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Speech act analysis on Steve Jobs' speech at Stanford University commencement
Putri, Fima Rizania, Speech Act Analysis on Steve Jobs’ Speech at Stanford University Commencement, Thesis, English Department, The Faculty of Education STAIN Kediri, 2012. Advisors: (1) Fathor Rasyid, M. Pd, (2) Nur Afifi, M. App. Ling.
Key Words: speech act, locution, illocution, felicity condition, politeness
strategies, illocutionary force indicating devices (IFIDs), and speech.
Language is used for communication. It is needed to make interaction and show purpose or feeling. So, it becomes the fundamental of social interaction. Speech is one of the examples of spoken language. It is used to influence or to entertain the listeners, to express idea, to convey message to other people, etc. Therefore, as the primary source of this research, the researcher chooses Steve Jobs’ speech at Stanford University Commencement because the speech has meaningful message and contains much inspiration which can contribute self-development to the listeners and has many viewers from You tube. By knowing the content of the speech, the researcher wants the listeners take into consideration what to do to get the best in their life. Therefore, to know the deep meaning of it, the researcher uses a theory which shows the relationship between form and function of utterance, namely speech act theory. By knowing the relationship between them, the listeners know the meaning of it more and the important things of the speech can be taken into consideration by the listeners to get the best things in life.
This research uses descriptive qualitative research because the researcher describes the analysis of speech act on Steve Jobs’ speech at Stanford University Commencement deeply. The researcher shows some locutions which have meaningful message in the speech. Then, the locutions are analyzed based on their social functions of the utterances or illocutions according to Searle’s theory of speech act, felicity condition, Politeness strategies, and IFIDs.
According to the result of the research which is related to the theory, there are some locutions which function as assertion, request, and command. But, most of the utterances function as an assertion; while the rest of the utterances function as request and command. As an assertion, the speaker believes that the proposition is true or not. It means that the speaker wants to assert something about his belief to the audience. While as a request and command, the speaker tries to get the listener to carry out some action. It means that the speaker wants the audience to do something which has been requested or commanded.
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