CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL CONCEPT

This second chapter of the thesis is aimed at presenting some

theoretical supports and researches toward the topics presented. Further, in

this theoretical concept of chapter there are five sub chapters to be discussed,

namely: Theoretical Description, The Essence of Speech Acts, Types of

Speech Acts, The Essence of Politeness, and EFL (English as Foreign

Language) Learning Theory

2.1 Overview

In speaking class, as it is stated on previous explanation that in

speaking class there are few aspects which needs to be concerned with as they

are noticed as the crucial points in deciding whether speaking class is success

and properly runs or it is just becoming something which is affecting students to

be fear to speak English. Moreover, there is a theory which gives detail concept

about speaking class activities and the theory is stated by Holmes (2004).

Holmes clearly stated that there are some activities which are becoming an

obligation to be conducted in speaking class, and also it is found that the aspects

which are stated before in previous explanation which includes vocabulary,

tense, pronunciation and meaning are also mentioned by Holmes in his book

called Speaking Activities for the Classroom. Basically, it is believed by

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Holmes that a speaking class will not be called as speaking class if there are

activities without speaking activities, moreover it is insisted by Holmes that

there are some points or aspects which need to be considered and applied by the

teacher during speaking class, and those aspects can be mentioned as; warming

up, making words, phrases and sentence, practicing grammar and speaking,

travelling and touring to explore new words in outside world, finding the right

words, tales and stories, talking task.

Regarding to the points presented by Holmes above which specifically

presents about the speaking class, further it can be continued to the relation of

speaking activity to the language use in second language classroom. There is a

concept from Richard (2008) which claims that a success in speaking is

affected by good second language use of the learners who consider and

emphasize the effectiveness of implementing English as second language in

speaking class and also in contextual situation. Being effective in speaking,

particularly in second language speaking is kind of balance between speaking

competence and the needs of real situation, therefore speaking aspects which

have been learned and mastered by the students need to be practice as many as

possible by applying travelling and touring activity (Holmes, 2004) so that

students are getting used to apply proper speaking in a situation as it is

considered as effectiveness.

It is also claimed by Richard that between speaking and language use

are connected by intensity which bound those two aspects to be applied at the

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same time in one activity. Language is used orally by considering certain

information to be spoken to people, and speaking is claimed to be defined as

activity of correlating knowledge into contextual situation, therefore they are

connected in term of doing oral act by considering knowledge and

information in mind to be shown to other person in real situation. Moreover, it

is claimed by Richard that language use today is more complex since people

are developing to be more critical and aware in term of developing ideas and

topics to be discuss in speaking activity, therefore in order to prepare students

into that level of language use, it is suggested by Richard that the level of

speaking activity must be improved where the activity must be able to reach

about analysis such as conversation analysis, speech analysis or presentation

analysis. It is claimed by Richard that doing analysis in speaking class will

practice students to reveal any further more aspects which exist in speaking

activities, and also the students are able to be ready to develop their language

use when they are involved into contextual situation.

Richard stated that through speaking the use of the language by

students, particularly in second language class is about connect two big main

aspects which are named as ideas and the world. Specifically, in students’

mind there are claimed to exist many concepts and knowledge about language

and how it is used in speaking. Both concept and knowledge in students’ mind

are claimed as the fundamental step which must be completed before

continuing to the next step. Then, by Richard, the process of achieving

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knowledge and concept to be transferred into students’ mind is actually a

process of creating ideas. In certain specific ways, it is defined by Richard

that ideas is the unity of concept and knowledge which are related to one

another to involve one mission that is implementation. When something is

called ideas, it is assumed that that thing is meaningful concept which is ready

to be change in term of its implementation. Moreover, when the ideas are built

in students’ mind, then Richard called the next step as meet the world. The

world is this terms is the only way to know how deep and how far do the

students’ ideas can survive and can be useful to be implemented in world as

real life. Further, the ideas and the world are two connected big aspects in

term of educational view. Generally, it can be stated that the ideas is about

what is thinking or guessing to happen and it is all about prediction, but when

it comes into the world which is claimed as what is happening in real, the

ideas which have some differences to the world must be adapted by applying

some other new ideas in order to support the ideas to survive in the world.

Moreover, the ideas and the world are basically the way of some experts to

show how language can be used orally and it needs to be appropriate and

correct in contextual situation. Therefore, students are expected to be aware

with some strategies in using the language particularly in speaking class of

second language.

As it is considered as one of the language strategies in speaking class,

speech acts are developed from time to time and then it is found that there are

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two theories which are claimed as the latest theories of speech acts and both

of theories are coming from Larsson (2013) and Murphy (2013). Those two

theories are going to be analyzed deeper in this second chapter. The theory

from Larsson basically relates the use of speech acts to the politeness. As it is

believed by Larsson, people, particularly EFL teacher and students generally

use speech acts in order to set function of language in politely even it includes

some order through words. It needs to be realized in term of new function of

speech acts presented by Larsson, that speech acts in its very first function

was an order to ask hearer to do something, and also it was indicated that

speech acts include some intention of speaker that needs to be revealed by

hearer. Further, the words used by speaker which indicate some orders not

always state in polite way, it usually stated in different words which mainly

have function to cover the intention or the real meaning of the speaker. The

different words used are words which are mainly descriptive to state situation

or condition. For example, speaker says “this is hot here”, speaker simply

describes that situation at that time is hot and the intention of the speaker is

ordering the hearer to turn on the air conditioner or get the speaker some cold

drinks.

There is second theory is presented by Murphy (2013), according to

Murphy there is a process of logical thinking in hearer mind when she/ he

needs to respond through acts the speech from speaker. This is the first

concept of speech acts which relates process of logical thinking in people

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mind as speech acts only considers on language and action. It is believed by

Murphy that for hearer who is aware of any language functions, she/ he will

not only do or respond the speech, but also consider any action as responds.

The term logic here means that hearer will notice any contextual situations

and relate it to the speech of the speaker. Logic means contextual and real,

therefore at the time when the speaker produces any utterances to hearer, the

situation or condition around speaker and hearer will be noticed and analyzed

to be related by the hearer. As for example, at the time in the morning when

speaker say “it smells good”, what coming to mind of hearer who is aware to

language function will not only respond by saying “yes it is” or “I smell it

too”, the hearer will consider one logic that is the time when speaker says the

utterance that is in the morning, what hearer may think is that the speaker is

hungry because that is in the morning and speaker intends to get some food

which is cooking. Therefore, hearer needs to get speaker some food which is

smell good.

The implementation of both theories from Larsson (2013) and Murphy

(2013), it can be stated firstly that Larsson who found that speech acts is used

in order to set an utterance to become more polite and still has intention to be

responded by an act. Take a look in EFL teaching and learning, in case of

having communication or interaction to the students, some teachers are

claimed to use utterance which is polite and means different. Say for example:

when one student states correct answer, teacher is claimed will not directly

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state and judge that student’s answer is wrong, teacher is claimed will prefer

to use some utterances, like: “Okay, that’s your answer, what about the

other”, “good point, but needs some additions”, “alright, how about the other

students?” and “Thank you, let’s see another view from your friends” those

utterances are indicated to cover the intention of teacher which basically says

that student’s answer is wrong. From this point, it can be assumed that speech

acts are saving the feeling of students, because it is claimed that to be better to

hear such of those polite utterances rather than saying “No, your answer is not

correct”. Moreover, this theory by Larsson also leads into another thinking

that speech acts can be used as the way how to set students behavior in terms

of being polite in speaking at EFL. Not only during EFL teaching and

learning, but also when they need interact with native speaker in outside of

classroom and also when they need to interact in their family, neighborhood,

and social community (using first language or EFL).

The second theory by Murphy (2013) is related to the first one by

Larsson, but here Murphy analyze deeper about the process of logical thinking

from hearer when the hearer gets utterance of speech acts. Murphy just did

find how the hearer having any correlation between their logical thinking and

situation around hearer. Further, in EFL this correlation can be applied when

the hearer who is aware about any linguistic terms used and when he gets such

utterance of speech acts, he will correlate between the meaning of the

utterance and also the situation. As for example in EFL teaching and learning,

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when teacher says “we are out of board-marker”, when it is noticed as

ordinary meaning, the teacher may just inform the students that they have no

board-marker left, but when it is analyzed deeper and relate to speech acts

theories, particularly by Murphy, students as hearers will not just sit down and

listen to the utterance as information, but one of them will get the new marker

and give to the teacher. That is the specific implementation of processing what

has been found by Murphy, there is process of correlating both meaning and

situation. The meaning is: there is no board-marker, situation: no board-

marker and teacher cannot teach or explain, therefore by correlating those

two things, there will be respond as: get new board-marker and teacher can

teach.

It is claimed that there must be some supported researcher which

support the theories used in this paper. There are three researches found,

which two of them are research which were conducted in Indonesia, and

another one was conducted in Iran. The first Indonesian research was done by

Listiana in 2012 and this research was emphasizing on type of speech acts

used in script of The Help movie. This qualitative research was aiming on

describing the use of speech acts types which were identified in the script of

the movie and also mentioning the illocutionary (intention) of the speaker

based on theory of Austin (1962) who surely stated that speech is performing

action. Further, this research found that there were 200 speech acts found and

categorize as directive (82 utterances), assertive (55 utterances), expressive

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 (36 utterances), commissive (27 utterances), and declarative (0 utterances).

For the meaning of illocutionary of each speech acts categories were showed

in form of master table. Moreover, when it is coming into the analysis to this

research by Listiana, it can be stated that this research is having some

strengths and also weaknesses. The analysis can be followed as bellow.

Strength:

1. The research is simple research to be conducted which just needs to

analyze the script of the movie and notice every speech acts categories

used.

2. It is innovative to know that Listiana tried to get the data from script of

movie, rather than only focus on speaking lesson or conversation in

English Learning.

3. The data analysis is described clearly in form of table in order to show

every utterances category of speech acts and also the meaning.

Weaknesses:

1. The theory used as fundamental theory is old theory which is in 1962.

And needs to be clarified by using the latest theory of speech acts in order

to get the latest development.

2. The data analysis is not explained by giving comment or analysis to the

illocutionary found.

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 Another Indonesian research is coming from Muthohar (2012). The

research of speech acts is also in investigating the speech acts used in movie

script of Challenging. The type is also the same that was qualitative research,

but this research by Muthohar was analyzing the three aspects in speech acts,

namely; locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary. In specific, they were

about what speech is produced, what the intention of speech act is, and how

the hearer gives respond to the speech. It means that this research was more

specific and complex than previous research above. But unfortunately, this

research also used the old theory of speech acts that was from Austin in 1962

which means the research was not really supported by latest and newest data

of speech acts. As the conclusion, this research by Muthohar found that

representatives have the most type speech acts used, and there were two was

of people in the movie to respond the speech acts, by using indirect speech

acts and direct speech acts.

For the international research, it was done by Sadeghi in 2013 which

mainly focused on investigating the use of speech acts apology by Persian and

Kurdish children. This research was qualitative research which described the

way children of Persian and Kurdish said apology in language function of

speech acts. What being analyzed here by the researchers was the result of

interview to some participant from both Persian and Kurdish. As the

conclusion of the research, it can be stated that there was totally different way

of both Persian and Kurdish to say apology.

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 As the analysis of research by Sadeghi. The good thing from the

research is that the research tries to make investigation of two different people

of nationality which means the researcher had tried to explore wider of the use

of speech acts category, especially apology. Unfortunately, the researcher did

not give any clear explanations and description of how both of those different

people can say apology in different way. There must be any table to show

how both people say apology in different.

2.2 Essence of Speech acts

The first theory of speech act is presented by Austin. He defines the

essence of speech act on the book entitles How to do things with Words

(Oishi, 2006). Austin has a concept that words from speaker can include

intention and that intention need to be caught by the hearer as they both are

having interaction and communication in oral. The concept of intention by

Austin is basically focused on meaningful words which are able to invite acts

from the hearer. Further, it is claimed by Austin that words with intention

from the speaker do not always become an instruction or order to the hearer,

but they are normal words which are spoken with intention to be a purpose of

stating the words to the hearer. In Austin’s theory, it is found that it must be

difficult for the hearer to give good response which appropriate to the

intention of the speaker. It is expected that the hearer have good skill of

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analyzing the words which have intention, then can show correct response

based on the intention.

The development from Austin’s theory shows that in order to be able to

respond the words with intention from speaker, the hearer is expected to relate

the words from speaker with the situation where the conversation is

happening, because it is believed by Austin that words of intention from

speaker are always related to the situation of the communication and as the

acts from the intention words are expected to be showed at the time after the

intention words are spoken, it means that the speaker must relate the words

with the situation at that time. Further, this concept of intention words is

developed and then Austin released three aspects which are expected can

support the very first speech acts theory by Austin. Those three concepts

include conventionality, actuality, and intentionality. Actually these three

aspects are basically about what to be concerned in speech acts. From speaker

side, these concepts shows that there are three things which needs to be

considered by the speaker before the speaker decide to create words with

intention to the hearer, and the three aspects are can be noticed as follows:

1) Conventionality.

Austin insisted that this first aspect is basically about how the

words from the speaker must be correct grammatically and easy to

be understood or on the other word the speakers’ words must be

convention. Being convention means being valid in order to make

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 the communication runs properly with no miscommunication. As it

is stated that words must be correct based on grammar, it means

that words must meet with the rule of grammar or also called as

tense, then the words must be pronounced well.

Every word in the sentence must be correctly pronounced, and

also the words which are used must be simple words and the words

must be based on speaking level of the hearer. However, if this

convention is ignored by the speaker, it is believed by Austin that

there will be communication breaking down or also called as

communication failure where the words from speaker are not

totally identified and understood by the hearer which makes the

communication stops.

2) Actuality.

This second aspect is focused on appropriateness of the correct and

valid words from the speaker with the actual and real situation

where exactly the communication or conversation is happening.

Austin claimed that actuality is a crucial point where the

conceptual ideas from speaker’s mind need to be fixed with the

real situation, therefore the words must appropriate with the

situation around both speaker and hearer in order to support the

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 intention words can be transferred and understood well by the

hearer.

3) Intentionality

This intentionality involves intention which is intended to be

responded by the hearer through act. This third aspect is the final

aspect where the hearer is claimed to be able to catch the intention

from the speaker after passing through the two previous steps

before (conventionality and actuality). The result of this third step

is claimed as the goal of the intention words spoken by the speaker

where speaker can accept an action from the hearer since the

hearer is able to determine and understand the meaning of the

words of the speaker.

The three aspects above are also used by the hearer in order to create

good responsive act to the speaker. The three aspects for the hearer can be

noticed as follows:

1) Conventionality

Through this step, the hearer is claimed need to do two main

things. First, hearer need to master a good vocabulary and also any

terms which relate to the grammar. Second, the hearer needs to

identify the words with intention from the speaker carefully in

order to catch the meaning of the words and can be used to help

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 the hearer for the next step of these three aspects. Further, it needs

to be considered by the hearer that, in this step, the hearer is

expected to be in the same level with the speaker in term of the

language use or language knowledge in order to avoid any gaps

among speaker and hearer so that the communication can be done

properly.

2) Actuality

It is expected that when the hearer reaches this step, the hearer is

able to relate the words which is identified from the speaker with

the situation of the conversation or communication. This relation

for the hearer can be so important since the final step depends on

how the hearer can be good in this second and first step before.

Moreover, being actual for the hearer means that hearer needs to

be sensitive with the situation surround which may include

weather, something which is happening, and also certain event

surround. It is strongly claimed by Austin that the more hearer can

be sensitive the more the hearer can identify the speaker’s

intention and respond it through act.

3) Intentionality

As the final step, the hearer is indicated to be able to choose the

correct and appropriate act in order to respond the intention from

the speaker. When the hearer can reach this step, it can be stated

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 that the communication between speaker and hearer is running

properly since both of speaker and hearer are having good

awareness about what they are talking during the communication

and how every word is counting to be identified and understood by

the hearer in order to give proper act to the speaker.

In the development of speech act theory there is another new thing

which is developed by Austin. It relates to the three aspects which are claimed

by Austin as the essence of speech act. Those aspects are Locutionary act,

Illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. Basically, those three aspects which

are developed by Austin are aimed on specification of speech acts concept

which is more clear and understandable than previous three aspects. For the

details definition of the three aspects by Austin can be noticed as follows:

a. Locutionary Act

This locutionary act includes the way of every word from

speakers is spoken during the communication with the hearer,

therefore in this locutionary act every aspect of speaking must be

involved well in order to create good and proper words. The

aspect of speaking which needs to be considered are tenses,

pronunciation, meaning, and vocabulary. All of those aspects are

claimed as the points which will influence the quality of speech

acts produced by the speaker.

b. Illocutionary Act

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 In this second aspect, the intention from the speaker is becoming

the main focus where the intention must be considered as the

meaningful words from the speaker to hearer to be responded. As

the intention is involved, it is better for the speaker and also hearer

to analyze the words which are spoken during the communication;

it because both speaker and hearer are responsible to produce and

identify good words and then responded into acts.

c. Perlocutionary Act

As the last aspect, this perlocutionary act is claimed as the key of

speech acts in communication since in this aspect the act from

hearer will be showed to the speaker as the hearer is able to

identify the meaningful words from the speaker and also is able to

find the intention of the words, then the hearer is responsible to act

proper respond to the speaker regarding the intention given.

Further, it is claimed by Austin that the act as respond from the

hearer can be scored as positive or negative act by the speaker, it

because hearer is claimed not always be able to give exact act as it

is intended by the speaker. Fully correct act which is same as the

intention from the speaker is not always happen in

communication, particularly in second language communication

since both speaker and hearer are in progress of leaning or

mastering English as the second language. But it can be stated that

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 the act from hearer as responds to the intention of speaker can be

categorized as god and appropriate respond if the act from hearer

is based on the result of correlating meaning of words of speaker

with the situation around the communication where speaker and

hearer are conducting communication.

Related to the explanation above about the first speech acts theory from

Austin which is represented by Oishi in 2006. Moreover, there is another

concept of speech acts which comes from a pupil of Austin who is well

known as Searle. Actually however Searle was pupil of Austin, there are some

perspectives which shows that Searle has different concept in viewing the

speech acts, and together with Van Der Veken in 1985, they mentions some

concepts which are claimed as the revision of what Austin stated before about

speech acts; firstly it is believed by Searle that speech acts is concerned on

illocutionary where the intention of speaker is becoming the main point for

hearer to be responded through acts. It means that the other two aspects of

speech acts which are mentioned by Austin before (locutionary and

perlocutionary) are claimed as the main aspects of speech acts. Second one,

Searle insists that the essence of speech acts is directive which is identified by

Searle that speech acts is mainly about a command with intention to get

people who are identified as hearers to do something as what has been

intention as meaning of speech acts by speaker. Furthermore, there are some

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important points which are included to be specified in Searle’s speech acts

concept and they can be noticed as follows:

1) In Searle’s theory and concept about speech acts, it is illocutionary

which becomes the key. It is indicated that there are some types of

speech acts which can be revealed from a speech of speaker

2) In Searle’s theory of speech acts, between words and the world are

noticed as different from the Austin’s perspective, in which Searle

believes that the words and world are not always related to each

other, or in the other words it can be stated that the words are

uttered in some purposes which are not related to the world or fact

but they prefer to be related to the intention of speaker to give

direction to be responded in action.

3) Illocutionary is believed to bring belief, intention and desire from

the speaker to be carried out into action, and it leads to an

understanding that psychological state is not involved deeply at the

time when the speech is uttered so that the acts as the respond of

speech acts have small intensity to be difficult to respond since

psychological state is something to do with personal things.

4) Every type of speech acts are including the same power in terms of

the words’ strength to ask hearers to do act. That statement is

totally contrast from the Austin’s belief that every speech acts type

has different power based on their degree of meaning.

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 5) There are no affection which is given from different status of the

speakers and hearers. Although there is different status between

speaker and hearer it is believed by Searle that illocutionary only

different in terms of the types of speech acts used by the speaker to

the hearer.

6) It is believed by Searle that utterances which are produced by

speakers have something to do with interest of speaker and also

hearer when they need to speak to give intention in utterance, and

also to listen in order to respond the utterances.

Those points of Searle’s speech acts theory has carried out some point of

view which support the understanding of speech acts in further aspects. As t is

claimed by Larsson (2013) that basically when speech acts is uttered there is

not only an intention from speaker which is covered by utterance, but also

there is involvement of politeness when speech acts is uttered. This concept is

presented by Larsson as a consideration when analyzing an utterance of

speech acts, as for example, there is utterance like this: “Could you pass me

the pen?”, this is one type of speech acts named directive speech acts,

specifically named as embedded imperative. Then, it is claimed by Larsson

that, that utterance has more than an intention to be responded, but also a

politeness of how it should be stated in polite way in order to maintain the

relationship with the hearer. Politeness is used as it is claimed by Larsson is

that to enrich the function of the utterance so that the utterance can be

35
meaningful and safe for the hearer to respond. Further, it can be considered

when a speaker use ordinary utterance in using directive speech acts, it is

believed by Larsson that the utterance will be lees function and will threat the

hearer in form of impoliteness. Another example from speech acts type which

is claimed to involve politeness on its utterances is Permission directive. As

this permission directive is defined as a speech to invite any acts to allow

speaker to do something, then this speech acts type also use the function of

politeness in order to make the utterance of speaker can be responded

positively by hearer. This term of positive does not means that there will be

agreement for all things that speakers desires to, but it is more about how a

utterances has a value of politeness of permission request because the speaker

here ask for something that formally not always done, such as; going to the

toilet on lecturing time, ask for question when teacher is explaining, therefore

to safe the speaker politeness is needed in order to maintain the

communication and safe both speaker and hearer.

Regarding to the theories about concepts in speech acts, in here there an

expert named Murphy (2013) which presents a supporting concept for both

previous theories above. This theory by Murphy is kind of a fact of speakers

and also hearers when they use utterance of speech acts and respond by act the

related utterance. It is emphasized by Murphy that there is a relationship

between logical thinking process and contextual situation in a communication

which applies speech acts. Then, it is believed by Murphy that every speaker

36
will think logically first before he produces an utterance, and also during the

process of thinking speaker also analyze the contextual situation around him

in order to avoid the use of any inappropriate utterances of speech acts.

Moreover, this phenomenon also happens in hearer and participant who are

claimed by Murphy will use their logical thinking to find out the intention of

the speaker when he produces the utterance, and also the hearer and

participant will do analysis toward the situation around the group of

communication in order to help their thinking process to find out the meaning

of speaker’s intention. Further, Murphy also finds out that speech acts is a

speech or utterances which is claimed as the only utterance which can practice

hearer and participants’ logical thinking process and contextual situation

analysis. But it is the also stated by Murphy that not all speakers, hearers and

participant are able to relate their logical thinking and their contextual

analysis, as the result of this, the speech that they produce is not that

responded correctly by the hearer or participant as the hearer and participant

are also finding any difficulties in relating speaker’s intention with contextual

situation.

Specifically, from those three newest theories and concepts from Clark,

Larsson and Murphy, it can be stated that today speech acts has been

developed and analyzed well as there are some new finding on it which are

never be found by previous old experts in speech acts. Those three concept

completely show that in sing speech acts there are three aspects which need to

37
be considered, namely: participant (other hearers), politeness and also

correlation between logical thinking and contextual situation analysis.

2.3 Types of Speech acts

Types of speech acts are basically carry out from Searle’s in 1985 speech

acts theories, and the specification can be noticed as follows:

a. Assertives. This category is the intention of what the speaker believes in,

or also belongs to the statement which includes facts. Simply, this

category carries out an understanding of repeated act as fact which is done

by the speaker therefore, this category called representative since the

sentence of this category is mainly about present activity which happens

in continuous. For example: “I go to Gym every weekend in the morning”.

From the sentence it can be identified that the speaker always go to gym at

weekend, and the time is in the morning. Moreover there are some types

of assertives based on Searle and can be noticed as follows:

1. Assert, 2. Claim, 3. Affirm, 4. State, 5. Deny, 6. Disclaim, 7.

Assure, 8. Argue, 9. Rebut, 10. Inform, 11. Notify, 12. Remind,

13. Object, 14. Predict, 15. Report, 16. Retrodict, 17. Suggest, 18.

Insist, 19. Conjecture, 20. Hypothesize, 21. Guess, 22. Swear, 23.

Testify, 24. Admit, 25. Confess, 26. Accuse, 27. Blame, 28.

Criticize, 29. Complain, 30. Boast, 31. Regret.

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b. Directive. This directive includes the intention of speaker to get hearer

(addresses and participants) to do something, or on the other word, this

category presents sentence which has intention to invite the hearer to do

act as it is ordered or instructed in the intention of the words in the

sentence. As the example: “The board-marker is out”. The sentence shows

that speaker shortly informs about the marker which is out, and actually

there is an intention there which command the hearer to give new marker.

Further, this category of directive consists of some types of directive

which are basically still focused on giving order or instruction to hearer.

The types of directive can be noticed as follows:

1. Direct, 2. Request, 3. Ask, 4. Urge, 5. Tell, 6. Require, 7.

Demand, 8. Command, 9.order, 10. Forbid, 11. Prohibit,

12.enjoin, 13. Permit, 14. Suggest, 15. Insist, 16. Warn, 17.

Advise, 18. Recommend, 19. Beg, 20. Supplicate, 21. Entreat,

22. Beseech, 23. Implore, 24. Pray.

c. Commisive. As it is named Commisive, this category emphasizes on what

speaker is commit in or on the other hand it can be stated that speaker

shows a commitment of doing something in future. For the example for

this category is: “I will be coming back to this room in 15 minutes”. This

commisive is indicated to have some types which can be mentioned as

follows:

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 1. Commit, 2. Promise, 3. Threaten, 4. Vow, 5. Pledge, 6. Swear, 7.

Accept, 8. Consent, 9. Refuse, 10. Offer, 11. Bid, 12. Assure, 13.

Guarantee, 14. Warrant, 15. Contract, 16. Convenant, 17. bet

d. Expressive. This expressive category is aimed on expressing the feeling of

the speaker with intention within. For the example; “I like your

presentation”. As Searle believes that there are some types of expressive

which can be mentioned as follows:

1. Apologize, 2. Thanks, 3.Condole, 4. Congratulate, 5. Complain, 6.

Sorrow, 7. Protest, 8. Deplore, 9. Boast, 10. Compliment, 11.

Praise, 12. Welcome, 13. Greet.

e. Declarative. In this declarative, the speaker is aimed on changing an

institutional state of affair or in simple words it can be underlined that this

category is designed in order to change the status of a person which is

different from before. For example of this category is; “You are

graduated”. Then, this category of speech acts has some other types which

can be mentioned as follows:

1. Declare, 2. Resign, 3. Adjourn, 4. Appoint, 5. Nominate, 6.

Approve, 7.confirm, 8. Disapprove, 9. Endorse, 10. Renounce, 11.

Disclaim, 12. Denounce, 13. Repudiate, 14. Bless, 15. Curse, 16.

Excommunicate, 17. Consecrate, 18. Christen, 19. Abbreviate, 20.

Name, 21. Call.

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 2.4 Essence of Politeness

As previous part of explanation mentions that basically the latest

theoretical concept of speech acts by Larsson in 2013 is related to the

politeness in which it is assumed that through politeness the intention of

speaker in speech acts can be delivered smoothly and responded well by

hearer and participant. Specifically, on that note, the very first concept of

politeness is delivered by Brown and Levinson in 1978, where on that time

they insisted that every people in communicating will tend to safe their

“face”. That tendency is called positive face by both Brown and Levinson in

which people or in this time are called as speakers or hearers, will express

their similarities and appreciation toward any expression or orders they get.

On the other hand, there is also term called negative face, where people are

trying to threat other people by doing disapproval, advice and rejection toward

any orders or expression delivered. Further, it is underlined that both of those

faces have different meaning and functions. First, positive face or also called

as positive politeness. It has two ways of meaning and functions: agreement

and appreciation. As what have been mentioned before, this positive

politeness will accept any issues or order from speakers to be done or

responded (speech acts), related to the responds, it is claimed that hearer of

41
positive politeness tend to directly doing an action as the feedback of

utterance said.

On the other side, it is believed that the negative politeness is

something that different or against the positive one. Speaker of this side will

tend to against speaker’s intention and then directly give any declines or even

threat speakers by expressing disapproval. Moreover, it can be stated that the

success of communication is exist on the way speakers deliver their intention

to the hearer to be responded, and to be polite and use any good any smooth

word as expression when speaking is claimed will bring any approval from

hearer as it is called positive politeness. But, it really depends on the way

people who are hearers can respond the intention of speakers, to be positive

and negative politeness is a choice.

Anther concept of politeness is also stated by Yule (2006). It is

defined by Yule that politeness is basically about being nice to other people.

That short and simple definition by Yule leads into an understanding that

politeness is kind of effort which is done in order to please and make other

people feel comfortable with it. Then, in term of language use, politeness can

be identified as the language which is created as nice as possible in order to

make people feel please because of the words. But then it is questioned about

the term nice in language use aspect. Whether it is short words or long words

which can be categorized as politeness. Further, it is answered by Yule that,

more words used in speaking language, more polite the words will be to the

42
people. That statement is claimed as a new simple definition of politeness

where politeness is viewed from the general side which can be understood

easily by all people or speakers. Moreover, there is another concept from Yule

which can be categorized as the supporting point to the first concept presented

about politeness. It is assumed by Yule that, being polite means that people

are trying to consider and to be aware with other peoples’ faces. Taking an

analysis on that statement that term face is appearing where face here by Yule

is truly people face which is claimed by Yule need to be noticed in order to

keep it safe not threatened. Further by Yule, when people are deciding to

ignoring other people face, it means those other peoples’ faces will not treated

in polite way and the face will be threatened and it is also called as negative

face. As it is stated in previous concept of politeness that negative face is kind

of rejecting people’s statement of argument without any consideration of

keeping them politely. Then, on the other side, when people are doing effort

to give long good support in suggestion and also motivation toward the

statement from other people, Yule called it as safe face or also called as

positive politeness.

Moreover, in order to give clear and specific details of definition about the

term face in politeness, it is claimed that there are some experts of linguistics

who try to define term face in politeness aspect, and these are the experts:

1) Brown and Levinson (1987)

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 The very first concept about face is coming from Brown and

Levinson in 1978. Their concept about face is determined by stating

that face is something that totally lay on emotion which can be lost

or maintained but it just regularly appears in every interaction and

communication of using language. Regarding to the statement of

Brown and Levinson, it can be pointed out that face according to

them is basically the movement of emotion in every people. It is

claimed that everything that people do will invite a reaction from the

emotion inside them, whether it is bad emotion or good emotion. It

is same as when it is stated that people who are treated well,

supported nicely and the emotion which will comes out is positive

emotion to be showed to other people. However, when people get

distracted, defended and complained, the emotion which will comes

out as the result is negative emotion. Further, it is strongly

underlined by brown and Levinson that people emotion are so weak.

It can be broken down by stating words which against the people,

and on the other side the emotion can be so strong as it is treated

well and supported nicely.

2) Watts (2003)

Face in politeness has understanding which involves characters and

qualities of something abstract. Further, the point of Watts’s concept

here is that, politeness affects two aspects in people, first is people

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 character. When people are treated as polite way, they tend to show

good behavior, good mood and also good feeling because all that

they say during communication are supported, and accepted nicely

without any effort of against. But those character will change easily

when people are rejected, denied, and against by other people, they

will react as negative where every feeling turns to bad, frustrated and

hopeless. Second one, politeness also affects quality of people

knowledge. In communication, it is expected that other people are

trying to have same opinion or knowledge as other people have in

order to create positive and safe communication, but if that thing

does not happen, it means that people are ready to get disappointed

by any claims and complaint toward their opinion and it will

automatically reduce what people have on their mind as knowledge

because they are not confident to survive what they assume since

other people have different ideas or knowledge.

3) Mills (2003)

In this second concept, it is claimed that face is self-image which

represent peoples’ preference. In this concept, face is noticed from

side of people self-image in which every person in the world is

claimed by Mills have different perception and preference of

him/herself according to what they believe in. in term of politeness,

this term face by Mills will lead to understanding that people will

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 feel to be appreciated when they are seen as their self-image or as

what they want to be seen. Actually, this self-image is also defined

as the general description of people which represent their character,

their desire and also their favorite things. It means that when this

concept is focused into politeness, people who are appreciated as

what they are, as what they have on their mind and as what they

want to hear from other people, it will create positive face on that

people. but, when it turns to be opposite, when people are suggested

to be different than what they are, and when people are protested as

what they want to, it can be stated that the only thing happens is

negative face.

There are four basic theory which mainly discuss about politeness, and

those theory are claimed as strong theory which support one another since

each theory has strong point to be carried out (Sachiko, 2005). The details of

each theory of politeness can be noticed as follows:

1) Grice’s cooperative Principle

Grice is claimed as the person who focuses on meaning in verbal

utterances and speakers’ intention. Based on that concept, Grice

assumes that every words from the speaker which are uttered by

considering of awareness, the words must have meaning which needs

to be revealed by the hearer, further there is also concept of speaker’s

46
intention which is claimed by Grice that hearer needs to find out what

is the meaning of the meaningful words uttered by the speaker.

Further, from those concepts, then it is stated by Grice that there are

some strategies which needs to be applied by people when they are

involved in interaction and communication in order to make them can

understand one another, therefore Grice created four conversational

maxim which are aimed on controlling and improving the quality of

interaction and communication among people. the four conversational

maxims are: (1) maxim of quantity: the point of this maxim of

quantity is that speaker is expected only share information which is

needed by the hearer and not losing control of the number of

information to be shared. (2) maxim of quality. This maxim leads into

the interaction and communication which totally based on fact which

happens in the world. Or on the other words this maxim shows that

speaker needs to share the truth which is real and not sharing

something that is belonged to issues. (3) maxim of relation. In an

interaction it is expected that people who are involved can share

something that appropriate to be shared on that interaction or share

something that relevant to the other people. (4) maxim of manner.

Basically, this maxim of manner is related to the way of people doing

an interaction and communication which are expected that people can

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 be fair in sharing information, use proper expression and also give no

unnecessary words during the interaction and communication.

2) Lakoff’s conversational-maxim approach

This expert who has complete name Robin Tomach Lakoff is the one

who presents concept of woman’s language in which Lakoff is

focusing on how language is influenced by different of gender and

character. Further, here Lakoff found two main principles which

include cooperative principle and politeness principle. According to

Lakoof, the cooperative principle is same as what Grice carries out as

the four strategies of doing cooperative interaction and

communication, and then what is new here is the politeness principle

which include four rules of being polite. Those rules are: (1) be clear.

It is believed that when all words which are uttered are aimed on one

focus or one thing, it is claimed that there will be politeness appear

along with the clearness which is given from the speaker. It is simply

defined that be clear means be understood and be satisfied. When a

communication and interaction is designed with one focus and then the

words which are used during communication are simply understood

and relevant to the focus of the interaction, both speaker and hearer are

claimed will be satisfied as they both are treated with politeness. (2)

Quantity. Be ideal. These two aspects are claimed as the keys of

politeness in interaction and communication in term of quantity. What

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 speaker share must be ideal and set in proper portion as what the

hearer want to hear. It is expected that people do not force to give

more information to be shared as the one that needed is already shared.

(3) Relevance. To be related or connected with the topic of

communication and interaction is claimed can be one of the politeness

which can make other people feel good and can maintenance the

friendship among the people. Moreover, be relevance means be part of

other people ideas and mind to think as same or think to give support

to the other people. (4) Manner. In term of manner, there is rule which

set the people in their interaction and communication do not to force

personal ideas and need to respect other people ideas as they also

contain of same topic, further it is important to do not be ambiguous I

stating a statement or words in order to make other people can easily

catch the point of understanding.

3) Leech’s politeness principle

Leech is well-known as his theory about pragmatics which also

includes politeness. Actually concept of politeness from Leech

supports the cooperative principle from Grice, but it is different from

Lakoff’s principle in which Leech present a broader concept of

cooperative principle as it is called as maxims of politeness. There six

maxims in Leech’s maxims of politeness which mainly focus on two

basic rules namely; minimizing cost and maximizing the benefit to the

49
 speaker or to addressee. And those maxims can be noticed as follow:

(1) Tact maxims; this maxim is determined on minimize cost and

maximize benefit to other. (2) Generosity maxims; is focused on

minimize benefit to self and maximize cost to self. (3) Approbation

maxims; includes minimize dispraise of other and maximize praise of

other. (4) Modesty maxims; is defined as minimize praise of self and

maximize dispraise of other. (5) Agreement maxims; is about

minimize disagreement between self and other and maximize

agreement between self and other. (6) Sympathy maxims; involves

minimize antipathy between self and other and maximize sympathy

between self and other.

4) Brown and Levinson’s strategies

The fourth theory of politeness comes from Brown and Levinson

which insist their theory in a concept called model person. This model

person is actually speaker who has a model in interaction and

communication and has intention, able to use language and able to

interact with the hearer or also called as addressee. The point of

Brown and Levinson theory then continued to a statement which is

claimed that speaker will not always try to save the face of addressee

for some reason, therefore there is a new concept from Brown and

Levinson that is called as FTA (Face Threatening Act) in which

speaker does not want to maintain the hearer or addressee’s faces.

50
 Further, it can be considered that when speaker decides to do FTA it

means that the statement from speakers will be remembered by the

hearer and also that may hurt the feeling of the hearer. However, when

speaker tries to do not do FTA, there will be any tendencies to carry

out the statement from speaker into positive or negative politeness.

It is found that there is a way to identify politeness in speakers’

utterances. The politeness identifying is presented by Watts (2003) by

introducing a list of politeness categories which is completed by the examples.

The list is aimed at identifying and analyzing the utterances to be matched

with politeness categories in order to help both speaker and hearer to

recognize and understand the use of politeness in interaction and

communication, particularly in EFL. The list of politeness categories are

presented in form of table, and can be noticed as follow:

Table 2.4.1 of Watts’s Politeness Categories

No. Name of Category Examples

1) Politeness Markers “Please, if you don’t mind/ if you

wouldn’t mind”

“Take my pen, will you/ would

you?”

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2) Play-Down “I wondered if…, I thought you

might …”

“I was wondering whether…, I was

thinking you might …”

“Would it be great ideas…?, could

we… ?“

“Wouldn’t it be fine if …, couldn’t

you …?”

3) Consultative Devices “Would you mind…?, Could you

mind …?,”

4) Hedges Kind of, sort of, somehow,

somewhat, more or less, rather,

and what have you

5) Understaters A bit, a little bit, a second, a

moment, and briefly

6) Downtoners Just, simply, possibly, perhaps, and

really

7) Commiters I think, I believe, I guess, and in my

opinion

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 8) Forewarning “Far be it from me to criticize, but

…,”

“You may find this a bit boring, but

…,”

“You’re good at solving this

problem, but…,”

9) Hesitator Er, uhh, ah

10) Scope Staters “I’m afraid you’re in my seat”

“I’m disappointed that you

couldn’t…”

“it was shame you didn’t…”

11) Agent “People don’t you …”

Source: Watts’s Politeness Theory 2003

2.5 Error Revisited

The main point which is discussed in this part is about the theories

which support the existence of error in EFL, particularly error in speaking.

Firstly, it needs to be defined about the definition of error itself and how it
53
influences the EFL. The very first theory which discuss about error in EFL

comes from Corder in 1967, and it is claimed by Corder that error is kind of

process of learning foreign language which happens automatically without

any clear consideration about how it happens. Further, error is generally

viewed as a mistake which is done by EFL learners during their learning

process, but it is clarified by Corder that an error is not a mistake. There is big

distinction between error and mistake in EFL, in details mistake is kind of

phenomena which happens by accident because of the limited knowledge or

understanding of learners about the language, and this mistake can be

corrected by themselves after they are explained about the knowledge that

they have missed. However, when it is about error, it is mostly about system

or phenomena which happens not because of missing any knowledge and

understanding but because of the system which affects the learners, and this

error is cannot be corrected by the learners themselves because it relates to the

system of language use which is actually influenced by other language or

generally mother language and makes the language or target language has an

error. Moreover, as an error is kind of systematical-affected, it leads into an

understanding that error is repeated by the learners unconsciously. The

repetition of an error happens as an habit for the learners since they have no

consideration and awareness how that error can be included in their target

language use. Furthermore, it is stated by Gass and Selinker in 1994 that the

only way to make the learners recognize and fix the error is by a help from

54
teachers or researches not and it is not possible for the learners to help their

selves with their own error. What becomes the main focus for the teacher or

research who commits to help learners to fix their error is the error not the

mistake of the learners.

There are some types of error which are found by Corder (1967),

namely; systematic and non-systematic. Basically the biggest different from

both of those types of error is the language where the error happens. For non-

systematical error it happens in native language and the process of error which

happens in native language is claimed by Corder as non significant thing since

native language is the very language which is heard, learned and spoken and

the grade of error significance is not that high. Moreover, this non-systematic

error is actually not an error, but a mistake since the speaker or learners who

does this non systematic error is a person who lives with the native language

everyday and can adapt the language use in every different situation.

Meanwhile, when it is more focused on the systematic error. This systematic

error happens mostly at second and foreign language learning. This error is

significant because it happens and exist at the process of learning other

language which not basically becomes the native language of the learners,

therefore systematic error is kind of error which can show to the teacher and

research the progress of learners in learning the second or foreign language,

particularly EFL and also show how the students can learn from the error that

they make.

55
 There is theory to the theories above, here is one theory from Finney

(2005), it is stated that an error mostly happens in Non-Native English

Speaker (NNES) because they have no linguistics background in oral and

written which are basically about EFL, therefore they have tendency to make

error in EFL as often rather than the native speaker. Further, it is indicated by

Finney that error is not coming from a system of learning foreign language,

but also from the external aspect of learner who is non-native in which they

are influenced by some aspects from outside of their psychological state of

mind. Those aspects are discourse and task during teaching and learning

process of EFL. In details, it is claimed by Finney that discourse may carry

two concepts to the learners, namely: original understanding of English terms

itself, and also personal understanding of learners themselves. In appropriate

ones, the learners need to understand the basic concept of English terms that

they study in EFL class with same interpretation with the concept of learning

material, but because of the existence of linguistics background which is not

originally English, then learners are indicated to have their own understanding

to the learning material which tends to be different from the original ones and

that what makes the learners get error. Moreover, in terms of task, error can

exist when there is different interpretation of task’s meaning between teacher

and students. In case where the teacher is a native, there is bigger possibility

for error to happen since teacher who is native English and learners who are

non-native, they must have different linguistics background which will affect

56
the meaning of task when it is interpreted by learners. But, it there is a case

where the teacher is non-English, it is claimed by Finney that the possibility

of error to exist is small since both teacher and learners are non-native and at

least they have same interpretation and understanding to the task and also

learners can be given clear explanation about the task in their native if the

learners have no understanding about some terms in the task.

It is continued by Finney (2005) that when an error is happening, there

are some aspects which are influenced in learners, namely; grammar,

pronunciation and content. In terms of grammar, the learners are indicated to

miss some grammatical aspects of EFL (English as Foreign Language) and

also the rules of tense and verb changes for certain different sentence which

uses different times. Further, sound or the way of learners to pronounce is also

affected by error in which learners are indicated to keep making the same

error for certain terms that have relation with their first language. Moreover,

the topic of learners’ conversation or the content is also affecting by error

when the learners tend to discuss about local phenomena or their daily

activities which in real daily they mostly use their first language. In specific,

those three aspects which are influenced by error during EFL are aspects

where there are mixing terms or habit between learners’ daily terms in their

first language with the EFL terms which they learn at EFL class.

2.6 Source of Error

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 In teaching and learning process, particularly in EFL teaching and

learning as it is focused in learning foreign language there are some effort of

students during their learning which are categorized as error. Yang in 2010

defines that error is a part of students’ learning progress in which makes the

students’ learning of language becomes unsuccessful. This unsuccessfulness

makes the use of the foreign language is not maximum since the students are

indicated to do silence and ignorance when they commit to have error in

language use. In details, students tend to do silence when they do not know

any specific terms on English as foreign language and this silence makes the

language use is not continued into proper ways since the students decide to do

silence to cut the language use or discontinued the language in

communication. Moreover, when the students are indicated to do ignorance

which means that students are trying to ignore the terms that they do not know

in English and then they are trying to do stealing and borrowing the terms in

other language or their second language in order to complete the expression or

terms in the foreign language that they ignore or miss before.

The idea of Yang’s theory about source of error is that, error is coming

as natural phenomena in which students as the subject of EFL is placed on the

situation when they have absence of knowledge or they have no prior

knowledge of the terms that they are expected to use, therefore they commit to

be silence in order to ignore the terms and decide to discontinue it, or they can

do borrowing, or stealing the terms from other language that they master well

58
such as second or first language to cover the terms that they ignore when they

have no knowledge about it.

It is found that error in learning language, particularly in EFL teaching

and learning is basically caused by two main aspects which can be named as

interlingual and intralingual (Touchie, 1986). Those two aspects are identified

as error in language, and they are defined as different, firstly interlingual is

known as an error which affect the learning of new language or in this case is

English as foreign language in which the process of learning that new

language is still affected by mother language of the students who are involved

on process of learning. Basically, it can be stated that mother tongue is

fundamental aspect in students’ mind which can be included by accident in

certain effort of learning or using another new language, moreover this

interlingual can be categorized as something or phenomena that is

automatically happen as a prove that students are attempting to master another

new terms which never they know or master before, and it is claimed by

Touchie there must be crash between the mother tongue and the new language

(English) that they learn because mother tongue is language of students’ daily

life in everyday, meanwhile English is used just in some occasion or as part of

EFL learning process.

The second aspect from Touchie in 1986 is about intralingual. This

aspect of source of error is different from the first aspect in terms of

definition. This intralingual is named as error which is happening during

59
process of learning new language or foreign language in which error happens

because of the new language or foreign language itself. As this aspect happens

in EFL learning process without any affects from the mother language, there

are some types of error from this source of error of intralingual which can be

mentioned as follow based on source error theory from Touchie in 1986.

1) Simplification

This type of error happens when students try to use simple forms of

terms or words instead of the complex ones. This error usually occurs

when students decide to use simple tense that they know rather than

use the complex one such as simple perfect continuous.

2) Overgeneralization

As the name is overgeneralization, the students make effort to set all

rules of tenses as once for all types of tenses. It is indicated that

students feel confident to set same verb change in all tenses as they

assume that they are correct. As for example in verb change in past

tenses; “type” into “typed”, but this verb change does not apply as the

same for all change of words, “buy” into “bought” not “buyed”.

3) Hypercorrection

This error may happen when teacher is trying to correct the error from

students, but unfortunately the correction is also not correct, so it

needs to be corrected again by the one who is expert in knowing the

error of the students.

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4) Faulty teaching

Error is not only coming from the students as the subject of EFL

learning, but also sometimes come from the teacher who train and

teach the students the foreign language. It is assumed by Touchie that

since the teacher is not the native speaker of target language (English)

the possibility to make error is still open and this phenomena needs to

be fixed by giving advance training for the teacher in order to make

the teacher knows well every terms and rules of EFL.

5) Fossilization

This error also happens because there is no further correction from the

teacher to students’ error particularly in terms of pronunciation. It is

indicated by Touchie that error in pronunciation for students non-

native speaker is quite hard to be fixed as they are taught by non-

native speaker teacher which makes the error is just happening during

EFL teaching and learning and keep happening on.

6) Absence of Knowledge

This type of error happens when students is trying to avoid to use any

terms that they cannot master or understand in EFL learning. The

effect of this error is that students never use certain terms that they do

not and they never know the use and also the meaning of those certain

terms in English.

7) Inadequate learning

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 It is expected that all process of learning in EFL are completed until

the progress of students can be monitored and noticed clearly, but not

all EFL learning process are completed since some processes are

ignored because of the rules of topics which are claimed to be difficult

to be taught.

8) False concepts hypothesized

The source of this error basically comes from students who assume or

predict or hypothesize on their mind about certain rules of EFL.

Unfortunately not all of those predictions or hypotheses are correct,

and the incorrect hypothesis makes this type of error to happen.

In 2011 Thomas believes that error in students during EFL learning

process particularly error in speaking is caused by two main aspects, they are

grammatical and appropriateness. In terms of grammar, students are indicated

to have problem which cause error when they have misunderstanding about

words structure, words change, and tenses. That misunderstanding exist

because students have no understanding or prior knowledge about the use of

grammar in EFL which makes them missing the way of structuring words or

sentences when they are expected to do proper and correct speaking.

Second aspect is appropriateness. This second aspect is emphasized on

the way of students losing the idea of content in their sentences. In details, this

second aspect is focused on the error made by students when they are not able

to make contextual sentences which is formal and polite sentences since they

62
are in EFL learning process which is indicated to be formal learning activity

which needs to be supported by appropriate, formal and polite sentences from

the students. This missing of appropriateness is claimed by Thomas happens

because students are still influenced by their mother tongue or second

language in which they translate the words from their mother tongue or

second language into target language without considering the relation between

one word to another and the formality or appropriateness of the words.

63