A STUDY OF SPEECH ACTS IN MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.'S SPEECH “I'VE BEEN TO THE MOUNTAIN TOP” (SEBUAH KAJIAN TINDAK TUTUR DALAM PIDATO MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. “I'VE BEEN TO THE MOUNTAIN TOP”)

Abstract

Communication as a tool to deliver information become an essential thing in our daily life. It is the way people transfer the ideas, feelings, thought and messages to other people. Communication cannot be separated by language. Language is a bridge in order to make communication runs well. One of the manifestation of language can be found in speech. This study deals with pragmatics and concerns with speech act theory proposed by John Searle that aims to identify and analyse types of speech acts and to find the intended menaing of the text. The research is to find out the speech acts understanding in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech “I’ve Been To The Mountain Top”. The purpose of this study is to explain what kind of speech acts that are found in King’s speech and to reveal what is the dominant speech acts in the study. This study is descriptive qualitative because the types of data are in the form of texts and utterances. This study applies documentary research strategy as the technique of collecting data. The finding of this study found 52 utterances, they are 21 utterances belong to Representatives, 18 utterances are Commissives, 7 utterances belong to Directives and 6 utterances are Expressives. Representatives become the dominant speech acts in this study that indicates it commits the speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition.