Forms and Functions of Expressive Acts Used by Tukang Sabung Ayam (Cock Gambler)

MUTHIA DAMAIYANTI Politeknik Negeri Padang, Kampus Limau Manis, Padang, Sumatera Barat, Indonesia

E-mail : muthia@polinpdg.ac.id

EDWAR KEMAL STKIP PGRI Padang, Sumatera Barat, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Every utterance consists of a form and a function. Both of them can have one message or even have a difference message. One of the speech act categories is expressive act. It means to show out someone’s feeling or psychological state. The method of collecting data used non participant observation. Analyzing the data used pragmatic identity method. The theories are from Austin about the types of speech act and Searle and Wijana about types of speech Act. The research shows that the form and function can be similar or different. All of the types of the speech act occurs on the site. Most of the types of the sentence occur in the form of declarative. Keywords: Form, Function, Expressive Act

INTRODUCTION Whenever the humans exist, the language must be there. This proverb shows that language has important role for human in their daily life. Human will not be able to understand what other human wants. Language is used by humans in order to show their needs, their feeling, and their expectations to other people. The language will keep existing as long as the human use it for their communication. It can be simplified that language is a way for human to communicate with others.

Talking about language itself, it is also divided into two parts. They are verbal language and non-verbal language. Verbal language means language coming out from the human speech organ by producing some meaningful sounds. Meanwhile, non-verbal language is a language coming from the movements of human’s parts of body such as; eyes, body movement, facial expression, and etc. Both of these languages are used by the human to express what they want.

One of the language function is it is used for communication. In the communication, the speech act occurs. According to Sadock (2009) speech acts: ‘acts done in the process of speaking. In other words, it means that during the speaking or conversation, the participants do the action. Meanwhile, speech act theory provides us with a means of digging beneath the surface of discourse and establishing the function of what is said (Cook 1992). In other words, speech act theory attempts to explain how speakers use language to accomplish intended actions and how hearers infer intended meaning form what is said.

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In simply, speech act can be divided into two parts. They are speech and act. Speech means whatever meaningful sounds whether in the form of word, phrase, clause, and sentences coming out from human speech organ to communicate or interact to other people. Act means action taken by the people to other people related to utterances uttered. It means that speech act is a combination of utterances and action applied by a person to respond what the previous utterances.

Searle (1969) divided speech act into some categories. They are assertive, directive, commisive, expressive and declarative. Expressive speech act means what the speaker feels, his/her psychological state. These can be statements of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy or sorrow. Qadir and Riloff (2011) stated that expressive is an act occurs in conversation when a speaker expresses his or her psychological state to the listener. Typical cases are when the speaker thanks, apologizes, or welcomes the listener. It can be simplified that expressive speech act is a speech act related to the feelings of both speaker and hearer.

Form and function are two different thing. Form is a written or spoken words, phrases, clauses, and sentences used by speaker or hearer in communication. Function is what the speaker or hearer’s intention. The form and function can have one message or purpose but in other cases, the form and function have different message. These phenomena will greatly be influenced by the context of the text. Context gives great roles in determining the function of utterances.

Cock gambling is one of the common activities happen in social life. This gambling is still included illegal activity for the people. The people can’t hold a cock gambling place in any place. Anyway, some people still hold this activity in order to get entertainments and to know about the ability of their fighter cock, though it is under the awareness feeling of each of them. Mostly, they hold this activity in a suburb place or in the middle of the forest in order not to be caught by the authority.

In the cock gambling, many people from other areas come to the site. They get the information of the place secretly. Sometimes they get the information coming from mouth to mouth or through the hand phone. During the gambling, people utter many words, phrases, clauses or even sentences. They keep talking as the cock fighting. Sometimes, they speak slowly and sometimes, it is like shouting or screaming. They don’t care about others as long as they can express their feeling through utterances.

Based on the phenomena above, the writer focuses on the questions; what are the forms of expressive speech act utterances used by tukang sabung ayam (Cock Gambler) and what are the functions of expressive speech act utterances used by tukang sabung ayam (Cock Gambler)?

REVIEW RELATED THEORIES

To analyze the phenomena, some of theories are needed to make the research understandable and researchable.

TYPE OF SPEECH ACT BY AUSTIN According to Sadock (2009), when people communicate, the basic communication framework ‘simultaneously’ consists of three types of speech acts. They are locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. Locutionary means certain sounds are produced that comprise identifiable words arranged on the basis of a particular grammar and has a certain sense and reference. In other words, it means that what the speaker utters or says. Illocutionary act means the conventional force associated with the uttering of the words in a particular context. It also

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states that it is what the speaker means or intends to. Perlocutionary act refers to the effects the utterance has on the hearer.

Austin (in Levinson, 1983: 236), isolated three basic senses in which in saying something one is doing something, and hence three kinds of acts that are simultaneously performed. First is locutionary act. It is the utterance of a sentence with determines sense and reference. In other words, locutionary act is the act of saying something (Austin, 1962: 94). This is the act of simply uttering a sentence form language. It is a description of what speaker says for example: the utterance “my watch is broken”. The referring expression is my watch and the predicating expression is “is broken”.

Second is illocutionary act. It is the making of a statement, offer, promise, etc, in uttering a sentence, by virtue of the conventional force associated with it (or with its explicit performative paraphrase) (Austin in Levinson, 1983: 236). According to the Austin (in Parker, 1986: 15), illocutionary acts is the act of doing something with certain force and intention. Illocutionary acts include stating, promising, apologizing, threatening, predicting, ordering, and requesting. For example: a father says to his wife “can you help me”. The illocutionary act performed by father is requesting.

Third is perlocutionary act. It is the bringing about of effects on the audience by means of uttering the sentence, such effects being special to the circumstances of utterance (Austin in Levinson, 1983: 236). According to Austin (in Parker, 1986: 15), perlocutionary act is the act of effecting someone. It is the effect on the hearer of what a speaker says. The effect includes: persuading, embarrassing, intimidating, boring, irritating, or inspiring the hearer. For example: a husband says to his wife ten times in five minutes, “hurry up” dear, we are going to be late for the party”. The perlocutionary act is likely to be one of irritating.

TYPES OF SPEECH ACT

Searle (in Parker, 1986: 19), speech act can be divided into two parts. First is based on the directness of speech act and the second is based on the literalness of speech act. Directness is divided into direct and indirect speech act and literalness is also divided into literal and non-literal speech act. Then it is also classified into direct literal, indirect literal, direct non-literal, indirect non-literal speech act.

DIRECT-INDIRECT SPEECH ACT

According to Searle (in Parker 1986: 17),”direct speech act is a case in which syntactic form of an utterance reflecting to direct illocutionary act. For example: “Bring me my coat”. It is a statement of illocutionary act of requesting and the purpose of the speaker also makes a request. It means that the meaning of the utterance is the same whether for the speaker and for the hearer.

According to Searle (in Parker 1986: 17)” a speech act can be performed indirectly if one illocutionary act is performed by way of performing another act”. For example: Could you bring me my coat? In the direct speech act, it means the speaker asks the hearer about his coat. It has function to ask. In the indirect speech act, it means the speaker asks the hearer to take his coat. It has a function as request.

It can be concluded that the difference between the direct speech act and indirect speech act is located in the syntactic form of the utterance. Direct speech act is the one that matches with the syntactic utterance but indirect speech act is the one that does not match with the syntactic

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form of the utterance. It tends to see the function of illocutionary act rather than the form of utterance.

LITERAL NON-LITERAL SPEECH ACT

“Speaker sometimes means what they say literally and sometimes not”. Then, he argued that literal speech act occurs when speakers mean what they say literally (Searle in Parker, 1986: 19). In other words, Wijana (1996: 32) also argued that literal speech act is a speech act that the form and the meaning of utterance itself have the same purposes. For example: “clean the whiteboard”. It is included as literal because the pattern and the meaning of that utterance are the same. The form is an imperative sentence in which the speaker orders the hearer to clean the whiteboard. Then, in case of meaning, it is very clear in which the speaker only orders the students to clean the whiteboard. There is no other meaning that appears in the utterance except, to ask the student to clean the whiteboard.

Meanwhile, Searle (in Parker, 1986: 19) stated, “non-literal speech act occurs when speakers do not mean what they say literally”. Wijana (1996:32) argued that non-literal speech act is a speech act in which the form and the meaning of the utterance itself don’t have the same purposes.

DIRECT LITERAL SPEECH ACT

According to Wijana (1996: 33), direct literal speech act is a speech act produced by the speaker to the hearer in which the form and the meaning of the utterance itself have the same purposes. Direct literal speech act is the one that syntactic form of utterance and the speaker means exactly what they say literally” (Searle in Parker, 1986:19). Then Searle also gave the example: (Context: A patient is having a physical examination)

Doctor : Stick out your tongue. Patient : (stick out the tongue)

The doctor’s utterance “stick out your tongue” is direct literal speech act. It is direct speech act because the imperative form is used to perform a direct illocutionary act of making request. It is literal speech act because the speaker means what he says. He wants the hearer to stick out his tongue.

INDIRECT LITERAL SPEECH ACT

Wijana (1996:34) said that indirect speech act is a speech act that the form and the meaning of the utterance are different but the meaning of the utterance itself is the same with the form of the utterance itself. Indirect literal speech act is a case in which the syntactic form of an utterance does not reflect any indirect illocutionary act associated with it and the speakers mean what they say literally (Searle in Parker, 1986: 20). For example: (Context: You and a friend are seated at the table in a restaurant. The butter is on your

friend’s side of table, out of your reach) You : I’d like some butter Your friends: (give the butter).

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Your statement “I’d like some butter” seems request something to your friend, to give the butter to you. It means the utterance is categorized as indirect literal speech act. It is indirect speech act because the form of statement has function as requesting. It is literal speech act because the speaker means what he says i.e. asking the hearer to pass the butter.

DIRECT NON-LITERAL SPEECH ACT

Direct non-literal speech act is the one that matches the syntactic form of the utterance but the speaker does not mean what he says literally (Searle in Parker, 1986: 20). Wijana (1996:35) argued that direct speech act is a speech act that the form and the meaning of the utterance of the speaker are the same but the form of the utterance itself differs with what speaker means to the hearer.

For example: (Context: Joe and Jack are leaving a four anatomy and physiology exam) Joe : That was the most miserable test I‘ve ever taken Jack : You can say that again. Joe : (Keep silent) Jack’s utterance is classified as direct non-literal speech act. It is direct speech act because Jack, the speaker performs illocutionary act of making statement by using declarative form. It is non-literal speech act because the speaker does not mean what he says; he does not want Joe to repeat his statement.

INDIRECT NON-LITERAL SPEECH ACT

According to Searle (in Parker, 1986: 20) “indirect non-literal speech act is a case in which the syntactic form of the utterance does not reflect any indirect illocutionary act associated with it and the speakers do not mean what they say literally”. Meanwhile, Wijana (1996:35) said indirect non-literal speech act is a speech act that the form and the meaning of the speaker’s utterance is different with the meaning that speaker means to the hearer.

For example: (Context: Mr. White is sitting in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. A woman and her

six-year-old daughter walk in and sit down. After a few minutes the girl begins to run around the waiting room, yelling at the top of her lungs. She then stops right in front of white and lets out her best war whoop).

Mr. White : Why don’t you yell a little louder? The girl : (be quite) Mr. White’s utterance is categorized as indirect literal speech act because he is using in the interrogative form to perform the illocutionary act of making request. It is non-literal speech act because he does not mean what his word says; he does not want her to yell louder.

TYPES OF THE SENTENCE

According Sinclair and Coulthard (in Coulthard and Martin, 1981:8-11), there are four types of sentence. They are declarative, imperative, interrogative and moodless.

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1. Declarative It has function to give information or to make the statement. For example: a. It is raining b. I will be here tomorrow.

2. Interrogative It has function to ask the question. For example: a. Do you understand it? b. Why they have to go?

3. Imperative It has function to command and request. For example: a. Please, go and find someone in that room. b. I want you help me tomorrow.

4. Moodless It is the item without verb but the meaning and function are influenced by context.

For example: 1. The door!

If it is given a context like conversation between lecturer and students in a room, it means the

lecturer wants a student to open the door. It will not have a meaning or function without

involving of a context.

CONTEXT

Context is an important element in analyzing the utterances because it influences the meaning. To get the real meaning of an utterance, one can not interpret only by seeing the construction and translating each words. It means there is a closely relationship between the meaning of the utterance with the context of utterance itself.

According to Hymes (in Rankema, 1993: 44), the meaning of an utterance can be influenced by some factors, such as setting, scene, participants, ends, act sequences, keys, instrumentalies, norms, genres. He grouped it by the word “SPEAKING” . Meanwhile, Fromkin (1993: 159) argued that the context of an utterance includes the speaker, hearer and any third parties present. It also includes what has been previously uttered; the physical environment, the topic, the time, and he appropriate circumstance of the utterance itself.

According to the facts above, it can be concluded that context is everything one knows about the world surrounding of utterances such as the participants, setting, participant, act sequences, the topic and etc which contributes to his or her interpretation of what speaker means because communication is successful if the speaker and the hearer have the same interpretation about the utterance itself. It is related to what Levinson (1983: 21) said understanding an utterance involve the making of inference that will connect what is said to what is mutually assumed or what has been said before.

DISCUSSION

After collecting the data, finally it can be grouped, presented and analyzed as the following:

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DIRECT LITERAL SPEECH ACT

Context: One round of the cock gambling is over. One of the cocks wins and another is lost. The owner of the winning cock is smiling while taking up his fighting cock from the ring.

Cg 1 : ondeh, manang juo ayam ko. Ambo raso indak kamanang tadi ko mah. Waw, the cock wins.I thought it wouldn’t win it.

Cg2 : kan lai mantap mah The cock is good.

From the data above, it can be seen that the expressive speech act had already occurred. the form of the utterance of ondeh, manang juo ayam ko. Ambo raso indak kamanang tadi ko mah is declarative. He just wanted to tell to his opponent that he was surprised that his cock would win the competition. It is proved by his expressive words “waw”. The function of the utterance is to give information to his opponent that he himself surprised about the ability of his cock. He doesn’t have any intention, except informing, about the condition. The effect for the hearer is he also emphasizes what the speaker said previously. The utterance is included into direct speech act because the speaker tells right away his surprise to his opponent about his happy feeling. The utterance belongs to the literal speech act because the speaker just means what he said. He doesn’t have other message in his utterance. That’s why, the speaker understands and responds right away without having any cornered feeling.

INDIRECT LITERAL SPEECH ACT

Context :After two minutes fighting, one of the cocks keeps running into the ring. It doesn’t want to fight anymore with its opponent. Whenever it gets a kick, it keeps running. Many people laugh looking at these conditions.

Cg1 : tendang taruih, hantam kapalonyo. Maso ayam takah itu babaok. Ha..ha. (keep kicking, hit the head. How come that kind of cock become the opponent

and laughing) Cg2 : (keep silent with having a red face among the laughing crowd)

Through the utterance, it can be concluded as the expressive act of the speaker. The form of the utterance is declarative. It is to declare the happening condition. The function of the utterance is to tease up his opponent. It is proven through his utterance that has negative meaning, i.e. to mock the gambler or his opponent through his cock and added by his laughing at the end of his utterances. The effect of the speaker utterance is his opponent face is getting red. He looks like getting angry. He knows that the speaker is teasing him up. The utterance is included as indirect speech act because the speaker doesn’t tell directly to the opponent about his points exactly. He just tells it to the crowd and the crowd becomes laughing at him. It is also literal speech act because he clearly says that the cock is cant fight his cock. The opponent cock keeps running after being kicked and hit by.

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DIRECT NON LITERAL SPEECH ACT

Context: The gambler lets his fighting cock play and eat the sand. After that, he talks to

his friends. Suddenly, there is another fighting cock approaching and then they are fighting. His helper try to get his fighting cock.

Cg1 : Ondeh Ain. Ayam tuha. Oh My God, Ain, the chicken! CgH : (run quickly to take his cock)

The form of the utterance Ain. Ayam tuha belongs to moodless. It is because it only has a noun without having any verbs and complementary. The function of the utterance is to inform about his cock that is fighting with another cock. The effect of the utterance is the gambler knows about what the speaker means. That’s why he runs as fast as he can to stop the fighting and get his cock back. The utterance belongs to direct speech act because the speaker tells right away to the hearer about the condition. It also belongs to non literal speech act because the speaker doesn’t tell exactly what he says. He just calls the name. There are no clear points that he tells to other gambler.

INDIRECT NON LITERAL SPEECH ACT

Context: after several fighting, his fighting cock always wins. By having a happy face, he comes to the committee to get his reward. He is so happy with the condition. Cg 1: Pai maambiak pitih sajo kasiko nyo…. Ha..haa.haa I come here just to get the money. (laughing)

The form of the utterance is included as the declarative. The function is to inform others that his cock is the best fighting cock for today and he just got much money from the competition. The effect of this utterance is having no effect because he doesn’t know to whom he is speaking to. The utterance belongs to indirect speech act because he just speaks to everyone. He doesn’t speak to a certain person. It is also included as non literal speech act because what he wants to say is not clear from his utterance. But from the context of the situation, he just shows off to others that he has a good fighting cock for today. He also informs that he has much money for this game.

CONCLUSION

After analyzing the data, it can be seen that there are expressive act utterances used by the Cock gamblers in their communication. Talking about the type of speech act from Austin, it is clearly-stated that between the form and function sometimes it has one message but on the other occasion, it has different message. About type of the sentence, mostly the Cock gamblers use declarative. It is because they often express their feeling during the competition. Related to the type of speech act by Searle, it can be concluded that all of the types occur in the communication. It also means that they are creative in making utterances in order to be understood by their listeners.

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REFERENCE

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College Publishers. Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Parker , frank. 1986. Linguistics for Non Linguist. London: Taylor & Francais, Ltd. Qadir, Ashequl and Riloff Ellen. (2011). Classifying Sentences as Speech Acts in Message Board Post. In

Proceedings of the 2011 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP-2011). Utah: Salt Lake City.

Rankema, Jan. 1993. Discourse Studies: Introductory Textbook. Amsterdam Philadepphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Sadock, J. (2009). Speech Acts. In L. R. Horn, & G. Ward (Eds.), Handbook of Pragmatics. USA, UK, Australia:

Blackwell Publishing. Searle, J.R. (1969). Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wijana, I. Dewa Putu. 1996. Dasar-Dasar Pragmatik. Yogya karta: Penerbit andi.

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