FIGURATIVE MEANING IN ADELE’S SONG LYRICS.
FIGURATIVE MEANING IN ADELE’S SONG LYRICS
A THESIS
Submitted to Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of
SarjanaSastra
By:
CAHAYA LISDAWATI SIMAMORA
Reg. No. 072222810010
\
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2014
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The biggest thanks the writer would like to express to Jesus Christ, her
provider for the blesses, ability, strenght, and protection, that the writer has been
granted during completing the thesis so that she is be able to fullfill one of the
requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra at English Department, Faculty of
Language and Arts, State University of Medan. The writer believes that without
Jesus Christ, she will be nothing, so that she keeps faith for every step of the
research in the name of God. In accomplishing this thesis, the writer was helped
by so many beloved people and the writer would like to express her gratitude to:
•
Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si. the Rector of State University of Medan.
•
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum. the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts.
•
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd. the Head of English and Literature
Department, and Rika, S.pd, M.Hum, the Secretary of English Department
•
Dra. Meisuri, M.A. the Head of Applied Linguistics Program and her Thesis
Adviser, for the patience guidance, advice, comment, and precious time in
supervising the draft of writing during the completion of this thesis, Drs. Elia
Masa Gintings, M.Hum her Academic Adviser, and her reviewer of thesis.
•
Dr. Zainuddin, DIP. TEFL, M.Hum and Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed the
reviewer of thesis, all herlecturers in English and Literature Department.
•
Her beloved familythe best parents ever, Selamat Simamora and Alani
Nainggolan thanksfor their understanding, financial, moral
and the big
support in prayer, love, and motivation while accomplished this thesis. Her
brothers and sisters, Antoni Simamora, Yustri Simamora, Eli S Simamora and
Rospita Simamora, thanks for their support, cares and pray.
•
Her beloved friend, Ronny, thanks for his motivation, prayer, and happiness
while accomplished this thesis.
•
Her best friends “Platonic Eve”, Maeda S.s, Umami S.Pd,Khairiah, Maulia,
Efri, Debo, and others thanks for your embraces, love, motivation, happiness,
time and friendship.
•
Her special thanks also go to all friends in Applied Linguistics A and B 20072010 and all others whose name cannot be mentioned one by one for their
help and support. Thanks for everything. May Jesus blesses us.
Hopefully, this thesis canhelp the students especially the students
of English Department of State University of Medan comprehend and
evaluate their ability in mastering literature especially infigurative
meaning in song lyrics.
Medan,
April 2014
The writer
Cahaya L Simamora
ABSTRACT
Simamora, Cahaya Lisdawati. 072222810010. Figurative Meaning in Adele’s
Song Lyrics. A Thesis. English Department. Faculty of Language and Arts.
State University of Medan. 2014.
This study deals with the figurative meaning in Adele’s song lyrics. The
objectives of the study were to find types of figurative meaning, to find the most
dominant type of figurative meaning and to explain the occurrence of the most
dominant type figurative meaning in Adele’s song lyrics. The data were
obtained by conducting descriptive qualitative design. There were fifteen songs
from “21 Album”, and the data were classified into seven types of figurative
meaning such as personification, simile, hyperbole, metaphor, irony, symbol and
antithesis. The result of the study, there were personification (15,62 %), simile
(21,87 %), hyperbole (34,4 %), metaphor (18,75 %), irony (3,12 %), symbol (3,12
%), and antithesis (3,12 %). In this study, the most dominant type of figurative
meaning was hyperbole (34,4 %). It was use hyperbole in the song lyrics to
beautify or refine the language and make the lyrics more flowery that can interest
the listeners to hear the songs.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENTS...............................................................................
LIST OF TABLE ...........................................................................................
LIST OF APPENDICES ...............................................................................
i
ii
iv
vi
vii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION...................................................................
A. The Background of the Study...............................................................
B. The Problem of the Study.....................................................................
C. The Objectives of the Study .................................................................
D. The Scope of the Study ........................................................................
E. The Significance of the Study ..............................................................
1
1
4
5
5
5
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE ..............................................
A. Meaning ................................................................................................
B. Figurative Meaning ..............................................................................
C. Literature ..............................................................................................
D. Adele’s Profile......................................................................................
8
8
10
16
24
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ......................................................
A. Research Design ...................................................................................
B. Source of Data ......................................................................................
C. Technique of Collecting Data ..............................................................
D. Technique for Analyzing Data .............................................................
26
26
26
26
27
CHAPTER IV DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS...................................... ...............
A. The Data ...............................................................................................
B. Data Analysis............................................................................... ........
1. The Explanation of Each Types of Figurative Meaning Used in
Adele’s Song Lyrics ...................................................................................
a. Personification .........................................................................
b. Hyperbole ................................................................................
c. Metaphor ..................................................................................
d. Simile .......................................................................................
e. Symbol .....................................................................................
f. Irony ........................................................................................
g. Antithesis .................................................................................
C. Research Findings......................................................................... .......
28
28
28
29
29
29
29
30
30
31
31
31
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION .............................................
A. Conclusion ............................................................................................
B. Suggestion ............................................................................................
33
33
33
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................
35
LIST OF TABLE
Table 4.1.The percentage of figurative meaning in Adele’s song lyrics ...............
28
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of The Study
As social creature, humans need to build a relationship with others to show
their existence, opinions, ideas, and their feeling, giving information, etc. So,
humans require language as a means of communication. Communication is basic
feature of social life, and language is a major component of it.Language is human
needs; it is a system of signs (indices, icons, symbols) for encoding and decoding
information.Language can combine with art in order to find various kind of
communication or to entertain people with messages contain in it. Language is an
inseparable part of human life to express thoughts, feeling, desires and intension
both in spoken and written way. Spoken is the process of expressing ideas and
feelings or giving information orally, song, speech, and conversation. Written is
done in writing activity, available in short story, article, novel, newspaper, poetry
letter, magazine poem, song lyrics, and etc. The word meaning is commonly
found in spoken or written language.
The study of meaning scientifically is called semantics. In our practical
language sometimes people find sentences or phrases could have meaning. If
people want to make the definition clear, it is, therefore, necessary for them to
redefine semantics into more spesific definition, the one that limit semantics into
the the study of more specific types of meaning only. Simply semantics is the
study of linguistics meaning. These more specific definitions have led people to
an important basic assumption that meaning is the part of speaker’s knowledge
about their language. The speakers of a language have different types of linguistic
knowledge, including how to construct sentences, and about the meaning of
individual words and sentences.
There are two kinds of language that studying in semantics, they are
literal and non-literal (Saeed, 2004:15). The following discussion will be about
non literal uses of language are traditionally called figurative language. The
meaning can be literal and figurative, this is the important thing for the writer to
describe because the focus of the research is figurative meaning. Figurative
language is used in any form of communication, such as in daily conversation,
articles in newspaper, advertisements, novels, poems, song lyrics, etc. Literature is
one of arts, which has its own language. In other words, literature is writing which
expresses and communicates though feeling and attitude toward life. Song is one
example of literature. The language of literature usually interests people for its
beauty. By means of literature expression, a poet is able to reveal clearly human
character, behavior and how human being encounters the problem of life. Song is
one of literary works that mostly uses figurative language as a lyric. A song is
interested to be listening and it may bring into close and fresh relation to life.
According to Meyer (1997:1), literature is a term used to describe written
texts marked by careful use of language, including features such as creative
metaphors, well-turned phrases, elegant syntax, rhyme, alliteration, which are
aesthetically read or intended by the author to be aesthetically read and are
deliberately somewhat open in interpretation.
There are some similarities between a song and a poem. A song has to be
rhythmic and so does a poem. Rhythm is one of the important elements in both
songs and poetry. In fact, there is even a form of poetry which is made into music
called a lyric poem. They can be used in songs to express the thoughts and
feelings of the author. Music without words is poetry, only not in the generalized
sense.
A song is a short piece of music with words that are sung. The words in a
song are called lyrics that may consist of an intro, verses, choruses, bridges and a
coda. Lyric derives from the Greek word for a song sung by the lyre, “lyrikos”and
came to be used for the “words of a song” (Douglas, 2012).Most of people in this
world love songs and enjoy the songs by using MP3,MP4, compact disc and
cassette. Peoples also can be entertained whe they listen or sing the songs. In
music, a song is a composition that contains vocal parts (lyrics) that are perfomed
(sung), commonly accompanied by musical instruments, expection in the case of
acappela songs. The lyrics of song are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature,
although they may be religious verses or free prose. Songs are typically for a solo
singer, though they may also in the form of duet, trio, or larger ensemble
involving more voices. Song can be broadly divided into many different forms,
depending on the criteria used. One division is between “art song”, “pop song”,
and “folk song”. Other common methods of classification are by purpose (sacred
vs secular), by style (dance, ballad, rock, etc), or by time of origin (contemporary,
etc). In listening to the song, language is very important because it is means of
communication. He or she will chose the right words that he or she thinks can best
convey his thought, feeling, and experience. He or she hope the listener will
understand the meaning of the song. A song has two meaning: literal meaning and
figurative meaning.A metaphor is a figure of speech or figurative meaning in
which an implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have
something important in common. (Lakoff, 1989). A methapor is a something that
is used to describe “normal” words in order to help others understand or enjoy the
message within. When you see a word that substitutes the real or normal word one
would use, it is probably a methapor. (Goatly, 1997) states that methapor occurs
when a unit of discourse is ised to prefer unconventionally to an object, process,
or concept, or in unconventional way. More generally, methapor is a rhetorical
trope that describes a first subject as being or equal to asecond subject in some
way. In addition, methapor is a comparison of two things to show a likeness
between them. Methapors meanwhile do not use the word “like” or “as” to show
the comparison. (Burke, 1945), states that metaphor is a device for seeing
something in terms of something else. Metaphor uses to find alternative
expressions of a given meaning which only differ from each other in one lexeme.
Simply, the function of a metaphor is to convey a 'new truth' to the reader/listener,
helping the person receiving the information to be enlightened in a succinct
manner.The use of metaphor will either give deep meaning, so that the reader/
listener can imagine a new word.
Figurative meaning is language that uses words or expressions with a
meaning that is different from literal interpretation, when a writer uses literal
language, he or she is simply stating the facts as they are. Figurative meaning is
meaning out of the real meaning or more imaginative that encourages our
imagination. The meaning of the words is influenced by the words which exist
around it in sentence.
Analyzingfigurative language in song lyrics is important for some
reasons. First, singing asong and knowing the meaning of the lyrics is better than
singing without anadequate understanding concerning the lyrics. We can also gain
some lessonlearning and fruitful information when we understand the non-literal
meaningcontained in song lyrics. Second, analyzing figurative language provides
us morepractices to better understand non-literal expressions(Dinata 2013:).
These days there were so many good songs with beautiful lyrics sung by
new comer singer. One of them is Adele. Adele is an English singer-songwriter
and musician whose works have topped music charts worldwide and received
appraisal from critics and numerous awards, including the Grammy. 19 is her first
album released in early 2008, meanwhile 21 is her second album released in early
2011. Adele is popular and very familiar in society, she become a dominant figure
in popular music and most of people love her songs. A songwriter like “Adele”
use words figuratively in her song in order to beautify and refine the language,
make the lyrics sounds elegant, the lyrics can also be a special repetition, the
lyrics will be a specialized meaning it give the listener imaginative plessure, and
Adele’s song lyrics which are contains implicit, beautiful, meaningful lyrics. It is
interesting to analyze thefigurative language in her song lyrics as they are
different from each other.Some figurative expressions also contained in those
songs require a deep analysis.Each song convey different meaning, one is about
struggle and love. Therefore, the writer is interested in analyzing of figurative
meaning in song lyrics especially Adele’s song lyrics.
B. The Problem of The Study
Based on the background, the problem of the study were formulated as this
following:
1. What were the types of figurative meaning used in Adele’s song
lyrics?
2. What was the most dominant type of figurative meaning used in
Adele’s song lyrics?
3. Why was the type most dominantly used?
C. The Objectives of The Study
The objectives of the study were:
1. To find types of figurative meaning used in Adele’s song lyrics.
2. To find the most dominant type of figurative meaning used in
Adele’s song lyrics.
3. To explain the occurrence of the most dominant type.
D. The Scope of The Study
This research was figurative meaning applied in Adele’s song lyrics.
Having considered that there are many ways for people of expressing ideas
figuratively such as by using simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony,
symbol, and antithesis
E. The Siginificance of The Study
This study was expected to be useful for:
1. The students who are majoring English in studying listening and meaning
in sentences.
2. Theresearcher to develop the knowledgeof figurative meaning in song
lyrics.
3. the student who are interested in figurative meaning especially in
song lyrics
4. People who are studying about figurative meaning and course about
non literal meaning so they know figurative meaning can be found
in song too.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
After analyzing all the 32data of song lyrics using of figurative meaning,
the writer could draw the conclusions as follows:
1. There were 32 song lyrics from fifteen songs of Adele that contain
figurative meanings, which are divided into 7 types such as personification
(15,62 %), hyperbole (34,4 %), metaphor (18,75 %), simile (21,87 %),
irony (3,12 %), symbol (3,12 %), and antithesis (3,12 %).
2. Hyperbole (34,4 %) was the most dominant type of figurative meaning
found in Adele’s song lyrics.
3. Adele as a songwriter used hyperbole dominantly in her song lyrics to
beautyfy or refine the language, and make the lyrics more flowery that can
interest the listeners to hear the song.
B. Suggestions
Based on the conclusion, the writer would like to purpose some
suggestions as follow especially for:
1. The listeners to be careful taking figurative meaning in song lyrics, so
there is no misinterpretation,
45
2. The other researchersin order to find out the other theories about figurative
meaning because there are many interesting book that explaining about
figurative meaning
3. The students, using poem or song lyrics as media is important and
interesting in poetry subject. The teacher could give songs as the example
of learning figurative language to students
4. The students who want to conduct song analysis. They can do further
research such as analyzing style, theme or value in the song
REFERENCES
Dinata, Salomo. 2013. Figurative Language in Michael Jacson’s Selected Songs.
Thesis. Medan: Universitas Negeri Medan.
Kennedy, X.J. 1978. Literature. An introduction to Fiction Poetry, and Drama.
Boston-Toronto: Little and Brown company.
Keraf, Gorys. 1981. Diksi dan Gaya Bahasa. Jakarta : PT. Gramedia Pustaka
Utama.
Leech, Geoffery. 1981. Style in Fiction A linguistic Introduction to English
Fictional Prose. London: Longman.
Middleton, Richard. 1990. Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open
University Press.
Nazir, M. 1998. Metode Penelitian, Jakarta: Ghalia Indonesia.
Palmer, F.r 1981. Semantics. New York: cambridge University Press.
Plambeck, Joseph (May 9, 2010). "Lyrics Sites at Center of Fight Over Royalties".
The New York Times. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
Saed, John Ibrahim. 2004. Semantics Kensington, Maryland: Dunwoody Press.
Sitohang, Dahniar. 2011. Figurative Meaning in Simalungun Pop Songs. Thesis.
Medan: Universitas Negeri Medan.
Tarigan, Henry, Guntur. 1985. Pengajaran semantik. Bandung: Penerbit Angkasa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_genre. Accessed on February, 2014
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature. Accessed on Januari 31, 2014
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor. Accessed on December 7, 2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics. Accessed on December 7, 2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song). Accessed on December 7, 2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_%28Adele_album%29. Accessed on November
15, 2013
http://www.biography.com/people/adele-20694679. Aaccessed on November 15,
2013
http://www.figurative meaning.com. Accessed on October 25, 2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poem_and_song. Accessed on February 28, 2014
A THESIS
Submitted to Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of
SarjanaSastra
By:
CAHAYA LISDAWATI SIMAMORA
Reg. No. 072222810010
\
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2014
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The biggest thanks the writer would like to express to Jesus Christ, her
provider for the blesses, ability, strenght, and protection, that the writer has been
granted during completing the thesis so that she is be able to fullfill one of the
requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra at English Department, Faculty of
Language and Arts, State University of Medan. The writer believes that without
Jesus Christ, she will be nothing, so that she keeps faith for every step of the
research in the name of God. In accomplishing this thesis, the writer was helped
by so many beloved people and the writer would like to express her gratitude to:
•
Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si. the Rector of State University of Medan.
•
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum. the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts.
•
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd. the Head of English and Literature
Department, and Rika, S.pd, M.Hum, the Secretary of English Department
•
Dra. Meisuri, M.A. the Head of Applied Linguistics Program and her Thesis
Adviser, for the patience guidance, advice, comment, and precious time in
supervising the draft of writing during the completion of this thesis, Drs. Elia
Masa Gintings, M.Hum her Academic Adviser, and her reviewer of thesis.
•
Dr. Zainuddin, DIP. TEFL, M.Hum and Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed the
reviewer of thesis, all herlecturers in English and Literature Department.
•
Her beloved familythe best parents ever, Selamat Simamora and Alani
Nainggolan thanksfor their understanding, financial, moral
and the big
support in prayer, love, and motivation while accomplished this thesis. Her
brothers and sisters, Antoni Simamora, Yustri Simamora, Eli S Simamora and
Rospita Simamora, thanks for their support, cares and pray.
•
Her beloved friend, Ronny, thanks for his motivation, prayer, and happiness
while accomplished this thesis.
•
Her best friends “Platonic Eve”, Maeda S.s, Umami S.Pd,Khairiah, Maulia,
Efri, Debo, and others thanks for your embraces, love, motivation, happiness,
time and friendship.
•
Her special thanks also go to all friends in Applied Linguistics A and B 20072010 and all others whose name cannot be mentioned one by one for their
help and support. Thanks for everything. May Jesus blesses us.
Hopefully, this thesis canhelp the students especially the students
of English Department of State University of Medan comprehend and
evaluate their ability in mastering literature especially infigurative
meaning in song lyrics.
Medan,
April 2014
The writer
Cahaya L Simamora
ABSTRACT
Simamora, Cahaya Lisdawati. 072222810010. Figurative Meaning in Adele’s
Song Lyrics. A Thesis. English Department. Faculty of Language and Arts.
State University of Medan. 2014.
This study deals with the figurative meaning in Adele’s song lyrics. The
objectives of the study were to find types of figurative meaning, to find the most
dominant type of figurative meaning and to explain the occurrence of the most
dominant type figurative meaning in Adele’s song lyrics. The data were
obtained by conducting descriptive qualitative design. There were fifteen songs
from “21 Album”, and the data were classified into seven types of figurative
meaning such as personification, simile, hyperbole, metaphor, irony, symbol and
antithesis. The result of the study, there were personification (15,62 %), simile
(21,87 %), hyperbole (34,4 %), metaphor (18,75 %), irony (3,12 %), symbol (3,12
%), and antithesis (3,12 %). In this study, the most dominant type of figurative
meaning was hyperbole (34,4 %). It was use hyperbole in the song lyrics to
beautify or refine the language and make the lyrics more flowery that can interest
the listeners to hear the songs.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENTS...............................................................................
LIST OF TABLE ...........................................................................................
LIST OF APPENDICES ...............................................................................
i
ii
iv
vi
vii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION...................................................................
A. The Background of the Study...............................................................
B. The Problem of the Study.....................................................................
C. The Objectives of the Study .................................................................
D. The Scope of the Study ........................................................................
E. The Significance of the Study ..............................................................
1
1
4
5
5
5
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE ..............................................
A. Meaning ................................................................................................
B. Figurative Meaning ..............................................................................
C. Literature ..............................................................................................
D. Adele’s Profile......................................................................................
8
8
10
16
24
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ......................................................
A. Research Design ...................................................................................
B. Source of Data ......................................................................................
C. Technique of Collecting Data ..............................................................
D. Technique for Analyzing Data .............................................................
26
26
26
26
27
CHAPTER IV DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS...................................... ...............
A. The Data ...............................................................................................
B. Data Analysis............................................................................... ........
1. The Explanation of Each Types of Figurative Meaning Used in
Adele’s Song Lyrics ...................................................................................
a. Personification .........................................................................
b. Hyperbole ................................................................................
c. Metaphor ..................................................................................
d. Simile .......................................................................................
e. Symbol .....................................................................................
f. Irony ........................................................................................
g. Antithesis .................................................................................
C. Research Findings......................................................................... .......
28
28
28
29
29
29
29
30
30
31
31
31
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION .............................................
A. Conclusion ............................................................................................
B. Suggestion ............................................................................................
33
33
33
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................
35
LIST OF TABLE
Table 4.1.The percentage of figurative meaning in Adele’s song lyrics ...............
28
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of The Study
As social creature, humans need to build a relationship with others to show
their existence, opinions, ideas, and their feeling, giving information, etc. So,
humans require language as a means of communication. Communication is basic
feature of social life, and language is a major component of it.Language is human
needs; it is a system of signs (indices, icons, symbols) for encoding and decoding
information.Language can combine with art in order to find various kind of
communication or to entertain people with messages contain in it. Language is an
inseparable part of human life to express thoughts, feeling, desires and intension
both in spoken and written way. Spoken is the process of expressing ideas and
feelings or giving information orally, song, speech, and conversation. Written is
done in writing activity, available in short story, article, novel, newspaper, poetry
letter, magazine poem, song lyrics, and etc. The word meaning is commonly
found in spoken or written language.
The study of meaning scientifically is called semantics. In our practical
language sometimes people find sentences or phrases could have meaning. If
people want to make the definition clear, it is, therefore, necessary for them to
redefine semantics into more spesific definition, the one that limit semantics into
the the study of more specific types of meaning only. Simply semantics is the
study of linguistics meaning. These more specific definitions have led people to
an important basic assumption that meaning is the part of speaker’s knowledge
about their language. The speakers of a language have different types of linguistic
knowledge, including how to construct sentences, and about the meaning of
individual words and sentences.
There are two kinds of language that studying in semantics, they are
literal and non-literal (Saeed, 2004:15). The following discussion will be about
non literal uses of language are traditionally called figurative language. The
meaning can be literal and figurative, this is the important thing for the writer to
describe because the focus of the research is figurative meaning. Figurative
language is used in any form of communication, such as in daily conversation,
articles in newspaper, advertisements, novels, poems, song lyrics, etc. Literature is
one of arts, which has its own language. In other words, literature is writing which
expresses and communicates though feeling and attitude toward life. Song is one
example of literature. The language of literature usually interests people for its
beauty. By means of literature expression, a poet is able to reveal clearly human
character, behavior and how human being encounters the problem of life. Song is
one of literary works that mostly uses figurative language as a lyric. A song is
interested to be listening and it may bring into close and fresh relation to life.
According to Meyer (1997:1), literature is a term used to describe written
texts marked by careful use of language, including features such as creative
metaphors, well-turned phrases, elegant syntax, rhyme, alliteration, which are
aesthetically read or intended by the author to be aesthetically read and are
deliberately somewhat open in interpretation.
There are some similarities between a song and a poem. A song has to be
rhythmic and so does a poem. Rhythm is one of the important elements in both
songs and poetry. In fact, there is even a form of poetry which is made into music
called a lyric poem. They can be used in songs to express the thoughts and
feelings of the author. Music without words is poetry, only not in the generalized
sense.
A song is a short piece of music with words that are sung. The words in a
song are called lyrics that may consist of an intro, verses, choruses, bridges and a
coda. Lyric derives from the Greek word for a song sung by the lyre, “lyrikos”and
came to be used for the “words of a song” (Douglas, 2012).Most of people in this
world love songs and enjoy the songs by using MP3,MP4, compact disc and
cassette. Peoples also can be entertained whe they listen or sing the songs. In
music, a song is a composition that contains vocal parts (lyrics) that are perfomed
(sung), commonly accompanied by musical instruments, expection in the case of
acappela songs. The lyrics of song are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature,
although they may be religious verses or free prose. Songs are typically for a solo
singer, though they may also in the form of duet, trio, or larger ensemble
involving more voices. Song can be broadly divided into many different forms,
depending on the criteria used. One division is between “art song”, “pop song”,
and “folk song”. Other common methods of classification are by purpose (sacred
vs secular), by style (dance, ballad, rock, etc), or by time of origin (contemporary,
etc). In listening to the song, language is very important because it is means of
communication. He or she will chose the right words that he or she thinks can best
convey his thought, feeling, and experience. He or she hope the listener will
understand the meaning of the song. A song has two meaning: literal meaning and
figurative meaning.A metaphor is a figure of speech or figurative meaning in
which an implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have
something important in common. (Lakoff, 1989). A methapor is a something that
is used to describe “normal” words in order to help others understand or enjoy the
message within. When you see a word that substitutes the real or normal word one
would use, it is probably a methapor. (Goatly, 1997) states that methapor occurs
when a unit of discourse is ised to prefer unconventionally to an object, process,
or concept, or in unconventional way. More generally, methapor is a rhetorical
trope that describes a first subject as being or equal to asecond subject in some
way. In addition, methapor is a comparison of two things to show a likeness
between them. Methapors meanwhile do not use the word “like” or “as” to show
the comparison. (Burke, 1945), states that metaphor is a device for seeing
something in terms of something else. Metaphor uses to find alternative
expressions of a given meaning which only differ from each other in one lexeme.
Simply, the function of a metaphor is to convey a 'new truth' to the reader/listener,
helping the person receiving the information to be enlightened in a succinct
manner.The use of metaphor will either give deep meaning, so that the reader/
listener can imagine a new word.
Figurative meaning is language that uses words or expressions with a
meaning that is different from literal interpretation, when a writer uses literal
language, he or she is simply stating the facts as they are. Figurative meaning is
meaning out of the real meaning or more imaginative that encourages our
imagination. The meaning of the words is influenced by the words which exist
around it in sentence.
Analyzingfigurative language in song lyrics is important for some
reasons. First, singing asong and knowing the meaning of the lyrics is better than
singing without anadequate understanding concerning the lyrics. We can also gain
some lessonlearning and fruitful information when we understand the non-literal
meaningcontained in song lyrics. Second, analyzing figurative language provides
us morepractices to better understand non-literal expressions(Dinata 2013:).
These days there were so many good songs with beautiful lyrics sung by
new comer singer. One of them is Adele. Adele is an English singer-songwriter
and musician whose works have topped music charts worldwide and received
appraisal from critics and numerous awards, including the Grammy. 19 is her first
album released in early 2008, meanwhile 21 is her second album released in early
2011. Adele is popular and very familiar in society, she become a dominant figure
in popular music and most of people love her songs. A songwriter like “Adele”
use words figuratively in her song in order to beautify and refine the language,
make the lyrics sounds elegant, the lyrics can also be a special repetition, the
lyrics will be a specialized meaning it give the listener imaginative plessure, and
Adele’s song lyrics which are contains implicit, beautiful, meaningful lyrics. It is
interesting to analyze thefigurative language in her song lyrics as they are
different from each other.Some figurative expressions also contained in those
songs require a deep analysis.Each song convey different meaning, one is about
struggle and love. Therefore, the writer is interested in analyzing of figurative
meaning in song lyrics especially Adele’s song lyrics.
B. The Problem of The Study
Based on the background, the problem of the study were formulated as this
following:
1. What were the types of figurative meaning used in Adele’s song
lyrics?
2. What was the most dominant type of figurative meaning used in
Adele’s song lyrics?
3. Why was the type most dominantly used?
C. The Objectives of The Study
The objectives of the study were:
1. To find types of figurative meaning used in Adele’s song lyrics.
2. To find the most dominant type of figurative meaning used in
Adele’s song lyrics.
3. To explain the occurrence of the most dominant type.
D. The Scope of The Study
This research was figurative meaning applied in Adele’s song lyrics.
Having considered that there are many ways for people of expressing ideas
figuratively such as by using simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony,
symbol, and antithesis
E. The Siginificance of The Study
This study was expected to be useful for:
1. The students who are majoring English in studying listening and meaning
in sentences.
2. Theresearcher to develop the knowledgeof figurative meaning in song
lyrics.
3. the student who are interested in figurative meaning especially in
song lyrics
4. People who are studying about figurative meaning and course about
non literal meaning so they know figurative meaning can be found
in song too.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
After analyzing all the 32data of song lyrics using of figurative meaning,
the writer could draw the conclusions as follows:
1. There were 32 song lyrics from fifteen songs of Adele that contain
figurative meanings, which are divided into 7 types such as personification
(15,62 %), hyperbole (34,4 %), metaphor (18,75 %), simile (21,87 %),
irony (3,12 %), symbol (3,12 %), and antithesis (3,12 %).
2. Hyperbole (34,4 %) was the most dominant type of figurative meaning
found in Adele’s song lyrics.
3. Adele as a songwriter used hyperbole dominantly in her song lyrics to
beautyfy or refine the language, and make the lyrics more flowery that can
interest the listeners to hear the song.
B. Suggestions
Based on the conclusion, the writer would like to purpose some
suggestions as follow especially for:
1. The listeners to be careful taking figurative meaning in song lyrics, so
there is no misinterpretation,
45
2. The other researchersin order to find out the other theories about figurative
meaning because there are many interesting book that explaining about
figurative meaning
3. The students, using poem or song lyrics as media is important and
interesting in poetry subject. The teacher could give songs as the example
of learning figurative language to students
4. The students who want to conduct song analysis. They can do further
research such as analyzing style, theme or value in the song
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