https://jurnal.unigal.ac.id/index.php/jall/index JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 149 Received Accepted Published May 5 th 2022 August 9 th 2022 September 14 th 2022 SPEECH ACT IN BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH Peby Utami* pebyutami.2002@gmail.com Ibnu Iqbal Farhan Najmi Emeliya Sukma Dara English Education Department, Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training, State Islamic University of North Sumatra ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to analyze Barack Obama's usage of speech acts in speech "A More Perfect Union”. The method used in this research is qualitative research. The data were collected and analyzed by collecting and classifying the utterances that are relevant to Searle’s theory on speech act’s classification. Based on the findings, the researchers discover three directives, four commissives, fifteen representatives, one declarative, and five expressive in the speech. The representative is the most common and declarative is the least common. Keywords: Pragmatic, Speech Act, Speech INTRODUCTION Pragmatics is the study of the use of language in context or certain situation. When people speak, they may discuss their intended meanings, assumptions, purpose or aims, and action. The statements that the speaker produces through communication have a meaningful message than the word's or phrase's literal meaning. When someone says something, it is not without any aims. Yule (1996, p. 47) states that speech acts is an action via utterances. Birner (2013) also states that uttering something is the same as doing something. You must be able to understand the meaning of the utterance through pragmatics, recognizing that the word or phrase include deeper meaning that the literal meaning of what is being said. Through speech act, the speaker can convey the action in words and sentences. The representation of this can be seen from an activity called speech. https://jurnal.unigal.ac.id/index.php/jall/index mailto:pebyutami.2002@gmail.com JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 150 Speech is a process delivery of an idea that aims to provide information or change and influence the mindset of the audience. Speech is a type of public speaking action in which a leader expresses their perspective or provides an overview of important topics or events that should be discussed and addressed. According to Yule (1996, p.3), the study of meaning as transmitted by a speaker or writer and perceived by a listener or reader is called pragmatics. As a result, it is more concerned with determining what individuals mean by their utterances than with determining what the words or phrases in those utterances might signify on their own. Speech act refers to a language-based action that can be investigated pragmatically. According to Yule (1996), speech act is a study of how language when it is being used by both the speakers and the hearers. Bach (1979) explains that communication is not only about language but also with action. This action has message in itself. Searle (2005) states that there are five different classification of speech acts. The classifications are directives, commisives, representatives, declaratives, and expressives. 1. Directive Speech acts in which the speaker is focusing to persuade people to do something are known as directives. They convey the speaker's desire for the addressee to take action. Advice, commands, orders, queries, and requests are examples of paradigm cases. The speaker seeks to elicit some future course of action from the addressee by utilizing a directive, thus making the world match the words through the addressee. For example: Open your window! 2. Commissive Commissive is speech acts in which the speaker commits to a future course of action.. They convey the speaker's desire to act. Offers, promises, refusals, and threats are examples of this speech act. The reality adapts to the words via the speaker himself in the event of a commissive. For example: I will be back in three days. JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 151 3. Representative Representatives (or assertives) are speech acts that bind the speaker to the truth of the articulated proposition and hence have truth-value. They convey the speaker's point of view. Asserting, claiming, concluding, reporting, and stating are examples of paradigm cases. The speaker depicts the world as he or she believes it is in this type of speech act. 4. Declarative Declarative is spoken acts that cause immediate changes in the current condition of circumstances. They are referred to as 'institutionalized performatives' since they rely on sophisticated extra linguistic institutions for their successful presentation. For example: Gary, you are fired! 5. Expressive Expressive is speaking acts that convey a speaker's psychological attitude or state, such as joy, sorrow, or likes/dislikes. This types of speech act includes apologizing, blaming, congratulating, praising, and thanking.. For example: Wow that was remarkable! The purpose of this study is to analyze Barack Obama's usage of speech acts in his speech "A More Perfect Union". The researchers choose this speech because it is arguably the biggest political event of the campaign in the 2008. This research focuses on Searle’s speech act classification: directive, commisive, representative, declarative, and expressive. Similar with this, Dewi&Jannah (2022) conducted their research which focused on the illocutionary acts proposed by Searle (1979). There are five types of illocutionary acts found in their research : representative, directive, expressive, commissive, and declarative. METHOD The method used in this research is qualitative research. Moleong (2007) states that the data collected in qualitative research are in the form of words, pictures, and not numbers. In this research, The data were taken from Barack Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union” in the course of the contest for the 2008 Democratic Party JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 152 presidential nomination, on March 18, 2018. The data is analyzed by collecting and classifying the utterances that are relevant to Searle’s theory on speech act’s classification. In this research, the data is collected through the following steps: 1. Searching the video of the speech and the script. 2. Watching the speech and reading the script. 3. Grouping the utterances to Searle’s speech act classification. 4. Analyze the data. FINDING AND DISCUSSION There are 5 types of Speech Act that are found in this speech. They are directive, commisive, representative, declarative, and expressive. All of these are explained: 1. Directive a. In the first data of the table, speech act in this sentence is directive, because it is about Barack Obama’s advice on solving the problem. b. In the second data of the table, speech act in this sentence is directive, because Barack Obama reminds the audience about disparities. c. In the third data of the table, speech act in this sentence is directive, because Barack Obama advice the audience about politics. JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 153 2. Commisive a. In the first data of the table, speech act in this sentence is commisive, because it shows Barack Obama's promise of his story. b. In the second data of the table, speech act in this sentence is commisive, because Barack Obama confirms his statement. c. In the third data of the table, speech act in this sentence is commisive, because Barack Obama is refusing him. d. In the fourth data of the table, speech act in this sentence is commisive, because it is about what Barack Obama will do in the next election 3. Representative JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 154 Speech act in the first data until the fifteen data of the table is representative. Because all of the data in this table include about Barack Obama’s statement, he give some information about his knowledge or believes that support his statement to let the audience know about a more perfect union, he also reject some of the action that can distracts attention from solving the issues to form the perfect union. JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 155 4. Declarative Based on the data of the table, speech act in this sentence is declarative, because Barack Obama gives declaration to change their action. 5. Expressive a. In the first data of the table, speech act in this sentence is expressive, because it shows Barack Obama’s praising about the man. b. In the second data of the table, speech act in this sentence is expressive because it shows her fear about black men. c. In the third data of the table, speech act in this sentence is expressive, because it is about Barack Obama’s feeling about America. d. In the fourth data of the table, speech act in this sentence is Expressive, because it shows about Barack Obama’s sympathize about someone’s words. e. In the fifth data of the table, speech act in this sentence is expressive, because it shows Barack Obama’s feeling about the possibility. JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 156 CONCLUSION The researchers discovered five forms of speech act in Barack Obama's speech which are Directive, commissive, representative, declarative, and expressive. The researchers discover three directives, four commisives, fifteen representatives, one declarative, and five expressives. Based on the findings, representative is the most common speech act in Barack Obama's speech, while declarative is the least common. We advice readers to look up and study more about the speech act in order to broaden their knowledge and understanding. Since speech act can be discovered in any speech, readers can readily grasp speech act by reading books or other sources such as speeches, films, short stories, etc. REFERENCES Bach, K., & R. M. Harnish. (1979). Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts. Cambridge: MIT Press. Dewi, E.S. & Jannah, R. (2022). Illocutionary Acts Analysis of The Main Character in “Brave” Movie. Journal of Applied Language And Linguistics (JALL). Vol 6, No 1 (2022). https://jurnal.unigal.ac.id/index.php/jall/index. Fitrianingsih, A. N. (2018). Speech Act in Barack Obama Speech during His Presidency while Urging Voters to Support Hillary Clinton. Seminar Nasional Penelitian dan Pengabdian Masyarakat, 167-170. Hidayat, A. (2016). Speech Acts: Force Behind Words. English Education: Jurnal Tadris Bahasa Inggris, 9(1), 1-12. Huang, Y. (2014). Pragmatics. USA: Oxford University Press. Hutajulu, F. L., & Nommensen, H. (2019). Analysis of Illocutionary act in the Movie “You Are My Home” English Subtitle. 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