THE USE OF ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS IN PHARRELLWILLIAMS’ SPEECH AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY’S 185thCOMMENCEMT CEREMONY 2017

This study aims to describe the types of illocutionary acts in Pharrell Williams’ Speech at New York University’s 185th Commencement Ceremony 2017. Speech is a form of communication that persuades people to agree with or follow the speaker’s ideas. As speech is only delivered on special occasions, the speaker needs to carefully choose the language to deliver the messages clearly and unmistakably. This study is a qualitative study in which the data were taken from Pharrell Williams’ speech. They were collected by watching the video and reading the script. They were treated by identifying, categorizing, classifying the data, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting them in the research report. Illocutionary Acts theory by Yule (1996) was employed to deal with the data. There were 49 utterances containing Illocutionary Acts. The representative act was used in 27 utterances or 54%, among others. The speaker motivated the graduates by telling the other honourees accomplishment and asserted a strong call to action that the upcoming generation needs to serve humanity start by empowering women. The directive act was used 11 utterances or 23%, where the speaker uses the verb “urge” to encourage the graduates to do something meaningful. Expressive was used in11 utterances or 23%; the speaker mostly uses the Expressive act “sorrow” to show his sadness toward the situation happen until now on. Expressive act “thanks” to show his gratitude towards all NYU people.