SPEECH ACTS OF THE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL AIRLINES

SPEECH ACTS OF THE NATIONAL
AND REGIONAL AIRLINES SLOGANS
Eva Tuckyta Sari Sujatna
Universitas Padjadjaran and Widyatama University
Bandung-Indonesia
ABSTRACT
This research is a preliminary study on the speech acts of the slogans of national airlines
(represented by Indonesian airlines) and the regional airlines (represented by ASEAN countries
airlines). This research describes the classification of the speech act used in their slogans. The
theory applied in this research is Searle's taxonomy which classifies into firstly, assertive
(stating, suggesting, boasting, complaining, claiming, and reporting), secondly, directive
(ordering, commanding, requesting, advising, and recommending), thirdly, commissive
(promising, vowing, and offering),fourthly, expressive (thanking, congratulating, 'pardoning,
blaming, praising, and condoling), and lastly, declaration (resigning, dismissing, christening,
naming, excommunicating, appointing, and sentencing). The aims of this research are 1) to
identify and describe the speech act of the national and regional airlines slogans, and 2) to find
out the speech act commonly used in the national and regional airlines slogans. The result of the
research shows that 1) the speech act of national airlines slogans are commissive 50%, assertive
35.7%, and directive 14.3% while the speech act of regional airlines slogansare assertive 70%,
directive 17.5%, and commissive 12.5%, and 2) the speech act commonly used in the national
airlines slogans is commissive while in the regional airlines slogans is assertive.
KEYWORDS
speech acts, national airlines slogan, regional airlines slogan
INTRODUCTION
This article is a preliminary study on the types of the speech acts of the national and regional
airlines through their slogans. The national airlines that are referred to are the Indonesian airlines
while the regional airlines are those from ASEAN countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines,
Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Timor Leste, and Laos is excluded because data could
not be obtained.
The method used in this research is descriptive analysis. It describes the types of the speech of
the Indonesian airlines, as the national airline, and Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand,
Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Timor Leste, as the regional airlines (except Laos). The first
step was to research about the airlines and their slogans. The second step was to classify the
airlines slogans into the types of speech acts: assertive, directive, commissive, expressive, or
declaration based on the Searle taxonomy. The last was to compare and conclude the type of
speech act commonly used by the national and regional airlines.
As a preliminary study, this research could trigger to do further researches to learn the culture or
the way of thinking through their slogans, which will impact to the customers consideration in
choosing the airlines aside from the price and services.
RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS
Speech act, according to Yule (2000:47), is actions performed via utterances. It can be classified
into locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act while Austin in Robinson (2006:
85) classifies speech act as Expositives, Comrnissives, Behabitives, Exercitives, and Verdictives.
Searle in Leech (1991) also classifies speech act into five different types. They are Assertive,
Cornmissive, Directive, Expressive, and Declarations. Searle's classification is used in this
research.
After doing the research, it is found the type of speech acts in the national and regional airlines ,
slogans. Data for the study taken from 14 slogans from Indonesia airlines as the national airlines
(Table I), and 40 slogans fiom eight ASEAN countries airlines as regional airlines (Table 2), are
as follows:
Table 1
Indonesia Airlines as National
I NO I Countrv
Total
11 I Indonesia
14
Table 2
ASEAN Countries' Airlines as Regional
Total
I No I Countw
11 I Singapore
4
2
Malaysia
6
Philippines
3
6
4
10
Thailand
5
5
Burma
East Timorl Timor Leste
1
6
7
Cambodia
4
1 Vietnam
8
4
Total
40
From the table 1, it shows that the national airlines mentioned in this research are those fiom
Indonesia which has 14 airlines slogans while table 2 shows eight from the ten, including
Indonesia, ASEAN countries as the regional has 40 airlines slogans. The countries are Singapore,
Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, and East Timorl Timor Leste.
Table 3, shows the types of the speech of Indonesian airlines slogans, from 14 Indonesian
airlines.
Table 3
Speech Actsof Indonesian Airlines Slogans
No
1
2
3
4
6
7
8
lo
l1
12
l3
l4
'
Airlines
Slogan
Speech Act
Gamda Indonesia
Love Is In The Air
Assertive
Kartika Airlines
Kartika Smile - A Classic Way to Fly
Assertive
Pelita air
A Great Way to Fly
Assertive
Riau Airlines
The Spirit of Riau
Assertive
Wing abadi Airlines1Wings Air
Fly Is Cheap
Assertive
Airfast Indonesia
We'll fly you safely
Commissive
Batavia Air
Humility for Professionalism
Commissive
Lion air
We make people fly
Commissive
Deraya Air
I Believe I can Fly
Cornqlissive
Sriwijaya Air
Your Flying Partner
Commissive
susi ~ i r
Your Complete Air transport Solution For All of Indonesia
Commissive
Trigana Air Service
We Serve You Here ... There ... And Everywhere
Commissive
Merpati Nusantara
Get The Feeling
Directive
Citilink
Enjoy simplicity
Directive
The data above describe that the speech act found in the Indonesian airlines are assertive,
cornmissive, and directive. The data show that cornmissive is' the highest in rank at 50%,
secondly assertive second at 35.7%, and directive third at 14.3%. See Figure 1.
I
Fig. 1
1
Speech Acts of
Indonesia Airlines
...
1
Commisive
Assertive
35.70%
Directive
Table 4, is the types of speech acts of ASEAN countries airlines slogans. The data were obtained
from their official websites. Four slogans from Singapore airlines were found, six slogans from
Malaysia airlines, six slogans from Philippines airlines, ten slogans from Thailand airlines, five
slogans from Burma airlines, one slogan from East Timorl Timor Leste, four slogans from
Cambodia airlines, and four slogans from Vietnam airlines. The slogans from the eight ASEAN
counties is 14 slogans.
No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
5
1
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
--
4
1
Table 4
S ~ e e c hActsof ASEAN Countries Airlines Slogans
I Slogan
1
Airlines
V
Thai Airways
Bangkok Airways
Happy Air
Nok Air
Solar Air
Sunny Airwyas
Chrystal Thai Airlines
Kan air
Nok Mini Airlined SGA Airlines
Orient Thai Airlines
Air Bagan
Air KBZ
Air Mandalay
Yangon Airways
Asian Wings Airways
I Air Timor
I
Cambodia Angkor Air
President Airlines
TonleSap Airlines
I Angkor Airways
I Jetstar Pacific Airlines
Vietnam Airlin
Air Mekong
VietJet Air
Thailand
Smooth as Silk
Asia's Boutique Airline
Smooth Travelling
We Fly Smiles
Thai Fly Fly Thai
Sunny Airways, Always Smile
Wing of Asia
Flying with Nature
Air-Link to charming Places
Do it by heart
Burma
- -..
.
.
.
.
Treasure of Myanmar
Flying beyond Expectations
Safety, Reliability and Comfort
You're safe with us
Fly beyond your dreams
East Timorl Timor Leste
Experience Adventure with a difference
Cambodia
Proudly the nationalJag carrier
The Spirit ofCambodia
For Safety, Comfort, Premium Air Travel to Cambodia
I Bring the World to Angkor Wat
I
Vietnam
It S All About Choice
Bringing Vietnamese Culture to the World
Discover the country with the siarus crane
Save More, Fly More
I Speech Act
I
Assertive
Assertive
Assertive
Assertive
Assertive
Assertive
Assertive
Assertive
Assertive
Directive
I
Assertive
Assertive
Commissive
Commissive
Directive
I Commissive
Assertive
Assertive
Commissive
I
Directive
1
Assertive
From the 40 slogans of the eight ASEAN countries assertive is the highest speech act at 70%.
The second speech act used by the ASEAN countries airlines is directive, at 17.5% while the
commissive, is third at 12.5%. Based on the findings, the airline companies in the ASEAN
countries seem confident that the customers would choose them although they do not promise
something to the customers.
Speech Act of ASEAN
Countries Airlines
...
17.50%
12.50%
4
70.00%
Commissive
Assertive
Directive
CONCLUSION
The results of the research reveal that:
1. the speech acts of national airlines' slogans are commissive 50%, assertive 35.7%,
and directive 14.3% while the speech acts of regional airlines slogans are assertive
a
70%, directive 17.5%, and comrnissive 12.5%; and
2. the speech act commonly used in the national airlines slogans is cornmissive while in
the regional airlines' slogans is assertive.
REFERENCES
Leech, Geofiey (1991). Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman
Robinson, Douglas (2006). IntroducingPerformative Pragmatics.New York: Routledge
Yule, George (2000). Pragmatics.Oxford: Oxford University Press