AN ANALYSIS OF WOODY'S ILLOCUTIONARY SPEECH ACTS IN TOY STORY 4: REPRESENTING IDENTITY

This research examines how a character's identity is constructed through language in an animated movie, focusing on Woody in Toy Story 4. The aim of this research examines Woody's pragmatic role shift from the primary leader of the toys to a mentor and protector for a new character, Forky.
This research employed a descriptive qualitative method with a documentation technique for data collection, which involved downloading the movie Toy Story 4, watching it to identify Woody’s scenes, and transcribing his utterances from the subtitles into a written dataset. For data analysis, the researcher identified each utterance based on Searle’s (1979) framework, categorized and tabulated them into the five types of illocutionary speech acts to find the dominant type, and descriptively interpreted how these acts reflect Woody’s identity in the movie.
The data consists of Woody’s utterances, which are classified into four types of illocutionary acts. Out of 280 identified acts, Assertives dominate with 117 data (42%) and Directives with 112 data (40%). Additionally, Expressives account for 40 data (14%) and Commissives for 11 data (4%). The thin 2% margin between the two dominant acts reflects Woody's dual identity construction. Assertives represent his identity as an Experienced Mentor guiding Forky's existential worth, while directives project his role as a Devoted Guardian exercising protective control. Meanwhile, expressives highlight him as a Dedicated Toy focused on his owner's well-being, and commissives solidify his position as a Determined Toy bound to future commitments.