Language Functions Uttered by the Main Characters in Dear John’s Movie

Abstract

Keywords: Pragmatics, Speech Acts, Illocutionary Acts, Dear John’s movie

The thesis entitled ‘Language Functions Uttered by the Main Characters in Dear John’s Movie’ has two research questions. They are (1) What language functions are mostly uttered by the main characters in Dear John’s movie? (2) What are the purposes of language functions uttered by the main characters in Dear John’s movie?

Descriptive qualitative method was applied in order to construe the phenomena of speech functions contained in the data based on speech act theory proposed by George Yule. The data of the utterances of the main characters of Dear John’s movie are classified based on Speech Act Theory proposed by George Yule.

The result of the study is as follows: Declarative 4.9%, Representative 54.2%, Expressive 11.3%, Directive 25.6%, and commisive 4%. Representative speech act states something that they believe to be right or to be the case or not.

The illocutionary act mostly uttered by the main characters of Dear John’s movie is statement, this means that they state what they believe to be right and they want the hearer agrees with their statement.