Speech Acts and the Different Perspectives on the Meaning of Very Sorry in the Letter on Hainan Island Incident

Christine Permata Sari(1*),

(1) Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


This study aims to analyze the types of speech acts in the text and to analyze different perspectives on the meaning very sorry between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China. The object of the study is a letter of saying sorry from the U.S. Ambassador for China Joseph Prueher to the Foreign Minister of the PRC Tang Jiaxuan on the incident in Hainan Island which caused the death of the Chineses pilot and the custody of the aircraft crew and the surveillance aircraft relating the emergency landing without any prior permission. The researcher employed the speech acts theory proposed by Searle (1979) as cited by Wardhaugh (2006) to analyze speech acts types and to obtain the dominant type and the implication used in the text. The strategies of apology by Cohen and Olshtain (1986) as cited by Zhang (2001) were also employed. This study is descriptive qualitative research. The result showed the biggest percentages of the types were expressive and assertive. The researcher also found the different perspectives on the meaning of very sorry between the US and the PRC which led into misunderstanding influenced by the culture. This research benefits the English language learners to understand the meaning of locutions which they hear and to acknowledge the culture influences society perspectives in understanding the meaning especially for non-English speakers.

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References


Kreidler, C. W. (1998). Introducing English semantics. London: Routledge.

Kuhn, R. L. (2010). The inside story of China's reform and what this means for the future: How China's leaders think. Singapore: John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd.

Salgado, E. F. (2011). The pragmatics of requests and apologies: Developmental patterns of Mexican students. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

The Guardian. (2001). US says sorry, China to free crew. April 11, 2001. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/apr/11/china.usa on 1 June 2016.

Wardhaugh, R. (2006). An introduction to sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Zhang, H. (2001). Culture and apology: the Hainan island incident. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v20i1.405

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Copyright (c) 2017 Christine Permata Sari



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 LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt, e-ISSN 2579-9533 and p-ISSN 1410-7201is published twice a year, namely in April and October by the English Language Education Study Programme of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.