Speech Acts in the Lyrics of 'About You' by The 1975: A Semantic Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55123/didik.v2i2.584Keywords:
Speech Acts, Song Lyrics, The 1975, Illocutionary Acts, Semantics-Pragmatics, InterfaceAbstract
This study examines the types and illocutionary forces of speech acts in the song "About You" by The 1975 using John Searle's taxonomy (assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, declarations). A qualitative descriptive method was applied to the lyrical text. The analysis reveals that the 18 lines contain 20 illocutionary occurrences. Expressives dominate with 45%, conveying longing, regret, and nostalgia. Assertives account for 35%, providing narrative context about past relationships and the speaker's emotional state. Directives and commissives each constitute 10%; directives appear exclusively as rhetorical questions expressing anxiety rather than seeking information, while commissives include conditional promises and metaphorical commitments. Declaratives are absent, as expected in lyrical discourse. Hybrid speech acts where one line performs multiple illocutionary functions are identified as a distinctive feature. Linguistic devices such as repetition, parallelism, rhetorical questions, metaphor, and ellipsis enhance illocutionary force, transforming the lyrics into a performance of remembrance. The findings are compared with previous research on emotionally charged lyrics, showing consistency with expressive-dominant songs. This study contributes to literary pragmatics, the semantics-pragmatics interface, and the discourse analysis of music, offering a replicable framework for analyzing speech acts in song lyrics.
Downloads
References
[1] J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words, 2nd ed. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1975.
[2] J. R. Searle, Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1969.
[3] J. R. Searle, "A classification of illocutionary acts," Language in Society, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1–23, 1976.
[4] R. Rahmawati and N. Halim, "The analysis of illocutionary speech act in the album song lyrics Being Funny in a Foreign Language," Kajian Linguistik dan Sastra, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 35–43, 2026.
[5] P. Makinde, C. N. Chikezie, and L. Onebunne, "A critical pragmatic analysis of some selected songs of Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba (MohBad)," Studies in Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 29–39, 2024.
[6] M. S. Mukminin, "Illocutionary speech acts in song lyrics: A pragmatics study on 'Kupu-Kupu' by Tiara Andini," FRASA: Jurnal Keilmuan Bahasa, Sastra, dan Pengajarannya, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 52–62, 2024.
[7] J. Park and T. Tawami, "I always wanna die (sometimes): A pragmatic approach to emotion and meaning in song lyrics," Mahadaya: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, dan Budaya, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 112–123, 2025.
[8] S. R. Urip, T. Yuniawan, E. Raharjo, A. Pudjitriherwanti, and Y. Mutiarsih, "From lyrics to meaning: Student reflections on pragmatic meaning in French song lyrics," Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 275–288, 2025.
[9] A. S. Zahro and A. Kholil, "Illocutionary speech acts in the lyrics of 'Mathasibnish' based on Searle's theory," ELS Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1–9, 2026.
[10] V. R. Setyawati, T. Tusino, and P. Dewi, "Pragmatics study: Commissive speech act analysis in song lyrics 'Perfect' by Ed Sheeran," Scripta: English Department Journal, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 81–87, 2024.
[11] A. T. A. Wijaya, A. Sabardila, and A. B. Wahyudi, "Perlocutionary speech acts in Seringai album song lyrics and their relevance to critical character education," in Proceedings of the International Conference on Learning and Advanced Education (ICOLAE 2021), 2022, pp. 609–617. doi: 10.2991/assehr.k.220503.065
[12] M. S. Mukminin, "Pragmatic equivalence of illocutionary speech acts translation in the song lyrics 'Nemen': Javanese-Arabic translation," Translation and Linguistics (Transling), vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2025.
[13] A. F. O. Malau, A. Y. M. Purba, Y. M. Manullang, E. C. B. Tambunan, and R. O. Simarmata, "A pragmatic analysis of implicature and speech acts in Billie Eilish's 'Wildflower' lyrics," Argopuro: Jurnal Ilmu Bahasa, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 71–80, 2025.
[14] W. R. Handayani, "Speech act analysis in 'Mayonaka no Doa': A pragmatic study of Japanese-English bilingual lyrics," Journal of Language and Literature, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 443–455, 2025.
[15] E. Gazali and T. Alwani, "An analysis of illocutionary acts in the lyrics of the songs 'Kun Rahma' and 'Muhammad (PBUH) Waheshna'," Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 45–55, 2025.
[16] T. Iangba, J. T. Tyonyion, and C. Okorafor, "Critiquing the society through song: A speech acts analysis of 'This is Nigeria' by Falz," International Journal of Arts, Language, Linguistics and Literary Studies, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 18–25, 2025.
[17] O. Bamigbade, "A pragmatic analysis of the song 'This is Nigeria' by Falz," Abuja Journal of Humanities, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1–9, 2025.
[18] J. W. Creswell and C. N. Poth, Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches, 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2018.
[19] K. Krippendorff, Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology, 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2018.
[20] S. B. Merriam and E. J. Tisdell, Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation, 4th ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2016.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Novemty Tampubolon, Bernike Anggita Ristia Damanik
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Hak cipta pada setiap artikel adalah milik penulis.
Penulis mengakui bahwa Jurnal Bersama Ilmu Pendidikan (DIDIK) sebagai publisher yang mempublikasikan pertama kali dengan lisensi Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Penulis dapat memasukan tulisan secara terpisah, mengatur distribusi non-ekskulif dari naskah yang telah terbit di jurnal ini kedalam versi yang lain, seperti: dikirim ke respository institusi penulis, publikasi kedalam buku, dan lain-lain. Dengan mengakui bahwa naskah telah terbit pertama kali pada Jurnal Bersama Ilmu Pendidikan (DIDIK).
