Illocutionary acts expressed through Sign Language in “Silence Movie”

ABSTRACT

Illocutionary act is the act of saying, which is committed with the intends of speaker by uttering a sentence such as asking, stating, questioning, promising, ordering, apologizing, threatening, and requesting. The writer analyzes illocutionary acts in sign language used in “Silence Movie”. This study is important because none of the earlier illocutionary studies focused their research on sign language.

This study investigates types and the functions of illocutionary act used in first and second episode of “Silence Movie” which is expressed through sign language.

The descriptive qualitative method is used to analyze the data in this study. The data are presented descriptively because it describes and explains illocutionary acts used by the main character in “Silence movie” such as describes the types and the functions of the illocutionary acts found in sign language.

The findings show that there are five types of illocutionary acts found in this study: assertive, directive, commissive, expressive, and declarative. The type of illocutionary acts found most in this movie is directive. This study also found four functions of illocutionary acts such as competitive, convivial, collaborative, and conflictive. The function of illocutionary acts found most in this category is competitive.

It is hoped that this research contributes important information for the next researcher who is interested in doing the same kind of study. However, it is suggested for further researchers to use another theory of illocutionary acts, so that different results might be found.