A SEMANTICS ANALYSIS OF LOCUTION, ILLOCUTION,

AND PERLOCUTION IN FIVE FEET A PART MOVIE

PAPER

To fulfill The assignment of Semantics that is taught by

Mr Ghufran Ferdiant, M.Pd

Created By Group 1

Anita Septiana (20381032007)

Jazilatul Munawaroh (20381032023)

Laily Deviyanti (20381032024)

R.A. Agwina Krisantika N (20381032032)

ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM

FACULTY OF TARBIYAH

STATE ISLAMIC INSTITUTE OF MADURA

2022
 A. Review to The Related Literature
1. Semantics
Semantic is that aspect of linguistics which deals with the
relations between referents (names), and referent (things) that is,
linguistic levels (words, expressions, phrases) and the objects or
concepts or ideas to which they refer- and with the history and
changes in the meaning of words.1
Speech act has three distinctions, there are locutionary act,
illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. Peccei observed that
utterances simultaneously involve three elements. “The
locutionary is the actual form of words used by the speaker and
their semantic meaning. The locutionary is what the speaker is
doing by uttering those words: commending, offering, promising,
threatening, thanking, etc. Perlocution is the actual result of the
locution. It may or may not be what the speaker wants to happen
but it is nevertheless caused by the locution” 2
For example, Danger! This statement can mean that there is
something of high risk or people should be careful of something.
The actions performed via utterances are generally called
speech acts and, in the English language, the speech acts are
commonly given more specific labels, such as apology,
complaint, compliment, invitation, promise or request. In reality,
many people are still not aware of the existence of speech acts in
their life and how it can create a proper action or replay with an
appropriate action.
2. Speech Acts

“Speech acts are the role of language in communicating

social acts like requesting, questioning, promising, thanking,
stating, as well as more institutional verbal acts like pronouncing

1
L. Radhey Varshney, An Introductory text book of Linguistics & Phonetics (London : Central
Institute of English & Foreign Languages, 2003), page. 49
2
Stilwell Peccei, Pragmatics (London : Tj International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwali.1999), page 44.
 sentence in court, or performing ceremonies of baptizing,
marrying, etc”.3

Speech act can be defined as acts which the speaker

intends to his or her hearer by express their selves in producing
utterances. When hearer listens to the speaker, he/she may be act
as what the speaker intents to him or her. The act that performed
by the hearer depend on the utterances were spoken to the
hearer.

Naturally, an utterance may have a conventional meaning,

but the interpretation of the actual meaning of the utterance as it is
used in discourse depends on evaluating the utterance in the
context of the set of intonations which represent the illocutionary
mode of its presentation. The speakers intention is to produce
understanding, consisting of the knowledge of conditions on the
speech act being performed.

a. Locution
According to Peccei, locutionary act is the actual form
of words used by the speaker and their semantic meaning.
According to J. L. Austin's posthumous “How To Do Things
With Words", a speech act should be analysed as a
locutionary act (i.e. the actual utterance and its ostensible
meaning, comprising phonetic, phatic and rhetic acts
corresponding to the verbal, syntactic and semantic aspects
of any meaningful utterance), as well as anillocutionary act
(the semantic 'illocutionary force' of the utterance, thus its
real, intended meaning), and in certain cases a further
perlocutionary act (i.e. its actual effect, whether intended or
not). For example, I say to you "Don't go into the water" (a
locutionary act with distinct phonetic, syntactic and semantic

3
John R Saeed, Semantics (China : Blackwell Publisher, 2000), page. 223
 features) counts as warning you not to go into the water (an
illocutionary act), and if you heed my warning I have thereby
succeeded in persuading you not to go into the water (a
perlocutionary act).4
The propositional content of a locutionary act can be
either expressed directly or implied via implicature. For
example, a warning such as I warn you to stop smoking
constitutes an expressed locutionary act because its
propositional content predicates a future act (to stop
smoking) of the hearer (you). On the other hand, consider
the warning I warn you that cigarette smoking is dangerous.
This utterance constitutes an implied locutionary act because
its propositional content does not predicate a future act of
the hearer; instead, it predicates a property of cigarettes."
Locutionary act often happens in our daily lives.
Sometimes without us knowing we have do locutionary act.
In performing a locutionary act we shall also be performing
such an act as:
1) Asking or answering a question
2) Giving some information or an assurance or a
warning
3) Announcing a verdict or an intention
4) Pronouncing sentence
5) Making an appointment or an appeal or a criticism
6) Making an identification or giving a description
7) So, from the explaination above, it can be concluded
that the
8) Performing of locutionary act can not be separated
from our daily conversations in social life.
b. Illocution

4
J.L. Austin, Speech Acts, (London: Oxford, 1962), p 126.
 Austin said that: The illocutionary act is introduced by
Austin as the kind of act that we generally perform in
performing a locutionary act. Illocutionary acts are also taken
by him to be ways in which language is “used”, kinds of “use
of language”, at least in one of the senses of this
expression.5
Austin introduces the illocutionary act as the type of a
ct that we often perform when executing a locutionary act. Ill
ocutionary activities are also regarded by him as types of "us
e of language," at least in one sense of the term, and ways in 
which language is "used."
Illocutionary act is performed via the communicative
force ofan utterance. In other word, illocutionary act means
the meaning intended or forcedby the speaker to the hearer,
such as apromise, a warning, a statement of intention, and
etc. Yule divided fivecategories of illocutionary acts such as;
representative, directives, commissive,expressives, and
declarations.
Speech act maybe conveniently classified by their
illocutionary type, such as asserting, requesting, promising,
and apologizing, for which we have familiar verbs. These
different types may in turn be distinguished by the type of
attitude the speaker expresses. Saeed’s (2000:212), stated
the types of Illocution as follow:
1) Representatives
Representatives, which commit the speaker to
the truth of the epressed proposition (paradigm cases:
asserting, concluding). For example:
a) This is a German car (assertion).
b) The earth is flat
c) The human is breath

5
Frank Robert Palmer, Semantics (Cambridge University Press, 1981), page 56.
 2) Expressives
Expressives, which express a psychological
state (paradigm cases: thanking, apologizing,
welcoming, congratulating). For example:
a) I’m really sorry
b) Congratulations!
c) Oh yes, great, mmmh, shah
d) The meal was delicious

In using expressive, the speaker makes the words fit

the world (of feeling).

3) Directives
Directives, which are attempts by the speaker
to get the addressee to do something (paradigm
cases: requesting, questioning). For example:
a) Please sit down!
b) Could you lend me a pen, please!
c) Don’t touch that!
In using directive, the speaker attempt to make
the world fit the words (via the speaker). For
example:
a) Why don’t you close the window?6
c. Perlocution
Perlocutionary act is the bringing about of
consequences or effects on the audience through the
uttering of a linguistic expression, such consequences or
effects being special to the circumstances of utterance. 7
A perlocutionary act concerns the effect an utterance
may have on the addressee. Put slightly more technically, a
perlocution is the act by which the illocution produces a
certain effect in or exerts a certain influence on the
6
John R Saeed, Semantics..., page 212.
7
J.L Mey, Pragmatics : An Introduction (London : Oxford Blackwell Publishers, 1993), page 1002.
 addressee. Still another way to put it is that a perlocutionary
act represents a consequence or by-product of speaking,
whether intentional or not. The effect of the act being
performed by speaking is generally known as the
perlocutionary effect. There is an extensive literature on the
differentiation between locutionary, illocutionary, and
perlocutionary acts. 8
Perlocutioanry act is the third part of speech act which
is distinctive from two other kinds of the speech act. It is an
actual result or an effect of the illocution. It may or may not
be what the speaker wants to happen but it is nevertheless
caused by the illocution. It is defined by the listener’s
reaction to the speaker utterance. When someone creates
the utterances with a purpose or an intention, it means that
he or she wants his or her locution/utterances to have an
effort to the listener. The speaker will want the listener to
recognize his or her . intention so the listener will act exactly
as the speaker want. Like the illocutionary act, the
perlocutionary act also have some characteristics, they are:
1) Perlocutionary acts which are not performed by
uttering explicit performative sentences.
2) Perlocutionary acts which seem to involve the effects
of utterance acts and illocutionary acts on the
thoughts, feelings, and actions of the listener, whereas
the illocutionary act does not.
B. Finding and Discussion
1. Finding
a. Representative

Stella :This is actually cute

Camilla :That's actually really cute. Let me see

8
Ibid. 1003.
 In the 1:29 minute/1:49:39 of the movie, the
exchange described above took place in Stella's hospital
room. Stella suffered from a condition known as cystic
fibrosis. The inherited condition known as cystic fibrosis
makes the lungs mucus thick and sticky. While selecting
outfits for her friends to wear on vacation, Stella and her
friends gathered there. Stella informed Camilla after
receiving it by remarking.

b. Directives

Stella : Are you sure this is okay?

Barb :I will still be monitoring you. And, yes, it's okay

In the 4:30 minutes/1:49:39 of the movie, in the

dialogue above occur Nurse Barb and Nurse Julie check
Stella's condition and monitor her medications. While
checking her condition, Stella chatted with nurse Julie.
After finished checking Stella saw her medical table was
full and then told nurse Barb Are you sure this is okay?.
the utterance of Are you sure this is okay?.

c. Expressive

Stella : Wow. A lot's changed in the last six months

Julie (nurse): Yep. He's due in March

In the 4:00 minutes/1:49:39 of the movie, in the

dialogue Stella was alone in her room recording a vlog to
post on YouTube when the conversation took place.
Stella frequently makes vlogs to pass the time in the
space. Nurses Barb and Julie then entered to assess and
manage Stella's condition. Stella was astonished to see
changes in Julie as she greeted her, including an
 expanding stomach caused by the pregnancy of Julie's
nurse.

2. Discussion
a. Representative

Stella : This is actually cute

Camilla : That's actually really cute. Let me see

The exchange described above took place in Stella's

hospital room. Stella suffered from a condition known as
cystic fibrosis. The inherited condition known as cystic
fibrosis makes the lungs mucus thick and sticky. While
selecting outfits for her friends to wear on vacation, Stella
and her friends gathered there. Stella informed Camilla after
receiving it by remarking, "This is pretty cute." The phrase
"this is actually cute refers to the act of saying something to
Camilla and is a locutionary act. In addition to the act of
saking, illocutionary acts also have an intention. According to
Yule's hypothesis, the sayingThe phrase "this is genuinely
cute" is meant to be seen as an act. The utterances of this is
actually cute is part from locutionary act, it refers to act to say
something to Camilla. Besides it refers act to say
something ,there is intention of the illocutionary acts. Based
on the theory from Yule, the utterance of the statement this is
actually cute is intended, and understood, as an act of stating
(representative). Stella conveys her belief is true that about
the clothes she chose it is cute for Camilla. It means her
utterances is aimed at make Camilla believe that clothes her
chose for her friend is cute to go on vacation and make
Camilla do something about the clothes. Depending on the
circumstances, the perlocutionary act involved That's actually
really cute Let me see it is an effect from Stella’s utterances
it means the perlocutionary act (effect) on the hearer by act
saying something to Camilla that the clothes really were cute.
Camilla agreed that the choice of clothes from Stella was
cute.

b. Directives
Stella : Are you sure this is okay?
Barb :I will still be monitoring you. And, yes, it's okay

In the dialogue above occur Nurse Barb and Nurse

Julie check Stella's condition and monitor her medications.
While checking her condition, Stella chatted with nurse Julie.
After finished checking Stella saw her medical table was full
and then told nurse Barb Are you sure this is okay?. the
utterance of Are you sure this is okay?. is part of locutionary
act because it refers the actual word. The utterance is not
just actual word, but there is an intention of illocutionary act
to be conveyed by the speaker. Based on the theory from
Yule the sentence Are you sure this is okay? is intended, and
understood, as an act of questioning (directives). It means
her utterances is aimed to asked the nurse Barb that was it
really going to be okay, because the medical table was filled
with drugs and G juice, which is a liquid nutrient and this G
juice goes through the G tube so that the liquid can go
straight into the stomach. Stella was not sure that it would be
alright as she had to take all the drugs. Depending on the
context, the perlocutionary act involved I will still be
monitoring you. And, yes, it's okay. This is the act from
Stella’s utterances. Nurse Barb do the perlocutionary act
(effect). Nurse Barb's actions were by monitoring Stella so
that she took all her medicines according to the prepared
prescription. In the conversation above, Stella's utterance is
conveyed because the speaker's intention is understood by
the interlocutor. Barb's nurse gave immediate, precise
feedback. This is in line with what Stella asked if it would
really be okay. Nurse Barb replied by saying yes clearly she
would monitor Stella took all her medication. Nurse Barb and
Julie asses Stella’s health and keep track of her meds in the
conversation on above. While Stella checked on her health
while chatting with the nurse, Julie. Stella informed nurse
Barb that her medical table was full after completing her
inspection. Are you certain that he is ok? Asking, “Are you
sure this is okay?” is a locutionary act because it uses the
term itself. The speech consist of more than simply the word
themselves; the speaker also intends to express some sort
of illocutionary deed. Are you sure this is okay? Is a question
gesture and is recognized to be such (directives). It indicates
that she is asking Barb to the nurse in order to get anything
from her.

c. Expressive
Stella : Wow. A lot's changed in the last six months
Julie (nurse): Yep. He's due in March
In the dialogue Stella was alone in her room
recording a vlog to post on YouTube when the conversation
took place. Stella frequently makes vlogs to pass the time in
the space. Nurses Barb and Julie then entered to assess
and manage Stella's condition. Stella was astonished to see
changes in Julie as she greeted her, including an
expanding stomach caused by the pregnancy of Julie's
nurse. Wow. A lot's changed in the last six month. The
statement of Wow. A lot's changed in the last six monthis
true; a lot has changed in the last six months. the statement
is locutionary act because it refers to act of saying
something.
 Besides it refers act to say something. There is
intention of speakers to try convey that is illocutionary act.
According to the theory from Yule, the sentence Wow. A
lot's changed in the last six months is intended, and
understood, as an act of surprise. Her utterance is aimed to
express her feeling and feel surprise because there have
been many changes in the stomach of nurse Julie who
cares for her and is already six months pregnant. Then
Julie replied by saying Yep. He's due in March, it is an act
from Stellas’s utterances. In other word, it is the
perlocutionary act , what is done by uttering the words the
effect in the hearer. Nurse Julie said she will give birth in
march. Regarding the conversation above, Stella's speech
was conveyed because the speaker's intention could be
understood by Julie. Julie immediately answered clearly
that it was true that her stomach was getting bigger and she
was due to give birth in March.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Austin, J.L. Speech Acts, (London: Oxford, 1962)

Mey, J.L. Pragmatics : An Introduction (London : Oxford Blackwell
Publishers, 1993).
Varshney, L. Radhey. An Introductory text book of Linguistics & Phonetics
(London : Central Institute of English & Foreign Languages, 2003)
Peccei, Stilwell. Pragmatics (London : Tj International Ltd, 1999)
Saeed, John R. Semantics (China : Blackwell Publisher, 2000)
Palmer, Frank Robert. Semantics (Cambridge University Press, 1981)