Speech Act
Language is important part in our life. It is main device to convey message,
communicate ideas opinions and thought. In our life there are moments we need to
understand language quite correctly. To express their feeling or communicate their
idea, they do not only produce utterance containing grammatical structures and
words, they are also performs action via those utterances. Action performed via
utterances are generally called speech act (Yule, 1996:47). Moreover, Yule defines
speech act in English, are commonly given more specific labels, such as apology,
complaint, compliment, invitation, promise, or request. From that explanation, it can
be understood that language is not only used to inform or to describe things, it is
often used to “do things” or to perform acts. For example:
a. “It is rain outside”. This utterance is example of language that used to inform
something. It is saying by speaker to someone to inform that in the outside was
rain. This statement also has implicit meaning. It can be the speaker wants the
hearer use umbrella if the hearer wants to go outside, or the speaker want the
hearer not to go outside.
b. “Give me a cup of coffee, please!”. This is example of language that used to „do
things‟. This utterance has meaning the speaker want the hearer to make a coffee
for him or her.
c. “You‟re fired!”. This is example of language that used to perform act. That
utterance can be used to perform the act of ending someone employment, if
someone work in a situation where a boss has a great deal of power, then the
boss‟s utterance of expression is more than just a statement.      
Speech act is originally present by philosopher Austin (1975) on his book
How to Do Things with Words and developed by Searle. Austin defined speech act
as what actions we perform when we produce utterance. There are some definitions
about speech act. Searle says that the unit of linguistics communication is not, as has
generally been supposed, the symbol, word or sentence, or even the token of the
symbol, word or sentence, but rather the production or issuance of the symbol, word
or sentence in the performance of the speech acts (Mey, 2001:93). According to
Parker (1986:14) speech act as every utterance of speech constitutes some sort of
act. Speech act is a part of social interactive behavior and must be interpreted as an
aspect of social interaction (Mey, 2009:927).
In the speech act, one utterance can be interpreted as two different kinds of
speech act. It means that there is more to the interpretation of a speech act than can
be found in the one utterance. For example someone said “this tea is really cold!”.
This utterance can be has two meaning. On a winter day, the speaker reaches for a
cup of tea, believing that it has been freshly made, takes a sip, and produce that
utterance. It is likely to be interpreted as a complaint. Changing the circumstances to
a really hot summer day with speaker being given a glass of iced tea by the hearer,
taking a sip, and producing that utterance, it is likely to be interpreted as praise
(Yule, 1996:48). 
 Based on definition above, each researcher has almost same definition about
speech act. Whatever the definition of speech act, briefly speech act is the
production of utterance in the aim of making things happen. All utterance that said
by speaker, sometimes not only just utterance, but it must has a meaning.