CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background

In social life, of course, every human being has made a mistake in the family, school, workplace, or in
public places. And as social beings, when we make mistakes, it is appropriate to apologize to repair
relationships with people who have been harmed by these mistakes. In Haristiani (2014) Barnlund &
Yoshioka explain that when apologizing there needs to be awareness, namely a) awareness of having
hurt others physically, mentally and socially, b) awareness of responsibility both directly and indirectly
for the losses suffered. the other person, and c) awareness in the form of an obligation to realize his
mistakes. If you don't have the awareness as mentioned above, there may not be an apology speech
act.

Speech acts are included in the branch of pragmatics, which is a branch of linguistics that studies the
structure of language externally, how certain lingual units are used in actual communication. Pragmatics
is the study of language which bases its analytical footing on context. The context in question is all the
background knowledge possessed by the speaker and speech partner and that supports the
interpretation of the speech partner towards what is meant by the speaker with a certain utterance
(Tarigan, 1986:35). In contrast to semantics, which is only limited to studying meaning, as a trait of
expression in a particular language, separate from the situation, speaker or speech partner. For
example: the expression "I am hungry", in semantics this sentence means that the speaker is hungry
without any meaning, while in pragmatics it is more concerned with what is the meaning of the phrase
"I am hungry"? Do you mean to ask for food or do you want to go buy food?

A speech act is an action that is carried out by expressing an utterance that has a specific purpose,
namely what it says is what it does, what it does is what it says. In carrying out speech acts, there must
be a purpose, and to achieve these goals, strategies are needed so that speech acts can be conveyed
properly. As for one of the speech acts that really need a strategy is the speech act of apologizing,
because when expressing sorry means the speaker has violated the rules, then as an action to save face,
an apology strategy is needed which is also inseparable from the politeness strategy.

According to Chaer (2010: 50) the term regarding speech acts was first introduced by J.L Austin who is a
Harvard University professor in lecture material in 1956, which was later recorded by J.O Urmson (1965)
with the title How to do Thing with Word? Then the theory only became famous after it was developed
by J.R Searle and published a book entitled Speech Act and Essay in The Philosophy of Language.
In Tarigan (1986: 109) explains that Austin distinguishes speech acts into 3 types, namely:

1. Locutionary acts: actions that are solely to say something in linguistic form,

2. Illocutionary acts: language acts in conveying the speaker's intentions which are conveyed along with
explicit sentences of actors,

3. Perlocutionary acts: language acts performed by someone as an effect or result of illocutionary acts
performed by speakers.

By understanding the meaning of the three types of speech acts above, the speech acts that will be
analyzed in this study are only limited to illocutionary speech acts, namely language acts that have
specific goals explicitly. In addition to these 3, in Tarigan (1986: 46-48) illocutionary speech acts are also
subdivided into 5 types, namely:

1. Assertive, namely speech acts that bind the speaker to the truth of what he said. For example
stating, reporting, showing, and mentioning.

2. Directives, namely speech acts performed by the speaker with the intention that the listener
performs the actions mentioned in the utterance. For example ordering, demanding, suggesting,
challenging.

3. Expressive, namely speech acts carried out with the intention that the utterance is interpreted as an
evaluation of the things mentioned in the utterance.

4. For example praising, thanking, criticizing, complaining, and apologizing.

5. Commissive, namely speech acts that bind the speaker to carry out what is stated in the greeting. For
example, promise, swear, threaten.

6. Declaration (not declarative), namely speech acts carried out by the speaker with the intention of
creating new things (status, circumstances, etc.). For example, decide, cancel, prohibit, allow, forgive.

From the explanation above, it can be seen that the speech act of apologizing is included in the group of
expressive illocutionary speech acts. So the speech act of apologizing can also be interpreted as a
language act that is carried out explicitly to evaluate the mistakes made by the speaker and has the
intention to accept the perlocutionary speech act of declaration in the form of apologizing from the
speech partner.

So to get the purpose of the speech act, in performing the speech act of apologizing, of course, there
needs to be a strategy so that the speaker's apology can be accepted by the speech partner, so as to
improve the relationship between the two. According to Cohen and Olshtain (1983:22), when someone
intends to express his regret for the mistakes that have been made, there will be at least five strategies
to express forgiveness so that the purpose of the speech act can be achieved, namely:
1. Expression of direct apology, namely the speaker uses words, expressions, or sentences that contain
appropriate performative verbs such as sorry, forgive, forgive.

2. Explanation of situations that indirectly cause the apologizer to make the intended mistake and
which the speaker uses as an indirect apology.

3. Acknowledgment of responsibility where the apologizer admits to being the cause of the fault.

4. An offer of repair where the apologizer offers a corrective action or provides compensation for the
damage caused by his fault

5. Promise not to repeat, this method requires speakers to improve themselves so as not to repeat the
same mistakes.

In the speech act of apologizing, the apology strategy mentioned above is also accompanied by a
politeness strategy, namely how to apologize both grammatically and culturally so that mistakes made
can be forgiven and understood by people who feel aggrieved. For this reason, a good communication
strategy is needed so that the purpose of the speech act can be achieved. Regarding communication
strategies (Yusrita, 2001-96) explains that according to Brown and Levinson there are four
communication strategies, namely:

1. Speak frankly without further ado (bald on record)

2. Speak using positive politeness, that is if in expressing sorry the speaker gives various reasons and
explanations or explanations

3. Speak using negative politeness, namely the speaker expresses sorry without any explanation or
reason or says casually without caring about the feelings of the speech partner or does not say sorry at
all

4. Speak in a vague or non-transparent way (off record)

Regarding politeness, basically politeness is asymmetric, not symmetrical, not balanced, or the two
parts are not the same. So what is considered polite by the speaker, may not be polite to the speech
partner (Tarigan, 1986: 49). In Gunawan (2014: 18) Goffman, Brown and Levinson have the view that
politeness means an attitude of concern for the face or faces, both belonging to the speaker and the
speech partner. Face or face here does not mean the real face but polite means an effort to always
maintain self-esteem, feelings and honor both for oneself and for others. In addition, the face also
means self-image which consists of two opposing desires, namely a positive face and a negative face.
While what is meant by a negative face is the desire that one's actions are not hindered by others, while
a positive face is the desire for someone to be liked by others (Kerbrat in Bataller, 2008: 28).
 Therefore, politeness in language is a way to maintain and save face. Because most speech acts can be
face threatening for both the speaker and the speech partner, in an effort to reduce the face threat
from a speech act, language politeness is needed.

Regarding negative and positive politeness strategies, Gunawan (2014: 20) explains that Brown and
Levinson (1987) divide negative politeness into ten substrates which include, (1) indirect expression, (2)
using fences, (3) being pessimistic. by being careful, (4) minimizing the burden on the interlocutor, (5)
expressing respect, (6) using an apology, (7) not mentioning speakers and speech partners, (8) stating
FTA as a social rule that generally applies , (9) nominalize the statement, and (10) state clearly that the
speaker has given kindness (debt) or not to the interlocutor.

In contrast to the negative politeness strategy, Brown and Levinson (1987) describe positive politeness
into 15 substrategi, namely (1) paying attention to the listener's likes, desires, and needs, (2)
exaggerating attention, approval, and sympathy for the listener, (3) intensify listeners' attention by
dramatizing events or facts, (4) using group identity markers (greeting forms, dialects, jargon, or slang),
(5) seeking agreement with general topics or repeating part or all of the utterances, (6) avoiding
disagreement with pretending to agree, pseudo-agreement, deceptive white-lies, hedging opinions, (7)
using small talk and presuppositions, (8) using jokes, (9 ) expresses understanding of the listener's
wishes, (10) makes an offer or promise, (11) shows optimism, (12) involves speakers and listeners in
activities, (13) asks questions or asks for reasons an, (14) states a reciprocal relationship (reciprocal),
and (15) gives gifts (goods, sympathy, attention, cooperation) to listeners.

As has been explained, that the expression of apologizing is a speech act that is included in expressive
illocutionary acts, namely a language act of expressing an apology with the aim of correcting the
speaker's face for having made a mistake against the speech partner, and to achieve this goal a polite
language strategy is needed, both positive and negative politeness.

As a Japanese learner and teacher who speaks Indonesian as a mother tongue, it is necessary to
research and compare how the speech act of apologizing in Japanese and Indonesian is to be able to
understand where the differences and similarities between the speech act of apologizing in Japanese
and the speech act of apologizing lie. in Indonesian.

Although it is still within the scope of Asia, the cultural and linguistic differences between Japan and
Indonesia are quite clearly visible. For example, the diversity of expressions of sorry in Indonesian only
has the word "sorry" as the root word, while in Japanese there are expressions of gomen, sumimasen,
moushiwake arimasen and many other variations of sorry expressions in Japanese. With the difference
in the diversity of words in the two languages, it may also affect the speech act of apologizing performed
by Japanese people with the speech act of apologizing made by Indonesians, even in the same error
situation.
 Currently, there have been many studies on the speech act of apologizing in Japanese and Indonesian,
but most of the research has been done by giving error situations related to family, friends and
lecturers. Giving an error situation with the relationship between friends, family, and lecturers is
considered less beneficial for Indonesians learning Japanese and also Japanese learning Indonesian
because it is very unlikely that they will use these speech acts in real life. It is said that because it is
impossible for Japanese language learners when they make mistakes, then apologize to their mother
using Japanese, and vice versa with Japanese learners of Indonesian.

Therefore, in this study, in order to be able to feel the benefits in learning Japanese and Indonesian, an
analysis of speech acts from drama films will be carried out which describes the speech act of
apologizing in the form of mistakes that may occur in the world of work so that it can be used as
reference material. when expressing apologies when making a mistake with a Japanese or Indonesian
coworker. Because at this time in Indonesia, in particular, many are studying Japanese for Indonesians
or Indonesian for Japanese people to be able to facilitate communication at work. As employees, of
course, they will try their best for the advancement of the company where they work, but as humans, of
course, these employees can also make mistakes, both intentional and unintentional.

Based on these reasons, it is necessary to conduct research on the speech act of apologizing in Japanese
and Indonesian for mistakes that may occur in the world of work. The goal is that employees who make
mistakes can save "face" in front of their colleagues or superiors, so that they can continue to establish
good cooperative relationships at work.

With the objectives of the research described above, in this study a contrastive analysis will be
conducted between the speech act of apologizing in Japanese and the speech act of apologizing in
Indonesian, regarding how the expressions are used, comparing these expressions to find differences
and similarities in the act of apologizing. apologizing in Japanese and Indonesian, as well as factors that
may influence the use of expressions of apology in Japanese and Indonesian.

B. Problem Identification

In the world of work as employees are often required to work as well as possible, but as a human being
certainly will not be separated from mistakes, both intentional and unintentional. When you make a
mistake, as a social being, you should apologize to improve your relationship with your co-workers or
boss. In order for the purpose of the speech act to be achieved, an appropriate expression is needed to
convey the apology.
 Therefore, as a Japanese learner and teacher, it is necessary to analyze how the use of sorry expressions
and strategies are used by both Japanese and Indonesians. With how the similarities and differences
between the two, then the language learners will be able to learn by using the language commonly used
by native speakers. Of course this is very much needed in performing speech acts, especially in the
speech act of apologizing.

This is because if we hear the word "sorry", then what we have in mind is that someone has made a
mistake or harmed another person, then humans as social beings should apologize for all the mistakes
they have made. It aims to maintain social relations between the guilty person and the injured person.
In order for the purpose of the speech act of apologizing to be successful, a strategy of apologizing
accompanied by politeness is needed, so that people who feel aggrieved can understand and forgive
mistakes made by the speaker.

In addition, cultural differences between Japan and Indonesia can of course also affect speech acts in
apologizing. So to be able to use language properly, it is necessary to analyze what are the differences
and similarities between the speech act of apologizing in Japanese and the speech act of apologizing in
Indonesian.

Actually, currently there have been many studies on the comparison of speech acts of apologizing in
Japanese with Indonesian, but most of the research has been carried out by giving error situations
related to family, friends and lecturers. Meanwhile, situations related to the world of work are
considered to be lacking, even though the purpose of learning Japanese is of course to be used as capital
to get a job. So, in this study, we will try to further analyze the speech act of apologizing in Japanese
and the speech act of apologizing in Indonesian related to the world of work.

C. Problem Formulation

From the identification of these problems, the authors formulate several problems, including:

1. What expressions are used to express sorry in Japanese?

2. What expressions are used to express sorry in Indonesian?

3. What are the similarities in the function and strategy of the speech act of apologizing in Japanese and
Indonesian?

4. What are the differences in the function and strategy of the speech act of apologizing in Japanese
and Indonesian?
D. Troubleshooting

Based on the identification of the problems described above, this research is limited to how the speech
act strategies of apologizing in Japanese and Indonesian, and also to be able to clearly identify the
differences and similarities of speech act strategies of apologizing in Japanese and Indonesian. In
addition, in order to be implied by Japanese language graduates, the analyzed apology is an expression
that occurs in a work situation. How is the expression of apology used when apologizing to teammates
or superiors, or vice versa, namely an apology made by superiors to their subordinates.

The apologies that will be analyzed in this study are the expressions found in the Japanese film The
Great Passage, Zenkai Girl episodes 1-11, and Clover. Meanwhile, the Indonesian films are titled
Automatic Romance, Bossku Super Killer, Office Girl Is My Girl, Proposal, and Before Morning Repeats
Again. These films were chosen because they have a background story about the world of work, and
there are also some apologies.

E. Research Objectives

With the formulation of the problem above, the purpose of this study is to find out:

1. Expressions of apologizing in Japanese.

2. Expressions of apologizing in Indonesian.

3. Similarities in the function and strategy of the speech act of apologizing in Japanese and Indonesian.

4. Differences in the function and strategy of the speech act of apologizing in Japanese and Indonesian.

F. Research Benefits

1. Practical Benefits

• For teachers, it can be used as a reference for teaching materials regarding the similarities and
differences of speech act strategies for apologizing in Japanese and Indonesian, especially for
apologizing for mistakes that may occur in the world of work.

• For students, they can find out examples of expressions and strategies for apologizing in Japanese and
expressions of apologizing in Indonesian when speaking to their superiors or friends, in situations where
mistakes may occur in the world of work. 1.3 For researchers, it can be used as a reference for further
research on speech act strategies for apologizing in Japanese and Indonesian.
2. Theoretical Benefits

• Can find out the similarities between the speech act strategies of apologizing in Japanese and
Indonesian, especially for apologizing for mistakes that may occur in the world of work.

• Can know the difference between speech act strategies for apologizing in Japanese and Indonesian,
especially for apologizing for mistakes that may occur in the world of work