“A Speech Acts Analysis of An Interview Podcast between Gita Wirjawan and

Habib Husein Ja'far on Youtube”

Disusun oleh:
Muhammad Fitriyanto
195110107111001
Introductions Semantics - Pragmatics
Class D

UNIVERSITAS BRAWIJAYA
FAKULTAS ILMU BUDAYA
PROGRAM STUDI SASTRA INGGRIS
MALANG
2021
Introduction
The ability to communicate well is very important for people in the world. In communication,
humans use language to convey messages to each other. Language not only acts as a liaison in
understanding messages between humans but also a vehicle for people in the world to get to
know one another's cultures. People generally develop attitudes toward language that reflect their
views of those who speak the language, and the context and associated functions (Holmes, 1992:
346). The language used can reflect the behavior of the speaker.
One of the human daily activities that uses language as its medium is interview, and the most
popular type of interview right now is Podcast. Podcasts on Youtube contain not only an audio
but also a video which could deliver all the utterances produced by podcasters and guest stars.
Podcasters and guest stars produce many kinds of utterances and perform different types of
verbal actions. This type of content on Youtube is a good field in finding speech acts as it
represents various speech acts in different situations.
John L. Austin, an Oxford philosopher in the United Kingdom Nation, introduced the first
speech acts theory in his book How to Do Things With Words (1955), and further research was
developed by John R. Searle in 1962. It considers the degree to which utterances are said to
perform locutionary acts, illocutionary acts, and perlocutionary acts. In communication, people
usually produce utterances and perform an action through the utterances intended to have effect
and function on the listener or usually called as speech acts. Yule (1996: 47) says that speech act
theory is a way to better understand human communication.
An interview podcast between Gita Wirjawan and Habib Husein Ja'far on Youtube brings up an
interesting topic and has a lot of views. Gita Wirjawan and Habib Husein Ja’far produced many
utterances and perform different kinds of speech acts on this video. The purpose of the study is to
investigate and analyze the speech act utterances produced in this podcast video between Gita
Wirjawan and Habib Husein Ja’far. From this point on, the author would also like to inform the
readers about the very possibilities of utterances that have many different purposes in its
meaning.

Theoretical Framework
Pragmatics is one among many scopes of linguistic studies. This branch of study covers many
areas, one of them is speech acts which will be the main focus of this essay. Austin (Sari 2014)
defined that speech act is an action performed in saying something. George Yule (1996:47) adds
that the use of speech act is for specific labels, such as promise, complaint, request, invitation, or
apology. Austin (1962:108) divided speech acts into three categories; locutionary act,
illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act.
Locutionary act is the basic act of the utterance, or producing a meaningful linguistic expression.
Austin (1962:108) adds that locutionary act refers to the certain sense and reference from the
speaker to the meaning. (Austin, 1962:108) define that illocutionary act is an utterance that has a
certain force such as informing, ordering, warning, or undertaking. (Searle, 1979) classified
illocutionary act into five categories; a) assertive, used to state what speaker believes or not; b)
directives, speaker wants someone to do something or imperative; c) commissives, to commit to
some future action; d) expressives, the utterance that contain feeling; and e) declaratives, to
change something via utterance. According to Yule (1996:49) perlocutionary effect shows to the
assumption that will recognize by the listener. Perlocutionary act is an effect of the speaker's
utterance toward the listener or listener’s reaction toward the speaker's utterance.

Methods
This study identified and analyzed some of the examples from the illocutionary speech acts
performed by Gita Wirjawan and Habib Husein Ja’far on Podcast Endgame. The author collected
data from the podcast video between Gita Wirjawan and Habib Husein Ja’far by transcribing the
video into written form and analyzing 2 samples from each type of speech acts in this video.
Then, the author categorized the result based on types of illocutionary speech acts.

Discussion
Here is the data found in the podcast video between Gita Wirjawan and Habib Husein Ja’far.
The data analyzed speech act introduced by Searle regarding illocutionary acts with criteria, as
follow:

Speech act types Direction of fit S=Speaker, Example

X=Situation

Assertive Make words fit the world S believe X states, proposes, brags,
complains, expresses
opinions, reports, notifies,
suggests, boasts,
complains, demands,
reports.

Directive Make the world fit the words S want X orders, requests, demands,
advises.

Commissive Make the world fit the words S intend X promises, offers, vows

Expressive Make words fit the world S feel X to say thank you,
congratulate, apologize,
criticize, praise, express
condolences, and so on

Declarative Words change the world S cause X resigning, baptizing,

firing, naming, punishing,
isolating, raising
(employees), and so on.
The author found 5 kinds of speech acts performed by Gita Wirjawan and Habib Husein Ja’far in
the podcast video, especially types of illocutionary acts. The result of the study showed:
Assertive
Here is the examples of assertive illocutionary produced by speaker in the video:
a. Habib Husein Ja’far; “Menulis pertama kelas 1 SMA, diterima di media nasional.”
("First writing at grade 1 high school, and accepted in the national media.")
b. Habib Husein Ja’far; "Tulisan itu lahir dari dialektika/proses. Dia tidak letupan. Kalau
omongan mungkin dari letupan-letupan yang ada bias emosinya, ada bias tidak
diverifikasi dulu, dsb." ("The writing was born from dialectics/processes. It doesn't
explode. If the talk may come from outbursts that have emotional biases, there are biases
that are not verified first, etc.")
The utterances above belong to the assertive illocutionary speech act. The utterances of a1
provide information to the public. The utterance of a2 provides an opinion.
Directive
Here is the examples of directive illocutionary produced by speaker in the video:
a. Habib Husein Ja’far; "Kalau kamu mau lihat kualitas orang, lihat kualitas bacaan dan
tulisannya. Berapa jumlah bukunya, segitu isi otaknya." ("If you want to see the quality of
people, look at the quality of their readings and writings. How many books are there,
that's what their brains contain.")
b. Habib Husein Ja’far; “Jadi memang memiliki bayangan bahwa Islam harus kemudian
bukan hanya berdamai, tapi terintegrasi dengan sains meskipun pada wilayahnya masing-
masing.” ("So I do have the vision that Islam must then not only make peace, but also be
integrated with science even though it is in their respective territories.")
The utterances above belong to the directive illocutionary speech act. The utterances of b1
provide advice to people. The utterance of b2 has a function as a wish.

Commissive
Here is the examples of commissive illocutionary produced by speaker in the video:
a. Habib Husein Ja’far; “Itu yang kemudian saya manfaatkan untuk menarik mereka ke
agama, dan agama dalam pengertian yang Insya Allah saya upayakan se-genuine
mungkin.” ("That's what I then use to attract them to religion, and religion in the sense
that Insya Allah I will try to be as genuine as possible.")
b. Habib Husein Ja’far; “Karena itu saya mencoba memberikan referensi yang luas kepada
orang tentang perbedaan itu sendiri.” ("That's why I try to give people a broad reference
of the differences themselves.")
The utterances above belong to the commissive illocutionary speech act. The utterances of c1, c2
show the speaker’s commitment.
Expressive
Here is the examples of expressive illocutionary produced by speaker in the video:
a. Habib Husein Ja’far; “Berdarah-darah kita mau tembus Kompas. Mitos di penulis itu
untuk tembus di Kompas dan majalah Tempo itu berdarah-darah, maka ketika tembus,
senang sekali.” (“I was very bloody to be accepted by Kompas. The myth that the writer
was approved for in Kompas and Tempo magazine was bloody, so when it was approved,
I was very happy.”)
b. Habib Husein Ja’far; “Kalau sekarang jumlah bukunya nggak menentukan kualitas otak
seseorang, karena biasanya masih diplastikin nggak dibaca sama dia.” ("Nowadays, the
number of books does not determine the quality of a person's brain, because they are
usually still plasticized and they are not read by him.")
The utterances above belong to the expressive illocutionary speech act. The utterances of d1
express the speaker’s feeling. The utterance of d2, speaker criticize the phenomena.
Declarative
Here is the examples of declarative illocutionary produced by speaker in the video:
a. Gita Wirjawan; “Dan kalau saya bandingkan dengan negara-negara lain yang jadi guru
itu yang sangat top banget, lulusan dari universitas dari perguruan tinggi mana pun.”
("And if I compare it with other countries, the teachers are very top, the best graduates
from universities from any college.")
b. Gita Wirjawan; “Karena anda benar-benar bisa menarasikan banyak dimensi dengan cara
yang nyambung dengan zilenial apa lagi milenial.” ("Because you can actually narrate
multiple dimensions in a way that connects with millennials let alone millennials.")
The utterances above belong to the declarative illocutionary speech act. The utterances of e1
declare someone's occupation. The utterance of e2 provides information about the interlocutor
that is good at narration .

Conclusion
The author discovered five forms of illocutionary speech acts in a YouTube interview podcast
between Gita Wirjawan and Habib Husein Ja’far after analyzing the data. Assertive, directive,
commissive, expressive, and declarative are five categories of illocutionary speech acts
discovered. The author provides 2 examples for each type of illocutionary speech acts and finds
out that declarative is the least performed in this interview podcast. From all the conversations,
assertive is the most often performed.

References
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to Do Things with Words. London: Oxford University Press.
Rostiana, H., & Novari, A.F. (2021). A Speech Act Analysis Of An Interview Podcast Between
Siti Fadilah And Deddy Corbuzier On Youtube. MENDIDIK: Jurnal Kajian Pendidikan
dan Pengajaran, Vol. 7 No. 2, Page: 189-195. Indonesia
Searle, J. R. (1979). Expression and Meaning. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Yule, George. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.Robinson.