ABSTRACT This paper is entitled Figurative Language Used in Taylor Swift s Songs in the Album 1989. The focus of this study is to identify figurative language that is used in lyric of songs and also to analyze the meaning of figurative language and its lexical meaning. The data was taken from 1989 Album by Taylor Swift. The five songs in this album were chosen they are; Blank Space, Style, Bad Blood, Clean, and New Romantics. Documentation method was used as the method in collecting data. The data was analyzed through choosing the song lyrics, listened to it very carefully, note taking and then classifying it. Qualitative method was applied to analyzing the data. The main theory used to analyze the data based on theory of figurative language proposed by Knickerbocker and Reninger (1963) and the theory of lexical meaning by Chaer (2013). The result of this study approved that there are eight types of figurative language found in the five songs. They are; simile, metaphor, personification, synecdoche, hyperbole, irony, dead metaphor, and paradox. The most dominant figurative language that has found in this study is metaphor. Irony and paradox are the least figurative language that are found in the songs. it can be concluded that the meaning of the figurative language and its lexical meaning are contrasted. In which the meanings of the figurative language were much deeper and more impressing than the lexical meaning. Keywords: Figurative Language, Lexical Meaning, and Song Lyrics. vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... iv ABSTRACT... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS... vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION...1 1.1 Background of the Study...1 1.2 Problems of Study...3 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 and Technique of Analyzing Data...4 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE, CONCEPTS, AND THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK...6 2.1 Literature Review...6 2.2 Concepts...8 2.2.1 Concept of Semantic...8 2.2.2 Concept of Figurative Language...9 2.2.3 Concept of Meaning...10 2.2.4 Concept of Lexical Meaning...11 vii
2.2.5 Concept of Song...12 2.2.6 Concept of Lyrics...12 2.3 Theoritical Framework...13 2.3.1 Types of Figurative Language...13 2.3.2 Kinds of Meaning...17 CHAPTER III FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE USED IN TAYLOR SWIFT S SONGS IN THE ALBUM 1989...21 3.1 Introduction...21 3.2 Data...21 3.2.1 Blank Space Lyrics...21 3.2.2 Style Lyrics...23 3.2.3 Bad Blood Lyrics...25 3.2.13 Clean Lyrics...27 3.2.15 New Romantics Lyrics...28 3.3 Analysis 30 3.3.1 Types of Figurative Language...30 3.3.2 Discussion of Meaning of Figurative Language and Its Lexical Meaning....34 CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION...59 BIBLIOGRAPHY...60 viii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Study Literature is the creative process of human language in order to fulfill the desire of human being to use their language creatively. An art covers the ideas, feelings, values, and vision of humanity in the world around us. According to Meyer (1997:1), literature is term used to describe written texts marked careful use of language, including features such as creative metaphors, well turned phrases, elegant syntax, rhyme, alliteration, which are aesthetically read oriented by the author to be aesthetically read and are deliberately somewhat open in interpretation. Song is one example of literature. Song is the act or art of singing. Song as piece of music with words that are sung has a function to express the thoughts and feeling. Song has two elements, they are music and lyrics. Music is a complex social behavior and universal that contained an expression of human thoughts, ideas, opinion, and others. Messages or ideas conveyed through music or songs usually have a relationship with the historical context. Lyrics can be categorized as part of discourse, because it consists of words or sentences which have different grammatical function. Discourse is long and serious speech (Oxford, 1991:119). It means that discourse is more than a message from sender to a 1
receiver and from the speaker to the listener. By writing a song lyric, people are easy to show their feeling and emotion. The song lyrics vary in terms of textual meaning. Generally the hearers of the songs have different interpretation to understand the meaning of the songs. To understand the meaning in text, people must have semantics skills.. Semantics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by the speaker and interpreted by the listener. According to Chaer (2013:2), semantics is the technical term used to refer to the study of meaning. Semantics tells us about the internal meaning. It means that semantic analysis is internally focuses of meaning in words and sentences. In semantic itself, there are several levels of meaning that studied by linguists, they are lexical meaning, sentence meaning and discourse meaning. Lexical meaning is the meaning of word in isolation, and usually considered to be the meaning of words. This is the one usually given by the dictionary. Song usually consists of figurative language since the figurative languaged is used in the lyric that is writen well. The descriptive words of figurative language has a meaning in sense other than literal, even the words convey precise meaning. In its writing, the songwriters or composers usually beautify the language they use by any figurative language, so that the listeners will be more attracted in listening the song.. This study focused on analyzing figurative language and its lexical meaning found in five songs of Taylor Swift s album 1989. The lyrics of Taylor's songs in her album in 1989 is interesting to study because many 2
lyrics used figurative language and the meanings are portrait of Taylor's own life. 1.2 Problems of Study Based on the background that has been described, the problems that can be formulated are as follows : 1. What types of figurative language are used in five Taylor Swift s songs in the album 1989? 2. How are the meaning of the figurative language contrasted with its lexical meaning? 1.3 Aims of study The aims of this study are as follows : 1. To identify the types of figurative language found in five Taylor Swift s songs in the album 1989. 2. To analyse how the meaning of the figurative language contrasted with its lexical meaning. 1.4 Scope of study The scope of this study is concentrated on a few aspects. First, identifying the types of figurative language are found in five Taylor Swift s songs in the album 1989 and then analyzing how the meaning of figurative language contrasted with its lexical meaning. 1.5 Research Methods In this section there are three points included, they are: data source, data collection, and data analysis. 3
1.5.1 Data Source In this study, the datas were collected directly from five Taylor Swift s songs in the Album 1989. The songs were; Blank Space, Style, Bad Blood, Clean, and New Romantics. The song lyrics were taken from www.azlyrics.com. These songs were chosen because they are the best songs from Taylor Swift s album 1989 and contained a lot of figurative language. 1.5.2 Method and Technique of Collecting Data The method used to collect the data was documentation method. This method is a way of collecting data that is taken from taking notes, internet and the books as theory. Technique of collecting data consists of steps as in the following: firstly, the song lyrics of the five songs were downloaded and printed out from www.azlyrics.com, then the songs were listened carefully and repeatedly until the lyrics were understood and the lyrics were read several times until the songs were understood what they were all about. Finally, the types of figurative language in the songs were classified based on discussion. 1.5.3 Method and Technique of Analyzing Data There were some steps which were used in analyzing the data in this study. First, in order to understand the object of the study, it is very important to read the song lyrics carefully, especially to find the meaning of the figurative language, then classifying the sentence in each song to get the types of figurative language using theory proposed 4
by K.L Knickerbocker & H. Williard Reniger (1963). Second, finding the meaning of figurative language and finding its lexical meaning using oxford dictionary and some online dictionaries, and then analyzing how the meaning of figurative language contrasted with its lexical meaning. Finally, the analysis was done with the conclusion and became the answers of the problems that mentioned before. 5