An Analysis of Directive Speech Act Used in “Little Women (2019)” Movie

Abstract

This research analyzed the directive speech acts used in Little Women (2019) movie, the objectives of this research were to identify the types of directive speech acts used in the movie, the most dominant types that are frequently used, and describe the meaning of directive speech acts used in the movie. This study employed Searle's theory of speech act as a guide to analyze and discuss the directive speech act in Little Women (2019) movie. This study was categorized as descriptive qualitative research. The researchers collected the data using dialogue movie script. The results of this study show that there were five types of directive speech acts in the movie. There were 105 utterances of commanding (24%), 8 utterances of permitting (2%), 20 utterances of requesting (5%), 40 utterances of prohibiting (9%), 257 utterances of questioning (60%). Of the five types of directive speech act, the most dominant used is the question directive speech act. It came with the highest percentage from 257 utterances, which is 60%. The meaning of the directive speech acts performed in Little Women (2019) movie was highly influenced by situational context and question is the biggest factor that frequently used in the movie. The movie's talk about family and siblings matters, talk about women, talk about responsibility, it all was presented by the characters in the movie constantly wonder and find a way out in every conflict.