“making sense” of text, of relating written language to what we know already and to what we want to know. Comprehension can be regarded as a condition where
no uncertainty exists. There are five aspects that help the students comprehend English texts
well, they are main idea, specific information, reference, inference and vocabulary.
2.2.2 Non-literal Meaning
According to Palmer 1976:6, linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguistics has important role to component of language that include
sound, the arrangement of word and meaning. Semantics as the technical term to refer to the study of meaning is a part of
linguistics, since meaning is a part of language. Unfortunately, meaning covers a variety of aspect language, and there is no general agreement about the nature of
meaning, what aspect of it may properly be included in semantics, or the way in which it should be describe Palmer, 1976:1.
Linguistic expressions are divided into two classes: literal and non-literal figurative. Literal means based on the real or meaning of the utterance. It is
thought to use the true meanings of words that denote what it really means. We can find literal meaning in the dictionary. For example,
“He is a lazy student”. The meaning of the sentence is clear to understand.
People write literally to make the readers get the points and will not be misunderstanding of the true meaning. On the other hand, writer or speaker does
not always write or speak literally or means what the words true mean. When the writer writes non-literally or means something different from what the words
mean, it is called non-literal meaning. Non-literal meaning paints word pictures and allows us to „see‟ a point.
Leech 1981 explained types of non-literal meaning as follow: 1.
Metaphor Metaphors are kind of figurative expression by which a comparison is made
between two things by identifying one with other. Metaphors are ways to describe something. Authors use them to make their writing more interesting
or entertaining. For example: Life is a barren field.
2. Simile
Similes are comparisons that show how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in one important way. Similes are a way to describe
something. Similes use the words “as” or “like” to make the connection between the two things that are being compared. For example:
His temper was as explosive as a volcano. The sentence means his temper is being compared to a volcano in that, it can
be sudden and violent. 3.
Hyperbole Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated. It may be
used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is rarely meant to be taken literally. For example:
I could sleep for a year. The speaker does not mean to sleep for a year. He wants to sleep longer as he can. Again, he just wants to exaggerate his
truth meaning.
4. 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 symbolizes. For example:
They want to go to the white house. White is focus here, when the speaker says about White House, it refers to America. It does not mean I want to go to
the house whose paint is white. 5.
Litotes Litotes is an understatement in which an affirmation is expressed by the
negative of its contrary. For example: Please come to my hut.
The focus is my hut, 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 hearer the truth. 6.
Personification Personification is the treating of an abstract quality of thing as if it had human
qualities. For example: The leaves danced when the wind blew.
The sentence is not means leaves dance, but the effect of the wind when it blows make the leaves as if they danced. The speaker means the leaves sway,
because the word dance only addressed to human not a thing. 7.
Oxymoron Oxymoron is figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms are
combined to produce an epigrammatic effect. For example: Revenge is a kind of world justice.
When we hear about the word „justice‟ that means nobody is damaged or loss.
Everybody is sincere in accepting the decision, but here justice is wild. Therefore, it is contradictory. The speaker means revenge is the only way to
get success justice not through the law. 8.
Irony Irony is the quality of an event or situation which is the opposite of what it is
promised, expected, etc. and which therefore seems to mock ones expectation. For example:
Your room is so tidy, I better sleep outside. From the sentence it is not mean the room so tidy but the room very dirty,
even the speaker chooses to sleep outside than sleep in the room. We often find so many literary works contain non-literal meaning such as
novel, prose, poem, or narrative texts. It is effective to use non-literal meaning in a literary works to beautify the language, make it sounds elegant, and give the
magnificent word to attract the readers or audience. Gibbs 1984: 287 states that literal language has no priority over non-
literal language: Processing non-literal 1anguage does not necessitate processing the surface literal meaning first. Rather, non-literal meaning is processed directly,
without the interference of the surface literal meaning. Understanding literal and non-literal language involves precisely the same complex comprehension
processes and contextual information Glucksberg et al., 1982. It is useful to identify the non-literary meaning in literary work, because
there are a lot of people still confuse with the meaning in the sentences. People with no understanding about non-literal meaning will get difficult to discuss with
people who has. Therefore, the researcher hopes this research may help them to keep communication with the others especially to understand non-literal meaning.
In this research, the researcher talked about the using of non-literal meaning in narrative texts. The researcher got some reasons why she was
interested in the topic above. Understanding the meaning of each word, each phrase and each sentence in the texts is important to make the students get the
point of the texts. In this case, it is needed by the students to understand first the non-literal meaning of narrative texts. While, most students were still get
difficulties in identifying the non-literal meaning of narrative texts they had read.
2.2.3 Narrative Text
