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without the knowledge of the meaning of the word, even connotative meaning, it is difficult to understand figurative expression, sometimes people read the newspapers, the
magazines or novel, overlooked non – literal expressions and read them literally. Of course, the meaning of the expression becomes odd or not understandable. Therefore,
figurative expression becomes essential in the learning of vocabularies. While, learning of vocabularies support the learning of semantics.
2.9 Types of Figurative Expressions
There are many kinds of figurative meaning. As stated before, in this study will only discuss the figurative expressions by Leech in A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry,
they are: personification humanizing metaphor, metaphor, simile, synecdoche and metonymy. The meanings of each type of figurative expressions are explained below.
2.9.1 Personification
Personification consists of giving human characteristics to an object. Actually, personification is the transfer of human characteristic to an object, animal, or abstract
idea. It makes the animals and the animate objects talk or behave as humans do. According to Leech 1969:158 “Personification whereby an abstraction is
figuratively represented as human actually combines all three categories – the concreteness, the animistic and the humanizing.”
As Kennedy 1983:686 states, “Personification is a figure of speech in which a thing, an animal, or an abstract term truth, nature is made human”.
According to Siswantoro 2002: 29 states, “Personifikasi adalah pelukisan benda atau objek tak bernyawa atau bukan manusia inanimate baik yang kasat
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mata atau abstrak yang diperlakukan seolah-olah sebagai manusia” personification is portray an inanimate thing substituting one with otherthat makes a comparison
between two seemingly unlike things is called or an object in unreal or abstract which is regarded as if as human.
For example: ‘And the beauty of the pearl, winking and glimmering in the light of the little candle.’
From the example the word ‘wink’ is to close and open one eye quickly, typically to indicate that something is a joke or a secret or as a signal of affection or greeting. So the
word indicates that the beauty of pearl is shining.
2.9.2 Metaphor
Metaphor is a kind of figurative expression which is an implicit comparison in which two unlike objects are compared by identifying or substituting one with other.
Metaphor– making believe that tenor and vehicle are identical. But as many writers have observed, the pretence often seems more serious and more real than the
‘real‘ world of literal understanding. Nevertheless, from a linguistic point of view, the literal meaning is always basis, and the figurative meaning derived. Leech, 1969: 151
Barnhart 1995: 118 states “A metaphor is figure of speech in which a word or phrase is taken out of its usual setting and placed with another word to suggest a
likeness. It is made more vivid by transferring to it the name orattributes of some other objects.
According to Tarigan 1983:141, “Metafora adalah sejenis majas perbandingan yang paling singkat, padat, tersusun rapi. Di dalamnya terlibat dua
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ide: yang satu adalah suatu kenyataan, sesuatu yang dipikirkan, yang menjadi objek; dan yang satu lagi merupakan perbandingan terhadap kenyataan tadi; dan kita
menggantikan yang dibelakang ini menjadi yang terdahulu tadi. Metaphor is a kind of figure of speech which the most concise, condensed, well ordered kind of
comparative figurative expressin. Two ideas are involved inside; and the one is the reality or object, something thought; and the other is the comparison to the reality;
and we subtitude the latter with the former. Kennedy 1983: 680 states, “Metaphor is a statement that one thing is
something else, which in a literal sense, it is not. For example: ‘Her dark eyes made little reflected stars.’
From the expression above, it shows us an example of metaphor in Steinbeck’s novel, The Pearl. It is comparing two nouns, her dark eyes and little reflected stars. It can be
assumed that the color of her eyes is so dark just like the shining beautiful stars.
2.9.3 Simile
