Pragmatic Functions of Questions Found in the TV Series The Office

https://doi.org/10.22146/lexicon.v7i2.66562

Tiffani Rizki Putri Baihaqi(1), Tofan Dwi Hardjanto(2*)

(1) English Department, Universitas Gadjah Mada
(2) English Department, Universitas Gadjah Mada
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


Questions are always present in people’s lives as they are used in daily conversation, not only as a tool to initiate a conversation but also to keep that conversation alive and at the same time to gain information from the interlocutor. This research aims to investigate the syntactic forms of questions and their pragmatic functions found in a TV series entitled The Office Season 1 as the data source. The data used in the research were interrogative utterances, their answers, and the context of the conversation. The results show that 409 questions were found, consisting of 214 (52%) yes/no questions and 195 (48%) WH questions. What outnumbers the other question words with a total of 117 (60%) questions. These questions were used to serve 27 pragmatics functions, seeking the most frequent function, amounting to 140 questions or 34% of the whole data. The dominant use of the questions word what and the function seeking information might be due to the setting of the place where the conversation is held, that is, The Office.

Keywords


interrogative utterance; pragmatic functions; questions; the Office

Full Text:

PDF


References

Agreement. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/agreement?q=Agreement+.

Amiridze, N., Davis, B., & Maclagan, M. (2010). Fillers, Pauses and Placeholders. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamin B.V.

Anger. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/anger.

Approval. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/approval.

Assert. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/assert.

Austin, J. L. (1962). How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Pearson Education.

Blame. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/blame.

Clarification. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/clarification.

Complain. (n.d.). In Wiktionary. Retrieved from https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/complain.

Confirm. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/confirm.

Confirm. (n.d.). In Wiktionary. Retrieved from https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/confirm.

Confirmation. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/confirmation?q=Confirmation.

Cutting, J. (2002). Pragmatics and Discourse. New York, NY: Routledge.
Demean. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/demean.

Deny. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/deny.

Downing, A. (2015). English Grammar: A University Course. New York, NY: Routledge.

Disappoint. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/disappoint.

Disapproval. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/disapproval?q=Disapproval+.

Disbelief. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/disbelief.

Exasperation. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/exasperation?q=Exasperation.

Fareh, S., & Moussa, M. (2008). Pragmatic Functions of Interrogative Sentences in English: A Corpus-based Study. International Journal Of Arabic-English Studies (IJAES), 9, 145-161. Retrieved from http://www.ijaes.net/article/viewarticle?volume=9&issue=1&articleId=8.
Greeting. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/greeting.

Greenbaum, S., & Nelson, G. (2002). An Introduction to English Grammar. UK: Pearson Education.

Huddleston, R. (1984). Introduction to the grammar of English. Cambridge: CUP.

Huddleston, R., & Pullum, G. (2005). A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar. UK: Cambridge University Press.

Hurford, J., Heasley, B. & Smith, M. (2007). Semantics: a Coursebook (2nd ed.). Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Hyland, K. (2002). What do they mean? Questions in academic writing. Text - Interdisciplinary Journal For The Study Of Discourse, 22(4). DOI: 10.1515/text.2002.021.

Invite. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/invite.

Irritation. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/irritation?q=Irritation+.
Joke. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/joke.

Mertz, J. (2012, September 24). The Importance of Questions in Conversations. Retrieved from https://www.thindifference.com/2012/09/the-importance-of-questions-in-conversations/.

Min, H., & Park, J. (2007). Analysis of Indirect Uses of Interrogative Sentences Carrying Anger. Researchgate, 311-319. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/33017686_Analysis_of_Indirect_Uses_of_Interrogative_Sentences_Carrying_Anger.

Nordquist, R. (2019, November 4). The Yes-No Question in English Grammar. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/yes-no-question-grammar-1692617.
Negate. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/negate.

Offer. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/offer.

Order. (n.d.). In Wiktionary. Retrieved from https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/order. Permission. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/permission.

Permission. (n.d.). In Wiktionary. Retrieved from https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/permission.

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. & Svartvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.

Remind. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/remind.

Reprimand. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/reprimand.

Searle, J. R. (1976). Speech Act. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Suggest. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/suggest.

Surprise. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/surprise.

Suspicion. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/suspicion.

The Office. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290978/.

The Office. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nbc.com/the-office.

The Office (US) Season 1 Episode Scripts. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/episode_scripts.php?tv-show=the-office-us&season=1.

Threat. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/threat.

Umami, M. (2015). A Contrastive Analysis of Interrogative Sentences in English and Indonesian. Register Journal, 5, 147-161. doi: 10.18326/rgt.v8i2.380.

Urban Dictionary: Does the carpet match the drapes?. (2004). Retrieved from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Does%20the%20carpet%20match%20the%20drapes%3F.

Verbal. (n.d.). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/verbal.

Webber, P. (1994). The function of questions in different medical journal genres. English For Specific Purposes, 13(3), 257-268. doi: 10.1016/0889-4906(94)90005-1

What’s up. (2005). In Urban Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=what%27s%20up.



DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/lexicon.v7i2.66562

Article Metrics

Abstract views : 3662 | views : 2226

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2020 Tiffani Rizki Putri Baihaqi, Tofan Dwi Hardjanto

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Lexicon Office

English Department
Faculty of Cultural Sciences,
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Soegondo Building, 3rd Floor, Room 306
Yogyakarta, Indonesia 55281
Telephone: +62 274 513096
Email: lexicon.fib@ugm.ac.id

ISSN: 2746-2668 (Online)

Web Analytics View Stats

Creative Commons License
LEXICON is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Lexicon is indexed in

 
About UsSubmissionIssuePoliciesReview
Editorial Team
Journal History
Contact
Author Guidelines
Article Submission
Account Registration
Current Issue
All Issues
Upcoming Issue
Privacy Statement
Open Access
Publication Ethics
Review Process
Peer Reviewers
Reviewer Guidelines