AN ANALYSIS OF ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS USED IN JOE BIDEN'S SPEECH BEFORE THE 77TH UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Qutsy Dyah Ayu Caesar. 2024. An Analysis of Illocutionary Acts Used in Joe
Biden's Speech before the 77th Un General Assembly. Final Project, English
Education, University of PGRI Semarang. Advisor I: Dr. Dias Andris
Susanto, S.Pd., M.Pd., Advisor II: Dr. Dyah Nugrahani, S.Pd., M.Hum.
Keywords: Speech Act, Illocutionary Act, Joe Biden's Speech
The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the illocutionary acts used by Joe
Biden in his speech before the 77th UN General Assembly and their contribution to
English language teaching. This study uses data from Joe Biden's speech before the
77th UN General Assembly, obtained from the UN YouTube channel and the White
House website. The data were subjected to a descriptive qualitative analysis. The
researcher used Yule's (1996) theory to ascertain the category of illocutionary acts
and Leech's (1983) theory to evaluate the function of illocutionary acts. The results
show 72 types of illocutionary acts in the speech. The representative is the most
dominant type of illocutionary act with 39 utterances (54.17%), followed by 17
directive utterances (23.61%), 11 commissive utterances (15.28%), three
expressive utterances (4.16%), and two declarative utterances (23.61%).
Furthermore, this study identified 37 data functions related to illocutionary acts. Of
these, the collaborative function is the most commonly found, namely 29 utterances
(78.38%), followed by the conflictive function with four utterances (10.81%), the
convivial function with three utterances (8.11%), and the competitive function with
one utterance (2.70%). This finding shows that the Representative Act is mainly
used to articulate statements and disseminate information about matters discussed
in the UN session. Similarly, the collaborative function also illustrates the
expression of concern and reporting of challenges facing the global community. In
addition, this research can contribute to the teaching of English. This research can
be a reference for teachers to create classroom activities such as discussion
activities. Joe Biden's speech video can be a learning tool that is a real example of
how illocutionary acts are used in everyday life.