1. INTRODUCTION
Anecdote is a text which retells funny and unusual incidents in fact or imagination. Its’ funny and unusual incident within an anecdote text is aimed to entertain the reader. The way to entertain reader is through words that retell its funny or unusual part of the story. Speech acts are often the heart of an anecdote. With the help of speech act, the funny or unusual part of the story will be delivered. Anecdotes often play with a wrong understanding of the speaker’s illocutionary point by the hearer, for example: Someone knocks at the window of a peasant’s house at 3 a.m.:
- Hey, you need any firewood?
- No, go away, I am sleeping.
In the morning, the peasant saw that all the firewood disappeared from his shed. And this wrong understanding about the speaker’s intention makes the core of the anecdote that is when the funny things happen. Thus, speech acts in anecdote play an important role to drag down the reader into a good feeling after entertained by reading the story.
2. THEORITICAL REVIEW
Anecdote, generally speaking, is a text which retells funny and unusual incidents in fact or imagination. Hornby (1995:39) states that “anecdote is a short, interesting or amusing story about real person or event”. The purpose of anecdote text is to entertain the reader through the amusing and interesting event in the story. In order to entertain the reader, Anecdote texts usually make use speech act. The existence of speech act within an anecdote text builds amusing and interesting atmosphere in the story that will let the reader to enjoy and to be entertained when reading the story.
Nunan (1993:124) defines speech act as “the functional intention of an utterance. Moreover, Weijer (2004:35) states that speech act is
“The function that an utterance has, e.g. a command, a promise, a belief, etc. This function can be made explicit by means of an illocutionary verb but that is by no means necessary. In principle there are as many kinds of speech acts as there are illocutionary verbs in a language, but since some verbs can be grouped as to specific dimensions (e.g. to command, to order, to request etc.), they are often divided into the following five major classes: assertives, directives, commissives, expressive and declarations”.
Speech act can be said as the heart of the anecdote text. Speech act in anecdote text has its function to build the humorous part of an anecdote. Austin (1955) divides an utterance into three types of speech act. The first type is A locutionary act that is the saying of something which is meaningful and can be understood. For example, saying the sentence wash your hand is a locutionary act if hearers understand the words wash, your, and hand. The second is illocutionary act is using a sentence to perform a function. For example wash your hand may be intended as an order or a piece of advice. And the last type is A perlocutionary act that is the results or psychological effects that are produced by means of saying something. For example, washing your hand would be a perlocutionary act.
Richard (2002) states that an utterance in speech act theory, have two kinds of meaning that are propositional meaning (also known as locutionary meaning) and illocutionary meaning (also known as illocutionary force). Propositional meaning is the basic literal meaning of the utterance which is conveyed by the particular words and structures within the utterance. While the illocutionary is the effect of the utterance to the listener or hearer, it can be a command, advice and so on.
Speech act within an anecdote story usually is not said directly. An anecdote story usually contains the indirect type of speech act that’s called indirect speech act. Rather than saying wash your hand (direct speech act), in indirect speech act it can be said your hand is very dirty. Richard (1988:253) define indirect speech act as “a speech act in which the communicative intention is not reflected in the linguistic form of the utterance. For example, “It is very hot in here” may be used to express a request to turn on the air conditioner.”
Anecdote text usually contains speech act that perform as the weapon of the anecdote text in delivering the amusing or interesting part of the anecdote. In anecdote text, usually the meaning of the utterance can’t be predict from only the basic literal meaning of the utterance which is conveyed by the particular words and structures within the utterance. This illocutionary act in the utterance within an anecdote text is the important thing in the anecdote text. With the help of this illocutionary act, the amusing or the interesting part of the anecdote text will be delivered.
3. DISCUSSION
Speech act within anecdote texts taken from Reader’s Digest, April 2007, The Great Escape in the Life like section:
1. Because he’s a chemist and I’m a personal trainer, my fiancé and I don’t always agree about what eating healthy means. I prefer food with less fat and fewer calories while he watches out for chemicals and additives.
We were grocery shopping one day and I asked him to go and get some butter.
“Which kind,” he asked, “cancer or heart attack?”
The utterances:
a. “Which kind,” he asked, “cancer or heart attack?”
When we read this anecdote, we will find that the locutionary act or the literal meaning of the utterance is not what the speaker’s intention. Here, what the fiancé wants to convey is beyond the literary meaning of the words-cancer or heart attack. In order to understand the fiancé’s intention of this utterance, we have to find something else beside the literal meaning of the utterance. We should have background knowledge in order to understand the real intention of the speaker.
In the beginning of the story, there are words that can be used as a clue in understanding the last utterance (“Which kind,” he asked, “cancer or heart attack?”). Those words are the chemist and personal trainer that we can find it the sentence he’s a chemist and I’m a personal trainer. Understanding those clues will enable us to figure out what is the real intention of the speaker. The words cancer and heart attack seems has no relationship with the situation when he (the fiancé) is asked to buy butter to the grocery. However, if we think it carefully, we will able to figure out the real intention of the utterance. The fiancé is a chemist, so he is really care with the chemicals and addictive of the butter. While the woman is a personal trainer and she is care of the fat and the calories of the butter. When the fiancé is going to buy the butter, he will consider the chemicals and addictive of the butter. That’s why he says which kind, cancer or heart attack. This utterance seems used by the husband in insulting or mocking the women because they have different perspective about what eating healthy means.
2. The anecdote text
A guy suffering from a miserable cold begs his doctor for relief. The doctor prescribes pills. But after a week, the guy’s still sick. So the doctor gives him a shoot. But that doesn’t help his condition either.
“Okay, this is what I want you to do,” says the doctor on the third visit. “Go home and take a hot bath. Then throw open all the windows and stand in the draft.”
“I’ll get pneumonia!” protests the patient.
“I know. That I can cure.”
The utterances in the text
a. “Okay, this is what I want you to do,”
This utterance has its locutionary meaning if the patient understands its literal meaning of the utterance which is conveyed by those words and structures within the utterance. Here, the doctor’s intention in conveying this utterance is to give information about the acts that is should be done by the patient.
b. “Go home and take a hot bath. Then throw open all the windows and stand in the draft.”
Locutionary act of this utterance is when the patient understands the literal meaning of the utterance.
Illocutionary act of this utterance is an advice or a command from the doctor to the patient to go home and take a bath and open the windows and stand in the draft.
While the perlocutionary act here is when the patient going home and taking a bath that’s suggested by the doctor.
c. “I’ll get pneumonia!”
This utterance actually is a complaint to the doctor for the suggestion given to the patient. The patient conveys this utterance to complain doctor’s suggestion that he/she thinks it’s not a good suggestion. The illocutionary act of this utterance is complaining to the doctor. The perlocutionary act in this utterance is when this complaints has its effect of the doctor’s mind, in this case when the doctor change the suggestion or explains more details about the suggestion given.
d. “I know. That I can cure.”
This last utterance said by the doctor can be classified into locutionary act that as the utterance is meaningful and can be understood. And it also belongs to illocutionary speech when it ‘s used to perform a function of a language. And it perlocutionary act that is the results or psychological effects that are produced by means of saying something.
The utterance of the doctor that is “I know. That I can cure.” is not only give the patient information that the doctor is able to cure pneumonia, but it has function beyond it literal meaning of the utterance. It serves function that can’t be shown by its locutionary act. The doctor’s intention in this utterance is not only to give the patient information about his competence in dealing with the disease, the pneumonia. However, this utterance actually tries to give speaker information that the doctor is not able to heal the cold. He has no ability in healing the cold, but he is able to cure pneumonia. That why he asked the patient to go home and take a hot bath, then throw open all the windows and stand in the draft in order to make the patient suffer from the pneumonia. Because the doctor can’t cure his cold so he find the other disease that he is sure that he can cure it.
4. REFERENCES
Nunan, David. 1993. Introducing Discourse Analysis. New York: Penguin Group.
Richards, Jack & Schmidt, Richard. 2002. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. London: Pearson Education.
Austin, J.L. 1955.How to do things with word. Oxford: the Clarendon Press.
