A Pragmatics Analysis of Commissive Speech Act in Pretty Little Liars

Introduction

People always use language to interact with other people. Language is a system of communication consisting of sounds, words, and grammar, or the system of communication used by people of a particular country or profession, or way of expressing ideas and feelings using movements, symbols, and sounds. (UK Essays; 2015). From the definition, it can be seen that language has a lot of function that are used for day-to-day activities. The function of language is to convey ideas and thoughts. Also, Language has an important function in the society; it is because language is a way to interact one with other person, especially in communication. Language does not simply a means of communicating information, it means to establish and maintain relationship with other people (Trudgill, 1974: 13).

It means that people should understand the humans’ language and they must understand the meaning of speakers’ utterance. People give utterance when they start the communication with someone else then they have the objective such as giving ideas, feeling, request, offering and else, all these are depended on speakers’ giving meaning then the listeners should understand the speakers’ meaning not only the language. The communications that happened around people must be said clearly to achieved what the speaker’s intended. So it is important to study the speaker’s meaning through pragmatics. According to Yule (1996), Pragmatics is the study of the relationships between linguistics form and the users of those forms and it is the study of the speaker’s meaning. Pragmatics concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader). It has, consequently, more to do with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than what the words or phrases in those utterances might mean by themselves (Yule, 1996: 3). In the other hand, talking about pragmatic analyzing cannot be separated from conversation or an utterance which is related to the study of speech act. According to Yule (1996: 47) speech acts are actions performed via utterances. By doing speech acts, the speaker tries to convey purpose or intention of communication which is understandable by the listener.

When people have conversation, they not only produce utterance but also perform action. Austin (as cited in Leech, 1996: 199) distinguishes three kinds of action within utterances; thus are locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary. Locutionary act is the basic act of utterance. Illocutionary act is an act which performed via the communicative force of an utterance. And the last, perlocutionary is the result or effect that produced by the utterance. The concept of an illocutionary act is central to the concept of a speech act. Searle (1979) provides classification of speech act in what he calls “the basic categories of illocutionary acts”. There are representative, declarative, commissive, directive, and expressive. This research will be discussing more about the commissive, since commissive is one type of speech acts that commonly happen in daily conversation between two people. According to Yule (1996: 54) in commissives, the speakers commit themselves to future acts which make the world fit the words. They express what the speakers intend. They are promises, threats, refusals, and warnings. The researcher chooses this movie as an object because this movie provides so many commissive utterances and expression. Based on the explanation above, the researcher is interested in studying the commissive speech acts in Pretty Little Liars Season 1. The researcher is excited to examine the utterance uttered by the characters in Pretty Little Liars Season 1. Therefore, the objectives of this research are:

1. to explain and identify the commissive speech acts;
2. to find out the form of commissive speech acts that uttered by the characters of Pretty Little Liars Season 1.

To achieve the objective of this research, the researcher used the theory proposed by John Searle (1975: 124) on identification and classification the types of illocutionary speech act, George Yule (1996) to explain and identify the rest theory about pragmatics and speech acts. Literature ReviewPragmaticsPeople use language to communicate with others, to understand how language got to be that way, they have to learn and review on how language can works with analyzing the studies of language (linguistics). There are so many language analyses branches of language science. One traditional distinction in language analysis contrast pragmatics with syntax and semantics. Syntax is the study of the relationship between linguistic forms, how they arranged in sequence, and which sequences are well-formed. Semantics is the study of the relationship between linguistics forms and entities in the world (Yule, 1996: 4). Pragmatics is the study of those relations between language and context that are grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of language. It requires the consideration of how the speakers organize what they want to say in accordance with who they are talking to, where, when and under what circumstances (Levinson, 2000: 9). It focuses on how speakers and writers used their knowledge to convey meaning. Shortly, pragmatic studies how language is used in the interpretation of actual utterances. Pragmatics also concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader), this type of study necessarily involves the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and how the context influences what is said. It explores how a great deal of what is unsaid which recognized as part of what is communicated (Yule, 1996: 3).

Speech Acts

When people speak or state something, they also do something to make an act; it is called as Speech act (Austin. 1962: 12). According to Yule (1985: 100) speech acts are the types of actions performed by a speaker uttering a sentence. Speech acts focuses on how meaning and action are related to language. In other word, speech act is study of intended speakers’ meaning when they use the language performing an act. The utterance sentences that people use in their life when they say something then they will act and show something by using body language in their utterance such as hand, eyes, head, fingers and etc. In uttering sentences, it is also doing things. To make it distinct, people must clarify in what ways the utterance said to be performing actions. Austin (as cited in Leech, 1996: 199) distinguishes three kinds of action within utterances, they are.

Locutionary

Locutionary is the basic of utterance of the literal meaning of utterance. In other words, it is the utterance of sentence which determines sense and reference. Renkema (1993: 22) states that locutionary act is the physical act of producing an utterance.

Illocutionary

Illocutionary is the act which performed via the communicative force of an utterance. In other words, illocutionary is the act perfomed in saying the locution. It contains the intention of the speaker when saying something. Illocutionary can be uttered in directly and indirectly.

Perlucotionary

Perlucotionary is what a person does as the response of what he/she intend. It is the result of the effect produced by the utterance. A speaker may utter sentence on the assumption that the listener will recognize the effect intended. In short, perlucotionary is the effect of illocutionary act, on the particular occasion of use, has on the listener. Speech act theory has been developed by a British philosopher, John Searle. He developed speech act theory from a basic belief that language is used to perform actions. Then, John Searle (1975: 124) classifies illocutionary act into 5, they are.

Representative, it is a kind of speech act that states what the speaker believes to be the case or not, by using representative utterance, the speaker expresses belief that the proportional content is true. But the listener does not have to agree with the speaker. In this case, the speaker makes the words fit the world. (speaker believe x/the situation)Example: statement of fact, assertion, conclusion, description and so on. Directive, this type of speech act is an attempt by a speaker to get the listener to do something. The speaker makes the world fit the words. (speaker wants x/situation) Example: asking, begging, commanding, ordering, requesting, inviting and so on.

Commissive, when the speaker uses commissive, it means that the speaker commits some future action. Basically it expresses what the speaker intend. In this type, the speaker make the world fit the words. Example: promising, wishing, swearing, threatening, refusal, and so on. Expressive is a kind of speech act that states what the speaker feels. The form of expressive can be statement of pleasure, pain, like or dislike, joy or sorrow. In this case, the speaker makes the words fit the world/ situation which his/her feeling also includes in it. Example: thanking, apologizing, congratulating, and so on. Declarative is a kind of speech act that change the situation via the speaker’s utterance. Basically this kind of speech act makes the word changes the world. (speaker cause the x/situation)In order to perform a declaration correctly, the speaker has to have a special institutional role in specific context. Example: appoint, nominate, sentence, pronounce, fire, and resign and so on.

Commissive Speech Acts

Austin (in Searle, 1979: 11) states that commissive is to commit the speaker to a certain course of action. Commissive is the kind of speech act in which the speaker expresses his/her intention concerning some future actions. Sometimes someone wants to do something in the future times by saying a promise, wishing, hoping, swearing, warning, threatening and so on. The function of commissive speech act is depends on its context. For example, promise is an utterance to tell someone that the speaker will certainly do something in the future. Wishing is an utterance said by the speaker to hope that something the speaker‘s want will be made real in the future because of good luck or magical, while warning is an utterance that intends others to be careful in the future. The difference is that promise, wish and hope are the utterance to express positive tension to the future, while warning and threatening used to express negative tension in the future. Pretty Little Liars Season 1Pretty Little Liars Season 1 is American drama series TV show which aired June, 2010 until March, 2011. This show tells about 4 old friends: Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily who had to keep their own secrets since the Queen Bee of the group, Allison, disappeared mysteriously.

The setting is in a Rosewood, perfect little town with a great many secrets. After Alison disappeared, the BFF start getting messages from “A” saying things only Alison would know. “A” spills their secrets, watches their every move and makes some very scary threats. The girls reunite to discover find out what is going on and to reveal who is “A”. This show is based upon the New York Times bestselling series by Sara Shepard. The main characters in this show are so many. Spencer Hasting is a perfectionist and straight-A student whose pressure to compete with her sister, Melissa, and always wanted Melissa’s boyfriend such as Ian (Melissa ex boyfriend) and Wren (a doctor).

Emily Fields is an athlete who trying to sort out her place in the world, finds herself having crush with her new neighbor, Maya, a free spirit who recently moved into Alison’s old house across the street. Hanna Marin was the only fat and chubby chick in school who has transformed into the current “it girl” even she has to shoplifting to battles her urges, she only lived with her mother since her father dumped her. Aria Montgomery is an artsy and electric girl who really disappointed with her father, Byron, a teacher, since she saw him make out with his student. She has to keep his secret to avoid her mother, Ella, who also a teacher get hurt, but from finding out she falling in love with Ezra Fitz who is her newest English teacher. Allison Dilaurentis used to be the queen bee in the group, she likes to share secret with others but suddenly the secret slowly reveal since she disappeared, the reason why she disappeared is still mystery. Mona used to be the dumb girl and unpopular girl who now best friends with Hanna, partnering in shoplifting to be the most popular girl in school. The characters that describe above is the main character that being the object of this research.

Research Method

The type used in this research is descriptive qualitative since the data is non-numerical data and it involves the collection of data for the purpose of describing the existing condition. According to Moleong (2008: 6), qualitative research is a research concerned on phenomenon which related to behavior, motivation, action, in which they are described through words and languages contextually. A descriptive qualitative research is used to observe condition and situation where the researcher analyze the data in forms of words, sentences, discourse, picture or photographs et cetera. The key instrument of this research was the researcher herself since she acted as the person who wanted to find the research problems. According to Bogdan and Biklen (1998: 27) state that researcher is the key of the instrument in qualitative research. Since the researcher was considered as the key instrument, she measured and determined whether the utterances could be categorized as valid data or not. In qualitative research, according to Moleong (2009: 56) the researcher acts as the main instrument. The researcher is the planner, data collector, data analyzer, and data reporter. In this research, the data sources are Pretty Little Liars Season 1 Episode 1 video that is downloaded from internet (lk21. co). Its script is as primary data and the video is as secondary data.

The data source analyzed in this research consists of the utterances used by the characters that contain commissive act. In this research, content analysis was employed as the data collection technique. According to Kothari (2004: 96) data collection in descriptive researchers can be described in several methods. They are observation, interview, questionnaires and other methods which include the warranty cards; distributor audits; pantry audits; consumer panels; using mechanical devices; through projective techniques; depth interviews; and content analysis. Content analysis includes analyzing the content of documentary materials and all verbal materials which can be either printed or spoken. Therefore, data of this research are collected from Pretty Little Liars Season 1 Episode 1.

The data collection technique needs several steps to follow. First, the researcher watched the movie. Second, the researcher downloaded the transcripts. Third, the researcher re-watched the movie and the transcript were checked in order to ensure the accuracy. Fourth, the researcher marked all the utterances which supposedly contain commissive act. In analyzing the data, qualitative method used inductive approach, according to Vanderstoep and Johnston (2009: 168), inductive approach is a process of reasoning where observation came first, then followed by theory, hypothesis and interpretations. After collecting the data, the researcher conducted four procedures on the data analysis.

First, categorizing the data that have been collected would be transferred into categorization system which was drawn to a table. The categorization was about the types of commissive act. Second, classifying data based on the type of utterance as the raw data into the notes. Third, analyze the data containing commissive act by identifying the meaning and context of utterances in the dialogue. The last is drawing the conclusion.

Findings and Discussion

Commissive Speech Acts

Commissive is the kind of speech act in which the speaker expresses his/her intention concerning some future actions. Commissive act is to commit the speaker to a certain course of action. Sometimes someone wants to do something in the future times by saying a promise, wishing, hoping, swearing, warning, threatening and so on. The function of commissive speech act is depends on its context. For example, promise is an utterance to tell someone that the speaker will certainly do something in the future. Wishing is an utterance said by the speaker to hope that something the speaker‘s want will be made real in the future because of good luck or magical, while warning is an utterance that intends others to be careful in the future. The difference is that promise, wish and hope are the utterance to express positive tension to the future, while warning and threatening used to express negative tension in the future.

Searle (1979:2) states that there are several quite difference principles of the four forms of commissive utterance. What are the criteria by which someone can tell that four actual utterances one is a promise, one a threat, one a refusal, one a warning? To know the difference between those forms, it can be seen on the function of each form. Here are the functions of threat, promise, warning, and refusal:

Threat

Threat is a clarification of going to do something, which can make somebody misfortune or make difficult of some one. Thus, it has a function to persuade the hearer believe to the speaker, because it is a suggestion that something unpleasant or violent will happen.

Promise

The point or purpose of the promise is that it is an undertaking of an obligation by the speaker to do something. It is important to notice the purpose of the utterance. Thus, it has a function to persuade the hearer believe to the speaker.

Warning

Some speakers tend to use a proverb implying warning, for the purpose of brevity, instead of giving a long or short explanation about the danger of the situation. Thus, the speaker warns the hearer in order to make the hearer do what the speaker wants.

Refusal

Refusal represents one type of dispreferred response. Refusal belongs to the form of commissive because they commit the refuser to performing an action. As a reactive speech act, a refusal functions as a response to an initiating act and is considered a speech act by which a speaker direct and indirect strategies. Thus, it has a function that the speaker reject to do something. Forms of commissive speech act uttered by the characters of Pretty Little Liars.

Promise

Mona: hey, is this me? Hanna : or is it a little too much your mother?Mona : I am loving those glasses, how much? Hanna : 350Hanna : (look at the sales clerk and move away) I’ll be right back. Situation: Hanna and Mona are trying fashion items like sunglasses that Hanna try, and scarf that Mona wear. At that time, Hanna was teasing the Sales Clerk so he will not pay attention to the glasses that she was about to steal. When Hanna said “I’ll be right back”, she promised to the Sales clerk. Then she go to Spencer who also happened to be shopping there. Hoping Aria’s Dad: I made a mistake, okay? And I will be sorry about it for the rest of my life. I just hope that someday you'll be able to forgive me. Aria: I hope so too. Situation: Byron as Aria’s Dad is driving Aria to school. Before Aria about to open the door, her dad says that he loves her and his whole family. But Aria still remembering with the incident where she saw her dad was making out with his students, she still unable to accept that her dad cheated to her mother and he still does not want to confess to her mother.

When Aria’s dad apologizes, he says “I just hope that someday you’ll be able to forgive me” is one form of commissive act that express hope in the future. promise. Wren: Sounds like she was counting on moving into the barn. Melissa: Don't worry about spencer. She'll get over it. Situation: Melissa as Spencer sister came home with her fiancée, Wren. When Spencer saw that Melissa and Wren just about to live together in the barn where she used to hang out and relax, she was shocked and said that Melissa could not just move into the barn.

Wren heard Spencer grumble against Melissa, he asked Melissa whether if she had planned to move to the barn. But Melissa replied with “Don’t worry about Spencer, She’ll get over it”, she promised to Wren not to worry about Spencer anymore since she thinks that Spencer is always jealous with her. threatening. Allison: Don't you get it? I'm trying to help you do the right thing. Spencer: Now, you listen to me, Alison. Allison: Or what? Spencer: If you say one word to my sister about ian, I will tell everyone the truth about the Jenna thing. Situation: this is the scene in the past where Melissa was still with her old boyfriend, Ian, who also has a secret relationship with Spencer. At that time, there were Melissa, Ian, Spencer, Allison and Emily at Spencer’s house. When Melissa passes with Ian, Allison sees an unusual look at Spencer, then Allison urges Spencer to immediately tell Melissa about her secret with Ian. Allison thinks that it is the right thing, but Spencer threatens Allison to never tell anyone about that secret or “I will tell everyone about the Jenna thing”. That is the expression includes a threat to make Allison to do what she says.

Conclusion

From the discussion above, the researcher has arrived at the following concluding points: first, there were four types of commissive speech acts; they were threat, promise, warning and refusal. Commissive act is to commit the speaker to a certain course of action in a future. The researcher also found the forms of commissive acts that uttered by the characters in Pretty Little Liars Season 1 Episode 1. That are promise, hope, and threat.