An Analysis of The Speech Act Used in Justin Bieber’s Tweet

Abstract

Speech act concerns withythe speaker’s communicativeyintention in producing an
utterance and it isydefined by the purpose for which theyspeakers use theylanguage. Speech
act can be found in many kinds of communication. One of them is in social media such as
twitter. Twitter is a free social mediaynetworking microblogging service that allows
registered members to broadcastyshort posts calledytweets. Twitter members can broadcast
tweets and follow other user’s tweet by using multiple platformsyand devices.
Previously, a number of researches have been done by experts and linguist, for
example Nemer (2016), he analyzed about speechyacts in the Tweets of famous people. The
study show the celebrities see the Twitter as an online venue where theyycan communicate
with various people and various language style. This study also show that celebrities tend
toycommunicate via different kinds of speech acts when directing theirymessages. And,
Yanti (2016) analyzed languageystyle in the speech act of request from the students and
theyfunctions. Yanti found that social factors and contexts influenced the students style
depending on contextsyand functions where the conversation takes place. From the study of
the speech acts, the writer is interested in analyzing the speechyacts in this case the speech
acts in the JustinyBieber's twitter.
This study used pragmatics-discourse analysis approaches. Pragmatics deals with the
contexts that influence the meaning of utterances which cannot be accounted for by
straightforward reference to the truth conditions ofythe sentences uttered. There are some
contexts influence the speech acts. According to Mey (2001) “contextyis more than just
reference. Context isyabout standing what things are for; it is also whatygives our utterances
their true pragmatic meaning and allows them to counted as true pragmatic acts”. The
particularyspeech functions areyexpressed in a variety of contexts, identifying the range of
linguistic forms they take, for example a poem, slogans, and notices (Holmes, p. 276-277).
According to Holmes (2013, p.275) there are a number way of categorizing the functions of
speech. Theyfunctions of speech is notyonly found in speaking (oral) but also in written text
(novel, short story, and so on). In this researchythe writer apply theyfunction of speech act in
Justin Bieber’sytweet. The writer used speech act theory stated by Searle (1976), they are (1)
Representative, (2)yDirective, (3) Commissive, (4) Expressive, (5) Declaration.
As a result, the writer found three typesyspeech act used in Justin Bieber’s tweet,
there are Representatives, Directives, andyExpressive. Each of these typesyfollowed by some
sub-types, for example: informing,ypredicting, and claiming under the Representative speech
acts; asking, request refers to the classification of yDirective speech acts; thanking, praising,
and congratulatingyare part of the Expressive Speech Act. Furthermore, theywriter found six
functions of the speech acts used. The functions used refers to Holmes theory (2013). Holmes
states there areysix functions to be considered in social interaction, they are expressive
function, it refers to the Justin’s feeling towards social phenomena that happened in the
society, directive function as asking people to do action, yreferential function, metalinguistic
function, poetic function, and phatic function. Expressives function utterances express
feelings of speaker’s, Directives function to make someone to do something,
Referentialyfunction to get information, Metalinguistic function give language of comment,
Poetic function focus on the language of aesthetic features, Phatic
functionyexpressysolidarity and empathy with others.
This research used qualitative methods while analyzing the data, the researcher
describes the data as what it is by using the language. Qualitative research can also be
intended as a type of research that the finding is not obtained through statistics or any other
matter (Strauss & Corbin, 2003). In this research, the data were taken 50 from the Justin
Bieber Twitter submit January 2018-January 2020 tweets on his Twitter where every year
Justin Bieber doesn't write much on his twitter page like in 2018 Justin Bieber only wrote 18
tweets, 2019 just 25 tweets, and the rest in 2020. The writer takes 50 data in 3 years at a time.
The writer use the observation method in this research. The observation method is observing
the data. In this research observe Justin Bieber's Tweets on the internet. The first the writer
searches the data on the internet. The second the writer captures the data and chooses in
Justin Bieber's Tweets which is related to the title. The last one, the writer of excellence and
interpretation of the types of speech act and the function of speech act on Justin Bieber's
Tweets. In analyzing and collating the data the writer uses several techniques. The first, the
writer makes a list of the data that was taken. The writer chooses the request information
"Justin Bieber's Twitter" because the responses are good and contain the language style and
the function of the language style. After that, the writer describes what is from the language
style and the function in the language style in the request information "Justin Bieber’s
Tweets".
The the results show the three types of speech act used in Justin Bieber’s tweet, there are
Representatives, Directives, and Expressives. From the data on appendices, the writer
analyses 27 data taken from representatives including informing, predicting, and claiming. 7
data taken from directives including inviting and suggesting. 17 data taken from expressive
including praising, congratulating, thanking, and praying. The writer finds the mix speech act
used in Justin Bieber’s Tweet. There are 6 data taken from appendices like representativesdirectives, representatives-directives-expressive. Then, the researcher found four functions
used in Justin Bieber’stweets, they are expressive, directive, referential, and phatic function.
But, the most dominant function used in the Justin Bieber’s tweet is referential function
because Justin Biebertend to give the information. However poetic, and metalinguistics were
not found in the data.
Keywords : speech act, function, context, Justin Bieber’s tweets