AN ANALYSIS OF ILLOCUTIONARY SPEECH ACT IN JOSHUA HONG SEVENTEEN’S SPEECH AT UNESCO YOUTH FORUM 2023

Alifia Putri, Hanum (2026) AN ANALYSIS OF ILLOCUTIONARY SPEECH ACT IN JOSHUA HONG SEVENTEEN’S SPEECH AT UNESCO YOUTH FORUM 2023. Undergraduate thesis, UIN KHAS JEMBER.

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Abstract

Hanum Alifia Putri 2026 : An Analysis of Illocutionary Speech Act in Joshua Hong Seventeen’s Speech at UNESCO Youth Forum 2023
Keywords : Illocutionary Speech Act, Public Speech, UNESCO Youth Forum
Language is a fundamental tool of communication that enables individuals to express ideas, influence others, and perform social actions. Within the field of pragmatics, speech act theory examines how utterances function not merely as expressions of meaning but as real world actions. Illocutionary acts, classified by Searle (1979) into assertive, directive, commissive, expressive, and declarative categories, are central to understanding the communicative intentions behind a speaker's words. Despite growing interest in speech act studies, study examining how non-political public figures from the entertainment industry employ language in formal international diplomatic contexts remains very limited. SEVENTEEN's participation in the 2023 UNESCO Youth Forum represented a unique communicative event in which a K-pop group delivered a formal speech before global leaders, making it a significant yet underexplored object of pragmatic inquiry.
This study addressed three research questions: (1) What types of illocutionary speech acts were used in Joshua Hong's speech at the 2023 UNESCO Youth Forum? (2) What was the most dominant type of illocutionary speech act used in the speech? (3) What were the communicative functions of each illocutionary speech act found in the speech?
This study employed a descriptive qualitative approach with content analysis as the study design. The data source was the official transcript and video recording of Joshua Hong's speech at the 2023 UNESCO Youth Forum, obtained from UNESCO's official YouTube channel. Data were collected through observation and documentation, then analyzed using Searle's (1979) five category taxonomy of illocutionary acts as the primary analytical framework, supported by Austin's (1962) speech act model and Mey's (2001) contextual pragmatic theory. The validity of the data was established through theoretical triangulation.
The findings revealed that all five types of illocutionary speech acts identified by Searle (1979) were present in the speech: assertive, directive, commissive, expressive, and declarative. These acts were further analyzed through Austin's (1962) speech act model and Mey's (2001) contextual pragmatic theory to deepen the interpretation of their communicative functions. Assertive acts were the most dominant type, reflecting the speaker's primary strategy of establishing credibility by reporting SEVENTEEN's verified contributions as UNESCO Ambassadors for Youth. Commissive acts appeared as the second most frequent category in the form of pledges and declarations of intent, while expressive acts functioned to build rapport and convey gratitude. Directive acts served to mobilize the global youth audience, and declarative acts formally established the speaker's institutional position. In conclusion, Joshua Hong's speech demonstrated a sophisticated and deliberate use of illocutionary language strategies, confirming that formal speeches by cultural figures in international forums are linguistically rich and multifunctional communicative events.

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