SPEECH ACTS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS IN COMMUNICATION

Аннотация

Speech act is a part of pragmatics where there are certain aims beyond the words or phrases when a speaker says something. Speech acts are acts that refer to the action performed by produced utterances. People can perform an action by saying something. Through speech acts, the speaker can convey physical action merely through words and phrases. The conveyed utterances are paramount to the actions performed. In regard to the English as a foreign language, there are things to consider. It is easy for the speakers or listeners to determine the intended meaning of utterances if they are spoken in the mother tongue. Factors such as idiomatic expressions and cultural norms are not function as barriers to determine the intended meaning. Keywords: pragmatics, speech acts, norms and idiomatic expressions A. DEFINITION OF SPEECH ACTS Communication has always been a necessity in human life. Through Communication has always been a necessity in human life. Through communication, the trade of thought among people, which directly contributes to the development of the quality of life itself, can be performed. The ability to percept utterances in communication can determine the actions followed. Communication can be conveyed through verbal and nonverbal communication. Buck (2002) states that there are two types of communication, they are verbal and nonverbal communication. Verbal communication is the way of communicating messages by using words as elements. Nonverbal communication is the way of communicating messages by using gesture, 272 Acumen: International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Acumen: International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research ISSN: 3060-4745 IF(Impact Factor)10.41 / 2024 Volume 2, Issue 5 body movements, eye contact, facial expression, or general appearances as the elements. Pragmatics is a study which belief is what is communicated is more than what is said. The utterances that the speakers produce in communication contain deeper sense than the actual meaning of the words or phrases themselves. Yule (1996:3) states that pragmatics has consequently more to do with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than what the words or phrases in those utterances might mean by themselves. Pragmatics also strongly related with context or situation when something is being said, thus it is very important for the speakers to focus on the context. Leech (983: 6) also states that pragmatics is the study of meaning which is related to the speech situations. In accordance to Leech statement, Yule (1996) argues that pragmatics should also consider aspects of context such as who people are talking to, when, where, and under what circumstances that will determine the way they say and what they want to say. Yule (1996:3) states that there are four areas which pragmatics is concerned with: 1. Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning. 2. Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning. 3. Pragmatics is the study of how to get more communicated than it is said. 4. Pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative distance. In the broad sense, through pragmatics we must be able to grasp the message of the utterances by being aware that the words or phrases contain deeper meaning than literal meaning of what is spoken. In line with this, Richard and Schmidt (2002) argue that pragmatics is the study of the use of language in communication related to sentences and the context and situations in which they are used. In the scope of pragmatics, there are some factors that should be considered. These factors establish the very definition of pragmatics itself. The factors are Implicature, Speech Acts, Presupposition, Context, Adjacency Pairs, and Deixis and Distance. Speech act, a variety of verbal communication and also a subdivision of pragmatics, often takes place in verbal and nonverbal communication. Yule (1996) states that speech acts are a study of how the speakers and hearers use language. Bach (1979) explains that an action in verbal communication has message in itself, so the communication is not only about language but also with action. In conclusion speech act is the utterance that occurs and act refers to an action. There are certain aims beyond the words or phrases when a speaker says something. Austin (in Tsui, 1994: 4) explains that speech acts are acts that refer to the action performed by produced utterances. In line with this, Yule (1996: 47) states that speech acts is action 273 Acumen: International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Acumen: International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research ISSN: 3060-4745 IF(Impact Factor)10.41 / 2024 Volume 2, Issue 5 which is performed via utterances. Stating the same idea, Birner (2013) also says that uttering something means doing something. Here, people can perform an action by saying something. Through speech acts, the speaker can convey physical action merely through words and phrases. The conveyed utterances are paramount to the actions perfo