Abstrak


Requestive speech acts in the drama “The Circle” written by William Somerset Maugham (a socio-pragmatics approach)


Oleh :
Titik Sri Sutarti - C1303047 - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

ABSTRACT 2008. This research is conducted to find the types of requestive employed by the characters in the drama entitled “The Circle”, and to describe why the characters in the drama entitled “The Circle” deliver their request expression in term of sentence form. In collecting the data, the researcher employs purposive sampling. The sample is chosen based on the aim of the research. The data of this research are all dialogues that are considered to requestive in the drama “The Circle”. In this research, the analysis of requestives is classified based on the sentence forms suggested by Hurford and Heasley, request strategies by Anna Torsborg and politeness strategies suggested by Brown and Levinson. There are ten types of requestive employed by the characters of the drama, they are hints, ability, willingness, permission, and suggestory formulae, wish, desire/needs, obligation, performatives, and imperatives. All of the requestive in the hint strategy are expressed in the form of declarative. The hints strategy is used the by speakers to inform their intentions in indirect way. The speaker mitigates his/her request through understatements. The ability strategy expresses the speaker request to the addressee’s capacity. The participants’ relationship and the context of situation are the speaker’s consideration in delivering his or her permission. The willingness strategy gives the force of the addressee to comply with the request. The suggestory formulae give a sign to the addressee that he/she will get benefit by doing the requested action. It also gives a careful request to express the speaker’s intention. In desire/need strategy, the speaker places his/her interest above the addressee. Therefore, the request becomes bluntly and directly as a demand. It becomes more polite when it is employed in wishes strategy. The imperative strategy of requestive is used by the speaker to show the emphasis of his or her intentions. The imperative indicates that the speaker is putting pressure on the addressee to comply with the requestive. The imperative also reflects the speaker’s feeling toward the addressee, that is anger. There are three sentence forms in the drama. They are imperative, declarative and interrogative. The interrogatives show that the speakers inform their intentions in polite way. They are powerful in facing responses. Hence, the addressee will comply with the action requested. The declarative is used by the speakers to inform their intentions in indirect way. The informality of the context and the social distance between the participants are the factors, which affect the speakers’ choice of using declarative form. The imperative form of the requestive is used by the speakers to show the emphasis of their intentions. It indicates that the speakers put pressure on the addressee to comply with the requestive.