CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Analysis
Linguistics is the field of study, the subject of which is language Hartman Stork: 1972:132.One of the branches in linguistics which concern with
meaning is called semantics. In semantics, meaning can be divided into two parts, literal and non-literal meaning Siregar: 1992. Literal means based on the real or
lexical meaning of the utterance. We can find this meaning in the dictionary. For examples:
1. He is a strong man
2. You are a smart student
3. They work hard everyday
All the sentences above are literal in meaning as long as the speaker means lexically in all the utterances. The first sentence means that “he” is strong, or
powerful, has physical power, it also shows an ability to do heavy works. The second sentence means that “you” are clever, smart, has good knowledge. While
the third means that “they” work hard, and make a very hard effort to do the job. Non-literal meaning occurs when a sentence or word has another hidden
meaning besides the lexical meaning of the word. When a speaker means something different from the lexical meaning of the word, it is what we called as
the non-literal meaning. It often happens in daily conversation that a speaker has different meaning in his utterances from the lexical meaning. In this case we can
find some different ways to write or speak non-literally, those are irony,
Universitas Sumatera Utara
hyperbole, metaphor, metonymy, litotes, simile, personification, and oxymora Siregar: 1992.
Irony means to say something that the meaning is the opposite of what is being spoken, for example when your friend is wearing shoes into your bed, you
may say, “that is very good”. Of course you do not really mean that wearing shoes to bed is a good habit and you do not really mean that it is allowed in your house
to use shoes to bed, rather to show that you forbid it. Hyperbole is a very large exaggeration. For example, “your eyes are as
bright as stars”. Of course “your eyes” here does not really means shining like star, but it just to show that the “eyes” here is different and brighter than the other.
Metaphor is a mapping between two different things. We need to remember that metaphor does not use words like, and as. For example, “he is a
lion”. This sentence does not means that “He” is a wild animal with sharp teeth and paw, rather to show that he is great, or can be brave like a lion.
Metonymy is to show a part of single domain stands for the entire domain. For example, “let the hands go to dinner”. Actually it is not only the hands that
go to dinner, but the whole body for it is impossible to leave some or part of our body.
Litotes is saying less than is actually the case. For example, “there is a little problem around here”. Actually it could be not a little problem but a big
problem. Simile is a comparison between two objects by using the words like or as.
A simile is not just an ordinary comparison. So if you say, “my car is like your car”, of course it is not a simile. A simile must compare two basic things that are
Universitas Sumatera Utara
found to be alike in one respect. For example, “she has a voice like a thunder”. Of course the speaker does not mean to say that “she” has a voice like ‘thunder”. The
meaning of this sentence is to show that her voice is very hard, powerful. Personification is giving inhuman thing human qualities. So it seems that
an inanimate thing is alive. Look at this example, “the pen walks slowly”. Of course pen cannot walk like human do, but here it to show writing slowly on a
paper or something else. Oxymoron is fusing together two contradictory words, ideas or concepts.
Look at this example, “silent voices”. This is a contradictory idea between silent and voice, for silent means no voices at all.
In our daily life, it is important to understand and distinguish literal and non-literal meaning, because it may help people to avoid misunderstanding in
daily conversation. People with no understanding about non-literal meaning may have difficulty when talking with people who has. So in this thesis I try to analyze
the non-literal meaning as the object of my analysis, because I think it is really important to understand it more and it is very useful for people to keep
communication work well. If we talk about non-literal meaning, then of course we will be closely
related to literary works, for most of them contain non-literal expression in it. Novels, poems, prose, short stories, or even lyrics are dominated by non-literal
expression. It is effective to use non-literal meaning in literary works to beautify the language and make it sounds elegant that it could attract readers or audience to
enjoy it.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
Poem is defined as a piece of writing in which the words are chosen for their sound and the images they suggest, not just for the lexical meaning of the
words Oxford English Learner’s:972. There are so many people that like to read poem. There are even more, try to express feeling in poems. Writers usually use
non-literal expression in the poems to make the poems beautiful. We can see the difference between poems with non-literal expression and poems that use literal or
direct way. It is more interesting for readers to read those with non-literal meaning.
In this thesis I am interested to analyze the non-literal meaning found in poems. Poets convey something to the reader through the poem; sometimes it is
very difficult to understand a poem for it may contain so many expressions with non-literal meaning.
One of the most popular poets in English literature was Robert Frost. He was an American born writer but then come to England. One of his most famous
poems is “stopping by woods on a snowy evening”. I choose Robert frost’s poems as the object of my analysis because there are many non-literal expressions in his
poems that could be analyzed from semantics point of view. Besides he always delivered his idea in the poem by using non-literal expressions. Look at the title of
the poem, the title itself shows a non-literal meaning. “Stopping by woods”, is a kind of personification. So it is not a literary analysis but concern with the
language by using semantics theory.
1.2 Problems of the Analysis