THE ANALYSIS OF ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS IN PRESIDENT

TRUMPS’ SPEECH ADDRESS THE NATION ON CORONA VIRUS

A Research Paper

Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements to finish the final assignment of

Sociolinguistic Course

Written by

Sherlyta Christy

Student Number: 171214102

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2020
 ABSTRACT

In this research, the writer has discussed the use of Illocutionary acts in the utterance
of President Donald Trumps' speech. The writer took President Trumps' speech that talks
about coronavirus in America. President Trump delivered his speech on 12th March 2020 in
the White House. The writer chooses this speech because of the condition of the world
nowadays that fights against coronavirus. The writer found out the types and functions of
illocutionary acts used in President Trumps' speech. The purpose of this research is to know
what types of illocutionary acts that found the most in the speech and to know what the
function of illocution used in President Trump’s speech. The method that the writer used to
analyze the data was descriptive qualitative. The data are presented descriptively because it
was described and explain illocutionary acts used by President Donald Trump such as
described the types and the functions of the illocutionary acts found in his speech. The writer
used Austin’s theory for the speech act, Searle’s theory for the types of illocutionary acts, and
Leech’s theory for the functions of illocutionary acts. The procedures of the study are; the
first one the writer watched and observe the video of President Trump’s speech, next step the
writer observes the script of the speech and categorizing each sentence includes in what types
of illocutionary acts, the final step is the writer write the result and the conclusion. The
finding showed that there are five types of illocutionary acts such as assertive, directive,
comissive, expressive, and declarative. The type of illocutionary acts found the most in this
speech was assertive. Therefore, there are four functions of illocutionary acts such as
competitive, convivial, collaborative, and conflictive. The function of illocutionary acts found
the most in this speech was collaborative.
Keywords: speech, speech acts, illocutionary acts, assertive, collaborative
 INTRODUCTION

A. Research Background

Speech acts are an act that performance by a speaker found in the language of
communication. According to Yule (1996), speech acts are a study of how speakers and
listeners use language. Speech acts can take place in verbal and nonverbal communication.
When people making a communication, they not only deliver a speech or a sentence but also
doing some act. It can conclude that speech acts not only about the language or the speech but
also the act when doing or deliver the speech or sentences to a listener or readers.
According to Austin (1962), in his theory, he stated that a speech act is an utterance
that serves a function in communication. He said that people perform speech acts in daily life
like giving a greeting, asking for apologizing, requesting something, complaining about
something, etc. The different cultures also important while people performing a speech act.
There are there acts that Austin mention in his theory which are locutionary acts which the
words that are uttered or written, the second one is illocutionary acts that talk about the
speaker's or writer's intention, and the last is perlocution that talks about the intended effect.
In illocutionary acts, Searle(1976) develop Austin’s theory about the types and make it
simpler. The result, there are five types of illocutionary acts such as assertive, directive,
commisive, expressive, and declaration.
When people making communication with other people, there are various ways to
deliver the language or the purpose of making communication. The most way is giving a
speech. Speech is an activity of speaking in front of the public area with the purpose of giving
advice or express the speakers' opinions or argue on something. Speech can be done
everywhere and every time depends on the purpose of what the speech is. Before delivering
the speech, the speakers should think and discuss the topic for the speech whether the topic is
relevant or not with the situations. The speech should have a purpose and function because
the speech is addressed to the listener with the purpose to convey the information to the
listener.
The speech that the writer used for the object of the research was taken from President
Donald Trump's speech. In the speech, the President talked about the coronavirus in America.
The President delivered his speech on 12th March 2020 at the White House. The speech
duration is around 9 minutes.

B. Research Question(s)
 1. What are the illocution types used in President Trump’s speech on 12th March
2020?
2. What are the functions of illocution used in President Trump’s speech on 12th
March 2020?
3. What are the most types and the most function of illocutionary acts appear in
President Trump's speech on 12th March 2020?

C. Objective of Research
The research has a purpose which is to investigate and describe what types of
President Trump's speech. Another purpose is to explain more about the function of
President Trump's speech used the types of illocutionary acts theory developed by Searle
and the function of illocutionary acts theory by Leech.

D. Scope of the Research

In this paper, the writer has discussed the limited scope of speech acts illocutionary in

speech. For the source of the data, the writer takes President Trump's speech which is the

writer's only limit in one speech. The speech was when President Trump's talked about

coronavirus in America on 12th March 2020 his workroom at the White House.
 BODY

A. Review of Literature

1. Speech Acts

According to Austin in Jarasch, Justine, and friends' speech act theory module viii

(2014), a speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication. In daily life,

people usually perform speech acts like greeting other people, asking or giving apologies,

requesting something, complaining about something and etc. Austin also distinguishes

between the two main speech acts as performatives and constative. Performatives are used to

undertake an action that is rather felicitous or infelicitous than Constatives are used to make

just a statement that can be either true or false. There are also two types of conditions that

Austin stated which is called Constitutive conditions and Regulative conditions. These

conditions known as Felicity conditions. Constitutive condition is necessary to successfully

perform a speech act but the Regulative condition is concerned about how happy or how well

the speech acts are performed.

1.1 Locutionary acts

Locutionary acts are the basis of utterance that occurs when the speaker

performs an utterance (locution), which has a meaning in the traditional sense.

Locutionary acts also producing a meaningful linguistic expression.

1.2 Illocutionary acts

According to Searle (1969:25), the illocutionary act was an act performed in

saying something. In speech act theory, it means a speaker's intention in delivering an

utterance. Illocutionary acts serve not only to inform but also to affect the listeners to

do something. Therefore, Seale's classify illocutionary acts into five types :

 Assertive: an illocutionary act that the speakers represent a state of

affairs or truth.
 E.g. stating, claiming, reporting, describing, telling, hypothesizing,

speculation.

 Directive: an illocutionary act that used to make the listener do

something by a speaker.

E.g. ordering, inviting, requesting, advising, daring, defying,

challenging, begging, pleading, entreating, praying, commanding.

 Commissive : an illocutionary act whose point is to commit the

speaker( again in varying degrees ) to some future course of action or

the speaker should do everything that he/she talks about during

delivering the speech act.

E.g. promising, threatening, intending

 Expressive: an illocutionary act that expresses the psychological state

specified in the sincerity condition about a state of affairs specified in

the propositional content.

E.g. welcoming, apologizing, condoling, deploring, thanking.

 Declaration: an illocutionary act that the speakers create a new thing

like condition, status by stating of affairs to which it refers.

E.g. blessing, firing, baptizing, excommunicating, bidding, canceling,

allowing, passing sentence.

1.3 Perlocutionary Acts

A perlocutionary act is a speech act, as viewed at the level of its consequences,

such as persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring, or otherwise

affecting the listener. In addition, Sari (1988:25) defines that the perlocution act is the

effect on the hearer of what the speaker says. Nurhayati (2016:70) state the example

of perlocutionary, the Librarian says to Mr. Salahadin and his friends to visit the
 museum in the next month, "Come back in November. Then you 'll see the Black Cat

in its right place". Nurhayati noted that the illocutionary act might be one of urging

but the perlocutionary act is likely to be one of persuading.

2. Functions of Illocutionary Acts

Leech (1983:104) in Nine and Anin Journal state that the function of illocutionary

acts is divided into four functions.

The first function is competitive. Competitive was the function that the goal of

illocutionary competed with a social goal. In this function, politeness had negative

nature and aims to reduce disharmony, for example: ordering, asking and demanding.

The second function is convivial. This function coincides with the illocutionary

goal with a social goal. The convivial function has more positive politeness and aims

to find opportunities for social time, for example offering, inviting, greeting, thanking,

congratulating.

The third function is collaborative. According to Leech (1983:104), this function

shows a different goal between illocutionary act goals with a social goal. The example

of this function is asserting, reporting, announcing, instructing. Politeness did not

contain a collaborative function in which politeness was largely irrelevant.

The last function is conflictive which the goal of the illocutionary conflicts with

the social goal. The example threatening, accusing, cursing, reprimanding. In this

function, according to Leech (1983: 104) politeness is out of the question, because

conflictive illocutions are, by their very nature, designed to cause offense.

B. Methodology

1. Research Design
 In this paper, the writer used descriptive qualitative approach. According to Punch

(1998: 4), qualitative research is empirical research where the data are not in the form

of numbers. Qualitative research also studies things in their natural settings,

attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people

bring to them.

2. Data Sources

The writer used one data only in this paper which is from President Donald

Trump's speech that taken on 12th March 2020 at White House. The speech about

President Trump addresses the nation on the coronavirus. Another source data is

President Trump's speech script that the writer got from

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-speech.html and

the video of President Trump’s speech that the writer got from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mii6NydPiqI.

3. Data Collection Method

The writer has a procedure for collecting the data is as follows :

1. The writer reads the speech script of President Trump's speech.

2. The writer watches the video of President Trump’s speech.

3. The writer identifies each type of illocutionary act and the functions of

illocutionary acts spoken by President Trump from his speech.

4. Classified the utterance found in President Trump's speech based on types and

functions of illocutionary acts.

5. The writer analyzed the result of classifying.

6. The writer explains the analysis of descriptively.

7. The writer makes a conclusion based on the result of the analysis.

C. Results and Discussion

1. Assertive

0:01 – 0:17 “ my fellow Americans, tonight I want to speak with you about our

nation's unprecedented response to the coronavirus outbreak that started in

China and is now spreading throughout the world.” This utterance included into

assertive because it was saying about something true. President Trump greeting

the American people and telling the truth about coronavirus, where the virus

started was, and the condition of the world. It's true that the coronavirus appears in

China and now all over the world are affected by a coronavirus. In this context,

President Trump's utterance classified as stating, telling, and reporting which

means that President Trump told the truth and this utterance has a collaborative

function.

2. Directive

5:12 – 5:38. “ for all Americans, it is essential that everyone take extra

precautions and practice good hygiene. Each of us has a role to play in defeating

this virus. Wash your hands, clean often-used surfaces, cover your face and

mouth if you sneeze or cough, and most of all, if you are sick or not feeling well,

stay home." In this sentence, President Trump asked all people of American to do

a health guideline. This utterance could be included in directive because this

utterance told the listener to do something and classified as advising and

requesting. It was classified as advising and requesting because the President

giving advice for the people what should they do when they get sick and request

the people to do a small action in defeating the virus. This utterance had a

competitive function.

3. Expressive
 9:30 “thank you." This utterance was delivered by President Trump at the end of

his speech and this utterance classified as thanking. This illocutionary act type

was included in expressive because it conveys about someone's thoughts and

feelings. This utterance had a convivial function.

4. Commisive

5:45 – 5:50 “ I will soon be taking emergency action, which is unprecedented, to

provide financial relief." This utterance was included in commisive type of

illocutionary acts. President Trump promised that he will take an emergency

action to provide the financial relief and this classified as promising. It had a

convivial function because it aims incompliant with social purposes.

5. Declarative

2:34 – 2:57 “ there will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone

appropriate screenings, and the prohibitions will not only apply to the

tremendous amount of trade and cargo but various other things as we get

approval. Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are

discussing. Their restrictions will also not apply to the United Kingdom". This

utterance included declarative because President Trump gives some spare rule for

the Americans and this utterance classified as allowing because in this utterance

the President still gives a chance for the trade and cargo. This utterance had a

conflictive function.
 CONCLUSION

After the writer analyzed the data, the writer found that the most dominant type of

illocutionary acts used by the speaker was assertive which contains 12 data. From 12 data, the

speaker used assertive illocutionary acts in the form of telling, describing, claiming,

reporting, and speculating. The second dominant type is directive which contains 6 data in

form of commanding, requesting, advising, and ordering. The third is declarative with 4 data

and in the form of blessing, deciding, and allowing. The fourth type is commisive with 3 data

in form of intending and promising. The last type is expressive which contains 2 data in the

form of thanking and welcoming.

The functions of illocutionary acts found in the speech are competitive, convivial,

conflictive, and collaborative. From the four functions, the most dominant functions of

illocutionary acts used by President Trump were collaborative which contains 8 data,

followed by competitive function with 5 data, then convivial function with 3 data, and the last

function was conflictive with 2 data.

Finally, it can conclude that in President Trump's speech the majority types of

illocutionary acts used assertive which is the most dominant and the most frequently used.

Then the majority of the functions of illocutionary acts that appear in the speech were

collaborative. It quite reasonable considering the purpose of the speech to informed

information about coronavirus and what the nation, America do for the people and told the

listener, American people what should they do during the pandemic.

 REFERENCES

Austin, John. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. London: Oxford University Press.

Jarasch, Justine & friends. 2014. Language and Society. Speech Act Theory.

Leech.1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.

Listya, Anin, & Nine Febrie. N. 2015. The Analysis of Illocutionary Acts in the President

Joko Widodo’s speech. Journal of Illocutionary Acts Volume 6 issue 1st December 2015.

Nurhayati & Yuwartatik. 2016. Illocutionary and Perlocutionary Acts on Main Characters

Dialogues in John Milne's Novel: The Black Cat. IJOLTI (2016);1(1): 67-96.

Punch, K.F. 1998. Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Sari, Nurmala. 1988. An Introduction to Linguistics. Jakarta : Depdikbud, Direktoral Jendral

Pendidikan Tinggi.

Searle, John S. 1969. Speech Act. An Essay of Philosophy. Great Britain: Alden Press

---- 1976. A Classification of Illocutionary Acts. Language in Society, Vol.5, No.1 (Apr

1976), pp.1-23: Cambridge University Press.

Yule, G. 1996. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Link of the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mii6NydPiqI

Link of the speech script: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/us/politics/trump-

coronavirus-speech.html