Speech Act Taking Place in the Medical Conversation

Abstract

This study aims at analyzing the maxims in the five categories of speech act on medical conversation of textbook entitled “English for midwives: Practical Guidance For Antenatal care”. The objectives are: (1) To find out the categories of speech act on the medical conversation, (2) To analyze the intended meaning of the speaker, (3) To analyze the cooperative principle that must be concerned on the conversation. There are some theories applied in this study, namely the theory of Speech Act, theory of context of situation, the maxim theory. The result shows that there are three categories of speech act (illocutionary act) found in the conversation, namely: assertive, directives, and expressives. The data (1) shows that the assertive conveys asking information; The data (2) shows directive conveys request; The data (3) shows directive conveys suggestion, there is maxim violation in term of manner found in this data; The data (4) shows directive conveys request; The data (5) shows directive conveys explanation; The data (6) shows directive conveys suggestion, there are maxims violation found in terms of quantity, quality and manner; The data (7) shows expressive conveys asking physiological condition, there are maxims violation in terms of quantity and quality; The data (8) shows expressive conveys asking physiological condition, there are maxims violation in terms of quantity, quality and manner found; The data (9) and (10) show expressives convey asking physiological condition.