A Pragmatic Analysis of Speech Act of Requests Expressed by The Characters in Office Space
A Pragmatic Analysis of Speech Act of Requests Expressed by The Characters in Office Space
A Pragmatic Analysis of Speech Act of Requests Expressed by The Characters in Office Space
A THESIS
By:
10211144026
2015
DEDICATION
Tables
Table 1: Types and Strategies of Request ...................................................... 23
Table 2: The Form of Data Sheet for Types of Request and Strategies of
Making Request Uttered by the Characters in Office Space ............ 32
Table 3: Types and Strategies of Request Employed by the Characters in
Office Space .................................................................................... 36
Figures
Figure 1: Analytical Construct ........................................................................ 28
A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF SPEECH ACT OF REQUESTS EXPRESSED
BY THE CHARACTERS IN OFFICE SPACE
By:
Mochamad Rifki Fahrurrozi
10211144026
ABSTRACT
This research is a pragmatic study which focuses on the analysis of speech act
of requests as reflected in the film entitled Office Space. The objectives of the study
are: (1) to investigate the types of request and (2) to identify the strategies of request
employed by characters in the movie.
This research was a descriptive qualitative research in which visual analysis was
used to interpret and analyze the data. This research was also supported by
quantitative analysis in which the researcher used numbers and percentages to count
the occurrences of the types and request strategies of request. The data of this
research were in the form of lingual units. Meanwhile, the context of the data was
dialogues which have speech act of requests. The sources of the data were Office
Space movie and its script. The main instrument of this research was the researcher
himself and the secondary instrument was the data sheet. To ensure the
trustworthiness of the data, the researcher applied triangulations by conducting peer
discussions and routine consultations with his supervisors.
The research reveals two findings. First, there are four types of request used by
the characters in Office Space. They are unconventionally indirect request,
conventionally indirect request (hearer-oriented condition), conventionally indirect
request (speaker-oriented condition), and direct request. In the application of the
types of request, the characters in Office Space mostly use conventionally indirect
request (hearer-based condition) because the hearer is in the position of controlling
whether he/she will comply the request or not. Second, there are seven strategies
employed by the characters in Office Space. They are giving hints, questioning
hearer`s ability and willingness, giving suggestions, giving statements of speaker`s
wishes and desires, giving statements of speaker`s needs and demands, giving
statements of obligations and necessities, and giving imperatives. The characters in
Office Space mainly use the strategy of questioning hearer`s ability and willingness
because they often make their request indirectly in the form of question since the
condition of this strategy refers to the hearer`s capacity to perform the desired act. By
asking a question as a request, the characters want to show that they do not give any
assumption that what they expected should be carried out.
INTRODUCTION
the objectives of research, and the theoretical and practical research significance.
Human beings and language cannot be separated from each other in society.
becomes the primary means of communication. By using language, they reveal their
ideas, express their happiness and sadness, make a joke with others, give information,
their thought from one person to another. Hence, language becomes an important
they should know the meaning of the utterance that they use in verbal interaction.
In delivering their purposes, people use spoken language. By using spoken
language, people can communicate efficiently. They can directly deliver their
their utterances usually have a wider range of meaning than its simply a literal
meaning. This is mostly influenced by the context when the speech occurred. In some
cases, it is very important to understand the relation between the meaning of one
sentence and another, since it may cause misunderstanding. A speaker may say, “It is
nice to have a cup of coffee. In this sentence, the speaker wants someone to make a
To achieve their goals, people do not only say something but also insert an
action embedded in their utterances. For this reason, speech acts cannot be separated
from conversation. As stated by Austin via Cutting (2002:16), speech acts are the
actions performed in saying something. According to him, the action performed when
locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. Speech acts are commonly
speaker (requester) conveys to a hearer (requestee) that he/she wants the requestee to
perform an act which is very beneficial for him/her. The act may be a request for non-
verbal activity, i.e a request for good and services; and a request for an object, an
action or some kind of services, i.e. a request for information. A request is somehow
In their daily life, people always make request which shows that they need
people`s help. People often make request both directly and indirectly to ask
something from other people such as asking for help, asking for permission, asking
for direction and so forth. In this case, people need to use some strategies in order to
The phenomena of speech acts do not only occur in real life situation but also in
movies since they are a reflection of human`s real life. The characters‟ dialogues
reflect human communication which consists of speech act. They apply speech acts in
their utterances to deliver their intended purposes such as when the characters ask
In conducting the research, the researcher chooses a movie as the source of data
rather than conducting a kind of field study. Besides, since movie is the
source of data. A movie entitled Office Space is chosen as the object of the research
because it reflects the natural society. Besides, the characters in Office Space
frequently use speech act of request in their dialogues so that the utterances can be
analyzed easily. For this reason, it can provide a good example of the occurence of
means. A language consists of grammatical and structural words that can be used to
draw meaning of what people utter in communication. The conversation among the
characters in the movie usually carry out many aspects of speech acts. In relation to
the speech act, the researcher finds some problems which are presented below.
The first problem is the context of the utterances. Context is the physical or
social setting of the utterance that becomes the background knowledge to interpret
what the speaker means in his or her utterances. To get a clear interpretation of the
speaker`s utterances, the hearer must be aware of the context of the dialogues so that
it will decrease the possibility of misinterpretation. This context helps the hearer to
The second problem is the use of language to perform an action or speech acts.
usually applies various types of speech acts to deliver particular purposes. When a
speaker produces utterances, he or she also performs an action which consists of three
related speech acts. They are locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts.
Moreover, there are five types of general functions performed by speech act which
are divided into declarations, representatives, expressives, directives, and
commisisves.
The third problem is the request itself. According Searle via Leech (1983:106),
request belongs to directive speech act in which it is intended to produce some effect
through action by the hearer. According to Trosborg (1995:192), there are four types
The last problem is dealing with the strategies of making request. The speaker
must apply the strategies if they want to deliver their requests successfully to the
imposition towards the hearer. The strategies are hints, questioning hearer`s ability
research limitation. This research, however, is limited only to the speech act of
requests uttered by the characters in the Office Space movie. This research only
explains the types of request and the strategies of making request applied by the
In relation to the limitation of the problems above, the research questions can
be formulated as follows:
1. What are the types of request uttered by the characters in Office Space?
2. What are the strategies applied by the characters in Office Space when making a
request?
E. Research Objectives
Based on the formulation of the problems, the objectives of the research are:
1. to describe the types of request uttered by the characters in Office Space, and
2. to explain the strategies applied by the characters in Office Space when making a
request.
The results of the research are expected to give both theoritical and practical
requests to the other linguistic researchers. Practically, the research will give some
The students majoring in linguistics can apply the sentence related to the
2. Linguistic Researchers
This research can give references in conducting research related to
pragmatics.
CHAPTER II
This chapter is divided into four parts. The first section in this chapter is
literature review, which covers some theories on pragmatics especially speech act of
request. The second section is a brief description of Office Space movie which covers
the synopsis of the movie. The next section is the previous research findings which
explain the previous research conducted by other researchers in the same research
area. The last section is conceptual framework that explains the concept in
A. Literature Review
1. Pragmatics
understood by people since it can reveal people`s thoughts and ideas. When someone
says, ”I‟m hungry”, his/her words can be interpreted in many ways. The hearer can
interpret it as a sign that the speaker is merely hungry. However, it also can be
interpreted that the speaker wants someone to get him/her food. Hence, the hearer
language but he/she should deal with the context. Yule (1996:3) writes that
pragmatics is a study of contextual meaning which involves the interpretation of what
people mean in a particular context and how the context influences what is said.
Being more detail, Griffiths (2006:1) states that pragmatics is concerned with
the “toolkit” for meaning: knowledge encoded in the vocabulary of the language and
other words, pragmatics is about the interaction of semantic knowledge related to the
pragmatics can be defined as the study of how utterances have meanings in situation.
which involves how speakers can produce the best utterance to deliver their intention
2. Speech Acts
Pragmatically, an action that is done through language can be studied under the
labels of speech act. Yule (1996:47) uses the term speech act to refer to the actions,
which are performed via utterances. For example, when a boss says, “You are fired!”,
his/her words constitute the act of firing an employee. In this example, the boss is
performing an act via utterance. It means the words can change someone`s status
(Mey, 1994:112).
Language is also full of implicit meanings. Sometimes when a speaker utters
something, he/she does not just utter the utterance, but the speaker means something
behind it. One can perform three speech acts simultaneously such as locutionary act,
illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act. Locutionary act has to do with the utterance
of a sentence which determine sense and reference. Illocutionary act deals with the
naming of statement, offers, promises, etc. Then, perlocutionary act deals with the
1983:236).
The idea proposed by Levinson is also in line with Griffith. Griffith (2006: 17)
states that speech act does not refer simply to the act of speaking, but to the whole
which the discourse occurs, the participants and any preceding verbal or physical
interaction) and paralinguistic features which may contribute to the meaning of the
appropriacy conditions. Austin via Cutting (2002: 18) argues that felicity conditions
are the context and roles of participants, which must be recognized by all parties.
Moreover, the action must be carried out completely and the persons must have the
right intentions, for example, “I sentence you to five months in prison.” In this
Searle via Trosborg (1985:14) divides speech acts into five categories:
a) Declarations
Declarations are kinds of speech acts, which change the world via their
example, “I quit from this job.” In this example, the speaker tells to the hearer that
b) Representatives
Representatives are kinds of speech acts, which state what the speaker believes
to be the case or not. The type includes arguing, asserting, boasting, claiming,
suggesting, swearing, etc, for example, “I met your sister yesterday.” The speaker
here does the act of informing by telling the hearer that he/she had met the hearer`s
sister yesterday.
c) Expressives
Expressives are kinds of speech acts, which state what the speakers feel. The
regretting, thanking, etc, for example, “I like your house very much.” By telling so,
Directives are kinds of speech acts, which the speakers use to get someone else
to do something. The acts are ordering, commanding, requesting and suggesting, for
example, “Would you like to come to my tea party?” In this sentence, the speaker
e) Commissives
Commissives are kinds of speech acts, which the speakers use to commit
themselves to some future action. The acts are committing, guaranteeing, offering,
there at 5 o‟clock.” In doing the act of commisives, the speaker says a promise to the
3. Request
been the focus of numerous speech act studies. Request, according to Bach and
Harnish (1984:48), is a speech act which is used to express the speaker‟s desire so
speaker (requester) conveys to hearer (requestee) that he/she wants the hearer to
perform a certain act which is beneficial to the speaker. The act may be a request for
non-verbal good and services, i.e., request for an object, an action or some kinds of
services, or it can be a request for verbal goods and services, such a request for
information.
the cost of the requestee. The requester imposes on the requestee in some way when
demanding good and services. To give a clearer explanation Haverkate via Trosborg
Impositive speech acts are described as speech acts performed by the speaker
to influence the intentional behaviour of the hearer in order to get the latter to
perform, primarily for the benefit of the speaker, the action directly specified
or indirectly suggested by the proposition.
In accordance with the statement above, the degree which the requester intrudes
on the requestee, called degree of imposition, may vary from small favours to
demanding acts. Meanwhile, Searle via Trosborg (1995:66) points to the relative
status of speaker and hearer as being a decisive condition for the felicitous
speaker asked the hearer to perform an act which is clearly his/her own responsibility,
In conclusion, request has three outcomes. First, the speaker says his/her
request and wants the hearer to do the desired act. Second, the hearer may perform
the desired act. Third, it is unsure that that the hearer will perform the desired act.
b. The Types of Requests
Request can be divided into several types. Some scholars have their own types
of request. Sometimes, they name the same kind of request differently. For more
explanation, here are some scholars with their types of request. The first is proposed
by Zhang (1995:280) who divides request into direct request and indirect request.
1) Direct Requests
often preceded by the use of personal pronouns such as “I..” or “You …” followed by
verbs that express the speaker’s wish or desire such as “like”, “want”, and other verbs
of action like “give”, “take” and “make.” For example, “I want my apple.” In this
example, the speaker declares that he/she asks the hearer to get his/her apple.
2) Indirect Request
The person is making a request to others in implicit way. A person who makes
more highly than one who makes a direct request. Indirectness displays respect,
courtesy and good breeding, for example, “This place is quite hot.” By saying so, the
speaker implicitly wants the hearer to turn the air conditioner on.
analyze the types of request, the second theory commonly used by many researcherz
is proposed by Trosborg (1995:192). She suggests that there are four types of requests
not in the form of utterance. Therefore, it is expected that the hearer pay more
attention to the situation i.e. the speech event. In conventionally indirect request, the
are explained in modal verbs, such as can, could, will, would, may and wants-
modal verbs such as such as must, have to, should, ought to; and imperative
implies a discrepancy between what he/she said as well as their true intentions
because the request itself is not explicitly stated. As a result, the speaker and the
hearer are supposed to pay more attention on the situation which the utterance
produced or usually called as speech event in order to get the point of request. The
type of unconventionally indirect request itself can only applied by using hints, for
example, “This place is so hot.” By telling the situation, the speaker wants to
indirectly tell the hearer to turn the air conditioner on since the weather is hot.
control to decide whether or not to comply with the request. Hence, “hearer-oriented”
has already shown that he/she does not take compliance for granted. The hearer is
allowed the option of politely refusing by stating that the condition in question, or
some other condition, is not fulfilled. In other words, the desired act may well be
within the hearer's capacity but he/she is not willing to perform it. Conventionally
indirect request can be applied with the strategy of questioning hearer`s ability and
willingness and the strategy of suggestory formulae, for example, “Could you tidy up
the kitchen soon?” In this example, the speaker asks the hearer`s willingness to clean
the kitchen. In this case, the hearer is in the position whether the request should be
complied or not.
Requests which are formulated as speaker-based convey that the speaker puts
his/her own desires in order to make the hearer do the desired act. By placing the
speaker's interests above the hearer's, the request becomes more direct in its demand.
The speaker's statement of his/her intent may be expressed politely as a wish or more
bluntly as a demand. On behalf of the requester, the hearer who responds in a non-
cooperative way is bound to act in disagreement with the speaker's wishes and
desires. This makes it more difficult for the hearer to refuse. The type of indirect
request is applied with the strategy of statements of speaker`s wishes and desires and
the strategy of statements of speaker`s need and demands, for example, “I want you
to fix my car.” In this type of request, the speaker`s desire is the focal point of the
4) Direct Request
When the speaker expects compliance from others, direct request can be
applied. The speaker tends to have a higher position than the hearer. Therefore, the
request can sound authoritative to the hearer. The type of direct request is applied in
and the strategy of imperatives, for example, “Get me the car!” In the sentence, the
speaker says his/her request in a clear and direct instead of saying it unclearly so that
Trosborg (1995:192) argues that there are eight strategies of request. They will
be presented as follows:
1) Hints
In this strategy, the speaker hides his request and does not mention the request
this strategy, by asking a question, the requester can imply to his/her listener what
aware of specific situational features, etc., for example, “It`s cold here.” In this
sentence speaker complains about bad weather. He/she wants someone to set the
thermostat. However, his/her sentence is delivered indirectly since he/she does not
explicitly tell that the hearer should set the thermostat. Another example can be seen
in the sentence “The kitchen is a total mess.” By saying that the kitchen is very dirty,
the speaker asks implicitly to the hearer to clean the kitchen immediately.
understand that the question asked by the speaker is a request. It involves a transition
Therefore, it is up to the hearer whether the request is complied or not, for example,
“Can you reach this jar for me, please?” In the example, the speaker believes that the
hearer has the ability to reach jar, yet he/she still asks it. By doing so, the speaker
Intensification such as like, kind, mind, and object can enlarge the willingness
pre-condition, for example, “Would you like to make a contribution to our charity?”
By adding “like” to the question, the speaker expects more from the hearer to comply
the request.
Making a request for permission can also be used to ask hearer`s willingness to
comply a request. Switching the hearers` attention explicitly can also be applied
instead of mentioning the hearer as the agent of the action, for example, “Can I have
the salt, please?” This request involves a shift of focus alluding explicitly to the
etc on the behalf the requester, for example, “I`d be grateful if you`d send me a parts
list.” The speaker here says that he/she will appreciate if the hearer comply the
request.
3) Suggestory Formulae
When employing a suggestory formula, the requester does not feel obliged to
question any particular hearer-based condition, rather he/she tests the hearer`s
the hearer from carrying out the action specified by the proposition. By presenting a
request by means of suggestory formulae, the speaker makes his/her request more
tentative and plays down his/her own interest as a beneficiary of the action, for
example, “How about lending me some of your books?” In this example, the speaker
gives a suggestion to the hearer. However, it contains a request. In this case, the
speaker wants the hearer to lend him/her some books which is not mention directly.
Another example is the sentence “Why don`t you sweep the floor?” By giving a
suggestion to the heare, the speaker actually wants the hearer to sweep the floor in
implicit way.
polite way so that the hearer does not feel imposed to comply the desired act, for
example, “I would like to have some more tea.” In this example, the speaker puts his
desire as a focal point and adds “would” to make the request sounds polite. In other
words, the speaker says his request in a polite way. Another example is “I would like
you to do the cleaning today.” This request is applied by telling the speaker`s wish.
The speaker says that he would like the hearer to do the cleaning duty.
The speakers who employ this strategy tend to look impolite since the request
contains a high degree of imposition. As a result, the hearers feel imposed by the
request. Therefore, the chance of a conflict to occur between the speakers and the
hearers is high if the request is not fulfilled, for example, “I need a book.” In this
example, the speaker states his need and demand clearly by saying that he/she needs a
book.
“Please” or other mitigating device, for example, “I want the manuscript ready by
noon, please.” In this example the states his/her demand. However, by adding
When employing this strategy, the speaker exerts either his/her authority, or
he/she refers to some authority outside the speaker (institution, speaker`s authority,
inappropriate behaviour. The use of this strategy employing auxiliary verb such as,
ought to, have to and must, marks the utterance as a request. The structures with
should and ought to involve moral obligation. Have to may involve some obligation
stemming from a source outside the speaker. Must often expresses obligation imposed
by the speaker, for example, “You should eat now.” In this sentence, the speaker
imposes his/her authority to the hearer since he/she has a higher position that the
hearer. By saying so, the speaker asks the hearer to eat immediately. Another
example is “You have to leave now.” By saying that the hearer needs to leave
7) Performatives
ask, request, order, demand, command, etc, explicitly marks the utterance as request.
Performative statements with requestive intention are very direct and usually
authoritative, for example, “I order you to submit the assignment.” By saying so, the
speaker asks directly to hearer to submit the assignment as soon as possible. The
However, if the requester wants to soften this form, it is possible to hedge the
illocutionary force of the utterance. The result is a hedged performative, for example,
“I would like to ask you to bring me a drink.” This request is direct, however, by
8) Imperatives
The imperative is the grammatical form directly signaling that the utterance is
an order. In its unmodified form it is very authoritative. The hearer needs to do what
the speaker wants since the speaker has the power over the hearer, for example, “Get
a car!” This sentence is direct because the speaker says his request in a very direct
the speaker.
Imperatives can be softened by adding tags or the marker please and will you,
for example, “Open the window, please.” Here, the speaker clearly says his request.
However, he/she adds “Please” to soften it. Therefore, this request sounds less
(Trosborg, 1995:205) with regard to a situation in which the speaker asks to borrow
Request strategies
Office Space is an American comedy film. Directed by Mike Judge, this movie
is starred by some famous actors and actresses such as Ron Livingston as Peter
Gibbons, Jennifer Aniston as Joanna, Gary Cole as Bill Lumbergh, David Herman as
The movie was about Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) who was a software
engineer in Initech. Initech was an IT Company that had been in business for years
and had been serving clients' technology lifecycles in every industry. He suffered
from work-related stress. One day, he asked a occupational therapist to give him a
treatment related to the stress. On the contrary, the occupational therapist who was
hypnotizing Peter suddenly died and left him with a permanently altered attitude.
wanted to, playing games on his computer and moving furniture to give himself a
better view. Instead of firing him, the company took this oddness as evidence of his
managerial potential. He dated the waitress named Joanna and his relationship
After seeing many potentials possessed by Peter, the consultants put him up for
a promotion. He was promoted to be a manager in the company. One day, when Peter
discovered that his close friends, Michael and Samir would be fired, they decided to
plant a virus in the account system to steal cents in each financial operation into
(ATM) and found out that his account was increased. Peter, Samir, and Michael felt
so guilty since they stole a lot of money. They also assumed that they were bad
criminals. Later, Peter knew what he might do. Then, he decided to return the money
to Initech along with a note taking responsibility for the whole thing. When no one
was around, Peter snuck into Initech after hours and slipped the envelope containing
his confession letter and the money in traveler's checks under his boss's office door.
C. Previous Research
There have been some researches conducted research that deal with speech act
of request. One of the previous research was “Effects of Culture and Gender in
indirect request speech act used by Iranian people in daily communication. The result
shows that the participants in the research try to use indirect request rather than direct
form (regardless of culture). It is because people tend to choose indirect forms over
Another study related to the topic of this research was “A Pragmatic Analysis
on the Speech Act on Request Used by the Main Character in The Pursuit of
Happyness” by Nina Sulistyowati (2012). She investigated the types of request and
(speaker-based) and direct request. In addition, there are seven strategies of request
employed by the character in the movie. They are hints, questioning hearer`s ability
statement of obligation and necestion and the imperative. Besides, there are three
kinds of responses to request uttered by the main character in the movie. They are
temporization.
This thesis focuses on the speech act of request found in Office Space movie.
The data are classified by using Trosborg`s theory of request to find out the types of
D. Conceptual Framework
The research aims to investigate two important points of the objectives i.e types
of request and strategies of making request uttered by the characters in Office Space
movie. The research employs pragmatic approach because the characters in the movie
request to find out the types of request uttered by the characters in Office Space
movie. There are four types of request namely unconventionally indirect request,
conventionally indirect request (hearer-based condition), conventionally indirect
the strategies used by the characters in the movie, the researcher also uses Trosborg`s
theory. There are eight strategies of request such as hints, questioning hearer`s ability
Types of Strategies of
Request Request Office
Space
Unconventionally Hints
Indirect Request
Questioning Hearer` s
Conventionally Indirect Ability and Willingness
Request (Hearer-Based)
Suggestory Formulae
Conventionally Indirect
Request (Speaker-Based)
Statements of Speaker`s
Wishes and Desires
Direct Request
Statements of Speaker`s
Need and Demand
Statements of Obligations
and Necessities
Performatives
Imperatives
A Pragmatic Analysis of Speech Act of Requests Expressed by the Characters in Office Space
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter deals with research method which includes type of research,
research instruments; form, context, and source of the data; techniques of data
presented below.
A. Type of Research
qualitative research refers to a research which produces descriptive data. It deals with
interpreting data. According to Bodgan and Taylor (1993:4), human being`s written
or spoken words and their observable behaviors are the example of descriptive data.
This research was also supported by a quantitative analysis in which the researcher
used numbers and percentages counting the occurrences of the types and strategies of
request.
with providing descriptions of the phenomena which occur naturally with the
data as possible to get the pattern. Finally, this research aimed at describing the types
of request expressed by the characters in Office Space, and figured out the strategies
B. Research Instruments
In this study, there were two kinds of instruments of the research, i.e.
primary and secondary instruments. The primary instrument was the researcher
himself since the research was a qualitative research. Bodgan and Biklen (1982:27)
argue that the key instrument in qualitative research is the researcher him/herself. In
this case, the researcher collected the data, made interpretation, made conclusion, and
The secondary instrument in this research was a data sheet which was used to
collect the data from the utterances containing request act in Office Space movie.
The data of this research were in the form of words, phrases, clauses and
sentences taken from the dialogues by the characters in Office Space movie.
are collected must be in the form of sentences, utterances, or even short stories. The
data were analyzed based on the context in which the utterances occurred in this
movie. The context of the data was the dialogues/conversations performed by the
characters in the movie. The source of the data was Office Space movie and the
interpretation from the researcher. This technique of collecting data was visual
method which is used to interpet the data from media such as TV programs and
movie.
This research employed visual analysis in which the researcher observed the
linguistic behaviour of the characters in Office Space. The methods of data collecting
www.imsdb.com/scripts/Office-Space.html;
3. checking the accuracy between the movie and the script to make it easy to
analyze;
5. identifying the scene in the movie with a support of the script which are in
6. recording the data which are in accordance with the objectives of this study into
Bodgan and Biklen (1982:157) state that data analysis is the process of
researcher`s understanding and to enable the researcher to present what has been
found to others. In this study, the researcher applied referential analysis technique, in
which the data were analyzed referring to the employed techniques. Meanwhile, the
1. After the data were collected, they were categorized. The data that have been
table. The table was used to categorize the types of request and the strategies of
making request. The format of the data sheet was illustrated in the table below.
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Indirect Request D
Conversation Conven R Explanation
Code H A S W N O P I
tionally
UCV i b f i e b f m
H S
B B
Bill: And Uh, I'll go In the dialogue, Bill
ahead and can you get wants to ensure Peter to
another copy of that get another copy of the
memo Mmmm, OK? memo for him. Bill
4/HB/Ab v v
(leaving Peter) does not want Peter to
Peter: No. I have the forget about his job.
memo. I`ve got it… It`s
right.
Note:
UCV : Unonventionally Indirect Request
HB : Conventionally Indirect Request (Speaker-Based)
SB : Conventionally Indirect Request (Hearer-Based)
Hi : Hints
Ab : Questioning Hearer`s Ability of Willingness
Sf : Suggestory Formulae
Wi : Statements of Speaker`s Wishes and Desires
Ne : Statements of Speaker`s Needs and Demands
Ob : Statements Obligations and Necessities
Pf : Performatives
Im : Imperatives
2. Secondly, the data were classified in the data sheet based on the classification of
the two objectives of the study through the characters dialogues in the transcript
of the movie.
3. Thirdly, the request phenomena uttered by the characters in the movie were
4. Fourthly, the trustworthiness of the data was checked during the process of data
analysis.
5. Finally, the conclusion of the research was made based on the result of the
research.
E. Data Trustworthiness
Moleong (2001:173) asserts that the criteria to check the data include credibility,
data. To deal with credibility of the data, the researcher presented deep and detail
information of the data so that the data could be considered credible. To check
dependability, the researcher read and re-read the data, examined the process of data
collection and data analysis by matching the research questions with the results of
data collection. In conformability, the researcher checked whether the data findings
and the interpretation were truly based on the obtained data or not. The researcher
two supervisors. This research was also triangulated by two students of English
This chapter contains two sections: findings and discussion. In the first section,
the researcher provides the tables of research findings from all the data found about
speech act of requests, especially on the types of requests, and strategies of making
in the discussion section which also provides some examples for each found
A. Research Findings
he/she wants the hearer to perform an act which is for the benefit of the speaker
accordance with this, the first objective of this research is to identify the types of
requests in the characters` conversations. Thus, the identification and analysis are
shown in this chapter. The four types of request proposed by Trosborg occur in this
condition), and direct request. Meanwhile, there are seven strategies of making
request occur in Office Space`s script. They include hints, questioning hearer`s ability
found in this film. The occurrence of the types and strategies of request in Office
Space
PERCENTA
Strategies of Request
TOTAL
GE (%)
No. Types of Request
Hi Ab Sf Wi Ne Ob Pf Im
Unconventionally 18.42
1. 7 - - - - - - - 7
Indirect Request
Conventionally Indirect
2. Request (Hearer-Based - 15 3 - - - - - 18 47.37
Condition)
Conventionally Indirect 18.42
3. Request (Speaker- - - - 1 6 - - - 7
Based Condition)
4. Direct Request - - - - - 3 0 3 6 15.79
TOTAL 7 15 3 1 6 3 0 3 38 100
18. 39. 2.6 15.
PERCENTAGE (%) 7.9 7.9 0 7.9 100
42 47 3 79
Based on the Table above, the most prominent one is the employment of
total of 38 data. In other words, out of the total 100%, its percentage is 47.37%. Since
his/her hearer is in the position of controlling whether he/she will comply with the
request or not, the characters employ this type of request by using modal verbs like
can, could, and will in the form of question to exhibit a protective orientation toward
his/her own face that he/she does not take compliance for granted.
and conventionally indirect request (speaker-based condition). They occur 6 times out
of 38 data with the percentage of 18.42% out of 100%. The characters employ
unconventionally indirect request because he/she tries to imply to his/her hearer what
he/she wants without formulating the request directly in his/her utterances. Following
wants-statements in their request because they want their requests more direct in
demand.
Finally in the last rank, there is direct request. It occurs 6 times with the
percentage of 15.79%. The reason is that saying in direct request is not effective to
make request for the hearer to comply the desired act. The characters makes request
with direct request because he/she wants to state his/her intention explicitly by
employing performative verbs and imperative statements. The characters use this type
when compliance from the hearer is expected because the favour asked usually
questioning hearer`s ability and willingness become the most dominant form with 15
(39.47%) out of 38 utterances. The reason is that the characters often make their
request indirectly in the form of question since the condition of this strategy refers to
the hearer`s capacity to perform the desired act. By asking a question as a request, the
characters want to show that they want to show they do not give any assumption that
what they expected should be carried out. Then, hints come in the second position
with 7 (18.42%) out of 38 utterances. In applying this strategy, the speaker hides
his/her request and he/she does not mention the request directly in the utterances. By
making a statement or asking a question, the speaker tries to imply to the hearer what
he/she wants.
Office Space`s script there are 6 (15.79%) out of 38 expression of this strategy
employed by the characters. The speaker states his or her request with this strategy
because he/she wants to make his/her request more demanding by placing his/her
obligations and necessities, and imperatives share the fourth place with 3 (7.9%) out
request in the form of suggestion (e.g. How about and Why don`t you) since the
condition of this strategy refers to the hearer`s capacity to perform the desired act.
Next, the speaker makes his/her request with statements of obligations and necessities
because he/she is in the situation in which the request is refused. The characters who
characters. In this strategy, the requester`s desire is the central. The speaker usually
expresses his/her request with this strategy in a polite way so that the hearer does not
feel imposed complying the desired act. Performatives stand in the last position since
it is not employed by the characters. It can be assumed that the characters rarely use
B. Discussion
Office Space is a film which has many utterances indicating requests. There are
38 data showing request. Most of the characters in this film use request in delivering
some utterances. For example one of the characters in this film, Bill Lumberg, has a
influence the language characteristics of the speaker or the character in this film. The
language characteristics can be seen from: (1) the types of request, and (2) the
The findings show that all types of request are employed by the characters in
what is said and what is actually meant because the request itself is never formulated
in the utterance. Therefore, the speaker and the hearer have to give more attention to
the situation where the utterance is produced in order to get the point of request.
implies to his/her hearers what he/she wants without formulating the request itself in
It occurs in the morning in Peter`s cubicle. The dialogues happen when Peter is
designing a software. Suddenly, he sees Bill Lumberg approaching him. Peter feels
engineer tests software or simply named Test Program Set (TPS) report. The problem
is that he has not finished the document at all. Peter knows that Bill will ask him
his statement to Peter. He performs his request implicitly by saying “You apparently
didn't put one of the new coversheets on your TPS.” It implies that he is in the
state he does not want to. He then asks Peter to immediately put the cover on his TPS
report because the report soon will be submitted to the director. To figure out Bill`s
intention, Peter has a close relationship with Bill and he has an awareness of specific
situational features.
The other example is taken from dialogue between Lawrence and Peter which
is presented below.
The dialogue above takes place in Peter`s apartment. When Peter rests in his couch,
suddenly Lawrence comes into his room. Lawrence sits on Peter`s couch as if it is
his. Peter opens his fridge to take two bottles of beer. He gives one of them to
Lawrence.
Lawrence says “We still going fishing this weekend?” to invite Peter to go
fishing with him. By asking him implicitly about the fishing schedule, Lawrence
wants to make sure that Peter keeps his words. However, Peter says that his boss will
Michael : Come on, you little fucker, let`s go. That`s what I need.
Let`s do that. Let`s do exactly that, you little fuck.
Peter : Michael.
Michael : Hey.
Peter : Listen to me… Well, what are you doing tonight?
(35/HB/Ab)
The conversation above is between Peter and his close friend, Michael, in Michael`s
cubicle. Peter is waiting for Michael in front of Michael`s cubicle to ask Michael`s
willingness to have a serious talk with him about the dismissal plan. Unfortunately,
order to talk with Michael longer, Peter asks implicitly to Michael whether he can go
By saying “Listen… Well what are you doing tonight?”, Peter makes
question to Michael about his availability for going out with him. Besides, Peter says,
“Listen” before he states his request in order to get Michael`s intention. In order to
successfully perform the request, Peter supports his request with a reason that he has
something to talk to. Actually, the request can be expressed in a direct request.
“Michael, come with me tonight. I have something to talk with you.” Peter then does
not do the direct request to ask him. Knowing that his friend is very busy, he seems to
state his request carefully in the form of question since he does not want to create a
In the case of the type of request, the speaker also uses the „hearer-oriented‟
requests. It implies that the hearer is in the position of controlling whether he or she
will comply with the request or not. The occurrence of conventionally indirect
Because the hearer is in the position of controlling whether he/she will comply
with the request or not, the speaker employs this type of request by using modal verbs
such as can, could, will, would, may in the form of question to exhibits a protective
orientation towards his or her own face that he or she does not take compliance for
granted.
be seen as follows.
Peter : Milton? Hi Uh, could you turn that down just a little bit?
Milton : Uh, they said I could listen to the radio a reasonable volume
from nine to eleven when I`m collating.
Peter : Yeah, I know you`re allowed to. I was just thinking maybe
like a personal favor.
Milton : Well, I told Bill if Sandra`s going to listen her headphones
while she`s filing then I should be able to listen to the radio
while I`m collating so I don`t see why I should have to turn
down the radio
Peter : Yeah. All right. OK.
(5/HB/Ab)
The dialogue above occurs between Peter and Milton, one of Peter`s co-workers.
When Peter is trying to focus on his work, he hears something that bothers him so
Uh, could you turn that down just a little bit?”, Peter questions Milton`s ability
and willingness to turn down the radio. With this type of request, Peter tries to show
that he does not make Milton feel offended with his request and does not take his
compliance for granted. Milton has the absolute right whether he will do the
Bill : So if you could go ahead and pack your stuff and move it
down there that would be terrific.
Milton: I can't...Excuse me. I believe you have my stapler?
(33/HB/Ab)
The conversation above occurs in the office between Bill and his co-worker, Milton.
Bill meets Milton in Milton`s cubicle because he wants him to relocate his workplace.
In fact, they are rumored to not get along since the beginning. For this reason, Bill
strives for getting rid of Milton from the company. He plans to relocate Milton`s
Bill states his request as polite as possible to Milton by saying “So if you could
go ahead and pack your stuff and move it down there that would be terrific.”
The request is phrased as an implicit wish that Bill wants Milton to move his
workplace away. With this type of request, he anticipates his risk of losing face when
his request is not fulfilled by not directly mentioning his real intention because
compliance is totally on Peter`s right. Unfortunately, Milton rejects the request since
If the speaker wants the desired act to be performed, he or she may employ the
above the request to the hearer, the request becomes more direct in demand. The
Peter : I want to take you out for dinner and then I wanna go to
my apartment and watch Kung Fu. Did you ever watch
Kung Fu?
Joanna : I love Kung Fu.
(23/SB/Ne)
The conversation above occurs in a restaurant at afternoon between Peter and Joanna.
After Peter and Joanna become acquainted with one another, they began to tell their
life story starting from their origin, occupation and even personal lives. Now, their
relationship is getting close and Peter wants to have a serious relationship with
Joanna. To get Joanna`s attention, he states “I want to take you out for dinner and
then I wanna go to my apartment and watch Kung Fu.” Here, he performs his
request in the form statement of need because he wants to show that his need is
important to be given attention. Fortunately, this strategy works and Joanna gives a
The conversation between Peter and Dr. Swanson below also describes an
Peter : Is there any way that you could sort out just zonk me out so that,
like , I don`t know that I`m at work ... in here? Could I come
home and think that I`ve been fishing all day or something?
Dr. Swanson: That`s really not what I do Peter. However, the good news is I
think I can help you. I want you to try and relax. I want you
to relax every muscle in your body, from your toes to your
fingertips. Now I want you to relax your legs. You're going
to begin to feel your eyelids getting heavy as you slip deeper
and deeper into a state of complete relaxation. the air of
concerns to you is disappearing. Deeper, way down, your
concerns about your job melts away. Way, way down.
(18/SB/Ne)
Peter talks to Dr. Swanson, a hypnotherapist, at a clinic. Peter wants to have a
consultation related to his work with him. Inside a room at the clinic, Dr. Swanson
tells him to lie down on a sofa. After that, he wants Peter to do what he says.
By stating “I want you to try and relax. I want you to relax every muscle in
your body, from your toes to your fingertips. Now I want you to relax your legs.
You're going to begin to feel your eyelids getting heavy as you slip deeper and
disappearing. Deeper, way down, your concerns about your job melts away.
Way, way down”, Dr. Swanson wants Peter to calm himself so that his problem can
be alleviated. His request is considered as unconventionally indirect request (speaker-
based) because he puts his interest in order to make Peter comply his request.
d. Direct Request
Direct request is the act of giving request directly. The occurrence of direct
request in Office Space movie is 6 out of 38 utterances. The characters make their
request with direct request because they want to state their intentions in request
use this type when compliance from the hearer is expected because the favour asked
Lawrence : Hey, Peter-Man. Check out channel nine! Check out this
chick!
Peter : Damn it!
(13/DR/Im)
This conversation is between Peter and his neighbor, Lawrence, in Peter`s apartment
when Peter has just arrived at home. After he walks in, he lies on his couch because
he feels so tired. Through the wall, suddenly he hears his neighbor, Lawrence, yells at
him loudly and asks him to turn on the television. Lawrence wants Peter to check out
channel nine because there is a pretty girl appears in the commercial which lasts
about 1 minute. Lawrence does not want Peter to miss the chance for watching the
commercial. In this urgent situation and expecting Peter`s compliance, Lawrence says
“Check out channel nine! Check out this chick!”. Lawrence states his request
directly in the form of imperative. Lawrence also states his request in a high
intonation so that Peter can hear clearly and fulfill the request. However, Peter rejects
Another example of direct request is taken from Peter and Joanna when they
meet each other for the first time. Here is the conversation that contains direct
request.
The dialogues above occur between Peter and Joanna, in a restaurant. Joanna has
admitted her surprise when she knows that Peter has a reservation booked seat at a
luxurious restaurant in a hotel. Joanna never meets someone who wants to go so far
out of his way just for him. After Peter invites Joanna to take a seat, Peter introduces
himself, he tries to make some small talk and Joanna responds it enthusiastically. To
get know about Joanna, Peter starts talking about all of the things he has in common,
from his families to his favorite movie, Kung Fu. Later, Peter finds out that Joanna
loves Kung Fu too. He wants their relationship to the next level and mentally he is
ready. Therefore, he asks Joanna to go out and watch his favorite movie. By stating
“You should come over and watch Kung Fu tonight”, Peter directly states his
request to Joanna to come over his place and watch Kung Fu together in the form
statement of obligations. To support his request and get Joanna`s agreement, Peter
The participants in this dialogue are Bill and Peter. Bill, who is Peter`s boss, comes
into Peter`s cubicle. By stating “We should probably go ahead and have a little
talk, hmm?”, Bill asks Peter to talk for a minute related to a promotion in the
The findings show that there are seven strategies of request are employed by the
characters in the movie. They are hints, questioning hearer`s ability and willingness,
a. Hints
In applying the request of hints, the speaker hides his/her request and does not
question, he/she can imply with the hearer what he/she wants. In this strategy, the
speakers want to communicate to the hearers more they actually says. In Office
Space, the characters employ this strategy in high percentage. This strategy also has
the second highest feature. There are 7 out of 38 expressions of hints employed by the
characters.
By making a statement or by asking a question, the speaker tries to imply to the
hearer what he/she wants. The speaker hides his/her request and does not mention the
Bill: Good. Well, uh, I'd like to, uh, welcome a new member to our
team. Uh, Bob Slydell. Yeah. Uh, he is, uh, a consultant. Yeah.
He is a consultant. (Tom shakes his head) He'll be helping us
out a little here, asking some questions, making sure things go a
little more smoothly. Yeah. Oh and remember, next Friday is
Hawaiian shirt day! So, y'know, remember what you should
gonna wear.You know, if you want to go ahead and wear a
Hawaian shirt and jeans.
(16/UCV/Hi)
The participants of the conversations above are between Bill Lumberg and his
employees. It occurs in the morning in the office building. Bill tries to gather the
introduces a new employee named Bob Slydell who serves the company as a
management consultant. Bill believes that Bob can help the company to improve its
performance and guide the identification of problems and serve the company as basis
for recommendations for more effective or efficient ways of performing work tasks.
At the end of the meeting, Bill wants all of his employees to wear Hawaiian shirt as
business attire in the next Friday. The tradition of wearing Hawaii shirt on the last
business day of the week is known as Hawaiian shirt day. Therefore, Bill employs
hint strategy by making the request in the form of statement that implicitly describes
his real intention by saying “Yeah. Oh and remember, next Friday is Hawaiian
shirt day! So, y'know, remember what you should gonna wear.You know, if you
want to go ahead and wear a Hawaian shirt and jeans.” He hides the request in
The conversation between Bill and Peter below also describes a strategy of
hints.
Bill : (Phone rings)Yah, hi. It's Bill Lumbergh. It's about ten o'
clock, uh, wondering where you are.
(19/UCV/Hi)
The telephone conversation above is between Bill and Peter in the morning. Bill calls
Peter when shift is supposed to start. Bill asks Peter that should come to work
immediately. Apparently, Bill wants to talk to Peter about the promotion. He sits all
morning waiting for Peter`s arrival in the office. He decides to phone him directly.
In this serious conversation, Bill performs his request very implicitly with a hint
by saying “It's about ten o' clock, uh, wondering where you are.” Bill tries to
imply Peter what his real meaning is. In order to successfully perform the request,
Bill supports his request with a reason that why he call Peter. Bill chooses his request
by saying “It's about ten o' clock” to emphasize that Peter has been late coming to
work. Peter is supposed to come to work at eight o`clock. In this case, Bill states the
reason he has for making the request without explicitly expressing what he wants.
b. Questioning Hearer`s Ability and Willingness
In this strategy, the hearer must realize that the question asked by the speaker is
actually a request made as an attempt to make the hearer do what the speaker wants.
illocutionary force. In addition the hearer is also in charge to decide whether the
expressions. The speaker makes his/her request indirectly in the form of a question
since the condition of this strategy refers to the hearer`s capacity to perform the
desired act. By asking question as a request, he/she wants to show that he/she does
not give any assumptions that he/she expected should be carried out.
Peter : Lawrence, can you just pretend like we can't hear each
other through the wall?
Lawrence : Oh! sorry man, is Anne over there or something?
Peter : No, if you want to talk to me, just come over.
(14/HB/Ab)
The dialogue occurs when Peter has a conversation with his neighbor, Lawrence, in
Peter`s apartment building. After work, Peter goes back to his apartment. He puts on
his black slip-on shoes and walks out of the door. With his remaining strength, Peter
tries to pull himself up but he falls back down on the couch. He rests for fifteen
minutes or so. As he rests there, he is sipping the wine and forcing himself to review
what has happened, he begins to relax. The problem begins when suddenly Lawrence,
his next door neighbor, yells at him. The sound is very noisy and it pisses him off the
most. Peter knows well that it is forbidden to make a loud noise after 10.00 pm in the
apartment. He gets annoyed with that situation because he needs to take a break from
work. Besides, Peter has his girlfriend who sleeps over there. Getting annoyed by this
By asking “Can you just pretend like we can't hear each other through the
wall?”, Peter questions Lawrence`s ability and willingness to stop his activity. Peter
makes a request indirectly in the form of a question with the modal Can since the
condition of this strategy refers to the hearer`s capacity to perform the desired act. He
downgrades his request by not presenting it directly. Although he gets annoyed with
he wants Lawrence to stop his activity because it bothers him and other neighbors. By
asking a question as a request, Peter wants to show that he does not give any
(27/HB/Ab)
The conversation above is between Stan and Joanna in Chotchkie`s restaurant. Stan is
the manager of the restaurant and Joanna is the employee who works there. Despite
of the fact that Joanna has been working there for a couple of years, she often makes
some mistakes such as coming late, not being friendly with customers or not wearing
properly her business attire. Stan actually gives her some warnings but Joanna always
ignores it. As the manager, Stan needs to communicate his expectations for work
performance clearly. If not, there will be a miscommunication issue which it will ruin
By saying “Would you come here for a moment, please?”, to the girl, Stan
asks about the girl`s ability and willingness to come over him since he wants to talk
important things to her. Stan chooses his request by saying “Please” in the end of his
utterance in order to soften his request. Stan makes his request indirectly in the form
of a question since the condition of this strategy refers to the hearer capacity to
Bill : And Uh, I'll go ahead and can you get another copy of that
memo Mmmm, OK? (leaving Peter)
Peter : No. I have the memo. I`ve got it… It`s right..
(4/HB/Ab)
The setting is in Peter`s cubicle. There, Bill, the boss asks Peter to get another copy
Since Bill is the boss of the company, his duty is to tell his employees anything
By stating “Can you get another copy of that memo Mmmm, OK?”, Bill
asks Peter`s ability to get the copy of the memo which is needed for the next meeting.
He uses this strategy because he does not want to impose his authority so that Peter
The next example of this strategy is also found in Dom and Peter`s conversation
and Dom has a serious conversation about the TPS report. He feels unpleasant
knowing that Peter does not do his job well. Yet, Dom wants to provide an
environment in which employees feel good about work. Dom is an incredible boss
who cares for their people not only in the work area but as human beings as well.
Sometimes, Dom constantly praises his co-worker whenever they do something well.
He believes that by giving compliments will empower the co-workers to feel more
confident and encourage them to pursue the highest level of performance. Therefore,
Dom does not want Peter to repeat his mistake and asks him to do an optimal work
Dom states his request clearly and politely to Peter by saying “So I'd really
appreciate it if you could just remember to do that. From now on. That'd be
great”. Here, Dom makes his request in the form of questioning hearer`s ability and
willingness that he wants to give an appreciation to Peter for a better work
performance.
c. Suggestory Formulae
For suggestory formulae, there is no assumption on the part of the speaker that
the action should be carried out. The speaker only invites the hearer to perform and
express his/her point of view. The hearer is in the position of controlling whether
In Office Space, the characters employ this strategy in a low percentage. This
their request in the form of suggestion since the condition of this strategy refers to the
hearer`s capacity to perform the desired act. By stating a suggestion, the characters
does not give any assumptions that what he expected should be carried out.
After finishing her reports, Nina hands the paper work to Samir and Michael.
However, she is surprised knowing that the full name of Michael is similar with an
American well-known singer and song writer, Michael Bolton. Michael feels upset
because people often compare himself with the famous singer. Sometimes, some
people tell him to sing but he always refuses it because he knows that his voice is not
good enough. His life is miserable because of that name. As a friend, Samir asks
To get Michael`s attention, Samir says “Well” before he states his request. By
saying “Why don't just go by Mike, instead of Michael?”, Samir seems very
suggests his friend, Michael, to get a different name for his sake. By stating a
suggestion, he does not give any assumptions that what he expected should be carried
out. He only invites Michael to do the request action. It means that Samir only invites
Michael to do the right action based on his point of view but the decision of
work because he thinks that it is not his fault to have the same name.
seated, they take their food and drink orders. Their table is by the window where they
could sit quietly as they chatter and eat their lunch. Peter seems to have a burger in
his hand, Samir drinks his Americano coffee, and Michael`s eyes still glued to his
phone. They only have forty-five minutes for lunch, and the time always seemed to
go by rather quickly. No matter how much they talk and what they talk about, it
seems that they always have more to talk with each other. As they eat their lunch,
Michael uses his soft voice to speak to his friends because he does not want other
customers to overhear his conversation. He begins to tell about his plan about playing
poker on Friday. Michael is really looking forward to this plan because he is so bored
with his daily office activities. Therefore, he wants to invites his friends to enjoy a
holiday on last day of weekend. The problem is Peter has an appointment with his
psychiatrist and Peter has to cancel the plan with a heavy heart. However, Michael
keeps insisting that Peter should go out with him. Michael asks Peter not to attend
By saying “Why don't you just tell Anne you're not into hypnosis and you
want to play poker with us?”, Michael makes the request in the form of suggestion.
He suggests Peter to go out with him for playing poker on Friday instead of coming
on the part of Peter that the action should be carried out. With this strategy, Michael
anticipates his risk of losing face when his request is not fulfilled by not directly
The following dialogue below is the last example of this strategy between Samir
and Peter.
Samir : Peter, you, you always talk about this girl. If you're so
obsessed with her, why don't you just ask her out?
Peter : Oh, I can`t do that.
(10/HB/Sf)
dialogue above takes set when Peter, Samir, and Michael are having their lunch.
Then, suddenly they see a beautiful waitress named Joanna walking pass their table
and serving other customers. Peter is in interested with Joanna at the first sight which
makes him falling in love with her. Having the fact that Peter is falling in love with
Joanna, Samir asks Peter to have a date with Joanna. As a result, Samir says “Why
don't you just ask her out?” to make Peter take an initiative in order to approach the
waitress. He uses the strategy to make Peter comfortable hearing his words since
expressed in a polite way so that the hearer does not feel imposed to comply with the
desired act. In Office Space, this strategy is employed by the characters in 1 out of 38
the request.
The conversation above is between Bob and Peter in Bob`s room. Bob, the new
consultant, asks Peter many different questions related to his job. After he dig deeper
into Peter`s personality, Bob finds out that Peter has a potential to be a manager. He
then asks him to get a promotion. Fortunately, Peter agrees to accept the position.
Bob expresses his request by stating “What we would like to do is put you
into position where you would have as many as four people working right
underneath you.” By uttering “We would like”, Bob expresses his statements of his
intent politely as wish. The request is considered as an explicit wish that Bob wants
Peter to take position as the manager. In this strategy, Bob`s request is formulated in
the form of statement and Peter`s compliance cannot be expected. Fortunately, the
strategy works and Peter agrees to take the position as the manager.
This strategy is commonly expressed in a less polite way than the strategy of
statements of wishes and desires, so that it is more difficult for the hearer to refuse.
Therefore, there is a big possibility that the hearer and the speaker will be in a
disagreement if the request is not fulfilled. In Office Space, there are 6 out of 38
expressions employed by the characters. The speaker states his/her request by using
this strategy because he/she wants to make his/her strategy more direct in command.
Stan : Now, you know, it`s up to you whether or not you want to just
do the bare minimum or.. Well like Brian for example, has
thirty seven pieces of flair on today. And a terrific smile.
Joanna : OK. So you want me to wear more?
Stan : Look, Joanna..
Joanna : Yeah?
Stan : People can get cheeseburger anywhere, OK? They come to
Chotchkie`s for the atmosphere and the attitude. OK? That`s
what the flair about. It`s about fun.
Joanna : Yeah. OK. So more than, yeah?
Stan : Look, we want you to express yourself, OK? If you think
the bare minimum is enough, then ok. But some people
choose to wear more and we encourage that, ok? You do
want to express yourself, don't you?
Joanna : Yeah.
Stan : OK, great, great. That`s all I ask.
(29/SB/Ne)
restaurant, Stan. After serving the customer, Joanna is called by the manager of the
restaurant, Stan, into his office. The manager tells her about mistakes that she has
made. The manager assumes that the mistakes are considered as major mistakes. The
mistakes are that Joanna has insufficient flair and she looks unhappy when serving
the customers. Therefore, Stan asks Joanna to express herself and to use more flair.
After that, Joanna needs to take her manager's advice as soon as she is given it. She
knows that she has to take responsibilities for what she did. She needs to ask some
advices from her manager and lastly does what he says as well. Her manager teaches
her a lesson that when it comes to mistake, people should not blame theirselves but
To get Joanna`s attention, Stan says, “Look” before he states his request. He
states “Look, we want you to express yourself, OK?” to Joanna in order to ask her
to do a better performance. At the end of sentence, Stan says “OK?” in order to make
Joanna take her job more seriously. Stan`s request is uttered by means of the word
want followed by the specific act. Here, he performs his request in the form of
statement of needs and demands because he wants to show that his need deserves
more attention. In this strategy, his request is formulated in the form of statement and
The dialogue above occurs in the morning between Peter and his superior, Dom.
Arriving to his office, Peter enters his cubicle and sits down in front of his computer.
There, who awaits him is Dom who needs to talk to him immediately. Previously,
soon after Dom finds out that Peter has not submitted his paperwork, he leaves his
room and looks for Peter to hear his explanation. Dom thinks that Peter is not serious
with his work and neglecting his duties. Therefore, Dom wants to warn Peter about it
and gives him advice. He also wants to consider whether Peter is still suitable to work
at Initech or not.
Dom wants an explanation why Peter has not submitted the report by stating his
demand “We need to talk about your TPS reports.” Here, Dom`s request is uttered
by means of the word need followed by the specific act because he wants to show that
his need is very important. Therefore, it needs more attention. In this strategy, his
expected. Fortunately, Peter gives Dom a good response and promises to finish his
report.
Peter : Oh, come on! (He tries to save a data but apparently but starts
to save another file)
Bill : Hello Peter. What's happening? Um, I need you go ahead and
come in tomorrow. Oh, oh, yea…I forgot. I'm gonna also
need you to come in Sunday too.
(17/SB/Ne)
The participants of this dialogue are Peter and Bill. The dialogue takes place in
Peter`s cubicle. Peter looks worried since he needs to finish his job before Bill, his
boss, comes. It turns out that Bill is already in his sight. Therefore, Peter becomes
more anxious. However, Bill does not seem to care about Peter`s work.
Bill tells Peter “I need you go ahead and come in tomorrow. Oh, oh, yea…I
forgot. I'm gonna also need you to come in Sunday too” since he needs Peter to
keep working on weekend. Peter is expected to come on weekend because Bill needs
him for working on a certain project. Therefore, he uses this strategy because Peter`s
compliance is exprected.
authority in a weaker form. In Office Space, there are 3 expressions in which the
characters employ the strategy. When employing this strategy, the speaker isin the
The conversation above occurs between Bill and Peter in Bill`s cubicle. Peter feels
lazy and tired to do his work because he stays up all night to complete the task given
by his boss. Suddenly, Bill, the vice president of the company, comes to Peter`s
cubicle. He is wondering why Peter comes to the office since he has not been seen for
several days. Therefore, he asks Peter to have a little discussion. However, Peter
rejects him.
Here, Bill makes a request in the form of statement of obligation. Directly, Bill
states his obligations to Peter in high intonation by uttering “We should go probably
go ahead and have a little talk.” It is appropriate for using direct request because
The dialogue occurs during daytime between Milton and Bill in Bill`s cubicle. As a
range of conflicts. Conflict can hurt employees` morale and negatively affect how
they feel about work. In this case, Milton and Bill are not good in a good relationship
since the beginning. They always have personal conflicts in the workplace.
Experienced workers are expected to know how to separate personal conflicts from
the work. However, Bill and Milton cannot do it. Bill always picks on Milton. Bill is
always fed up with many negative things in his head that he does not even care about
Milton. He tends to hate him for everything he does. One day, he asks Milton to
relocate his workplace. At first, Milton refuses it. Bill knows well that when
confronting with employees who do not do his order, imposing his authority is a good
choice. Being threatened, Milton agrees to move his desk away and pack his stuffs.
To get Milton`s attention, Bill says “Look” before he states his request. In an
urgent situation, Bill says “Look, you gotta pack your stuff and move your desk
Milton to relocate his workplace because he thinks that it is a first step to get rid of
Milton from the company. Bill states his request directly in the form of statement of
obligations and necessities. To support the request, Bill imposes his authority as the
The dialogue takes place at the restaurant next to Joanna`s workplace. The
participants of this dialogue are Peter and Joanna. After Joanna sits down, Peter
introduces himself and Joanna responds him well. Peter, who recently know Joanna,
invites her to watch a Kung Fu movie togother since he likes the movie.
By stating “You should come over and watch Kung Fu tonight”, Peter
intends to invite Joanna to come over his place and watch the movie. Peterasks
Joanna directly because he expects her compliance. In responding Peter, Joanna says
that she agrees to come over since she also likes Kung Fu Movie.
c. Performatives
In Office Space, this strategy is not employed by the characters because its high
degree of imposition.
d. Imperatives
The imperative statements with requestive intention are very direct and
38 expressions. In this case, the speakers have power over the hearers and the request
is obliged to carry out by the hearers. Here, the characters often face the an
Bob : Aha! All right. We were just talking about you. You must be
Peter Gibbons. Uh huh. Terrific. I'm Bob Slydell and this is my
associate, Bob Porter.
Peter : Hi, Bob. Bob.
Bob : Grab a seat and join us for a minute.
Peter : All right, Bob.
(25/DR/Im)
The conversation is between Bob and Peter, in the consultants` room. Bob Slydell
and Bob Porter are the new consultants of the company. They are hired to identify the
responsible for selecting and filtering the employees who are still needed to work in
the company as well. They also give promotions to the employees who are excellent
in work. It takes a whole day for the consultants to interview the employees. When it
comes to Peter`s turn, they welcome him to their room. However, they notice that
Peter still stand up in his position. Therefore, Bob Slydell asks Peter to sit down and
To get Peter`s attention, Bob Slydell states his request directly in high
intonation by saying “Grab a seat and join us for a minute.” The request made by
Bob Slydell directly starts with the Grab and Join which belong to the strategy of
imperatives strategy. Bob tries to make Peter get to his position and be ready for the
interview.
Another example of imperatives is shown as follows.
office. After Milton finds out that there is no certainty about his salary, he tries to ask
Bill. Unfortunately, Bill is not in his room which makes him angry and disappointed.
However, Milton does not give up. He rushes into Bill`s secretary and asks her when
he can meet Bill. Milton has been told many times by the secretary that Bill has not
gotten work yet until finally he is asked by the secretary to relax and to wait for Bill
at his cubicle.
In this serious situation, the secretary employs imperatives in her request. She
states her request directly to Milton by saying “Just go and sit at your desk.” The
secretary asks Milton to wait patiently for Bill`s arrival at work. In this case, she
expects Milton`s compliance. By starting directly with a verb, the secretary indicates
Lawrence : Hey Peter-Man. Check out channel nine! Check out this
chick!
Peter : Sorry buddy, I just want to relax.
(13/DR/Im)
The setting is in Peter`s apartment. After having a rough day, Peter lies on his couch
to watch TV since he feels tired. However, Lawrence, his next door neighbour, yells
at Peter from his apartment. He says “Check out channel nine! Check out this
chick!” to ask Peter to switch the channel that interests him. He says directly so that
To sum up, it can be noticed that the types and strategies of requests are closely
related. Every type of requests may have one strategy or some strategies in it. For
speaker`s needs and demands are created by conventionally indirect request (speaker-
based conditions). At last, there are three strategies of requests created by direct
imperatives.
In relation to the correlation between types of request and strategies of request,
it also can be assumed that the characters prefer to use indirect requests than direct
requests. The reason is that higher levels of indirectness may result in higher levels of
because they intrude in the addressee's territory. Direct request strategies can be
considered as the most efficiently and easily expressed utterances yet sometimes the
strategies can make people feel offended. Hence, the characters are likely to use
indirect request in order to exploit the hearers` capacity while carrying out the
implicitly requested act. Therefore, the relationship among the employees does not
break.
CHAPTER V
This chapter consists of two sections: conclusions and suggestions. The first
the research problems and objectives. The next section is suggestions. It provides
some suggestions for students, English lecturers, and other researchers. Each section
is presented below.
A. Conclusions
Based on the research findings and discussion in Chapter IV, two conclusions
1. There are four types of request uttered by the characters in Office Space. They are
and direct request. There are 38 data which show the types of request occurring in
the movie. Based on the finding of the types of request, it is shown that
oriented condition) has the highest numbers of occurrence in the type of request.
The reason is that a hearer is in the position of controlling whether he/she will
comply the request or not. The characters employ this type of request by using
modal verbs such as can in the form of question to exhibit a protective orientation
toward their own faces so that they do not take compliance for granted.
compared to other types. On the other hand, direct request becomes the lowest
rank. The occurrence of this type is 6 data (15.79%). The characters make their
request with direct request because they want to state their intentions in the
They also use this type when compliance from the hearer is expected because the
2. There are seven request strategies employed by the characters in Office Space
utterances, questioning hearer`s ability and willingness has the highest number of
data with 15 data (39.47%). It occurs since the characters often make their request
indirectly in the form of question since the condition of this strategy refers to the
hearer`s capacity to perform the desired act. By asking a question as a request, the
characters want to show that they do not force the hearers to carry out what they
Statements of speaker`s wishes and desires has the lowest number of data with 1
(2.63%) out of 38 data. The strategy appears as the lowest occurence in the movie
because It is usually very authoritative and formal. Therefore, it can harm the
B. Suggestions
follows:
1. To Linguistic Students
The students majoring in linguistic are suggested to learn pragmatics, since they
result of this research, students as foreign language learners can learn that performing
act via language can be conducted in various ways. They can perform request in
2. To English Lecturers
A movie which is the representation of human real life can be a good and
interesting medium to learn about speech act of requests. Moreover, using a movie as
the medium in learning activity will be much more enjoyable because the students
can enjoy the story and study the speech act of requestswhich are uttered by the
This research does not cover all of the aspects of speech act of requests. It only
focuses on the types of request and request strategies viewed from pragmatic
A. Printed Sources
Bach, K. and Harnish, R.M. 1984. Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts.
Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
Bodgan, R. and Biklen, S.K. 1982. Qualitative Research for Education: An
Introduction to Theory and Methods. Canada: John Wiley and Son.
Bodgan, R. and Taylor, S. J. 1993. Introduction to Qualitative Research Method.
Translated By A. Khozin Affandi into Kualitatif: Dasar-Dasar Penelitian.
Surabaya: Usaha Nasional.
Bungin, B. 2007. Penelitian Kualitatif. Jakarta: Kencana.
Cutting, J. 2002. Pragmatics and Discourse. London: Routledge.
Griffiths, P. 2006. An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics. British:
Edinburg University Press.
Hornby, A.S. 1995. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (Fifth Edition). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Leech, G. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman Inc.
Levinson, S.C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mey, J.L. 1994. Pragmatics: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
Moleong, L.J. 2001. Metode Penelitian Kualitatif. Bandung: PT Remaja Rosdakarya.
Nunan, D. 1993. Introducing Discourse Analysis. London: Penguin English.
Searle, J.R. 1974. Speech Acts an Essay in Philosophy of Language. London and New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Seliger, H. W. and Shohamy, E. 1989. Second Language Research Methods (2nd Ed.)
London: Sage Publications.
Sulistyowati, N. 2012. A Pragmatics Analysis on Speech Act of Requests Used by the
Main Character in The Pursuit of Happyness. Undergraduate Thesis.
Yogyakarta: State University of Yogyakarta. Unpublished.
Taylor, I. & Martin, M. Taylor. 1990. Psycholinguistics Learning and Using
Language. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc.
Trosborg, A. 1995. Interlanguage Pragmatics Request, Complaint and Apologies.
New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Vanderstoep, S. W. and Johnston, D. D. Research Methods for Everyday Life:
Blending Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Yule, G. 1996. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Zhang, Y. 1995. Indirectness in Chinese Requesting. In: Kasper, G. (Ed.). Pragmatics
of Chinese as Native and Target Language. Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press.
B. Electronic Source
Office Space Movie Script. http://www/imsdb.com/scripts/Office-Space.html.
Retrieved on 8 August 2014 at 10:17.t
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Bill: Hello, Peter. What's happening? Uh… The setting is in the company.
we have sort of a problem here. Yeah. You Bill Lumberg comes to Peter`s
apparently didn't put one of the new cubicle. He is the vice precident
coversheets on your TPS. and Peter`s superior in the
Peter: Oh, yeah. I'm sorry about that. I, I company. Without explicitly
1/UCV/Hi forgot. v v stating his request, Bill wants
Peter to put one of the
coversheet on his Testing
Procedure Specification (TPS)
reports.
77
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Bill: Mmmm..Yeah. You see, we're putting Dissastified with the previous
the coversheets on All TPS reports now answer, Bill asks Peter again to
before they go out. Did you see the memo check the memo. However, Bill
about this? is suprised with Peter`s reply
2/UCV/Hi Peter: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've got the memo v v because Peter does not do it. He
right here, but, uh, uh, I just forgot. But, uh, thinks that Peter always delays
it's not shipping out until tomorrow, so there's his job. That is why, Bill keeps
no problem. watching him.
Bill: Yeah. If you could just go ahead and For the sake of the company,
make sure you do that from now on, that Bill tells Peter to change his way
will be great. of work by finishing his job
immadiately. It is expressed in a
3/HB/Ab v v
polite way so that Peter does not
feel imposed to comply the
desired act.
Bill: And Uh, I'll go ahead and can you get In the dialogue, Bill wants to
another copy of that memo Mmmm, OK? ensure Peter to get another copy
4/HB/Ab (leaving Peter) v v of the memo for him. Bill does
Peter: No. I have the memo. I`ve got it… It`s not want Peter to forget about
right. his job.
78
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Peter: Milton? Hi uh, could you turn that After Bill walks away, Peter
down just a little bit? tries to start working. Suddenly,
Milton: But I was told that I could listen to a loud radio is bothering him.
the radio at a reasonable volume from Apparently, it is a voice of Paul
nine to eleven while I'm collating. Harvey (a radio news anchor)
Peter: Yeah, I know you`re allowed to. I was coming from a radio in the next
just thinking maybe like a personal favor. cubicle. Peter tries to
Milton: Well, I told Bill if Sandra`s going to concentrate but Paul Harvey`s
listen her headphones while she`s filing then I irritating voice drives him crazy.
should be able to listen to the radio while I`m Then, he stands up, walks to
collating so I don`t see why I should have to Milton`s cubicle ands asks him
5/HB/Ab turn down the radio v v to turn the radio off.
Peter: Yeah. All right. OK.
79
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Dom: (Coming to Peter`s cubicle) Hi Peter. Dom Portwood walks to Peter`s
What`s happening? We need to talk about cubicle. He is the director of the
your TPS reports. company. As Don is walking, he
Peter: Yeah. The coversheet. I know, I know. claps his hands together with a
Uh, Bill talked to me about it. small smirk. He asks Peter to
6/SB/Ne v v
submit his report.
Dom: Did you get that memo? Peter and Dom have a serious
Peter: Yeah I got the memo and I understand conversation about the report.
the policy and the problem is just that I forgot He feels unpleasant knowing
the one time and I`ve already taken care of it. that Peter does not do his job
so it`s not even really a problem anymore. well. By choosing an expression
Dom: Ah yeah. It's just that we're putting new that reflects an appreciation,
7/HB/Ab coversheets on all the TPS reports before v v Dom wants Peter to work better
now before they go out now. So I'd really in the future.
appreciate it if you could just remember to
do that. From now on. That'd be great.
80
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Nina: Michael… Bolton? Michael feels upset when people
Michael: That`s me. mistakes his name with a famous
Nina: Wow! Is that your real name? singer named Michael Bolton
Michael: Yeah. although they are not not related
Nina: So are you related to that singer guy? by blood. His life is miserable
Michael: No, it's just a coincidence. because of the name. As a
Nina: Oh. friend, Samir suggests that
Samir: How come no one in this country can Michael should change his
pronounce my name right? It's Na-gee-een-ah- name. However, Michael rejects
jah. Nagaenajar. him. He thinks that it is not his
Michael: At least your name isn't Michael fault having the same name.
8/HB/Sf Bolton. v v
Samir: Michael, there's nothing wrong with
that name.
Michael: There was nothing wrong with it.
Until I was about nine years old and that no-
talent assclown became famous and started
winning Grammys.
Samir: Well, why don't just go by Mike,
instead of Michael?
Michael: Why should I change it? He`s the
one who sucks.
81
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Peter: Hey guys. While Samir and Michael are
Samir and Michael: What`s up, G? having an conversation, Peter
Peter: Wanna go to Chotchkie's, get some comes up and asks them to have
coffee? a lunch. Finally, they all go to
Samir and Michael: Oh, it`s a little early. the restaurant together.
9/HB/Ab Peter: I gotta get outta here. I think I`m gonna v v
lose it.
Samir: Peter, you, you always talk about this After they mock each other,
girl. If you're so obsessed with her, why Peter, Samir, and Michael are
don't you just ask her out? drinking their coffees together.
Peter: Oh, I can`t do that. They see a beautiful waitress
walks pass their table. Peter
continues to talk while he is still
10/HB/Sf v v watching her. Knowing the truth
that Peter is attracted to her,
Samir suggests Peter to ask her
out.
82
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Peter: Oh, that reminds me. After the waitress has gone,
I'm not going to be able to play poker with Peter, Samir, and Michael start
you guys on Friday. to talk another topic. Apparently,
Michael: Why not? Peter cannot pay a visit to their
Peter: Uh, I have to see this occupational daily routine agenda. Therefore,
11/UCV/Hi hypnotherapist with Anne. v v he asks permission to not take a
part in the poker game. He has to
attend an 'occupational
hypnotherapy' session.
83
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Lawrence: Hey Peter-Man. Check out The setting is in Peter`s
channel nine! Check out this chick! apartment building. Peter walks
Peter: Damn it! in and feels exhausted. Then, he
lies on his couch. Through the
wall, he hears his neighbour
named Lawrence yells at him
13/DR/Im v v loudly, asks him to turn on the
television, and checks channel
nine out.
Peter: Lawrence, can you just pretend like Peter feels uncomfortable with
we can't hear each other through Lawrence`s voice and asks him
the wall? to keep quiet. Feeling guilty,
Lawrence: Oh! sorry man, is Anne over there Lawrence apologizes to Peter
or something? and wants to make up with him.
14/HB/Ab Peter: No, if you want to talk to me, just v v
come over.
84
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Lawrence: We still going fishing this Lawrence walks out of his room
weekend? and goes into Peter`s which is
Peter: Nah. Lumbergh's gonna make me next door. He walks in and sits
come in this Saturday. I know it. down on the couch, makes
Lawrence: Well, you can get out of that himself comfortable. Without
15/UCV/Hi easily. v v mentioning Lawrence`s
Peter: Yeah. intention, it has already been
clear that his utterance is made
as a request to him to invite
Peter to go fishing together.
Bill: Good. Well, uh, I'd like to, uh, welcome The setting is in the company.
a new member to our team. Uh, Down the hall, next to the
Bob Slydell. Yeah. Uh, he is, uh, a cubicles, Bill Lumbergh is
consultant. Yeah. He is a consultant. (Tom walking along with Bob Slydell,
shakes his head) He'll be helping us out a the new consultant. Meanwhile,
little here, asking some questions, making everyone is standing outside
16/UCV/Hi sure things go a little more smoothly. Yeah. v v their cubicles. They are curious
Oh and remember, next Friday is about the new guy. After
Hawaiian shirt day! So, y'know, introducing Bob Slydell, Bill
remember what you should gonna wear. asks implicitly to his workers to
You know, if you want to go ahead and wear Hawaiian shirts and jeans
wear a Hawaian shirt and jeans. for next Friday.
85
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Peter: Oh, come on! (He tries to save a data Peter looks around from his
but apparently but starts to save another file) desk. Suddenly, he sees Bill is
Bill: Hello Peter. What's happening? Um, I talking with some workers. He
need you go ahead and come in tomorrow quickly saves his files and
so if you could be here around here that immediately finishes his job but
would be great. Okay? Oh, oh, yeah…I the computer is slower than he
forgot. I'm gonna also need you to come in expects. He peeks over the wall
Sunday too. again. The computer has finally
finished saving the data. Then,
Peter turns it off. Unfortunally,
Bill runs into Peter. Bill makes
17/HB/Ab v v two request at the same time by
using strategy of needs and
demands. It proves that he really
needs Peter to work with him. It
can be assumed that Peter is a
reliable employee.
86
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Peter: Is there any way that you could sort out The setting takes place in the Dr.
just zonk me out so that, like , I don`t know Swanson`s clinic. Everyone is
that I`m at work ... in here? Could I come gathered for an 'occupational
home and think that I`ve been fishing all day hypnotherapy' session including
or something? Peter and his girlfriend, Anne.
Dr. Swanson: That`s really not what I do Dr. Swanson is a therapist. He
Peter. However, the good news is I think I tries to help his patient by giving
can help you. I want you to do something them a treatment. Therefore, he
for me, Peter. I want you to try and relax. asks Peter to be relaxed and
I want you to relax every muscle in your calm.
body, from your toes to your fingertips.
18/SB/Ne Now I want you to relax your legs. You're v v
going to begin to feel your eyelids getting
heavy as you slip deeper and deeper into a
state of complete relaxation. the air of
concerns to you is disappearing. Deeper,
way down, your concerns about your job
melts away. Way, way down.
87
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Bill: (Phone rings)Yah, hi. It's Bill The setting is in Peter`s
Lunmbergh. It's about ten o' clock, uh, bedroom. The clock points at
wondering where you are. eight o`clock. His alarm clock
beeps and finally Peter sits up.
He looks at the clock and
decides to go back to sleep.
19/UCV/Hi v v
Knowing the fact that Peter is
still in his house, Bill asks Peter
to come to the office
immediately.
Bill: (Phone rings) Yeah. Hi. It`s Bill Bill tries to call Peter since he
Lumberg again. Uhh. I just wanted to make does not get any reply from him.
sure you know that we did start at the, uh, Eventually, he decides to leave a
usual time this morning. Yeah anything it phone message which asks Peter
isn`t half day or anything like that so if to come to the office. He states
20/HB/Ab you could just go ahead and get here as v v his request by using questioning
soon as possible that would be terrific. hearer`s ability in order not to
make Peter feels offended.
88
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Peter: I was asking what you were doing for Peter is interested in Joanna for
lunch. Would you like to have lunch with a long time. Since he gets some
me? courage, he asks Joanna to have
Joanna: Oh, are you serious? a lunch with him in nearby
Peter: Yeah. restaurant. Finally, he is
Joanna: Yeah, I don't , I don't think I'm successful to invite Joanna to
21/HB/Ab v v
supposed to do that. have a lunch with him. He thinks
that it is a stepping stone for him
to get closer with Joanna.
89
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Peter: I want to take you out for dinner Joanna sits at the table and holds
and then I wanna go to my apartment a drink in her hand. She keeps
and watch Kung Fu. Did you ever watch staring at Peter. She feels
Kung Fu? comfortable while talking with
Joanna: I love Kung Fu. him as if they have known each
other for a long time. Later,
23/SB/Ne v v
Peter ask Joanna to have a
dinner and watch Kung Fu with
him in his apartment.
Peter: You should come over and watch Glad to know that Joanna likes
Kung Fu tonight. the same television program,
Joanna: OK. Peter iniatiates to ask Joanna to
Peter: Great. watch the program together.
Joanna agrees and promises to
24/DR/Ob v v come over Peter`s apartment.
90
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Bob: Aha! All right. We were just talking Finally, Peter shows up at work.
about you. You must be Peter Gibbons. Uh He walks casually as if nothing
huh. Terrific. I'm Bob Slydell and this is my happened. Then, he heads into
associate, Bob Porter. the conference room. Inside the
Peter: Hi, Bob. Bob. room, Bob Slydell and Bob
25/DR/Im Bob: Grab a seat and join us for a minute. v v Porter are waiting and getting
Peter: All right, Bob. ready to interview Peter. Bob
Slydell asks Peter to sit down
and be ready for the interview.
Bob: Y'see, what we're trying to do here, Somehow, the interview has
we're just trying to get a feel for how people turned into some kind of therapy
spend their day. So, if you would, would you session. Bob wants to dig deeper
just walk us through a typical day for about Peter`s work life. He is
you? interested in Peter`s personality
Peter: Yeah. because of his positive
26/HB/Ab Bob: Great. v v impression. Then, Bob asks
Peter to tell more about his work
life.
91
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Stan: Joanna? Would you come here for a When Joanna is setting up the
moment, please? menu, his boss named Stan calls
Joanna: I'm sorry. I was late. I was having her out. Stan asks Joanna to have
lunch. a little discussion with him.
Apparently, he wants to talk
27/HB/Ab v v about Joanna`s outfit.
92
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Stan: Now, you know, it`s up to you whether Stan emphasizes the use of flair
or not you want to just do the bare minimum for the employee. He considers
or.. Well like Brian for example, has thirty that flair is the symbol of the
seven pieces of flair on today. And a terrific restaurant. He feels appreciated
smile. if his workers wear more flair.
Joanna: OK. So you want me to wear more? Therefore, he encourages and
Stan: Look, Joanna.. asks Joanna to wear more flair
Joanna: Yeah? and express herself.
Stan: People can get cheeseburger anywhere,
OK? They come to Chotchkie`s for the
atmosphere and the attitude. OK? That`s
what the flair about. It`s about fun.
Joanna : Yeah. OK. So more than, yeah?
29/SB/Ne v v
Stan: Look, we want you to express
yourself, OK? If you think the bare
minimum is enough, then ok. But some
people choose to wear more and we
encourage that, ok? You do want to
express yourself, don't you?
Joanna: Yeah.
Stan: OK, great, great. That`s all I ask.
93
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Bill: Now are you going to go ahead and As Bill walks in, Peter is sitting
have those TPS reports for us this at his desk playing "Tetris". Bill
afternoon? asks for Peter`s willingness to
Peter: No. collect the TPS report which will
be collected in the afternoon.
Unfortunately, Peter rejects his
30/UCV/Hi v v
request because Peter is very
busy.
94
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Milton: I got a lot of my stuff here, you After Bill leaves Peter`s cubicle,
cannot do that. he walks to Milton`s. He sees
Bill: Uh, I almost lost my patience. Look, Milton is checking the financial
you gotta pack you stuff move your desk reports. Since he dislikes Milton,
downstairs into Storage B. He asks Milton to move his desk
Milton: No..I…I.. to an inappropriate place.
32/DR/Ob Bill: Milton, I insist. v v
Milton: OK. If that`s what you want.
Bill: So if you could go ahead and pack In order to persuade the hearer to
your stuff and move it down there that carry out the desired action, Bill
would be terrific. asks Milton to move away from
Milton: I can't...Excuse me. I believe you his current place by telling
have my stapler? Milton his wish. He employs
33/HB/Ab v v this strategy of wishes and
desires, so that Milton does not
feel compelled.
95
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Bob: Anyway, Peter, what we would like to For the second time, Peter is
do is put you into a position where you having an interview with the
would have as many as four people new consultant, Bob. He is
working right underneath you. asked many different questions
Peter: So you're gonna fire Samir and by Bob. He impresses Bob with
Michael and give me more money? Wow! providing good anwers. Then, he
34/SB/Wi v v is asked by Bob to get a
promotion as a manager.
Michael: Come on, you little fucker, let`s go. Peter meets Michael, his close
That`s what I need. Let`s do that. Let`s do friend, in Michael`s cubicle
exactly that, you little fuck. when he is leaving the meeting
Peter: Michael. room. He asks Michael whether
Michael: Hey. he can go out together with him
35/HB/Ab Peter: Listen to me... Well, what are you v v or not. Peter actually wants to
doing tonight? talk to Michael that Michael will
be fired by the company.
96
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Bill: Milton? Since Milton has been moved to
Milton: Yes. his new room, storage room, he
Bill: What`s happening? Say Milton, you feels so sad. He missed his old
know what`d be great? room. When he is typing the
Milton: But, no. TPS report, Bill walks by
Bill: Since you're already down here, it holding his cake. He does not
36/HB/Ab would be great if you take care of the v v walk in because he does not
cockroach problem we've had here. want to make himself dirty.
Milton: I...I...that's really not my job and I From the distance, Bill asks
haven`t received my paycheque. Milton to drive the cockroach
out of the room to make the
room looks clean.
Dom: Bill? We need you upstairs right When Bill is picking on Milton,
now. We got a big problem. Big. Some major suddenly Dom comes up and
glitch in accounting, a lot of money missing. brings a bad news. Dom asks
Bill to go to his room to fix the
problem.
37/SB/Ne v v
97
Strategies of Making
Type of Request
Request
Code Data Indirect Request Explanation
H A S W N O P I
UCV Conventionally DR
i b f i e b f m
HB SB
Milton: ...to Mr. Lumbergh and he told me to In the office, Milton and Bill`s
talk to Payroll and then Payroll, they told me secretary have a serious
to talk to Mr. Lumbergh. And I still haven't discussion about the payroll.
gotten my paycheck and they stole my stapler Then, he wants to meet his
and they told me to move my desk to Storage superior, Bill Lumberg, about
Room B and there was garbage all over it and his salary which seems to be
38/DR/Im I don't appreciate that. v v delayed. Unfortunately, Bill has
Secretary: Mr. Lumbergh should be here not come yet. The secretary asks
any minute. Milton to go back to his cubicle
Milton: Mr. Lumbergh.. and to wait for Bill.
Secretary: Just go and sit at your desk.
Milton: OK.
TOTAL (38) 7 14 7 6 7 15 3 1 6 3 0 3
98