Revealing Meaning of Characters’ Utterances on J.K. Rowling’s Novel of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire Using Speech Act Theory

Abstract

One of the most techniques in language teaching is literary text or literature. In this case, literature is an authentic material, so it has complex and unique language. The teachers and students can get the information about structure, grammar, vocabulary, etc from authentic material like a novel of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. That is why, we need to learn about pragmatic competence, such as speech act. This research was conducted to know how the use of speech act theory can reveal the meaning from the characters’ utterances on J.K. Rowling’s novel of “Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire”. The research design in this study was qualitative research. The source of data in this study was the utterances taken from the novel of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. The data were collected by applying elicitation technique by taking the utterances purposively from the novel. The results in this research almost the utterances in the novel of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, is using indirect speech act. Based on (Amazon.co.uk) on interviewing to J.K. Rowling, the characters in her novels are based on the people she knows in real life. Even though, they are a bit different in novel, but they have some similarities. That is why, the novel of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire mostly uses indirect speech acts. Thus, using speech act theory, we can learn how to understand and reveal the meaning from the utterances in novel. Besides, it can help the teachers to teach language skills for students by using speech acts theory through novel. It seems that the novel of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has the background such as the problem of enslavement (the community who against the Dark Wizard or Lord x Voldemort), community connectedness (friendships and respectful for the eldest), the preoccupation of adolescence (Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger are grown up in this novel but still they are students at Hogwarts). That is why, there are almost using directive function in this story. Furthermore, the utterance from the novel of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire uses indirect speech act. It means almost 18 utterances have indirect speech act. It seems that the utterances happened while addresser and addressee have same background and knowledge, so there is not an obstacle to get the meaning.