AN ANALYSIS OF COMPLAINING RESPONSES USED BY THE CHARACTERS IN THE FILM ENTITLED SEX AND THE CITY (A Socio- Pragmatics Approach)

The research focused on the acts of complaining. It was conducted to find out the kinds of complaining strategies used by the characters in the film “Sex and the City”, the responses employed towards the complaint, and the reasons why the hearer uses such responses. This research applied Socio- Pragmatics approach which employed descriptive qualitative method. In taking the data, the researcher used total sampling technique. The researcher took the dialogues containing the act of complaining as data. The researcher found three results in this research. The first result is that there are five kinds of complaint strategies found in the film entitled Sex and the City. They are Hint strategy, Annoyance strategy, Direct Accusation strategy, Explicit Condemnation of the Accused’s Action, and Explicit Condemnation of the Accused as a Person. According to the directness level of the complaint proposed by Anna Trosborg, Hint strategy is the mildest strategy and the Explicit Condemnation of the Accused as a Person strategy is the most severe one. The second result shows that there are five types of responses employed by the hearers towards the complaint proposed by Richard and Schmidt. They are apology, denial, excuse, justification, and challenge. The third result shows that there are five reasons why the hearers employed such kinds of responses. The first is because the hearer knows that he is guilty and feels regretful. It is found in the apology response. Second, because the hearer is sure that he is not guilty or not realizing his mistake. It is found in the denial response. Third, because the hearer does not want to confess directly what he has done and wants to defend himself. It is found in the excuse response. Fourth, because the hearer does not want to avoid the complaint and he intends to admit explicitly his mistake. It is found in the justification response. Fifth, because the hearer is certainly sure that he is not guilty and confident to dispute it. It is found in the challenge response. Based on the conclusion above, the researcher hopes that this research can give contribution to the students to study more about speech acts of complaining. It is suggested to other researchers who are interested in Linguistics study to conduct further research on speech acts of complaining depicted from other source such as daily conversation