Illocutionary Acts in President Joe Biden’s Speech
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https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/linguistika/
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24843/ling.2022.v29.i01.p07
LINGUISTIKA, MARET 2022
p-ISSN: 0854-9613 e-ISSN: 2656-6419
Vol. 29 No.1
Illocutionary Acts in President Joe Biden’s Speech
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1,2English Department, Faculty of Language and Communication, Universitas Harapan Medan, Indonesia e-mail: 1[email protected] , 2[email protected]
Abstract--This article aimed to specify the kinds of illocutionary acts and defined the existence of illocutionary acts and their meaning in a speech to discover the outcomes of the maximum dominant kinds of illocutionary acts in President Joe Biden's speech. The research method used in completing this research becomes the descriptive qualitative method. In studying the data, the theory of Searle (1979) becomes used to determine the illocutionary act category of the speaker utterances. The tool used in collecting and analyzing the information was the speech video of President Joe Biden and the script acquired from the internet. The result of this research confirmed that there was 41 information and the researcher observed five types of the illocutionary act by using Searle’s theory in President Joe Biden’s speech which are assertive, directive, commisive, expressive, and declarative. The most dominant was assertive illocutionary act that implies stating, announcing, reporting, assertion, claiming, telling, informing, assuring, complaining, and concluding.
Keywords : Pragmatics; speech act; illocutionary act; speech
Abstrak--Artikel ini bertujuan untuk merinci jenis-jenis tindak ilokusi dan mendefinisikan keberadaan tindak ilokusi dan maknanya dalam sebuah pidato untuk menemukan hasil dari jenis-jenis tindak ilokusi yang paling dominan dalam pidato Presiden Joe Biden. Metode penelitian yang digunakan dalam menyelesaikan penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif kualitatif. Dalam mempelajari data, teori Searle (1979) digunakan untuk menentukan kategori tindak ilokusi penutur tuturan. Alat yang digunakan dalam mengumpulkan dan menganalisis informasi adalah video pidato Presiden Joe Biden dan naskah yang diperoleh dari internet. Hasil penelitian ini menegaskan bahwa ada 41 informasi dan peneliti mengamati lima jenis tindak ilokusi dengan menggunakan teori Searle dalam pidato Presiden Joe Biden yaitu asertif, direktif, komisif, ekspresif, dan deklaratif. Yang paling dominan adalah tindak ilokusi asertif yang mengandung makna menyatakan, mengumumkan, melaporkan, menegaskan, mengklaim, menceritakan, menginformasikan, meyakinkan, mengeluh, dan menyimpulkan.
Kata Kunci : Pragmatik; tindak tutur; tindak ilokusi; pidato
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Language is a human verbal communication tool that is traditionally used by speakers to express something in order for other people or individuals to understand what they want to say. (Marzuki, 2016 ; Marzuki, 2019) in Haucsa et al., (2020: 1) states by using language, people will be able to share and express their ideas, thoughts, and feelings. So, the listener is needed to efficiently interpret the speaker's utterances to apprehend the speaker's supposed means because the failure to determine the right meaning can cause misunderstanding.
Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics that examines how the meaning of language is modified depending on the circumstances. Semantics is also a study of meaning, but its significance is context-free, which implies that the speech does not depend on the situation in which it is said. The researcher analyzes using pragmatic theory because pragmatics examines the speaker's intention which is explicitly or implicitly behind an utterance. Yule (1996: 3) cited in Mufiah & Rahman (2018: 2) “Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning”. It has for that reason extra to do with the evaluation of what people suggest by their utterances than what the terms or phrases in those utterances may want to imply thru themselves. It implies that language is a way of involving individuals in activities in order for them to communicate. Pragmatics has a branch, namely speech act which is useful for reading the use of words and their meanings in communication.
Language is not just used to talk or communicate something; it may additionally be used to do something or affect a person. Yule (1996: 47) in Mufiah & Rahman (2018: 2) states that speech acts are actions that are carried out through speech. Speech acts are defined in linguistic analysis as what individuals do when they utter words. According to the notion, humans generate an utterance as a type of action. Wijana (2021: 1) explains about speech acts are classified into three: locutionary,illocutionary, and perlocutionary. The first is concerned with the act
of expressing something, the second with the act of doing something, and the third with the act of impacting someone.
In this research, the researcher does not discuss speech acts in general, but instead focuses more on analysis of illocutionary acts as a type of speech acts. Illocutionary acts are crucial to comprehending speech acts since each action has a specific purpose and function. Searle (1979) classified 5 well-known classes of illocutionary acts. Assertive about providing an understanding of the situation in humans, Directive about making a situation where other people do something, Commisive about dedication to do something, Expressive about conveying things inside oneself such as feelings and attitudes, and Declaration about a change that occurs in the world due to our words.
Maulidiyah et al., (2021: 2) states that everyone has the capability of making statements, offers, and explanations for various communication purposes including in the field of politics. In the area of politics, speech acts are employed to advantage political assist. In this regard, it is apparent that uttering the speech act may be politicians' political acts, which can be channeled up through language.
America, or officially the United States of America (USA) is a superpower whose actions influence the whole world. America ranks #1 in the 2021 Military Strength Ranking based on Global Firepower (GFP). America's influence extends not only to the military but also to the economy, culture, and foreign policy. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., also known as Joe Biden, is an American politician and the current President of the united states. On his centesimal day as President of the united states, he delivered several remarks in his first address to the joint Congress on April 28, 2021. For example, he said in his speech "Now, after just 100 days, I can report to the nation: America is on the move again; turning peril into possibility, crisis to opportunity, setbacks into strength."
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From his statement, “America is on the move again” we can know that it means he reported to the country about his performance during his 100 days as America’s President that he made America better by turning danger into possibility, crisis into opportunity and setbacks into strength. In line with Searle's taxonomy of illocutionary acts, ‘report’ belongs to the assertive type. We will conclude that illocutionary acts occur within the speech. So, the researcher believes that it is important to analyze speech acts contained in the presidential speech, particularly illocutionary acts because they play important role in studying the hidden meanings in President Joe Biden's speech to avoid misunderstanding of the speech. President Joe Biden as President of America where America is a superpower, so his speech as a leader can influence other countries. As a result, being able to grasp the context is critical in understanding the meaning of a speech. This research will focus on understanding the meaning in speech so that it can be understood as a complete message to be conveyed precisely and accurately.
This research will be conducted by using descriptive qualitative method used (Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña 2014)’s theory to determine the types of illocutionary acts and described the existence of illocutionary acts and their meaning in speech to find the results of the most dominant types of illocutionary acts in President Joe Biden's speech. The following steps that were required in collecting the data as followed : (1) searching the video of speech and its transcript from the internet, (2) watching and downloading the video of President of the United States, Joe Biden, (3) reading and observing the entire transcript, (4) choosing the illocutionary acts on the transcript, and (5) grouping the utterances according to the types of illocutionary acts by Searle (1979).
In this research, the source of the data used the video and transcript of the speech by President Joe Biden. As the object of the analysis is that, a
speech become delivered by The President of America, Joe Biden on his first state of the Union address on April 28, 2021. The transcript was taken from site The White House and The New York Times. There was also the full video of him delivering the speech could see on CNBC Television. The data are the words found in the speech and analyze the use of the speech act theory proposed by Searle.
Inline with (Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña 2014), in analyzing this research, the researcher organized the data into three parallel flows of activity: (1) data condensation, (2) data display, and (3) conclusion drawing/verification.
The researcher analyzed the kinds of illocutionary acts done by President Joe Biden in his speech and categorized the data into 5 kinds of illocutionary acts. those five kinds are assertive, directives, commisives, expressive and declarative. The data analysis example is provided as observe:
Assertive is a type of speech act that the speaker performs on the facts of the proposition that is expressed and thus gives a truth value. They express the speaker's beliefs such as state, report, conclude, claim, and assert. In acting this speech act, the speaker reflects the world as he believes, for that reason making the words according to the world of perception.
Example;
“Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President, no President has ever said those words from this podium. No President has ever said those words, and it’s about time.” (Assertives of stating)
The speaker wanted to state the truth that he is now the president of the United States and that is the first time in history that a lady has become the vice-chairman of America.
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The directive is a kind of speech act that reflects the speaker's try to get the other individual to do something. They express the speaker's desire for the recipient to do something such as commands, requests, questions, advice, and orders. By using this type, the speaker aims to get some future action on the part of the recipient, thus making the world fit the words of the receiver. Example ;
“After 100 days of rescue and renewal, America is ready for takeoff, in my view. We’re working again, dreaming again, discovering again, and leading the world again. We have shown each other and the world that there’s no quit in America, none.” (Directives of requesting)
The speaker wants the American people to unite and start working, dreaming, discovering and leading the world back together to prove that America is invincible.
Commissive is a kind of speech act that hyperlinks the speaker to movement within the future. They specific the peaker's cause for doing something, which includes denials, threats, gives promises, and pledges. In the case, the world is suited for words via the speaker himself or herself. Example ;
“After I promised we’d get 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots into people’s arms in 100 days, we will have provided over 220 million COVID shots in those 100 days.” (Commisives of promising)
The speaker promises to provide more COVID-19 vaccination shots.
Expressive is a type of speech act that expresses the conduct or mental state of the speaker, such as praising, thanking, congratulating, blaming, and apologizing.
Example ;
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good to be back. And Mitch and Chuck will understand it’s good to be almost home, down the hall. Anyway, thank you all.” (Expressives of thanking)
The speaker wanted to show his thankful expression to greet the audiences. He feel honored to be back and give a speech for the first time in joint-congress as President of America.
Declarative is a type of speech act that, under certain current circumstances, causes an immediate change. By using the setting on this type of performance, speakers bring about the exchange in the world; that is, carry out world-appropriate responses and propositional content, the appointment of candidates, former communications, the opening of bridges, dismissals, and declarations of war. As for the direction of adjustment, it is as much the words to the world as the world to the words.
Example ;
“It’s never, ever, ever been a good bet to bet against America and it still isn’t. We are the United States of America. There is not a single thing — nothing, nothing beyond our capacity. We can do whatever we set our mind to if we do it together. So let’s begin to get together.” (Declaration)
The speaker stated in his speech for the first time joining congress as the new President of America that America can not be defeated and overthrown because of their strong unity.
The data in this finding section were the types of illocutionary acts which found after reading speech transcript and watching the video by using John Searle theory. The researcher also presented the most dominant sentence of the illocutionary act in diagram table. The result of this research showed the researcher found 5 types of illocutionary acts, there were: 20 Assertives, 11 Directives, 3 Commisives, 6 Expressives and 1 Declaration.
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As the result of analyzing the illocutionary act that is found in Joe Biden speech we can identify the most dominant types of illocutionary acts, by using Nawawi’s formula in Wardana et al., (2019). The formula is :
X = × 100%
X = The percentage of illocutionary act discovered in the speech
Y = The number of illocutionary act that had been analyzed
N = The total of illocutionary act that had been found
Tabel 1. Illocutionary Acts discovered in President Joe Biden’s Speech
|
Illocutionary acts |
Number of illocutionary acts |
Formula |
Percentage |
|
Assertive |
20 |
20 — χioo% 41 |
48,79% |
|
Directive |
11 |
11 — χioo% 41 |
26,83% |
|
Commisive |
3 |
3 — x 100⅞ 41 |
7,31% |
|
Expressive |
6 |
6 — χioo% 41 |
14,64% |
|
Declaration |
1 |
1 — X 100% 41 |
2,43% |
|
Total |
41 |
100% |
The calculation from the table adduces that there were five kinds of the illocutionary act with 41 (forty-one) findings in President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address on April 28, 2021, with the classification, 20 (twenty) Assertives sentence (48,79%), included 5 statings, 1 announce, 3 reporting, 3 assertions, 1 claiming, 2 tellings, 1 informing, 2 assuring, 1 complaining, and 1 concluding. 11 (eleven) Directives sentence (26, 83%), included 3 requesting, 2 commanding, 1 advising, 4 askings, and 1 warning. 3 (three) Commisives sentence (7,31%), included 1 promising, 1 pledging, and 1
commiting. 6 (six) Expressives sentence (14,64%), included 5 thanking and 1 greeting. And 1 (one) Declarative sentence (2,43%), included 1 declaration.
Diagram 1. Illocutionary Acts discovered
From the calculation above, the assertive category is the most dominant kind of illocutionary acts done in President Joe Biden’ s speech that's 48,79% covered 5 statings, 1 announce, 3 reporting, 3 assertions, 1 claiming, 2 tellings, 1 informing, 2 assuring, 1 complaining, and 1 concluding.
Based totally on data analysis, some essential conclusions have been made. So, the conclusion of the research is: The kinds of the illocutionary act which are found in President Joe Biden’s speech are 5 specifically assertive, directives,
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commisive, expressive, and declarative. The existence of illocutionary acts in speech is indicated through indicators together with examples of assertive types approximately a reality so that in every speech we should examine the words that state the reality together with pointing out, affirming, and so on. Assertive is the most dominant form of illocutionary acts done in President Joe Biden’ s speech with 20 records covered 5 mentionings, 1 announce, 3 reporting, 3 statement, 1 claiming, 2 tellings, 1 informing, 2 assuring, 1 complaining, and 1 concluding. 5.
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