FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE FOUND IN LANA DEL

REY’S SELECTED SONGS

By :
NI WAYAN DIAH SARSWATI
NIM : 1641121064

ENGLISH DEPARTEMENT FACULTY OF LETTER

WARMADEWA UNIVERSITY
DENPASAR
2019
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background and Problem.

As far as we know song is a part of literature. According to Meyer

(1997:1), literature is a term used to describe written texts marked by careful

use of language, including features such as creative metaphor, wellturned

phrases, elegant syntax, rhyme, alliteration, which are aesthetically read

orinteded 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 though and feelings. Song has two elements, such as lyric and

music. Lyrics have big power in the songs because they express messages and

give the listeners image of songs. When the listeners do not understand the

meaning of the lyrics, it is hard for them gain the messages. Lyrics is one of

many types of poem. Ade and Okuyene (2008:190) state that “it is a short poem

that can be song or that is musical. Therefore, lyrics are included in the poetic

function since it focuses on the message which derived from the meaning of the

lyrics.

The songwriters use words as known as lyrics to convey meaning. In

linguistics, the study of meaning is called semantics (Healsey & Hurford,

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1996:1). There are some types of meaning that are studied in the semantics; one

of them is figurative meaning.

Figurative language is use to convey figurative meaning implicitly.

According to Heller (2011:62), figurative language “refers to groups of words

that exaggerate or alter the usual meanings of the component words. Figurative

language may involve analogy to similar concepts or other contexts, and may

involve exaggerations. People need to spend extra effort to understand the

meaning of figurative language since the meaning is different from the words

spoken or written. Even though it is not easy, people still use figurative language

to communicate. It means that figurative language offers rich and profound

meaning.

There are many types of style in figurative language that was found and

use by songwriters in their songs. For example, I would fly to the moon and

back (hyperbole), It was as white as snow (simile), You are my sunshine

(methapor). Each of them has different characteristics of language and brings

different meanings as well. People prefer using language figuratively in order

to make their language more beautiful, interesting and stylish. It can help

making the listeners or the readers feel the language deeply and are touched by

it.

Most of the lyrics of the songs are full of meanings and influencing in

some way. The meaning of the songs are not merely interpreted by the words

written literally, but the words written in lyrics have other meanings and even

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deeper meanings if they are interpreted and internalized well. Knowing the

meaning of a lyric is important because we will know the meaning and the

purpose in the song. One of the world famous singer is Lana Del Rey. She is an

American singer, songwriter, poet, model and music video director. She was

born in June 21, 1985, and born with the birth name “ Elizabeth Woolridge

Grant. It is interesting to analysis lyrics of Lana Del Rey’s song, because in the

lyrics showed many expression that imagines about condition or situation which

singer have in mind.

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2.1 Scope of Discussion.

Based on the background of study and focused on analysis of figurative

language found in Lana Del Rey’s songs lyric. The problem which analyze and

discussed in this research can be formulated as following :

1. What kinds of figurative language found in selected lyrics on Lana Del

Rey’s songs?

2. What are the meaning of the figurative language used in the song lyric by

Lana Del Rey?

3.1 Aims.

The aims that are gained in this assignment are, first, in general, the

aim of this writing is to practice myself in making scientific writing. In this

case by applying the theory that I have got when I make a research and

attended my lecture.

The specific aim of this research is to identify the types of figurative

language found in the song lyric by Lana Del Rey, and to analyze and

describe the contextual meaning used in song lyric by Lana Del Rey.

The academic aim of this research is to complete the study in English

Departement, Faculty of Letters, Warmadewa University. And also to finish

my assignment for finishing my paper for completing S-1 degree in

Warmadewa University

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4.1 Theoretical Basis.

Theory is needed as guidelines in every scientific research. Theory is

used to create the successfulness of the research because theory is able to

link the differences of the finding into one to clarify the process that is

happening in it.

In writing this scientific paper, the main theory that used to applied in

analyzing the types and the meaning of figurative language is the theory of

Mildred L. Larson in the book entitled “Meaning Based Translation”

(1998), she state that;

“ We noted that the primary sense is the sense which will come to the

minds of most speakers of the language when the word is cited in

isolation, and the secondary sense are those which are dependent

upon context for an indication of the sense intended. We also noted

that secondary are related to one another and to the primary meaning

by some thread of meaning. In addition to the primary and secondary

sense, words also may have figurative sense. (1998:121)

For supporting theory I used Perrin’s book entitled “Sound and Sense an

introduction of poetry”, and also from the other books.

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5.1 Method of Research.

According to Hornby, method is a particular way of doing something

(2000:837). The method of research in this scientific paper can divided into three

parts; there are in determining data source, in collecting the data, and in analysis

the data.

The first step is finding out the source of data. The data source is the object from

which the data taken. The researcher focuses on analyzing the song lyric of Lana

Del Rey that used figurative language. The researcher takes the lyric as the data

source that is taken from kapanlagi.com. In this website we can find any lyric that

we want looking for especially song lyric by Lana Del Rey.

The second method is the process of collecting data. This scientific paper use

observation method. The process of data collection itself is starting from reading

the lyric. And than the researcher download the song through the Stafaband.com

and then the researcher listens the song. Next the researcher attemps to find the

word, phrase, and sentence which contain figurative language and also grasping the

meaning of each figurative language. After the researcher make a note which is one

of the used figurative. Finally, the researcher classifies it and rechecks the data and

ready to analyze it.

The last step is analysis the data. After finding figurative language in the data

source, the first step in the analysis is identifying the types of figurative language

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base on theoretical concepts. In this scientific paper the data analyzed through

literary theory by Mildred L. Larson. After that is drawing conclusion based on the

analysis.