The Background of Analysis

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Background of Analysis

Language has an important role of communication in human life. People use language as a tool to express ideas and feelings. By using language, people are able to describe their feelings, emotions and thought easier than using other elements. Hornby 1972:473 says, “Language is human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, feelings, and desires by means of a system sounds and sound symbols. People use language to communicate and interact to each other. It is easier to convey information to another people in order to share knowledge. Bolinger 1975:14 states, “Human-language is a system of vocal- auditory communication, interacting with the experiences of its users, employing conventional signs composed of arbitrary patterned sound units and assembled according to set rules.” Palmer 1976:6 says, “I have suggested that linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguistics has important role to components of language that include sound, the arrangement of words, and meaning.” In its broadest sense, linguistics can also be refried as the study of human language: how it is structured, how it is used to represent meaning, how it is used to communicate ideas, how it is formed, how it is decoded. Linguistics tries to look for commonality across all human languages, and should not be confused with Language Teaching’, which aims to teach a single language. There are four branches of linguistics study; they are Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, and Semantics. In this thesis, I focus on Semantics. Palmer Universitas Sumatera Utara 1976:1 says, “Semantics is technical term used refer to the study of meaning.” In addition, semantics focuses on the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences in the language. The meaning of phrases, sentences depend on the meaning of its words and the structure. System for analyzing language divides linguistics expression into two classes: literal meaning and non-literal meaning. Uses in non-literal are called figurative expression. Literal meaning denotes the speaker mean according to common or dictionary usage, while non-literal meaning figurative expression connotes additional layers of meaning. When the people eye or ears receive a message, the mind must interpret the data to convert it into meaning. This set of memories will give prominence to the most common or literal meanings, but also suggest reasons for attributing different meanings, e.g., the reader understands that the author intended it to mean something different, as can be seen the examples of literal meaning below: − Let me be your friend − I want to hold you Both of the examples express the literal meaning as the real meaning according to dictionary usage. Look at the examples of non-literal meaning figurative expression below: − You can take my breath away − Sad eyes never lie Both of the examples are figurative expression, they express additional layer of meaning. In first sentence, “you can take my breath away” implies that the speaker can gives anything to the hearer you; the hearer can take his life. Universitas Sumatera Utara Moreover, the second sentences, “sad eyes never lie”, lie in this sentence represented human being ability. Every sentence that contain of figurative expression could make the reader or hearer confused and try to imagine what the real meaning of it. Richard Taylor 1981:165 cites: “Figurative languages surprises the reader because the statements or ideas expressed does not make sense on the surface level, and, since literal meaning is denied, an act of imagination is required before the intended meaning becomes clear.” It is important to understand figurative expression meaning because it shows the speaker’s mastery of politeness in English language which at the sometimes show the speaker’s high-level mastery of the language. Even the scholar that want to improve his communication skill, he should study about the meaning and non-literal meaning, because it is one of the most difficult subject to be studied. So in this analysis I try to reveal the non-literal meaning as my object because I think it is worthy to the reader who are interested in the meaning especially figurative expression. There are so many kinds of literary works which use the figurative expression, such as a Lyrics song and Poetry. All of them use it to beautify their sentences and give the magnificent words to interest the reader or hearer. Songs is the most common thing in people daily life because songs can give various impacts to its reader. In a song, we can find lyrics which complete and beautify the song and makes the hearer more interested in hearing it. In this thesis, I am interested in analyzing the figurative expression that found in lyrics of song. The composers communicate to the society by express Universitas Sumatera Utara their idea and feeling through the song. The idea and feeling becomes difficult to understand because the composers adopted figurative expression to beauty theirs lyrics. This thesis will discuss figurative expression that found in lyrics of song and try to interpret the meaning by using Semantics theory. The lyrics of song that I analyze are Enrique Iglessias songs. I chose these songs because there are so many figurative expressions are found in the lyrics. More over these lyrics have the magnificent words and the poetic aspect. In spite of it’s, he is a top singer in the world. Enrique Miguel Iglessias Preysler was born May 8, 1975. He is a Spanish pop singer-songwriter. His career started in Mexico on Indie label Fonovisa who helped turn him into one of the most popular artists in Latin America and in the Latin market in the United States, selling more Spanish albums than any other artists in that period of time.

1.2 The Problem of Analysis