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REPRESENTATIVE ILLOCUTIONARY ACT

IN BRUCE ALMIGHTY AND CAPTAINAMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

BY

Made Artadi Gunawan

English Department Faculty of Arts, Udayana University

Abstrak

Hal-hal yang dibahas pada studi ini adalah penjelasan kondisi tutur dan komponen tindak tutur terhadap jenis representatif ilokusi yang ditemukan dalam film “Bruce Almighty” dan “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”. Jenis representatif ilokusi yang ditemukan diklasifikasi dan dianalisa berdasarkan teori yang dikemukakan oleh Searle (1976). Teori lain yang digunakan untuk memperkuat analisa adalah dan komponen tindak tutur oleh Austin (1962).

Hasil yang ditunjukkan pada studi ini adalah terdapat enam jenis representatif ilokusi yang ditemukan pada kedua film. Keenam jenis tersebut adalah “swearing”, “threatening”, “complaining”, “insisting”, “claiming”, dan “hypothesizing”. Kemudian, dilanjutkan dengan penjelasan kondisi tutur dan komponen tindak tutur dari enam jenis tindakan representatif ilokusi yang ditemukan.

Kata kunci : representatif ilokusi, kondisi tutur, komponen tindak tutur

  • 1.    Background of the Study

Various groups have a different way or manner in using speech. Therefore, a consideration is required regarding to how the speaker organizes what they intend to say. This perspective then raises question of what determines between the said and the unsaid. Then, Pragmatics which closely linked to speech acts emerged to resolve the problem within the phenomenon. Bruce Almighty and Captain America: The Winter Soldier was the data source which contain unique utterances referred to the necessity in representative illocutionary act study.

  • 2.    Problems

The formulated problems in this study are as follows;

  • a)    What types of representative illocutionary acts are found in the Bruce Almighty and Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie?

  • b)    What are the speech conditions and component of speech acts of illocutions

found in the movies?

  • 3.    Aims

The specific aims correspond the formulated problem as follows;

  • a)    To identify and classify types of representative illocutionary acts found in the movies of Bruce Almighty and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

  • b)    To explain the speech condition and component of speech acts of the illocutions found in the movies.

  • 4.    Research Method

In this study, the data were obtained from various utterances in the dialogue of both movie scripts. The documentation method was applied to collect the data and the data analyzed using descriptive qualitative method since the data described based on certain theories and the data were considered as qualitative or in form of word or utterances which referred to certain definition or meaning.

  • 5.    Result and Discussion

Six types of representative illocutionary act proposed by Searle (1976) were found in both movies. However, there was no finding of swearing in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The findings are presented as follows;

  • a)    Swearing

Searle (1976:10) stated that representative illocutionary can be assessed by the true or false category. In the following example, the character named Phil in that particular situation affirmed that he never saw the marijuana in his van was the case and it was true which indicates the swearing.

BRUCE: (…) I’d call that a red-letter day for any K-9 unit, but was that enough for old Hank here? No, sirree. Moments later, he busted a local news camera crew with 220 pounds of marijuana. (Police officers arrested Phil and crew. At the particular time, Phil’s van was full of marijuana)

PHIL: I never saw it before, I swear!

The utterance “I never saw it before, I swear!” can be classified into swearing by looking at the syntactical choices. The word “swear” was used by the speaker in delivering the utterance. By looking at the preparatory condition,

there was a truth that previously in Phil’s van, there was no marijuana that made him as the speaker say the swearing utterance. Then, by looking the sincerity condition, the speaker felt highly convinced toward the utterance. And last, the essential condition made Phil affirmed that the police should not arrest him.

Based on Austin’s (1962:94) component of speech acts, the locution or the linguistic properties of the utterance was the utterance is imperative form. The illocution or the speaker’s intention of the utterance was in this context of situation; Phil intended to prove something true that he did not bring the marijuana. The perlocution or the effect on the hearer was the police noticed that Phil committed a crime and began to arrest Phil (speaker) because of the marijuana in his car.

  • b)    Threatening

The following is the example of threatening in Bruce Almighty;

(Then, Bruce noticed a poor homeless man that he saw previously was disturbed by the gangster. They saw the homeless man held a board which contained writing “ARE YOU BLIND”. The Gangster seemed annoyed with that and started to disturb him.)

GANGSTER: Do I look blind to you? Do I look blind to you? (Chattering on a homeless man)

BRUCE: Hey.

The following is the example of threatening in Captain America: The winter Soldier;

PIERCE: Captain, somebody murdered my friend and I’m gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they’re gonna regret it. Anyone.

ROGERS: Understood.

The utterance “Do I look blind to you?”, can be classified into threatening. By looking the preparatory condition, it can be seen that in the utterance there was the truth that the homeless man showed his writing to people around him and made one member of the gangster said the threatening utterance. The sincerity condition was the speaker felt highly convinced with the utterance. The essential condition was; the utterance made by the speaker committed him to state his intention to take very unfriendly or aggressive action and ready to argue or fight

against the homeless man in severe punishments for his writing. The locution of the utterance was the utterance was interrogative in form. The illocutionary of the utterance was the gangster intended to harm the homeless man. The perlocution of the utterance was the homeless man avoided the accident that would happened to him by not showing an offensive attempt.

Moreover, the utterance “Anyone gets in my way, they’re gonna regret it. Anyone.” Was a threatening with preparatory condition of the utterance can be assessed by looking at the truth that Fury was died that made Pierce said the utterance. The sincerity condition was that Pierce felt highly convinced with his utterance and the essential condition made him state his intention to take very unfriendly or aggressive action and ready to argue or fight against Rogers. The locution was the utterance was declarative in form and it was defamatory. The illocution was Pierce as the speaker intended to harm anyone that got in his way. The perlocution was Rogers accepted his threat.

  • c)    Complaining

The following is an example of complaining in Bruce Almighty:

GRACE: Thank God you’re all right.

BRUCE: God. Yeah. Let’s thank God. Shall we? For his blessings are raining down upon me. Wait! That’s not rain!

The following is an example of complaining in Captain America;

ROGERS: I can’t lead a mission when the people I’m leading have missions of their own.

FURY: It’s called compartmentalization. Nobody spills the secrets, because nobody knows them all.

The utterance “Wait! That’s not rain!” emerged with the accident that happened to Bruce that made him said the complaining utterance as the preparatory condition. His believed in the truth of the proposition was the sincerity condition. The utterance said by Bruce committed him expressed or showed his dissatisfaction toward Grace. The locution was the utterance which was imperative. The illocution was; Bruce intended to disagree with Grace’s utterance. The perlocution was Grace who tried to calm him down but everything was turned into a big fight.

Moreover, the utterance “I can’t lead a mission when the people I’m leading have missions of their own.” came with the truth that Romanoff operated another mission that made Rogers say the complaining utterance. Rogers believed the proposition. The utterance uttered committed him to show his dissatisfaction to Fury who gave Romanoff command to do another mission. The locution was the utterance was declarative in form. The illocution was Rogers felt not satisfied towards Fury. The perlocution was Fury convinced Rogers that everything was fine during the mission.

  • d)    Insisting

The following is an example of insisting in Bruce Almighty:

BRUCE: No. That’s fine. Thank you.

ZOE: It’s tomato. I made it myself.

BRUCE: Okay.

The following is an example of insisting in Captain America:

AGENT: Oh my God. Pierce is gonna kill me.

ROGERS: What then?

AGENT: Then the helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time.

In utterance “It’s tomato. I made it myself.” there was a truth that the Zoe really made the new special soup that made her say the insisting utterance. She believed the utterance. The utterance committed the speaker make Bruce agreed to accept her offering especially when Bruce was rejecting the offer. The locution was the utterance was declarative in form. The illocution was Zoe intended to make Bruce accept her offering. The perlocution was Bruce appreciated Zoe.

In The utterance “What then?” there was the truth that the Chief Agent mastered the secret of Zola’s Algorithm which was made Rogers say the insisting utterance. The speaker Rogers believed the expressed proposition. Lastly, the utterance committed the speaker Rogers to say a very firm request for the algorithm and made the Chief Agent agreed to tell the secret about Zola’s algorithm. The locution of the utterance was interrogative in form. The illocution was Rogers intended to force the Agent to not making any distraction toward his question. The perlocution was the Agent decided to tell everything they need in order to keep him save.

  • e)    Claiming

The following is an example of claiming in Bruce Almighty:

GRACE: We are having a blood drive.

BRUCE: Creepy. Needles. Yuck.

The following is an example of claiming in Captain America:

ROGERS: Thanks.

RUMLOW: Yeah. You seemed pretty helpless without me. (Then, they continued their missions to recue hostages.)

In the utterance “Creepy. Needles. Yuck.” there was the truth that Grace will be participated the blood-drive activity that made Bruce said the claiming utterance. Bruce believes in the proposition. The utterance made the speaker Bruce committed to say that the blood-drive activity was truly creepy and unnecessary. The locution of the utterance was declarative in form. The illocution of the utterance was Bruce intended to say that the blood drive was not a good activity. The perlocution was that Grace laughed at Bruce and told him that was being said by him was not true.

In the utterance “You seemed pretty helpless without me.” there was the truth that the Rumlow helped Rogers when he was in danger that made Rumlow say the claiming utterance. The speaker felt believe in the proposition. The utterance made the speaker committed to say that the hearer was helpless without his help. The locution of the utterance was declarative in form. The illocution of the utterance Rumlow intended to say that Rogers could be died if he was not helping him at that time. The perlocution Rogers admitted that he could be in danger if there was no help from Rumlow.

  • f)    Hypothesizing

The following is an example of hypothesizing in Bruce Almighty:

GRACE: Helpful and lifesaving?

BRUCE: No. It’s your blood. It’s blood. Blood’s supposed to stay inside the body. That’s where is meant to be.

The following is an example of hypothesizing in Captain America:

ROGERS: Need a medic?

WILSON: (LAUGHS) I need a new set of lungs. Dude, you just ran, like, 13 miles in 30 minutes (EXHAUSTED).

In the utterance “No. It’s your blood. It’s blood. Blood’s supposed to stay inside the body. That’s where it’s meant to be.” there was the truth that Grace will be participated the blood-drive activity that made Bruce said the hypothesizing. The speaker felt no doubt towards the proposition. The utterance committed speaker to theorize something in his own perspective. The locution of the utterance was that; the utterance was declarative in form. The illocution of the utterance was that; Bruce intended to persuade Grace to cancel her blood drive activity. The perlocution of the utterance was that; Grace was not affected by Bruce’s statement.

In the utterance “Need a medic?” there was the truth that Wilson felt very exhausted after a long run that made the speaker Rogers said the hypothesizing utterance. The speaker believes in the proposition. The utterance committed the speaker to suggest an assumption through a question to the hearer that he needed a medic. The locution of the utterance was interrogative in form. The illocution of the utterance was Rogers intended to create assumption towards Wilson’s condition. The perlocution was Wilson gave a sarcastic answer towards Roger’s question.

  • 6.    Conclusion

All types of representative illocutionary act found in Bruce Almighty. Meanwhile, there is no finding of swearing in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The most frequent types occurred in Bruce Almighty are complaining and claiming due to the influence of main character’s habitual action which tend to complain and claim a lot to what happened in his life. Meanwhile, threatening was the most frequent type occurred in Captain America: The Winter Soldier due to the number of antagonist characters that have a tendency to deliver the threatening utterance. Lastly, “swearing”, “threatening”, “complaining”, “insisting”, “claiming” and “hypothesizing” are the types or the illocutionary verbs that used to mark the function of the representative illocutionary acts.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Austin, J.L., 1962. How to do Things with Words. (cited 2014 October 18th). Available from: http://komm.bme.hu/wp-content/uploads.

Koren, Steve & O’Keefe, Mark. Bruce Almighty. Film Script. 2002. (Cited 2014 March 27th)   Available from:

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Bruce-Almighty.html.

Leech, Geoffrey. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.

Mcfeely, Stephen & Markus, Chirstoper. Captain America: The Winter Soldier. 2014. (Cited 2014 October    19th).    Available from:

http://springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie-script.php?movie=captain-america-the-winter-soldier.

Oishi, Etsuko. 2006. Austin’s Speech Act Theory and The Speech Situation. Esercizi Filosofici, 1 (cited 2014 October 27th). Available from: www.units.it/eserfilo/art106/oishi.pdf.

Schiffrin, Deborah. 1994. Approaches to Discourse. Cambridge: Blackwell Science.

Searle, John R. 1976. A Classification of Illocutionary Acts. Language in Society Vol. 5 No.1 (cited 2014 October 18th). Available from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4166848.