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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study People can fulfill their needs to survive by receiving and sending language. They spend a large of part of their lives interacting with each other; in a small group, in informal conversations with friends, in meeting with co-workers, and in many other contexts. Language is primarily spoken, although it can be transferred to another way, such as written. In other words, language is a communication system; therefore, it as a means of communication plays important roles in human’s life. In any relationship, no matter the type, communication is central and therefore unavoidable. Human beings are constantly involved in communication processes with others. In every interaction that happens in society, of course, communication is the basis of formation of successful human societies. It means that communication is the bridge between people. It is through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur. The ability to make the appropriate communicative choices in a certain context is a part of a person’s communicative competence. Different kinds or style of communicative competence can occur and humans use their communicative strategies slightly differently for various reasons. In doing communication, people may not realize that spoken or written sentences also carry a function. As an example, if a man says, “ Close the windows! ”, actually this sentences carries a function; directive function which is used to show our command or asking someone to do something. From the
sentence above, people can see clearly that the sentence is directive because the man asks the hearer to close the windows. However, the hearer may get confused if people speak without a purpose. Halliday (1997:7) states that: “A functional approach to language means, first language is used; try to find out what the purpose that language serves of all, investigating how for us, and how people are able to achieve these purpose through speaking and listening, reading and writing. But it also means more than this. It means seeki terms: seeing whether language itself has been shaped by use, and if so,ng to explain the nature of language in functional in what ways functions it has evolved to serve.” – how the form of language has been determined by the It means that the language function refers to the purpose itself. The language function leads the hearers to achieve the purpose of someone’s speech. As a proof, from the example of the utterance “ Open the book! ”. This sentence carries a function reflects clearly the purpose what the man’s speech. The purpose of the function is asking the hearer to open the book. Language itself consists of some functions which are to give information, deliver message, express feelings, persuade people, entertain people, and share opinion. The functions of language have also received scholarly attention in functional diachronic. According to Roman Jakobson in Holmes (2001), language functions include the expressive function (communicating the inner states and emotions of the addresser), the directive function (using vocatives and imperatives to call the attention of another or requiring them to carry out some action), the phatic function (opening the channel and checking that it is working for social reasons), the poetic function (choosing a particular form as the essence of message), the referential function (giving information as the communication
not the original fictional detective (he was influenced by Edgar Allan Poe's C. Auguste Dupin and Émile Gaboriau's Monsieur Lecoq), his name has become a byword for the part in literature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes). The investigating detective became a popular genre with many authors such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers after the demise of Holmes, with characters such as Hercule Poirot and Lord Peter Wimsey. The writer chooses the film to be observed because it is one of box office movie which deals with a detective’s way and choice to use language as a function to investigate someone, find out the clues along his investigation, and also solve the crimes that are assigned to him. It is also considered as an interesting discussion data to analyze how language is used by a detective and relate it to the implication of the language functionally.
This research investigates language functions used by the main character in Sherlock Holmes II: A Game of Shadows movie. The transcription which has been taken from the first forty minutes dialogue of conversation expressed by the main character in that movie as a consideration that in the beginning of a movie particularly with an action-mystery genre, the main character mostly appears and takes role in order to introduce how the story is. These data then are analyzed by using language function proposed by Jakobson (1960).
B. The Identification of the Problem People may convey their message in communicating by knowing the function of language itself. The writer formulates the questions of the research to be answered as follow:
- What are the types of language functions used by the main character in Sherlock Holmes II: A Game of Shadows movie?
- What is dominant kind of language function used by the main character in Sherlock Holmes II: A Game of Shadows movie?
- What is the implication of the dominant type of language functions used by the main character in Sherlock Holmes II: A Game of Shadows movie?
C. The Objective of the Study
- To find out the types of language function in communication used by the main character in Sherlock Holmes II: A Game of Shadow movie.
- To find out the dominant kind of language function used by the main character in Sherlock Holmes II: A Game of Shadow movie.
- To describe the implication of the most dominant type of language function that is used by the main character in Sherlock Holmes II: A Game of Shadow movie.
D. The Scope of the Study This research is related to Sociolinguistics, focusing in language functions particularly. The writer utilizes a theory which was proposed by Roman Jakobson (1960). According to him, there are six major language functions; emotive, conative, poetic, metalinguistic, referential, and phatic function. Specifically, the writer takes a chunk of 40 minutes dialogues used by the main character in Sherlock Holmes II: A Game of Shadow movie. Hence, by Jakobson’s theory, the dialogues in that movie will be analyzed rightly based on the aspects in the theory.
