AN ANALYSIS OF METAPHOR IN PEOPLE MAGAZINES ADVERTISEMENTS.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost the writer would like to express her praises to God Almighty, Jesus
Christ, for the strengths, blessings, and guidance which have been given to her in completing
this thesis. This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana
Sastra (S-1) at the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of
Medan.
This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the help of several
individuals who always contributed and extended their valuable assistances in the preparation
and completion of this thesis. The writer’s special appreciation goes to:
 Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., as the Head of State University of Medan.
 Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., as the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts State
University of Medan and to all her staffs.
 Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., as the Head of English Department, Dra. Rahmah,
M.Hum., as the Secretary of English Department, and Dra. Meisuri, MA, as the
Head of Non-Educational English Program, thanks for their administrative help
during the writer’s study in English Department State University of Medan.
 Dr. Siti Aisah Ginting, M.Pd., as the writer’s Thesis Supervisor who always gave
the encouragement, constant support, constructive comments, and suggestions to the
writer in finishing this thesis.
 Dra. Sortha Silitonga as the writer’s Academic Counselor who has given her support
to the writer’s thesis topic.

 All lecturers who have taught and given contribution of knowledge to her.
 Mam Endah and Mam Indri who have helped the writer in providing the academic
administration.
 The writer’s family, her loveable Mom, Mrs. Tirayan Lumbantoruan, and her Dad,
the most clever man alive, Mr. Effendi Simanjuntak, thank you for the supports,
love, patience, and prayers. To her Brothers, Jack Simanjuntak (Papa Nicho) and
Michael Hotma Christian, S.H., thank you for supporting your little sister. Her
sisters, Sonya Sihombing (Mama Nicho) and Merry Anne Maria for the love and
encouragement. For her precious little nephews and niece, Nicholas, Sydney, and
Enos.
 The writer’s best friends, Deddy Samson, Noviria Christina, Yolanda Patricia,
Olga Debora, Ibe, Eyen, Dede, Fina, Melva, Adhy, Kak tia, Giel, Manna, for the
love, friendships, loyalties, and moral supports.
Medan, Juli 2012
The Writer,

Fenty Triartha
NIM. 208222022

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost the writer would like to express her praises to God Almighty, Jesus
Christ, for the strengths, blessings, and guidance which have been given to her in completing
this thesis. This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana
Sastra (S-1) at the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of
Medan.
This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the help of several
individuals who always contributed and extended their valuable assistances in the preparation
and completion of this thesis. The writer’s special appreciation goes to:
 Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., as the Head of State University of Medan.
 Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., as the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts State
University of Medan and to all her staffs.
 Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., as the Head of English Department, Dra. Rahmah,
M.Hum., as the Secretary of English Department, and Dra. Meisuri, MA, as the
Head of Non-Educational English Program, thanks for their administrative help
during the writer’s study in English Department State University of Medan.
 Dr. Siti Aisah Ginting, M.Pd., as the writer’s Thesis Supervisor who always gave
the encouragement, constant support, constructive comments, and suggestions to the
writer in finishing this thesis.
 Dra. Sortha Silitonga as the writer’s Academic Counselor who has given her support
to the writer’s thesis topic.

 All lecturers who have taught and given contribution of knowledge to her.
 Mam Endah and Mam Indri who have helped the writer in providing the academic
administration.
 The writer’s family, her loveable Mom, Mrs. Tirayan Lumbantoruan, and her Dad,
the most clever man alive, Mr. Effendi Simanjuntak, thank you for the supports,
love, patience, and prayers. To her Brothers, Jack Simanjuntak (Papa Nicho) and
Michael Hotma Christian, S.H., thank you for supporting your little sister. Her
sisters, Sonya Sihombing (Mama Nicho) and Merry Anne Maria for the love and
encouragement. For her precious little nephews and niece, Nicholas, Sydney, and
Enos.
 The writer’s best friends, Deddy Samson, Noviria Christina, Yolanda Patricia,
Olga Debora, Ibe, Eyen, Dede, Fina, Melva, Adhy, Kak tia, Giel, Manna, for the
love, friendships, loyalties, and moral supports.
Medan, Juli 2012
The Writer,

Fenty Triartha
NIM. 208222022

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………... i
ACKNOWLEDGMENT…………………………………………………….. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………. iii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study……………………………………………… 1
B. The Problem of the Study…………………………………………………... 3
C. The Scope of the Study…………………………………………………….. 3
D. The Objective of the Study………………………………………………… 4
E. The Significance of the Study……………………………………………… 4
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………….. 5
B. Metaphor Language………………………………………………………… 5
C. Metaphor in SFL…………………………………………………………… 7
1. Grammatical Metaphor…………………………………………………...8
2. Lexical Metaphor………………………………………………………... 8
a. Noun-Noun…………………………………………………………… 9
b. Noun-Verb……………………………………………………………. 10
c. Noun-Adjective……………………………………………………….. 10
d. Comparing Two Social Concepts…………………………………….. 11

e. Sound Concept………………………………………………………... 12
D. Functions of Metaphor……………………………………………………... 12
E. Magazine…………………………………………………………………….13
1. People Magazine………………………………………………………… 15
F. Advertisement………………………………………………………………. 16
G. Metaphor in Advertisement………………………………………………… 17
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD
A. Research Design……………………………………………………………. 19
B. Source of Data……………………………………………………………… 19
C. Technique for Collecting Data……………………………………………... 19
D. Technique for Analysis Data……………………………………………….. 20
CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
A. Data and Data Analysis…………………………………………………….. 21
B. Research Findings………………………………………………………….. 28
C. Discussion………………………………………………………………….. 29
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..30
B. Suggestion………………………………………………………………….. 31
REFERENCES………………………………………………………………. 32
APPENDICES………………………………………………………………... 33

iii

1

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
A language is considered to be a system of communicating with other
people by using sounds, symbols and words in expressing a meaning, idea or
thought. This language can be used in many forms, primarily through oral and
written communications as well as using expressions through body language. One
of the ways of giving information through written language is through
advertisement. At present, advertisement plays an important role for human being,
especially in business activities. People use advertisements to promote their
products so that the customers are interested to buy them.
Advertising is a commercial tool, a social language, a genre of spectator or
reader experience, a technique of persuasion and has always played a great role in
society. It is the form of marketing communication where the marketers promote
their business or services. Just like a conversation, advertising inform, engage,
entertain, and even create aspirations.

An advertisement has some texts which provide information about a
product being advertised. Advertising is not just about the commercial, promotion
of branded products, but can also encompass the idea of texts whose intention is
to enhance the image of an individual, group or organization (Goddard, 1998:8).
Beside the general category of text, there are may be descriptive
information about the product, other text serves the purpose of catching the
readers‟ attention, typically contains of the discourse that consist of short phrases,
utterances and sentences that act as a kind of slogan and finally the name of the

2

company and the name of product. The company‟s copywriters sometimes use the
ungrammatical sentences, idioms, repetitions, and metaphors in their advertising
texts so the readers have to create the meaning in their minds. While any readings
need to consider the different perspective that readers bring, the same level of
complexity often surrounds the verbal language in a text.
This study focused on the use of metaphor in People Magazine‟s
advertisement of how the copywriters put the metaphor into sentences, obtain the
consumers‟ curiosities and then turn them into an eagerness to buy the product.
Metaphor is the use of language to refer to something other than what it

was originally applied to, or what it „literally‟ means, in order to suggest some
resemblance or to make a connection between two things (Knowles and Moon
2006). When an advertisement used persuading words to present their brand or
service, they use metaphorical expressions to attract the readers.
For example:
(i)

“Let the colors explode on your eyes”
(Revlon‟s eye shadows adv. / Cosmopolitan 2010)

Explode here means the metaphorical expression of bright or shine. Whoever
uses the eye shadow will feel beautiful because of the dazzling color of the eye
shadow. By using the metaphor “explode” in the sentence, the target consumers
(mostly women) will have a desire to try the product.

(ii)

“feel your hair running free.”
(Loreal Shampoo adv. / Cosmopolitan 2010)


3

The metaphor “running free” is to show how the shampoo works on the hair and
make it look great and tidy without using a hairspray. For that reason, these
special expressions and their meaning in advertisements can be only understood in
this circumstance.

B. The Problem of the Study
As related to the background of the study, the problems of study are
formulated as following:
1.

What kinds of lexical metaphor are used in the People magazine’s
advertisements?

2.

What is the dominant lexical metaphor found in the People magazine’s
advertisements?


3.

What is the implication of the dominant lexical metaphor that is found in the
People magazine’s advertisements?

C. The Scope of the Study
To avoid the blur discussion to the research, a limitation will be needed as
the scope of the study. The scope of the study will be limited in terms of the
analysis of the phrases in advertisements, based on lexical metaphor in SFL
(Systemic Functional Linguistics). There are two metaphors according to SFL,
namely grammatical metaphor and lexical metaphor. This study will be focused
on the use of lexical metaphor. The advertisements are taken from People
Magazines which are published March 2011 until December 2011.

4

1.3 The Objective of the Study
In relation to the problem of the study, the objectives of the study are:
1.


to find out the lexical metaphor expressions that are used in People
magazine’s advertisements.

2.

to find out the dominant lexical metaphor expressions that are used in People
magazine’s advertisements.

3.

to describe the implication of the dominant lexical metaphor expressions that
are found in People magazine’s advertisements.

1.4 The Significance of the Study
The findings of this study are expected to be useful for:

1.

the students, especially for the students of English Department to enlarge
their knowledge about metaphor, especially in identifying the types of lexical
metaphor and the use of metaphor according to the context.

2.

the readers who want to have wider horizon about metaphor, especially in its
application in advertisements.

3.

other researchers who want to do a depth research about metaphor.

4.

the copywriters of an advertising company.

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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
After analyzing the lexical metaphor in People Magazine’s advertisements, the
conclusions were drawn as follows:
1. The five concept of lexical metaphor are found in the advertisements, namely noun
–noun, noun – verb, noun – adjective, sound concepts, and social concepts. This study found
7 noun–noun concepts, 22 noun–verb concepts, 13 noun–adjective concepts, 6 sound
concepts and 2 social concepts.
2. Noun–verb concept was dominantly used in the advertisements. Most of the tagline
of the advertisement put the verb to compare with noun.

3. It shows that the use of noun-verb concept is likely to see things that happen as a
certain process or alive. The point of using this concept is that the taglines of the
advertisements are much more fun and creative, more like a puzzle for the customers to solve
and it makes the advertisement more interesting. The customers are also tempted to buy the
product.

B. Suggestions
With reference to the conclusions, suggestions are staged as the following.
1. It is suggested that other researchers should conduct further researches about the use
of lexical metaphor in detailed analysis to enrich the information and knowledge
about it and to help people with the research.
2. It is suggested that the copywriters of advertisement companies should design their
advertisement as good as possible in order to make the readers understand the use of
lexical metaphor in the advertisement so the customer will be attracted to buy the
product.

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3. It is suggested that not only the students but also everyone should have a good
knowledge of the use of lexical metaphor in presenting their ideas.
4. The findings of this research can be used to give a better understanding for students,
especially the students of English and Literature Department of the use of lexical
metaphor.

REFERENCES

Duranti, A. 1997. Linguistics Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Goatly, A. 1997. The Language of Metaphor. London: Routledge.
Goddard, A. 1998. The Language of Advertising: Written Text. London:
Routledge.
Halliday, M.A.K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London:
Edward Arnold.
Hornby, A.S. 2005. Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary of Current English.
New York: Harper Collins.
Janedy, S. and Tracey L. 1994. Advertising. Ohio: Ohio State University Press.
Knowles, M. and Rosamund. 2006. Introducing Metaphor. New York: Routledge.
Lundmark, C. 2005. Metaphor and Creativity in British Magazine Advertising.
Sweden: Lule University of Technology Press.
Saragih, A. 2001. Bahasa dalam Konteks Sosial. Medan: Pasca Sarjana Unimed.
Saragih, A. 2010. Introducing Systemic Functional Grammar of English. Medan:
Language and Art Faculty Unimed.
Shaw, Ian and Nick G. 2001. Qualitative Research in Social Work. London: Sage.
Stern, J. 2000. Metaphor in Context. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising (accessed on November 28th, 2011 at
18.06)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor (accessed on November 28th, 2011 at 18.
37)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_(magazine) (accessed on November 28th,
2011 at 20.05)

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