Table 2. The Frequency of Types of Figurative Language, Lexical Structure, and Syntactic Structure
of Barack Obama’s Second Inaugural Address
No. Types of
Figurative Language Lexical Structure
T O
T A
L
Syntactic Structure
T O
T A
L Wo
rd P
hra se
C la
us e
S imple
C o
mp lex
C o
m p
o u
n d
1. Simile
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
2. Metaphor
1 10
5 16
4 11
1 16
3. Personification
- 1
7 8
2 5
1 8
4. Metonymy
- 3
1 4
- 4
- 4
5. Paradox
- -
3
3
- 3
-
3
6. Hyperbole
2 7
- 9
2 7
- 9
7. Synecdoche
3 7
- 10
1 7
2 10
TOTAL 6
29 16
51 9
38 4
51
From the table above, it can be seen that although the frequency of the occurrences is never the same from one type to another, Obama employs all types
of figurative language. The most frequent type of figurative language is metaphor. There are 16 occurrences out of the total 51 data. On the other hand, simile
constitutes the least frequent type of figurative language. Obama only employs one simile in his second inaugural address. As for the other types of figurative
language, they occur about 3- 10 times in Obama’s second inaugural address.
The frequency of the lexical structure shows that there are 6 data in the form of word, 29 data in the form of phrase, and 16 data in the form of clause. From the
6 data which are in the form of word, there are 4 nouns and 2 adjectives. Then, the 29 data in the form of phrase are employed in 2 types of phrase. They are noun
phrase and prepositional phrase. Specifically, there are 24 data in the form of
noun phrase and 5 data in the form of prepositional phrase. Finally, from the total 16 data in the form of clause, there are 3 types of clause. They are noun clause,
adverbial clause, and adjective clause. The specification is 10 noun clauses, 4 adverbial clauses and 2 adjective clauses.
The analysis of syntactic structure shows that Barack Obama employs figurative language in simple, complex and compound sentences. The frequency
shows that the most frequent type of sentence employed by Barack Obama is the complex sentence. It constitutes 38 sentences out of the total 51 sentences. The
second most frequent is the simple sentence. Obama employs 9 simple sentences in creating the figurative language in his second inaugural address. Finally, the
compound sentence ranks the lowest one. There are only 4 occurrences from the total number of sentences to be analyzed.
B. Discussion
This section is different from the findings section of this chapter which only answers the research questions by presenting a table and giving brief descriptions.
It provides the deep explanation of the findings. The detail information is presented to clarify both objectives of the research covering the discussion of
types of figurative language as well as the lexical and syntactic structures of the sentences in which the figurative language is employed in
Obama’s second inaugural address.
