Speech Act in Celebrity Instagram Captions of Health Campaign in The Time of Covid-19 Pandemic

This study deal with speech acts in celebrity Instagram captions of health
campaign in the time of Covid-19 pandemic. The objectives of this study was to
find out the types of speech acts in celebrity Instagram captions and how the
speech acts are realized from the celebrity Instagram captions. This study was
analyzed using Searle’s (2005) speech act theory and conducted by using
descriptive qualitative method. The data of this study were taken from the
celebrity Instagram captions of health campaign in the time of Covid-19
pandemic. The result of the analysis showed that there are 39 utterances contain
illocutionary speech acts, which are categorized into 14 utterances (35.9%)
assertive, 21 utterances (53.9%) directive, 2 utterances (5.1%) commissive, and 2
utterances (5.1%) expressive. Declarative acts were not used in the Instagram
captions and directive is the most dominant type used in the Instagram captions. It
implies that celebrities in their Instagram captions of health campaign oftenly used
speech acts to recommend and advise their followers to follow the health protocol
and maintain healthy lifestyle to avoid the virus.