ABSTRACT This study is entitled The Analysis of Idioms in Katy Perry s Prism Songs Lyrics. This study aims at finding the types of idioms and analyzing the meanings of idioms in the song lyrics. Different kinds of idioms have different kinds of meanings depending on the context of the song lyrics. The data in this study were taken directly from Katy Perry s album Prism (2013). The data were collected by listening the songs and reading the lyrics repeatedly and carefully in order to understand the meaning and the message behind it, and taking notes of every word or phrase which is considered to be idiom. The collected data were descriptively analyzed by qualitative method. The data were presented in informal method where the analysis is descriptively presented in the forms of words and sentences. The theories used in this study are, the types of idioms proposed by McCarthy and O dell (2010). Besides, meanings of idioms applied in this study were defined from the theory of Leech (1981) with his seven types of meaning. The result shows, six types of idioms were found in the song lyrics. There were, simile, binomial, euphemism, cliché, fixed statement, and idioms from other languages. When all of the idioms had been classified into its own types, then the meaning of the idiom was identified by using the theory of Leech (1981). In this case, there were two types of meaning found in the song lyrics. There were connotative meaning and reflected meaning. These two types of meaning found in the song lyrics because they used words that cannot be translated by looking up the literal meaning in the dictionary and they also used referred words to give dramatic effect or to give softer sense to the lyrics. Keywords: idioms, types of idioms, meanings, song lyrics iii 1
2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........i ABSTRACT...... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS... iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION.... 1 1.1 Background of the Study...... 1 1.2 Problems of the Study...... 2 1.3 Aims of the Study...... 3 1.4 Scope of Discussion...... 3 1.5 Research Method.... 3 1.5.1 Data Source.... 4 1.5.2 Method and Technique of Collecting Data... 4 1.5.3 Method of Technique of Analyzing Data... 5 1.5.4 Method and Technique of Presenting Data... 5 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE, CONCEPTS AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK...... 7 2.1 Review of Literature..... 7 2.2 Concepts... 10 2.2.1 Concept of Idioms... 10 iv
3 2.2.2 Concept of Meaning of Idioms... 11 2.3 Theoretical Framework..... 12 2.3.1 Types of Idioms..... 12 1. Simile... 12 2. Binomial... 13 3. Proverbs... 15 4. Euphemism...... 16 5. Cliché... 17 6. Fixed Statement....... 17 7. Other Languages... 18 2.3.2 Types of Meaning... 19 1. Conceptual Meaning.... 19 2. Connotative Meaning... 19 3. Stylistic Meaning..... 20 4. Affective Meaning... 21 5. Reflected Meaning... 22 6. Collocative Meaning... 22 7. Thematic Meaning... 23 CHAPTER III THE ANALYSIS OF IDIOMS IN KATY PERRY S PRISM ALBUM...... 24 v
4 3.1 Preliminary.... 24 3.2 Types of Idioms in Katy Perry s Prism Album... 25 3.2.1 Simile..... 25 3.2.2 Binomial.... 27 3.2.3 Euphemism.... 27 3.2.4 Cliché..... 28 3.2.5 Fixed Statement...... 29 3.2.6 Other Languages.... 29 3.3 Meaning Analysis in Katy Perry s Prism Album... 30 3.3.1 Connotative Meaning.... 30 3.3.2 Reflected Meaning..... 44 CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION.... 50 BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES vi
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study Idioms are words, phrases, and expression that cannot be translated literally. In other words, they have different meanings than the basics ones in a dictionary. According to McCarthy and O dell (2010), idioms are fixed combinations of words whose meaning is often difficult to guess from the meaning of each individual word. It means that idioms cannot be understood by defining separate words. It should be considered that the meaning of idioms cannot be guessed by translating word by word that make them up. It is because idioms have a function as a semantic unit not a single word. Oxford Advance Learner s Dictionary (Hornby, 2015) also described idioms as a group of words whose meaning is different from the meanings of the individual words. Nowadays, idioms can be easily found for example in movie, talk show, magazine, song, and etc. Songs are chosen as the subject in this research because they are one of the best media for people to express their feelings that close to their daily life. The use of idioms in the song lyrics have become a common thing in order to express the message of the song. They can make an extra feeling of enjoyable tastes as to achieve perfection in the ears of the listeners. The idioms have its role in 1
2 enriching the meaning of the language with their beautiful words that they created. In the same time, their beautiful words are also often confused people by the difficult words of language that their formed and it is not easy to interpret it. When we learn about idioms, we also have to learn the meaning of idiom in order to understand it. In this case, it is in order to understand the message of the song lyrics that want to be delivered by the singer. Meaning is the thing or idea that a sound, word, sign, etc. represents (Hornby, 2015). In addition, Palmer (1976:34) states that meaning is notion in semantics which studies sense relations is the assumptions that can be either true or false. Meaning means the total of communication through language. Based on the explanation above, idioms and their meanings become an interesting topic to be analyzed especially in the song lyrics. It is very useful to find out and understanding the meaning of idioms rather than listen without knowing or understand their meaning in the song lyrics. Therefore, the message in the song lyrics can be delivered to the listeners well. 1.2 Problems of the Study From the explanation above, there are two problems that were analyzed in this study. There were: 1. What types of idioms are found in Katy Perry s Prism album? 2. What are the meaning of idioms found in Katy Perry s Prism album?
3 1.3 Aims of the Study The aims of this study are focused on: 1. To find out the types of idioms found in Katy Perry s Prism album. 2. To analyze the meaning of idioms found in Katy Perry s Prism album. 1.4 Scope of Discussion The scope of discussion i conveyed based on the problems mentioned before. In this study, the points of the discussion or analysis were focus on: 1. The idioms found in Katy Perry s Prism album including the types of idioms. 2. The meaning of idioms found in Katy Perry s Prism album. 1.5 Research Method Research method is an important process and step in order to produce a scientific research. Research method is the way in understanding the subject that becomes the target of subject. In this study, the research method is divided into four parts, they are: data source, method and technique of collecting data, method and technique of analyzing data, method and technique of presenting data.
4 1.5.1 Data Source The data in this study were taken directly from Katy Perry: Prism (2013) album. This album consists of sixteen songs but only ten songs that contain idioms are used as data source. Those are Roar, Legendary Lovers, Birthday, Unconditionally, Dark Horse (featuring Juicy J), This is How We Do, International Smile, This Moment, By The Grace Of God, Spiritual. All of those songs were taken as the data to be analyzed. The reason for choosing Katy Perry is because she is famous with idioms in her song. 1.5.2 Method and Technique of Collecting Data In this study, the data were collected by using documentation method. Documentation method is a research that is done by documenting the data related to the taken topic. The steps to collect the data of this study were: 1. Browsing the lyrics of songs. 2. Listening to the songs and read the lyrics repeatedly and carefully in order to understand the meaning behind it. 3. Taking notes of every word or phrase which is considered to be idiom then writing it on a separated paper to be analyzed further.
5 1.5.3 Method and Technique of Analyzing Data The data were analyzed using qualitative descriptive method based on the theories. The processes of the data analysis were: 1. The collected data were checked to the source which provide information of the idioms. 2. The idioms were categorized according to their types based on the theory proposed by McCarthy and O dell (2010). 3. The meanings of the idioms were analyzed based on the theory proposed by Leech (1981). 4. The meaning of each idiom was related to the songs, therefore, it could be easier to understand the messages of the song. 1.5.4 Method and Technique of Presenting Data There are two methods of presenting data according to Sudaryanto (1993) which are formal and informal. In formal method, the data is presented using symbols, tables, or graphs which is aimed to describe the data more easily. On the other hand, in informal method the analysis is descriptively presented in the forms of words and sentences. Since this study applied qualitative method, the data analysis was presented informally in descriptive sentences. The steps of delivering the types of idioms and its meaning are:
6 1. Presenting the data of the Katy Perry s song lyrics in the Prism album 2. Finding the types of the idioms found in the Katy Perry s song lyrics in the Prism album. The song lyrics analyzed carefully in order to find the idioms based on the theory of idioms types by McCarthy and O dell (2010). 3. Finding the meaning of the idioms found in the Katy Perry s song lyrics in the Prism album. After finding types of idioms in the song lyrics, the idioms further analyzed to get the meanings of the idioms which they were conceptual, connotative, stylistic, affective, reflected, collocative and thematic meaning based on the theory by Leech (1981).