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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Research

One as human being cannot live in this world by himself. He needs

others to get what he wants in his social life. For that, he has to communicate with
others to express what he wants and feels. To communicate with others, he uses a
means which is called language. Language is an effective tool to create
communication in the social relationship.
The communication will be successful if both speakers and hearers are
able to understand each other. When people have communication to express
themselves, they not only produce utterances but also perform actions. Actions
performed via utterances are generally called speech act (Yule, 1996: 47). The use
of the term speech act covers actions such as requesting, commanding,
questioning, and informing.
Speech acts are divided into direct speech acts and indirect speech acts.
Direct speech acts can be identified easily because there is relationship between
the linguistic form and the pragmatic function of an utterance. Meanwhile,
indirect speech acts cannot be identified as easily as the direct speech acts because
the speaker has an implicit meaning when expressing his utterance.
One type of speech acts that commonly occurs in the daily
conversation between one person and another is directives. According to Searle in
Yule (1996: 54) directives are kind of speech acts whose speakers use to get
someone else to do something. Further Allan classifies the directives into for
classes. (1) requestives, in which the speaker requests the hearer to do an action/
actions. (2) questions, in which the speaker questions the hearer. (3) requirements,
in which the speaker requires the hearer to do an action/ actions. (4) prohibitives,
which represent the speaker prohibits the hearer from doing an action/ actions.
Meanwhile, Tsui (1994: 90) has a different classification. He classifies
requestives into subclasses of initiating acts. According to Tsui (1994: 90),
1

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requestives are different from directives. Requestives act gives the addressee the
options while directives do not.
From the classification of speech acts above, this research is also
related to the speech acts, but it is only focused on the requestives type. The term
of requestives used by the researcher is from Tsuis idea (1994: 90). According to
him, requestives are divided into five subclasses: an offer, a request for
permission, an invitation, a request for action, and proposal. An offer is the
utterance for the benefit of the addressee. A request utters for permission almost
the same as an offer, but this action is for the benefit of the speaker himself. An
invitation is an utterance which requires the addressees action which is for the
benefit of the addressee himself. A request for action is the utterance which is the
addressees action too, but it is for the benefit of the speaker. While proposal is a
suggestion which almost the same with request for action, but this utterance is for
the benefit of both the speaker and the addressee.
Speech acts do not only occur in daily conversation but also in the
dialogue of the movie. August Rush is a movie directed by Kirsten Sheridon. This
movie tells about a boy who tries to find his parents by using music. The dialogue
of this movie performs some requestive utterances, that is needed to be the data
for this research. The following are examples of requestive utterances employed
by the characters in the movie August Rush:
1. Jeffris

: This is my number.
If you ever need to talk to me, about anything, you call.
Think about what I said too.
There's a whole world out there with millions of wind chimes.

August
2. Nick

: I know.
: It's my birthday on Saturday. Session's at my place.
Come, bring your girlfriend.

Louis

: (Smile)
From the examples above, it can be concluded that the requestives are

performed into various ways depending on the context situation and the purpose
of the utterance. The first example labelled as an offer is uttered for the benefit of

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the addressee. Jeffris gives his phone number to August to offer a help for August
if he needs anything. The second example is an invitation which is the addressees
action, and it is uttered for the benefit of the addressee. Nick invites Louis to come
to his party. The invitation is uttered for the benefit of Louis to introduce his
girlfriend to his friends in the party.
Learning the variety of the types of requestives above, the researcher
interested in conducting a research which is focused on the use of requestive
utterances in the dialogue of the movie entitled August Rush.

B. Limitation of the Problem

There are many types of speech acts used in the movie, so the researcher
has to limit the research of speech acts. The research only focuses on speech acts
of requestive utterances. The data are taken from the dialog of the movie entitled
August Rush

C. Statement of the Problem

Based on the research background, the problems of the research are

formulated as follows:
1. In what contexts are requestive utterances uttered by the characters in the
movie entitled August Rush?
2. What types of requestives are used by the characters in the movie entitled
August Rush?

D. The Objectives of The Research

Based on the problem statements above, the research objectives are:

1. To describe the contexts of requestive utterances uttered by the characters in
the movie entitled August Rush.

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2. To identify the types of requestives that used by the characters in the movie
entitled August Rush.

E. The Benefit of The Research

The research is conducted to be beneficial for:

1. Teachers and Students

This research will motivate teachers and students to learn
requestives, in their daily conversation and film dialogue.

2. Other Researcher
This research will present the analysis of requestive utterances and
the other utterances, to give more information and additional references for
the future research dealing with this research.

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