CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE, CONCEPT AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 1.1 Review of Literature Putra (2013) in his paper entitled Figurative Language in Grace Nichol s Poem. The topic was chosen because a poem can express something beyond the literal meaning of each word or sentence. In this context, figurative language seems to be very important to support the poet s imagination while combining the physical reality with an inner mood. In his thesis three poems of Grace Nichols entitled The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping, Island Man, and Praise Song for My Mother were analyzed. The aims of his thesis were analyzing kinds of figurative language that are used in the three poems written by Grace and analyzing the themes of the poems and their relation with figurative language. The theory applied in his thesis are theory of figurative language proposed by Knickerbocker &Reninger (1963) and theory of theme proposed by Smith Sybille (1985). The data were analyzed using qualitative method. The result of his thesis, from three of her poems six figurative languages were found, they were metaphor, personification, hyperbole, simile, synecdoche, and symbol. Each figurative language has an important role in strengthen Nichols s poem. The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping s theme was discrimination and humiliation. Metaphor, personification, 8
9 hyperbole, synecdoche, and metaphor were used in this poem. Homesickness was the theme of The Island Man poem. To support the theme synecdoche, personification and symbol were used in this poem. The poem Praise Song for My Mother had a theme of love; love for mother. The use of metaphor in all the poems shows Nichols s mother in other way it also shows how deep Nichols s love to her mother. The strength of his thesis was the writer used all kinds of figurative language to analyze the data. The weakness of his thesis was the explanation of the data that were being analyzed was not detail and need more explanation. Compared with this undergraduate thesis, we used the same theory of figurative language proposed by Knickerbocker &Reninger, however the other theory that we used were different. Saputri (2014), in her paper entitled An Analysis of Figurative Languages Used in Rick Riordan s Novel Entitled The Heroes of Olympics, Book Three: The Mark of Athena. The topic was chosen because when people read a novel sometimes they will find some terms that were difficult to understand because there would be so many figurative expressions and some idioms that they would never find in their daily conversation. It was important for them to know the meaning of the figurative language found in a novel so they can imagine what happens in the story, and they can feel the emotion of the story in the novel. In collecting data the documentation method were applied in her paper. The data were analyzed using qualitative method. There were two theories applied to support her paper. The writer used theory of figurative language by Leech and theory of contextual meaning by Lyons. The result
10 of her study, there were 52 items or 55.9% of simile, 18 items or 19.4% of personification, 16 items or 17.2% of hyperbole, 6 items or 6.4% of metaphor, and 1 item or 1.1% of metonymy. It can be indicated that the dominant type of figurative language in the novel was simile. The strength of her paper was the explanation of the data was clear. The weakness of her paper was that the explanation of the meaning of the figurative language found in the data was not detail. Compared with this undergraduate thesis, we used different theories for the analysis. She used theory of figurative language by Leech and theory of contextual meaning by Lyons, while this thesis used theory of figurative language by Knickerbocker and Reninger and theory of meaning by Leech. Listiani (2015) in her paper entitled An Analysis of Figurative Language Found on The Song Lyric by Taylor Swift s Speak Now Album. The topic was chosen because in fact so many students outside do not really understand about figurative language, how to classify the type and explain the denotative meaning each figurative meaning. Also, every song has many messages and need to analyze the meaning of the song to understand the song. The aims of her study were to identify the types and the meaning of figurative language used in Taylor Swift s Speak Now album. In collecting data the documentation method were applied in her paper. The data were analyzed using qualitative method. There were three theories applied to support her paper. The writer used theory of figurative language by X.J Kennedy (1979), Diyanni (2004) and Murthy (2003) to
11 analyze the data. The result of her study was there were seven kinds of figurative language that was used in the song lyric, they were simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, synecdoche, symbol and oxymoron. Hyperbole was the most frequent figurative language which appears and is used in the album. The strength of her paper was that the explanation of each data is clear enough to understand. The weakness of her paper was the writer used too many theory in her analysis. Compared with this undergraduate thesis, we used different theories for the analysis. She used theory by X.J Kennedy (1979), Diyanni (2004) and Murthy (2003), while this thesis used theory of figurative language by Knickerbocker and Reninger (1963) and theory of meaning by Leech (1979). To give more overview in conducting research of figurative language, a review from international journal is needed. The article was entitled A Critical Discourse Analysis of Figurative Language in Pakistani English Newspapers written by Mahmood (2014). In the journal the author tried to do the research about a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of figurative language in Pakistan English newspapers. The research highlight was the implicit function of figurative language in the English Newspapers. It explores how figurative language was used in communicating ideas to facilitate the readers and to uncover the manipulation through its usage. Each figure of speech has its own significance in making and describing ideas. There have been frequency differences among all figures of speech. Metonymy was the most frequently occurring figure of speech. It employs both common and proper nouns in
12 the form of the agent in the news. Metonymy was more uncertain and ambiguous in nature as most of the times agent of the news was hidden within a general term. Metaphor and Simile were reciprocal in nature. Former made ideas concrete and factual while later made the concept more abstract and unreal. Hyperbole was least used in Newspapers but whenever it was used it makes the ideas seem uncertain. It has over exaggeration of ideas which brings the nature of news near to impossibility. However no figure of speech reflected any proper shift towards any particular agenda. Each one played an individual significant role merely in describing the ideas in order to form the desired public opinion. Based on those review above, it can be concluded that all of the review above are talking about figurative language. Even though the data of each review above are different, however all of the review above used documentation research and used qualitative method to analyze their data. Compared with this undergraduate thesis, the review above used different theories to analyze their data. 1.2 Concepts Concepts is a brief explanation of the technical terms that were used in this study. There were two concepts applied in this study; they are: concept of figurative language and concept of meaning.
13 1.2.1 Concept of Figurative Language In order to make the songs more interesting song writers usually used figurative language in writing their lyrics. If the writers simply write the lyrics with literal language, the songs will not be as interesting as the songs that contain figurative language. Figurative language is often used to make the lyrics more aesthetic. Figurative language is the use of words, symbols, phrases and idea in such a way to generate mental images and sense impressions. Figurative language is sometimes called metaphorical language, or simply metaphor, because its Greek ancestor Metaphereien means to carry meaning beyond its literal meaning (Knickerbocker &Reninger, 1963). According to Morner and Rausch (1991), figurative language is a language that contains figures of speech, there are, metaphor, simile, personification and hyperbole, namely expressions that make comparison with another things that are meant to be interpreted imaginatively rather than literary. Imagery is often used as synonymous with figure of speech. 1.2.2 Concept of Meaning Words are used to express something and convey feelings about what we are describing. The characteristics of words is a single word usually have several meanings. Words can have denotation which is apparent of surface meanings and connotations which is implied or hidden meanings. In figurative language the
14 meaning of words cannot be understood easily by using just a dictionary. Dictionary cannot gives a specific information about the ways that we build up in relation to the word. Because of that, theory of meaning (semantic) cannot be avoided. According to Leech (1974), word is the smallest unit of spoken language that has meaning and can stand alone, it is a written representation of one or more sounds that can be spoken to represent an idea, object, action and many more in order to make people understand so a word must have a meaning. The meanings of words are complex, they have components such as, idea, picture, quality, relationship, personal feelings and association. There are seven types of meanings, such as conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, stylistic meaning, affective meaning, reflective meaning, collocative meaning and thematic meaning. 1.3 Theoretical Framework In this study theory of figurative language by Knickerbocker and Reninger (1963) were used to analyze types of figurative language found in the data and theory of meaning by Leech (1974) were used to analyze the meaning of each figurative language found in the data. The writer chose to use those theory in this study because those theory had a simple yet detail explanation that can help the writer in analyzing the data in this study.
15 1.3.1 Theory of Figurative Language There are several theories used to support this study, however the main theory of figurative language is theory proposed by K. L. Knickerbocker and H. Willard Reninger. They proposed some kinds of figures, such as, simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, paradox, dead metaphor and illusion. However in this study five types of figurative language were used; they are: a. Simile Simile is stated a comparison two essentially different objects, actions or attributes in which they share some aspects of similarity, introduced by like or as. For example: My love is like a red rose (Knickerbocker and Reninger, 1963) It is called simile because the word like in the sentence above has a function to compare my love with red rose. Although they are different things, the sentence above shows the similarity between my love and red rose. In this case, the writer wants to tell the reader that love is as beautiful as a rose. b. Metaphor Similar with simile, metaphor is comparing two things by using one kind of object or using in place of another to suggest the comparison between them. Metaphor is an implied comparison in which the word like or as is omitted. For example: Life but a walking shadow (Knickerbocker and Reninger, 1963)
16 This metaphor is used instead of the simile life is like a walking shadow. In the sentence above, the writer wants to tell the readers about the similarity of two things. The writer does not use word like or as like simile, it is compared implicitly. The aims of the writer are to make the sentence sounds good and can give the readers a good sense when they read that sentence. c. Personification Personification is a figure of speech that gives human characteristics to an object, animal or an abstract idea, such as emotions, desires, sensations, physical gesture and speech. Personification is just like metaphor, in the sense that there is an implied comparison between a non-human thing and human being. For example: These honor comes, a pilgrim gray (Knickerbocker and Reninger, 1963) The sentence in the example above shows the use of personification, because the word comes is for human being, however these honor is non-human being. d. Hyperbole Hyperbole is figure of speech that used an exaggeration which is used evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression. Hyperbole is not meant to be taken literally. For example: Go and catch a falling star (Knickerbocker and Reninger, 1963)
17 The sentence above is a hyperbole because it is the statement that is impossible to do. Hyperbole is used in that sentence in order to make the sentence has a special effect to influence the reader s mind to become stronger. e. Irony Irony is figure of speech in which the real meaning is completely opposed to its professed or surface meaning. For example: The czar is the choice of God and shall live. (Knickerbocker, 1963) The czar in the sentence above actually is not the choice of God and shall life forever. The sentence above means czar is an authoritarian individual. It is the opposite of the real meaning. The writer aimed to give an ironic sense to the sentence. 1.3.2 Theory of Meaning The other theory that was used to analyze the data is the theory of meaning which is also essential to analyze in this study. According to Leech (1974), the meaning of these words is complex, in which they have such components as an idea, a quality, a relationship, personal feelings and association. There have been categorized meaning of words into seven types, including conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, stylistic meaning, affective meaning, reflective meaning, collocative meaning, and thematic meaning. In this study two types of meaning were used; they are:
18 a. Conceptual Meaning Conceptual meaning is also called denotative or cognitive meaning. It is logical and widely assumed to be the central factor in linguistic communication and it can be shown to be integral to the essential functioning of language in a way that other types of meaning are not. Conceptual meaning is the literal meaning of the word indicating the idea or concept to which it refers. Leech (1974:13) states that the aim of the denotative meaning is to provide, for any given interpretation of sentence, a configuration of abstract symbol which shows exactly what we need to know if we are to distinguish that meaning from all other possible sentence meanings in the language. b. Connotative Meaning Leech (1974: 14) states that connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content. Connotative meaning is compared with conceptual meaning as it is relatively unstable, which varies considerably with culture, historical period, and the experience of the individuals themselves. Leech says that connotative meaning is not specific to language, however connotative meaning shares with other communicative system, like in music and the visual art features. In conceptual meaning, the word woman is defined in three different features (woman = human, male, + adult), but in connotative meaning, there is a multitude of additional; non-criteria properties that we have learnt to expect a referent of a woman to possess. There are:
19 1. Physical characteristics, such as: biped, having a womb 2. Psychological and social properties, such as: gregarious, subject to maternal instinct 3. And may extend to features which are merely typical rather than invariable concomitants of womanhood, such as: capable of speech, experienced in cookery, skirt or dress wearing.