12
expression in some form of a language. While, speaker meaning is what speaker means in producing an utterance. Speaker meaning consist of literal meaning and
non literal meaning.
2.3.1 Literal Meaning
If we are speaking literally, then we mean what our words mean, the meaning of the utterance is the lexical meaning or literal meaning. There will be
no important difference between the linguistic meaning and the speaker meaning. There is no hidden meaning and misinterpretation between the speaker and hearer.
For more details about literal meaning, look at these examples : 1
I‟m hungry 2
He goes to school 3
She is my lecturer 4
They are having lunch All the sentences above are literal meaning. We know clearly about the
meaning of the sentence.
2.3.2 Non Literal Meaning
In using the langugage, a speaker may sometimes use a word to mean something different from what it means literally or what the words mean. The
words, phrases, and the sentences have another different meaning than literal meaning. For more details about non literal meaning, look at these examples :
1 I could eat a horse
2 I am starving
3 My stomach thinks my throat‟s cut
Universitas Sumatera Utara
13
All those examples above are non literal meaning. All the meaning f them are same. It means someone who feels very hungry.
According to Saeed 2003: 15 Non literal uses of language are traditionally called figurative and are described by a host of rhetorical terms
including metaphor, simile, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, litotes and personification.
1 Metaphor
Wren and Martin 1981: 489 says that a metaphor is an implied simile. It does not, like the simile, state one thing is like another or acts as another,
but takes that for granted and proceeds as if the two things were one. Based on that statement, if we say He fought like a lion, that means we use simile.
While if we say He was a lion in the fight, that means we use metaphor.
2 Simile
Simile is figure of speech in which there are two different things compared because they appear to be similar in at least one character. Simile is
introduced by the word like or as. A simile must compare two basic things
that are found to be alike in an aspect. For the example :
1
His temper was as explosive as a volcano
2
He runs like a cheetah
From the sentences above 1 means his temper is being compared to a volcano in that, it can be sudden and violent. Sentence 2 means he runs so
fast. So the speaker compare him to with cheetah, as we know cheetah is
animal that running so fast.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
14
3 Metonymy
Metonymy is a figure of speech characterized by the use of the name of one thing in place of the name of something that is symbolized. For example He
bought a new chevrolet. Chevrolet is the one of the brand name of car. 4
Synecdoche
The word of synecdoche is derived from a Greek word “syneckdechestai” which means “to take up”. Siswantoro 2002: 39 says, “synecdoche
merupakan gaya bahasa yang manifestasinya tercermin dalam kemasan sebagian tetapi yang mewakili keseluruhan. Synecdoche is a figurative
expression which its manifestation reflected a part is used to designate the whole. For example He has many mouths to feed that in literal meaning this
statement means „He feeds many mouths‟. In this case, mouth is people who
are fed. 5
Hyperbole
Wren and Martin 1981: 491 says that in hyperbole, a statement is made emphatic by overstatement. In daily language, hyperbole appears in student
circle when they will have an examination by saying I’ll die if I don’t pass
this course. The word of die is overstatement because there is no people
who will get die due to not pass an examination. The others example are :
1 I carry you heart with me
2 My heart feel dead before
3 On a great horse of gold
4 And this is the wonder that‟s keeping the stars apart.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
15
6 Litotes
Litotes is an understatement in which an affirmation is expressed by the negative of its contrary, often used for emphasis or ironically. To
make it clear look the example: please come to my hut. From the sentence, as we know hut is very simple. Nevertheless, in this situation hut is not the
hut, but actually, he has a big house. He does not want to tell the truth, he
just trying to be low profile. 7
Personification
The word personification derives from Latin word „persona‟ means person, actor or mask and „fic‟ means to make. Then, personification is a figurative
speech that giving human characteristics to an object. For example, the trees are afraid to put forth bud. This word trees in the sentence figure as a human
being that has been afraid represent for fear or being frightened. Indeed such emotional feelings are shown as a natural reaction from human when they
feel something wrong or being shocked. The others example of personification are :
1 The pen is dancing on the paper
2 Every night, the moon comes by just to say goodnight to me
The first sentence is considered as a personification because it considers the pen as an inanimate thing, which has human ability to dance. Literally,
the sentence means that the pen is dancing on a paper just like a human. It is absolutely impossible. So, we have to take the meaning figuratively, which
means that someone is using the pen to write on the paper.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
16
The second sentence, we may see how the moon as the inanimate object is depicted as human. It is implies that the moon has legs to come by and talk
by saying goodnight to me. Of course, it is impossible in real life. The possible interpretation for this expression is that the moon always shines
every night as the sign for someone to sleep.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
17
3. ANALYSIS
As the object of this research, the writer has chosen ten selected poems by William Blake. This paper only focus on four types of non literal meaning, they
are simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole. In this analysis, I use alphabet for refer to the poem and number for refer to the line of the poems in
next analysis. The data to be analyed can be seen in the appendices : 1
A Poison Tree Data A 2
London Data B 3
Laughing Song Data C 4
The Chimney Sweeper: A Little Black Thing Among The Snow Data D 5
Night Data E 6
The Schoolboy Data F 7
The Sick Rose Data G 8
To The Evening Star Data H 9
Songs of Experience: Introduction Data I 10
Two Sunflowers Move In The Yellow Room Data J The following are the analysis of the data in finding non literal meaning :
3.1 Simile
