Arthur, an old man who is wobbly walking. Although they are still strange enough, but at Saturday night, they go for dinner in a restaurant, they are just like a couple who are dating on Christmas vacation.
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In this scene, Arthur shows his curiosity toward Iris, because according to him, it is unusual when a beautiful young lady goes to stranger‟s house in the Christmas vacation, and on top of that, spending Saturday night with an old cocker like him. In the dialog, Arthur employs compliment expression in his question toward Iris. As we know, compliment can be used in various ways, in this case, Arthur employs compliment in a form of interrogative sentence. He uses the adjective word „beautiful‟ to show his positive remark about Iris‟s good-looking face. The compliment has topic of appearance since the complimented
object refers to Iris‟s appearance.
Based on the explanation above, in fact Arthur feels curious and wants to know the reason why Iris wants to go dinner with an old man like him. However,
he does not want to offend Iris‟s feeling by his question. Thus, it can be concluded that the function of the compliment is to affirm solidarity and sympathy.
The addressee of the compliment is Iris. The response toward compliment is unexpressed acceptance. In this case, Amanda does not apparently respond to the compliment. However, her answer toward Arthur‟s question is recognized as acceptance to compliment and is unexpressed.
Datum 11 2. Personal Appearance
Olivia : You look like my Barbie. Amanda : Thanks.
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Description of Context
The conversation happens in Graham‟s home. The participants are Amanda and Olivia. Amanda is Graham‟s new girlfriend, while Olivia is
Graham‟s youngest daughter. She is about 4 years old. It is their first meeting, so that both participants have distant relationship.
In this part of story, it is the first time for Amanda coming to Graham‟s home. Graham introduces Amanda to his two daughters namely Olivia and Sophie. In the conversation, Olivia, the youngest, comments on Amanda‟s appearance and gives her a compliment due to her gorgeous appearance.
Analysis of compliment
Amanda is a beautiful lady working as the owner of a prosperous advertising company in Los Angeles, so it is not surprising that she always puts so much attention on her appearance. While, Olivia is a little girl who is still 4 years old in aged. As children do, Olivia loves to play Barbie. For her, Barbie is the best imagination of a beautiful woman looks like, with a perfect body, a nice dress and a beautiful face.
In this part of the story, Amanda intentionally visits Graham‟s house. Arriving at the doorway, she is surprised by the welcoming of two children in
Graham‟s house. Whereas, up to that time, Amanda does not know that her
boyfriend, Graham, already has two daughters, namely Sophie and Olivia. Before, Amanda feels disappointed, but then Graham gives her explanation so that she can understand Graham condition as a widower who had been left by the death of his wife two years ago.
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In this scene, Amanda comes to Graham‟s house with her attractive make-up on her face; she wears a skirt along with its matching coat, and also wears black high heels. She looks gorgeous. In this case, Olivia sees the beautiful
Amanda as a perfect woman. That‟s why; when Amanda removes her coat, spontaneously Olivia delivers compliment to Amanda by saying that she looks like her Barbie which has a perfect body, a dazzling dress, and a beautiful face. Based on the explanation, the compliment has topic of appearance, it deals with
personal appearance because the complimented object is Amanda‟s overall appearance. In this case, the function of Olivia‟s compliment is to express admiration or approval.
Amanda is the addressee of the compliment. Although she is still shocked by the welcoming of two little children in Graham‟s house, she recognizes the compliment worthy. Thus, she accepts Sophie‟s compliment by saying „thanks‟. We know that saying „thanks‟ can be identified as acceptance response toward compliment.
Datum 14 3. Personal Appearance
Olivia : I like your eye shadow. Amanda : Thank you.
Description of Context
The conversation above still takes place in Graham‟s house. The participants are Amanda and Olivia. Amanda is Graham new girlfriend, while
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Olivia is Graham‟s daughter. She is about 4 years old. It is their first meeting so both of them have distant relationship.
After having dinner together, Amanda is invited by Olivia to see her private room. She wants to show her special tent. Both participants lay under the tent. Amanda lays beside Olivia so they can look at each other face closely. Then, the conversation occurs. During the conversation, Olivia notices at Amanda‟s face and then she gives her compliment on her eye shadow.
Analysis of compliment
Amanda is a beautiful mature lady from Los Angeles. She has a beautiful face and perfect body. As women usually do, she always pays so much attention on her appearance. She makes up on her face and does some treatments to keep her appearance looking good.
In this scene, Amanda visits Graham house. She is welcomed by Graham‟s two daughters namely Olivia and Sophie. Just after dinner, Olivia, the youngest, invites Amanda to visit her private room. She wants to show her great tent which is located in the room. Being in her private room, Olivia lets Amanda lay under the tent. Amanda then lies beside Olivia so they can look each other face closely.
Olivia looks at Amanda‟s face deeply. She observes Amanda‟s eyes and finds the beautiful eye shadow around her eyes. Olivia delivers compliment to show her
admiration toward Amanda‟s eye shadow. Since the complimented object is
Amanda‟s eye shadow, it can be concluded that the compliment has topic of appearance, especially deals with the personal appearance. Here, Olivia supposes
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to be honest on delivering the compliment. Consequently, Olivia‟s compliment functions to express positive evaluation.
Amanda is the addressee of the compliment. She responds Olivia‟s compliment appropriately. She accepts Olivia‟s compliment by saying „thanks‟. It is concluded as acceptance.
Datum 16 4. Personal Appearance
Miles : Say, you look great, by the way. Iris : Thanks.
Miles : Really great.
Iris : Thanks, I'm feeling good. Description of Context
The conversation above takes place in movie-disc rental. The participants are Miles and Iris. Iris is a lady who just moves to Los Angeles in charge of home exchange with Amanda. Meanwhile, Miles is a new friend of her. They firstly met
at Amanda‟s Brentwood home. Miles is a film composer who works with
Amanda's ex-boyfriend. They have close relationship.
In that afternoon, Miles and Iris make appointment to meet up in the movie-disc rental. The conversation runs there. Iris firstly arrives there, and then looks for her own favorite movie-disc. Couple minutes later, Miles comes bringing two glasses of ice creams. He gives a glass for Iris and the other glass for
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classifications that can not be found on the data of this research. They are to soften criticism and to modify sarcasm.
3. The Responses to the Compliments
In analyzing the compliment response employed by the characters in the
film The Holiday, the researcher uses Herbert‟s classification of compliment
response. Most of the addressees respond to the compliment by accepting the compliment. Most of them accept the compliment by appreciation token, including verbal and nonverbal acceptance.
There are 12 data showing response of acceptance. They are data 01, 02, 07, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20. Based on the data 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, and
20, the addressees response to the compliment by saying „thank you‟. In the data
01, 02, 07, 10, and 17, the addressees response to the compliment by smiling which can be classified as acceptance. In this context, giving smile is a non verbal
language to represent the expression “thanks”. It is also a polite way to respond
the speaker‟s compliment and to avoid self praise of the addressee.
There are 7 data show that the addressee‟s response mitigation to the
compliment. On the data 03 and 13, the addressees mitigate the compliment by requesting reassurance. The addressees respond to the compliment by asking the
sincerity or the appropriateness of the speaker‟s compliment. On the data 05 and 09, the addressees mitigate the compliment by commenting on the history of the complimented object. Comment acceptance means that the addressees accept the complimentary force and offer a relevant comment on the complimented topic. On
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the data 04 and 08, the addressees mitigate the compliment by returning back the compliment to the speaker. In datum 06, the addressee mitigates the compliment
by down scaling the compliment. The addressee disagrees to the speaker‟s
compliment. The addressee considers that the complimented object is not worthy of praise.
On the data 15, the addressee shows no response to the compliment. It means that the addressees do not respond to the compliment although they actually hear or recognize the compliment.
The detail information can be seen in the table below.
Table 3. Responses to Compliments Datum
Number
Topics of Compliments
Responses
1 General Ability Acceptance
2 General Ability Acceptance
3 Possession Request reassurance
4 General Ability Return compliment back
5 General Ability Comment on the history of referent
6 General Ability Scale down the compliment
7 General Ability Acceptance
8 General Ability Return compliment back
9 Possession Comment on the history of referent
10 Personal Appearance Acceptance
11 Personal Appearance Acceptance
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13 Possession Request reassurance
14 Personal Appearance Acceptance
15 Specific Act Ability Give no acknowledgment/ no response
16 Personal Appearance Acceptance
17 General Ability Acceptance
18 Personal Appearance Acceptance
19 Specific Act Ability Acceptance
20 Personal Appearance Acceptance
Table 3 shows the responses of the addressees toward the compliment. The addressees respond to the compliments in various ways. In responding the compliments, most of he addressees accept the compliments. There are 12 data show acceptance responses, including verbal and nonverbal acceptance. There are 2 data showing that the addresses respond to the compliment by commenting on history of the complimented object. There is a datum using the response of down scaling to response the compliment. There is 2 data using the response of requesting assurance. There is a datum showing that the addressee does not response to the compliment. There are 2 data show that the addressees respond to compliment by returning the compliment back to the speaker.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION A. Conclusion
The conclusion is drawn based on the results of the data analysis as the answers to the problem statements. The conclusions are as follows:
1. Using Wolfson’s classification, the characters in the film The Holiday apply two topics of compliments, namely the topic of appearance and topic of ability. Each topic is divided into two types. The topic of appearance is divided into personal appearance and possession, while the topic of ability is divided into general ability and specific-act ability. Therefore, there are four topics of compliments that are employed by the characters in the film The Holiday. The topics are personal appearance (30%), possession (15%), general ability (45%), and specific-act ability (10%).
2. Based on the data analysis, the four topics of compliments (personal
appearance, possession, general ability, and specific act ability) have
many functions in accordance with Wolfson’s classifications of the
compliment function. Each compliment provides its own function. Datum 10 functions to affirm solidarity and sympathy (5%). Data 11, 13, 16, 18, 20 function to express spontaneous expression of admiration and approval to the interlocutors (25%). Data 04, 08, 09, 14, and 19 function to express positive evaluation (25%). Data 03, 05, and 06 function to
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create or maintain rapport (15%). Data 01, 07, 15, and 19 function to encourage the addressees (20%). Data 02 and 12 function to strengthen
or to replace other speech act formulas (10%). From the eight Wolfson’s
classifications of the functions of compliment, there are three Wolfson’s
classifications that cannot be found on the data. They are to soften
criticism, and to modify the sarcasm.
3. The addressees respond to the compliments in various ways. In
responding the compliments, most of he addressees accept the compliments. The response acceptance of the compliment includes verbal and non verbal acceptance. There are 6 data including verbal
appreciation token. The addressees deliver the word “thanks” to respond
to the speaker’s compliment. Moreover, there are 6 data including
nonverbal acceptance. The addressees only smile and keep silence when
they respond to the compliment. In this context, the addressee’s smile
and silence are interpreted as a simple acceptance of the compliments. There are two data showing that the addresses respond to the compliment by commenting on history of the complimented object. The addressees accept the compliment and offer a relevant comment on the compliment. There is a datum using the response of down scaling to response the compliment. It means that the addressee disagrees to the compliment or feels that the complimented object is not worthy of praise. There is two data using the response of requesting assurance. It means that the addressees response the compliment by questioning the
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appropriateness of the compliment. There are two data show that the addressees respond to compliment by returning the compliment back to the speaker. There is a datum showing that the addressee does not response to the compliment. In this case, the addressee gives no indication of having heard the compliment.
B. Suggestion
There are still many cases on the study of compliments. It is suggested to other researchers who are interested in Pragmatic study to conduct a research and it focuses on the same point about the compliments that is depicted in other movies or other literary works. It is also possible for other researchers to conduct further analysis of compliments from different interesting point of views such as
the analysis of compliment’s structure and its vocabulary. Thus, the researcher hopes that this research also gives a contribution and new ideas to the students in studying the speech act of compliments.