THE FUNCTION OF THE ILLOCUTIONARY ACT IN A NOVEL ENTITLED ONE OF US IS LYING

Abstract

Humans will always need others to communicate and build a relationship since they
are created as social beings. Language enables people to express their thoughts,
feelings, and ideas. It helps the hearer to clear up the speaker's intention. Using
Leech’s theory (1983), this research aims at analyzing the function of the illocutionary
act of Nate Macauley in a novel entitled One of Us Is Lying. The qualitative descriptive
method was used as the research design to analyze and describe the function of the
illocutionary act of Nate’s utterance. Karen M. McManus’ novel entitled One of Us Is
Lying was used as a data source for this research. The data comprised written text
(phrases, clauses, and sentences) which was spoken by Nate Macauley. The result
indicates from 108 data, all of the illocutionary act’s functions are discovered, there
are competitive function (Asking, ordering, and demanding), convivial function
(Offering, inviting, greeting, thanking, apologizing, and complimenting), collaborative
function (Asserting and reporting), and conflictive function (Accusing and cursing).
However, some forms of the function of illocutionary act did not appear, such as
begging in competitive function, congratulating in convivial function, announcing and
instructing in collaborative function, threatening and reprimanding in conflictive
function. The conclusion also implies that a single datum can have several
illocutionary act’s functions. In this study, collaborative function is found to be the
most frequently used illocutionary act’s function, specifically in a form of asserting.
This function is indifferent goal since it is employed to state the truth or the speaker’s
opinion regardless of whether it is good or bad