DIRECT AND INDIRECT ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS FOUND IN “THE ALCHEMIST” NOVEL BY PAULO COELHO
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DIRECT AND INDIRECT ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS
FOUND IN “THE ALCHEMIST” NOVEL
BY PAULO COELHO
By
AMINANTY PUSPITA ANGGRAINI
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
ABSTRAK
Tindak tutur ilokusi adalah dimensi kedua dari tiga tindak tutur yang dicetuskan oleh Austin dalam buku yang berjudul How to do the Things with words. Menurut Austin, tindak ilokusi adalah ujaran yang memiliki makna tertentu dan merupakan pusat dari pengertian tindak tutur itu sendiri. Tindak tutur bisa dibagi menjadi dua bagian, yaitu tindak tutur langsung yang memiliki makna sebenarnya selain itu ada tindak tutur tidak langsung yang maknanya memiliki makna tersembunyi. Oleh karna itu suatu ujaran bisa dikatakan langsung maupun tidak langsung tergantung dari konteks situasi yang terjadi pada saat itu dan dilakukan oleh orang-orang terlibat dalam suatu percakapan. Sumber data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah dari novel The Alchemist yang ditulis oleh Paulo Coelho. Dalam analisis ini ada sepuluh percakapan yang diambil dari novel sebagai data yang dianalisis. Lima percakapan sebagai tindak tutur secara langsung dan lima data lainnya sebagai tindak tutur secara tidak langsung. Setelah itu sepuluh data tersebut dianalisis berdasarkan konteks situasi yang terjadi dalam percakapan.
Kata Kunci: TindakTuturIlokusi, TindakTuturLangsungdanTidakLangsung, KonteksSituasi.
People convey information and express something to those who they address. A person has a certain purpose and the result of the communication depends on the recognition of the purpose by the hearer. This is why language is very important for human life and it is one of the human characteristics. The ability of the people in communicating each other is different. It does not only need the understanding of the utterances but also the comprehension of the implicit meaning of those utterances. Speech acts are the acts of communications, proposed by Austin (1962, in Lyons 1995:725). In term of “illocutionary”, it is divided into two parts, direct and indirect
illocutionary acts. This study focuses on direct and indirect illocutionary acts used by the characters and the participants in the novel The Alchemist written by Paulo Coelho.
Based on the background, these are the problems:
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1. What direct and indirect illocutionary acts are found in The Alchemist novel by Paulo Coelho?
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2. How does the context of situation influence the responses of the hearer when uttering the direct and indirect illocutionary acts?
Based on the problems above, the aims of the study are as follows:
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1. To identify direct and indirect illocutionary acts found in The Alchemist novel by Paulo Coelho.
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2. To analyze the influence of the context of situations on the responses of the hearer when uttering the direct and indirect illocutionary acts.
The primary data source in this study was taken from the novel entitled The Alchemist which is a symbolic novel. The story was chosen because The Alchemist was a kind book of a story that inspires the readers to follow their dreams. The conversations mostly talked about the main character who met people in his journey.
The method of collecting the data was library research in which there were no any informants and respondents. The data were in the form of a novel.
The collected data of this study were analyzed using qualitative method based on the theory of illocutionary acts types proposed by Searle (1969) and context of situation by Hymes (1972). And the data were analyzed descriptively to explain the illocutionary act types, direct and indirect speech acts and context of situation of each data.
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5. The Analysis of Direct and Indirect Illocutionary Acts Found in “The Alchemist” Novel by Paulo Coelho
5.1 Synopsis of the Novel
This novel tells about a magical story of Santiago, a shepherd boy that has a dream that will find a hidden treasure if he travels to the Egyptian pyramids.
“What are they doing?” the old man asked, pointing at the people in the plaza. “working” the boy answered dryly, making it look as if he wanted to concentrate his reading.
(page 16-17)
The boy wanted to tell the old man that it was the truth of the condition by stating it directly that has literal meaning and using assertive illocutionary act. Those eight elements that influence the reaction of the hearer were the setting and act sequences because the boy was sitting in the bench of plaza while he was reading his book suddenly there was the old man as a stranger trying to strike up the conversation with the boy. The norms of the conversation also emphasized the boy to the old man that was not good disturbing someone’s business.
“But I’d like to see the castles in the towns where they live,” the boy explained.
“Those people, when they see our land, say that they would like to live here forever,” his father continued.
“Well, I’d like to see their land and see how they live,” said his son.
(Page 8-9)
The utterance that the boy said in the first utterance means that he stated to his father that he wanted to see the castles in the towns where there is someone living in another country. And also the second sentence means that he wanted to make sure his father and emphasized his desire to see how people live in another country. It means that the boy uttered his meaning directly and has literal meaning to his father
by stating directives. The eight elements that influenced the reaction of the hearer were the setting and scene and ends because the boy was on his visit to the family and talked with his father to convey his meaning to be a shepherd. The participant and keys also influenced how the boy, as the hearer, responded to his father’s statement because he was talking with his father then he emphasized his tone and manner to make sure his father.
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5.2.3 Commissive
“Let’s go and have some lunch,” said the crystal merchant.
When they had eaten, the merchant turned to the boy and said,
“I’d like you to work in my shop.” Two customers came in today while you were working, and that’s a good omen.
(page 48-49)
The crystal merchant performed his utterance to make a request to the boy using direct speech act and commissive illocutionary act type. In the first utterance, what he uttered means that the crystal merchant wanted to ask the boy to have lunch together. And in the second sentence, what he uttered means that he made a request to the boy in order to see a good omen from the boy and wanted the boy to stay with him and worked in his shop. It could be concluded that the conversation emphasized the setting and scene. Norms influenced to the merchant as the hearer because the boy came to his shop as a stranger to ask the merchant for a job. First, he was disturbed by the appearance of the boy but he was thinking back and finally gave him a job to work in his shop.
“From here on, you will be alone,” the alchemist said. “You are only three hours from the Pyramids.”
“Thank you,” said the boy. “You taught me the Language of the World.” (page 162)
The ways of expressing speech act in the fourth data is direct speech act and expressive illocutionary act. The utterance that the boy said in the statement meant
that he used the expressive illocutionary act to express his happiness and his gratefulness using direct speech act. It could be concluded that the conversation emphasized the setting and scene. The end and participant of the conversation was also emphasized by the boy that said “thank you” to the alchemist as the participant that helped him pass the war. The boy also acted as the key in the conversation to indicate the condition that happened and emphasized tone and manner of the speech. “Thank you” was also used to indicate the acceptance of reality in explaining the norm.
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5.2.5 Declaration
“Well, I’m the king of Salem!”
People say strange things, the boy thought. Sometimes it’s better to be with the sheep who don’t say anything. And better still to be alone with one’s books.
“I’m the king of Salem,” the old man said.
(Page 22)
There are two utterances that could be indicated as the type of illocutionary act. The first and the second sentences from the conversation focus on declarative type of illocutionary act. The element that influence the reaction of the hearer was the setting because the old man and the boy were still in the plaza until the boy asked him a question. The end of the conversation was to tell the boy that the old man was actually the king of Salem. The act sequence that influenced the hearer declared his status because the old man still continued his conversation to the boy until the boy gave a feedback to ask him what actually the old man was. Keys that were uttered by the old man in the conversation to indicate what happened and to emphasize the tone and manner of the speech.
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5.3 The Analysis of the Expression of Indirect Illocutionary Act
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5.3.1 Assertive
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“Well usually I learn more from my sheep than from books,” he answered.
“How did you learn to read?” the girl asked at one point.
“Like everybody learns,” he said. “In school”
(page 5)
The first utterance means that he stated it to the girl so that she knew how he can learn from his sheep and its surroundings than from books as usual. The second utterance the boy answered means that he answered it using indirect speech act because the hearer uttered it to the speaker more than what actually he said. From the analysis above, it could be concluded that the conversation emphasized the setting between the girl and the boy. The girl also acted as the participants that influenced the boy as the hearer. Then the keys and norms emphasized the tone and reaction of the boy as the hearer because the girl was a stranger that wanted to start conversation with the boy and that was not good disturbing someone’s business.
“We make a lot of detours, but we’re always heading for the same destination.”
And you ought to read more about the world,” answered the Englishman.
“Books are like caravans in that respect.”
(Page 81)
The ways of expressing speech act in that utterance from the conversation is indirect speech act and directive illocutionary act. In the dialogue between the boy and the Englishman, the Englishman performed his utterance to make an advice to the boy. From those eight elements, the setting was used to influence the reaction of the hearer because the boy and the Englishman had the same destination in the caravan. The utterance uttered by the Englishman also indicated the norm, the action and reaction of the character, that was as older. The Englishman wanted to tell the boy a suggestion to face the world.
“Why do you tend a flock of sheep?”
“Because I like to travel.”
The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza.
(Page 23)
The ways of expressing speech act in the first data is indirect speech act. From the question, the speaker used the utterances to make a request to the hearer. In this case, an old man wanted to know further the reason of the boy. From the analysis above, it could be concluded that the conversation emphasized that the setting was still in the plaza when the boy and the old man got silent for a while. The old man acted as a participant that asked him the question. Then the key and norms also emphasized the response of the hearer to hide his goal by uttering indirect speech act.
“You have helped me.” The man continued to prepare his tea, saying nothing. Then he turned to the boy.
“I’m proud of you,” he said.
(Page 63)
The crystal merchant performed the act of making his statement indirect to the boy about his hope to the boy not leaving the shop because of new feeling that the boy brought to his shop. And the crystal merchant stated his statement using expressive illocutionary act which is to express his pride to the boy. From the analysis above, it could be concluded that the conversation emphasized the setting and scene. The boy also acted as the key in the conversation to indicate the condition that happened and emphasized tone and manner of the speech. “Proud” was also to indicate the acceptance of reality in explaining the norm.
“You’re crying?”
“I’m a woman of the desert,” she said, averting her face. “But above all, I’m a woman.”
(page 128-129)
In this case, there was an utterance uttered by Fatima as the hearer that had indirect meaning. By uttering the statement from Fatima, she had a kind of act to declare something by using indirect speech act. From those eight elements, the setting was used to influence the reaction of the hearer because the boy and Fatima were outside Fatima’s tent. The act sequence influenced Fatima as the hearer declared her status because the boy would leave from the city and he conveyed his message to Fatima. Keys and norms uttered by Fatima in the conversation indicated what happened, and emphasized the tone and reaction by the hearer of the speech.
Based on the discussion previously presented, there were two points to be concluded related to the problems of the research; first, from this novel, there are a lot of expressions of direct and indirect illocutionary acts uttered by the speaker or the listener but the data only ten conversations from the whole data. And then those conversations were classified into five types of illocutionary act, they are assertive, directive, commissive, expressive, and declarative. Before responding to the speaker’s expression or the hearer’s expression, both of them have to know setting and scene, participants, ends, act sequences, keys, instrumentalities, norms, and genre. Then, the utterance of the hearer or the speaker emphasizes the situation in the conversations by seeing particular components. From the analysis of the data, the context of situation that mostly influence and are emphasized to the hearer are setting and scene, the participants, ends, act sequences, keys, and norms in the conversation.
Coelho, Paulo. 2002. The Alchemist. London: Harper Collins
Halliday, M. A. K. and R. Hasan. 1985. Language, Context, and Text: Aspect of Language in a Social-semiotic Perspective. London: Deakin University Press
Hymes, Dell. 1972. Toward Ethnography of Communication: The Analysis of Communication Events. In Giglioli 1972: 22-24
Levinson, C. Stephen. 1987. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Searle, J.R. 1979.Expression and Meaning: Studies in Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Yule, George. 2000. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press
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