Language functions used by the caretakers of bipolar disorder character in the movie “No Letting Go”

This study investigated the language functions in the utterances of the caretakers of bipolar disorder character in the movie “No Letting Go” (2015). The objectives of this study are to find the types of language function used by the caretakers in communicate with bipolar disorder character and to describe the context of language function used by the caretakers found in the movie “No Letting Go”. This study applied descriptive qualitative approach in this study. The data of this research are the utterance from the caretakers found in transcript of “No Letting Go” movie. The data were collected by transcribing the ‘No Letting Go’ movie. The technique of analyzing data are descriptive qualitative. In analyzing the data, this study employed theory proposed by Holmes’ (2013) theory of language functions. The researcher also used Hymes’ (1972) ethnography of speaking to analyze the context of language function. The result of this study shows that there are seven language functions categorized by Holmes are found in caretaker’s utterance in doing communication with bipolar disorder character on the movie. They are expressive function, referential function, directive function, phatic function, metalinguistic function, commissive function, and poetic function. The most used language function by the caretakers is expressive function. Meanwhile, heuristic function did not found in this study.