AN ANALYSIS OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN TAYLOR SWIFT’S SONG

A. BACKGROUND

As human being, people need language to communicate with other. Language is

one of the important things in human life. Language is tool for communication between
speaker and hearer in everyday life. It helps people to socialize and communicate with
each other and can give information. Another function of language is to maintain
relationship with particular people who also know that language in certain place.
Language also used by people to express their though to each other. There are many
languages in the world. Each country has their own origin language that can be used
among the people in that country. However language in each country has uniqueness and
characteristic. But many people use English as their second or foreign language. English
is one of the most popular languages and it is known as international language.
There are two types of communication. First direct communication, it happens
when the speaker’s true intentions are communicated in their verbal message. It expresses
the speaker’s needs and desires explicitly. When a direct communicator wants or needs
something, they will say it directly. Second indirect communication happens when a
speaker’s true intentions are hidden. Indirect speakers will not make a direct statement or
directly answer a question that might cause tension or result in an uncomfortable
situation. Indirect communication is used by the singer in their lyric song as figurative
language.
In English, the study of language itself called linguistics. It is divided into some part;
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantic, and pragmatic. According to Brinton and
Brinton (1984: 11-12), linguistic is defined as the study of language systems that is
divided into level or components like phonology, morphology, syntax, semantic, and
pragmatic. Phonology is study of sound. Morphology is study of words structure. Syntax
is study of sentences structure like clauses and phrases. Semantic is the study of meaning
of words, phrases, or clauses. And the last pragmatic is the study of language function
and its use in context. This research focused on semantic. The researcher analyzes
figurative language in Taylor swift songs. Figurative language itself is a branch of
semantic.
Language can also be express by song. The language in song can built
communication with people. Song can make someone’s mood be happy and make the
listener relax. By feeling the melodic, rhythm, and lyric we can be carried away in the
song. According to Hornby (1995: 1133), song is one of the elements of movie, poetry or
drama. It is a piece of music with words that is sung. There are so many ways to describe
song. One of them is paraphrasing.
The writer choose Taylor Swift’s songs because, she is one of the most popular
female singer. She has five albums which are Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and the
new one Reputation. Taylor swift has received many awards including 19 America Music
award and 23 Billboard Music Award, she also has sold more than 40 million albums.
The writer does analyze the figurative language in Taylor Swift song because she has
many hits song on each album.

B. THEORITICAL REVIEW

1. Language

Language is means of communication. Language is very essential to communicate

with each other. People use language to exchange the information with other. Language
has several definition based on same expert. It is widely accepted that language means
system of sound and words used that are used by human. According to Sapir (1921:46),
language is human and non-instinctive method of communication ideas, feeling and
desires by means of a system of sound and symbols. People express their thought, feeling,
experience, and knowledge and in form of language.
2. Semantic
In English study of meaning words, phrases, clauses and sentences is semantic.
Semantic is part of linguistic. According to Crystal (1991: 310), Semantic is one of the
branches of linguistic devoted of study meaning in language. Knowing the meaning of
each word is very important in learning a language. If we do not know the meaning of the
words, it is difficult for us to understand what the speaker said. According to Yule (1985:
114), Semantic is the study of meaning words, phrases, clauses and sentences.

3. Figurative Language

Language plays important role in human life. Without language we cannot

communicate with each other. There are two kind of language. They are literal language
and figurative language. In this research, the researcher analyzes the figurative language.
Figurative language is a language which use figure of speech, it means that a way of
saying one thing and meaning another. According to Groys (2009: 113), figurative
language or style is a way of showing mind through a special language that shows the
soul and the characteristic of the writer (language user), a good language style has to
certain three elements: sincerity, respectful, and attractive. There are seven kinds of
figurative language:

 Hyperbola
Hyperbola is one of kind figurative language which is very common and it is
often found in daily life. According to Dennis (1996:65), hyperbole is a figure
of speech that has statement containing exaggeration.
Example: your luggage weighs a ton (Dennis 1996:65)
This sentence means that hyperbola helps to make the point of luggage is very
heavy.
 Metaphor
Metaphor is figure speech which compares one thing to another. According to
Dennis (1996:63), metaphor is a name or descriptive terms transferred to
some object different from, but analogous to, that to which is properly
applicable.
Example:
 Paradox
Paradox is figure of speech that links apparently contradictory terms in a
single statement that is, in fact and true. According to
Example: he is rich but also poor
The sentence above means that he has much money but he lack good morality
 Simile
According to Dennis (1996:62), a comparison of one thing with another is
always explicit because the words “like” and “as” are used. Simile gives
information about one object that is unknown to the reader by comparing it to
something which the reader familiar.
Example: Her beauty is like a rose
The sentence above means that the girl is beautiful like rose flower. Flower
here is symbol of beautiful person.
 Repetition
According to Reaske (1996), repetition is a figure speech which using
recurrence to show the pretension. It used to make the reader know what the
author statement. Repetition is an effective literary device that may suggest or
add special meaning to a piece of literature or poetry. The repeating of words,
phrases, and lines.
 Symbol
According to Kennedy (1983:488), symbol is a sign of some kind (word or
thing) that suggest something outside and beyond itself.
Example: Time is money
This is symbolic because it warns you that when you spend your time, you are
giving up the opportunity to be doing something else with that time (just as
when you spend your money, you give up your chance to do something else
with the money). Further, like money, time is not infinite.
 Personification
According to Kennedy (1983:487), personification is the attribution of a
personal nature or character to inanimate object or abstract notions especially
as a rhetorical figure.
Example: the stars danced around the night sky (Kennedy: 487)
In the sentence above, the stars (non-human) having the human characteristic
dancing in order to make the sentence more live.
 4. Song lyric

According to Sharndama & Suleiman (2006), song assume a variety of forms,

some of the song are rich, imaginative, and elaborated in the play of words, rhythm, and
melody. There is one thing important in a part of song, it is called lyric. A lyric is a fairly
short poem which is the expression of strong feeling of thoughts or perception of a single
speaker in a meditative manner.

C. FINDING AND DISSCUSION

1. Finding

There are many kinds of figurative languages they are, simile, metaphor, hyperbole,
personification, paradox, symbol and repetition, but not all of kinds figurative languages
is used in lyric song by Taylor Swift. In this part the researcher would like to discuss kinds
of figurative language in Taylor Swift’s song. There are seventh kinds of figurative
language that the researcher analyzed in Taylor Swift’s song. The researcher found five
figurative languages in Taylor swift songs.

Songs Figurative language

Hy Me Par Si Re Sy Per
Mean 1 - - 2 4 - -
Back to December 2 - - - 2 - -
Blank space 2 - - 2 - - 1
Red - - - 2 2 2 -
5 - - 6 8 2 1
Total 22
E. CONCLUSION

Based on the finding and discussion, there are several conclusion that can be
drawn. First, there are five kinds of figurative language that found in Taylor swift
songs. There are 5 hyperboles, 5 similes, 8 repetitions, 2 symbols, and 1
personification. Second, the most dominant figurative language used by the singer is
repetition and simile. Last, the singer used figurative language in her song to make
the meaning of lyric songs deeper and interesting.

F. REFFERENCES

A.S, Hornby. (1995). Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionaryof Current English,

Fifth Edition . New York : Oxford University Press.

Brinton, L. J. (2010). The Linguistic Sturucture of Modern English. Amsterdam :

Benjamin Publishing.

Cristal, D. (1991). What Is Lingusitics? London: Edward Arnold ltd.

Dennis. (1996). Language and Diction in Lingustics. Barkeley: University of

California .

Kennedy, X. (1983). literature: An Intoduction to Fiction Poetry and Drama.

Boston : Little Brown and Company.

Reaske, C. R. (1996). How to Analyze Poetry . New York: Monarch Press.

Sapir, E. (1921). Language; an Intoduction Lnguage to the Study of Speech. New

York: Harcourt, Brace.

Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. New York : Oxford University Press.