The use of illocutionary act to portray Samantha’s characteristics in The Undomestic Goddess Novel

This study aims to analyse the illocutionary acts in the novel 'The Undomestic Goddess' which shows that illocutionary acts can function in revealing personal identity. There are two problems discussed in this study, namely (1) What is the function of illocutionary acts in revealing the identity of Samantha's character: (2) How Samantha as the main character in the novel The Undomestic Goddess constructs her identity in social interaction through the use of language. This research applies qualitative method to provide clear data and systematic description of the analysed problem. Descriptive study in textual analysis is applied in this research to analyse the characters' conversations in the novel 'The Undomestic Goddess'. Data were collected by reading the text of 'The Undomestic Goddess'. After that, the data were classified by applying the highlighting technique. This step was applied to identify and categorise utterances based on different types of illocutionary acts. The analysis continued by identifying the function of illocutionary acts. Finally, the usefulness of illocutionary acts in revealing personal identity was identified. The result of the study shows that not all types of illocutionary act are found in the novel 'The Undomestic Goddess'. Illocutionary act types found in this study are assertive act, directive act, commissive act, and expressive act. From the four types of illocutionary act, there are several functions that indicate the existence of personal identity in the utterance. The dominant illocutionary act functions to provide information and emphasise the speaker's position so that the characteristics of Samantha as the main character in the novel 'The Undomestic Goddess' are found. As a modern woman who loves her career, Samantha tends to show a personal identity that is willing, busy, and broad-minded.