ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS FOUND IN HARRY POTTER AND THEGOBLET OF FIRE BY JOANNE KATHLEEN ROWLING
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ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS FOUND IN HARRY POTTER AND THE
GOBLET OF FIRE BY JOANNE KATHLEEN ROWLING
By:
AA. ISTRI GINA WINDRAHANNY WIDIARTA
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
ABSTRAK
Bahasa digunakan oleh masyarakat untuk berkomunikasi setiap saat dimana dengan berkomunikasi mereka dapat menyampaikan suatu hal baik itu ide, informasi, keinginan, maupun perasaan. Biasanya seseorang memiliki maksud dan tujuan tertentu ketika menyampaikan atau mengujarkan sesuatu kepada lawan bicara. Sang lawan bicara tentu akan mudah mengerti maksud dari gujaran tersebut jika disampaikan secara gamblang dan jelas, namun seringkali seseorang tidak mengatakan secara langsung maksud dan tujuan sebenarnya. Kasus seperti ini disebut dengan illocutionary acts. Makalah ini akan menjelaskan makna tersembunyi dari illocutionary acts yang terdapat dalam novel Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire yang sudah diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia menjadi Harry Potter dan Piala Api. Teori yang digunakan untuk menganalisa illocutionary acts yang terdapat di dalam novel tersebut adalah John Searle’s Theory of Illocutionary Acts yang menyatakan bahwa illocutionary acts terdiri dari 5 bagian, yaitu assertives, commissives, directives, declarations dan expressives illocutionary acts. Dalam percakapan sehari-hari terutama percakapan yang terjadi berdasarkan novel Harry Potter tersebut, karakter yang berdialog menggunakan cara yang berbeda untuk menyampaikan maksud dan tujuan tersembunyi mereka, ada yang mengatakan secara langsung, namun ada juga yang berbelit-belit.
Kata kunci: tindak tutur, tindak ilokusi, konteks situasi
Communication is a very important aspect in our daily life because by communicating people can convey information or expressing something to the addressee. In saying something a person has a certain purpose and the success of the communication depends on the recognition of the purpose by the hearer. .People might be performing more acts at once when they are uttering something. In other words, there are might be more than one meanings or forces in their utterances. Those kinds of actions performed through utterances are known as speech act and it generally refers to three kinds of acts performed simultaneously, such as locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts. In such cases, however, the speaker can say something and mean it, but additionally mean
something else. This complexity of the act performing illocutionary acts make the hearer unable to understand the meaning of the utterance well.
Therefore, illocutionary act is chosen as the topic in this present study because the complexity of the meaning of utterance uttered by the speaker is interesting to be discussed
What are the intended meaning of each type of illocutionary acts found in novel Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire?
To identify the intended meaning of each type of illocutionary acts found in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire novel.
In obtaining a scientific and systematic research, a qualitative method was used in this study
The data of this study was taken from a novel written by J.K Rowling entitled “Harry potter and The Goblet of Fire”. The data source was chosen was not only to show the types of illocutionary acts such as assertives, commissives, directives, declarations and expressives, but also to identify the intended meaning of each type of illocutionary acts.
Before analyzing the data, this is a bit of information about this novel. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, which was written by Joanne Kathleen Rowling and published by Scholastic Press New York in 2000, has been translated by Listiana Srisanti into Harry Potter dan Piala Api and it was published by PT. Gramedia Pustaka Utama in 2001. Both books have been standardized by International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) which fulfills the qualification to do scientific research.
The data were collected using documentation method and supported by note taking technique.
A descriptive method was used to analyze the data in this study based on the theory of illocutionary acts by J.R Searle (1979).
According to Austin and Searle, when a speaker says something, he does something at the same time. Searle (1969:24) states that language is part of a theory of action and speech acts are those verbal actions like promising, threatening, and requesting that one performs in speaking. “Illocutionary acts occur when the speaker utters a sentence, means what he says, but also means something more” as stated by Searle (1981). According to Searle's Taxonomy of Elementary Illocutionary Acts, there are only five types of illocutionary acts such as assertives, commissives, directives, declarations and expressives illocutionary acts.
It is the kind of speech acts that states what the speaker believes to be the case or not. Statement of act, assertion, conclusions, and description are examples of the speaker representing the world as he or she believes it (Yule, 1996).
Data 1
“It could be done without Harry Potter, My Lord”
Through this utterance, the speaker means more than he actually says. It is not only an assertive utterance which has a meaning to tell that Lord Voldemort must not have Harry to do it, but at the same time he also performs another kind of illocutionary acts, the act of suggesting which belongs to assertive illocutionary acts.
Searle (1979:14) conveys that “Commissives are those illocutionary acts whose point is to commit the speaker (again in varying degrees) to some future course of action”. It also has a goal to commit the speaker to carry out action or bring about some states of affairs.
Data 2
“But I promise you, you will have the honor of being just as useful as Bertha Jorkins.”
By making promising utterance “But i promise you, you will have the honor of being just as useful as Bertha Jorkins.”, Lord Voldemort as the speaker fulfilled the characteristic of commissive illocutionary acts, since the act of promising belongs to commissive illocutionary acts according to Searle (1979). The intended meaning was to let Wormtail know that the surprise or the honor would be given to him at the very end might be not that good because he compared him to Bertha. Voldemort wanted Wormtail to prepare to accept something given by his master.
According to Searle's (1979), as one classification of illocutionary acts, ”a directive is condition when the speaker requests the hearer to carry out some actions or to bring out some states or affairs”. It also deals with an act performed when the speaker asks someone to do something.
Data 3
“You heard me, Wormtail,”
Lord Voldemort was the speaker in the conversation above since he uttered a direct illocution. By uttering “You heard me, Wormtail”, he uttered what he actually says. He wanted the hearer to listen to his
command but he also requested the hearer to turn around his chair. According to Searle's (1979), “A directive is condition when the speaker requests the hearer to carry out some actions or to bring out some states of affair”, from this definition, both requesting and commanding were categorized as directives illocutionary acts. The indication of this theory supported the analysis because at first Voldemort clearly said “Wormtail, come turn my chair around” and “You heard me, Wormtail”, as the repetition of his command.
Declarative is one kind of speech acts that changes the world via utterances. For example, the speaker has to have a special institutional role, in a specific context, in order to perform a declaration appropriately. In using a declaration, the speaker changes the world via words.
Data 4
“Amos”, said Mr. Weasley loudly, “think about it…precious few wizards know how to do that spell... where would she have learned it?”
Mr. Weasley as the speaker of the utterance did not mean what he actually says. Based on Searle (1979), “Declarative is one kind of speech acts that changes the world via utterances. For example, the speaker has to have a special institutional role, in a specific context, in order to perform a declaration appropriately.” The speaker took a bite to declare if Amos was wrong. The intended meaning of the utterance was to declare if it was absolutely impossible for an Elf all over the world to do such thing, like making and showing a dark mark to the public. If Amos as a worker of institutional role, like ministry of magic, declared that an Elf could do that kind of hazardous spell, it
would terribly affected the public. This could be a support of the theory in analyzing the data.
Expressives are those kinds of illocutionary acts that show what the speaker feels. They express psychological states and can be statements of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy or sorrow. They can be caused by something the speaker does or the hearer does, but they are about the speaker’s experience.
Data 5
“That wasn't funny, Fred!” he shouted. “What on earth did you give that muggle boy?”
In uttering “That wasn't funny, Fred!” it was not only a direct illocution. The speaker performed one kind of illocutionary acts i.e. expressive for attitudes but he also wanted his son Fred to stop doing it, to stop being naughty. Expressive for attitudes is the kind of expression about criticizing, complaining and deprecating that express the feeling of disagreement, dislike with the hearer's attitude (Searle 1979). Mr. Weasley showed his anger by his utterance which meant that he did not like Fred's attitude toward muggle, no matter how much Fred hated that muggle and really wanted him to change and behave properly. This could be a proof of the theory supported by the analysis.
All types of illocutionary acts proposed by John Searle (1979) were found in novel Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by Joanne Kathleen Rowling, such as assertives/representatives, commissives, directives, declarations and expressives illocutionary acts. Assertives is usually used to state what the speaker believes to be the case or not, commissives is focused on committing the speaker to some future course of action, directives express
the speaker's desire and become the reason for the hearer to act, declarations is used to declare something, which might change the world, and the last one is expressives which show what the speaker feel, such as dislike or disagreement toward someone or something in expressives for attitudes. In communicating in the daily life, especially based on the conversation obtained from the novel, the participants in the novel used different ways to convey their message. Some of them used direct form, or they preferred to speak by means of something else or indirectly.
Rowling, K. Joanne. 2000. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. New York: Scholastic Press.
Searle, J.R. 1979. Expression and Meaning: Studies in Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge: University Press.
Yule, George. 2000. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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