An Analysis Of Indirect Commands In A Film Entitled “The Ghost Writer” (Pragmatics Approach)

Oleh :
Pandu Wijaya Saputra - C0308057 - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

This research was conducted to describe the types of strategies employed by the characters in the film “The Ghost Writer” for issuing indirect commands, the factors influencing the use of strategies and the responses given by the hearers. The research used pragmatic approach with the indirect commands as the scope of the analysis. This research was a descriptive qualitative research with purposive sampling technique. The dialogues containing indirect command were taken as the data. There were 20 data representing the criteria. The data were analyzed with Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness. Holmes’ theory of social dimension, Hymes’ ethnography and Fishman’s domain were also used in the analysis. From the analysis, the researcher finds the following results: First, there are three politeness strategies employed by the characters in film “The Ghost Writer” for issuing indirect commands. They are negative politeness, positive politeness and off record. Second, some factors influence the use of the strategies. Those factors are the social status between the speaker and the hearer, the domain of the conversation, degree of imposition and the situation when the conversation happens. Third, there are two kinds of responses given by the hearers to the indirect commands, compliance and refusal. However, most of the indirect commands are responded by compliance. It is expected that this research can be a reference for other researchers. They may focus on the form of indirect commands. Analyzing another indirect act by using the same approach is also possible.