Direct Indirect Illocutionary Acts

            Communication is an act to send, receive, know and understand about the information or message people give. There are several ways of communication which people use, such as speaking, writing, calling or sending message by cell phone, using gesture of the body and so on. Speaking is the easiest way of communication, because speaking uses all of the five senses we have. When we are speaking, the speaker, who speaks or sends information, talks with producing voice and moving their mouth. Sometimes they use some parts of the body like moving their hands, fingers, feet and winking their eyes to make the listener, who receives information, knowing what they are talking about clearly. Listener uses their ears to listen what the speaker are saying about. The speaker also uses their eyes to see the movement of their mouth for understanding every word or sentence the speaker uses.

            This is an example of communication between my lecturer and I. Note: A is me and B is my lecturer. This communication happened while we are texting by cellphone.

A: “I’m sorry for bothering you; I just want to ask when we must have a make-up class to change the previous meeting we missed.”

B: “Meet me tomorrow.”

A: “Thank you, Ma’am.”

The following day... My friends of the class and I had waited for Ma’am B for one hour, but Ma’am B did not come. I decided to send a message for asking.

A: “We have waited for you for long time; do you forget to have make-up class with us today?”

B: “Oh, I’m sorry. You said ‘thank you’ immediately although I had not given you more explanation. I was so busy yesterday, so I asked you to meet me in the office. I mean, now, to give you some printed materials and assignments to be done today for make-up class. ”

A: “I really am sorry; I will be in the office soon.”

In the office...

A: (Knocking the door)

B: “Come in.”

A: “Forgive me for my mistake, Ma’am.”

B: “It is okay. It was also my mistake too because I was too busy. Here, I have several printed materials you and your friends must read and understand by yourself, then this other one is the question you and your friends have to answer by writing. Can you submit it here soon? ”

A:”Sure. Thank you, Ma’am.”

B: “Well, you may go after the door has closed.”

A: “Yes, Ma’am.”

            Illocutionary acts are considered the core of the theory of speech acts. As already suggested above, an illocutionary act is the action performed by the speaker in producing a given utterance. The illocutionary act is closely connected with speaker’s intentions, such as stating, questioning, promising, requesting, giving commands, threatening and many others.

            This simple declarative sentence, ‘The door is there’, in the form of statement can be interpreted in at least two ways. It can be either understood literally as a reply to the question ‘Where is the way out?’ or possibly ‘Where is the door?’ or it can be taken as an indirect request to ask somebody to leave. The sentence has thus two illocutionary forces which, even if they are different, have a common proposition (content). The former case is called a direct speech act, the latter an indirect speech act. It depends on the speaker and on the contextual situation which one he will choose to convey in his speech.

            In that communication, there are several marked sentences as direct and indirect speech acts theory. My lecturer and I had a missing communication that could make us having different comprehension while we were communicating by texting. The first example is in this sentence “Meet me tomorrow”, I defined it as my lecturer wanted to have make-up class in the following day. In fact, my lecturer wanted to meet me in the office for talking the materials and assignments. It is an indirect speech act. My lecturer used a declarative structure to make a statement. I could not get the point, so I had the different meaning about that sentence. I informed all of my friends in the class to come on time having a make-up class in the following day. My lecturer asked me to have a meeting without telling where the place is. It is in the office for meeting or in the class for having a make-up class.

            The second example is “Can you submit it here soon?” which uses a direct speech act. My lecturer used understandable sentence to ask me a request directly. There was no missing communication that happened between us, because we had the same comprehension that my lecturer asked me to submit the assignment in her office soon. “Here” means in the office, because my lecturer and I were communicating in the office.

            Third example is”you may go after the door has closed” which uses an indirect speech act, because that sentence does not use the real meaning as a statement. That sentence uses declarative structure but the function is a command or a request. My lecturer asked me to close the door after leaving her room, but she did not use an imperative structure. I closed the communication with “Yes, Ma’am”. It means I know it well about the meaning and what I have to do. I must close the door before leaving my lecturer’s room. So, my lecturer gives me a request indirectly.

            Direct and indirect speech acts theory happen in our life every day. Some have good effect and some have bad effect. Usually, indirect speech act gives more bad effect than direct speech act generally. For example, indirect speech act makes the listener or receiver cannot get the real meaning what the speaker or the sender are talking about, because indirect speech act does not put the structure in the appropriate function and does not give the real meaning about the sentence. Declarative structure is not always as a statement, but it can be a request or command and so on. Sometimes the message cannot be received by listener well. Therefore, there often happens a missing communication or misunderstanding. We can imagine how dangerous if misunderstanding happened in such important thing. Message cannot be sent well and even will never be sent. It is different when we use direct speech act. That puts the structure and the function appropriately and uses the real meaning. So, the listener does not need to think a lot what the meaning is. Then, message can be sent and received well.