AN ANALYSIS ON THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN ADELE’S
SONG LYRICS OF “21” ALBUM
T H E S I S
By:
GRANDIS ISTIQOMAH PUTRI
07360239
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF MALANG
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
AN ANALYSIS ON THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN ADELE’S
SONG LYRICS OF “21” ALBUM
T H E S I S
This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to
achieve Sarjana Degree in English Education
By:
GRANDIS ISTIQOMAH PUTRI
07360239
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF MALANG
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
MOTTO AND DEDICATION
MOTTO
“In this life we cannot always do gr eat things, but we can do small things with the gr eat love”
–M other Ther esa-
“Ber mimpilah maka Tuhan akan memeluk mimpi-mimpimu itu” -Ar ai (Sang Pemimpi)-
DEDICATION:
I dedicated this thesis to:
My beloved parents,
My sister and brothers,
My Yeobo,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Alhamdulillah, this thesis finally could fulfill the expectation of the writer. My
greatest thanks to Allah SWT, because of His guidance and merciful the writer finishes her thesis “An Analysis on The Figurative Language in Adele’s Song Lyrics of “21” Album”.
The writer would like to express her deepest gratitude to Dra. Erly Wahyuni, M.Si, her first advisor and Drs. Imam Mahfudz, her second advisor, for their
invaluable guidance, advices and suggestion during the consultation, and their comments and corrections that made this thesis was better.
The special thanks goes to her beloved mother (Saderu Wahyuningsih), Father
(Nur Habib), sister (Ria), brothers (Riza and Rio), Grandparents (Wagimin and Suratun), uncles, aunties, and all my family for their loves, prays and attentions. And
also, special thanks to her beloved spouse (Hermawan) for your love, pray, and support. Sorry about all this bother and upset, khamsahamnida Yeobo . Special thanks also give to her beloved friends (Septian, Shinta, Ratih, Nia, Eva, BQ, Irma,
Hany, BCT 8/124 and all my friends especially class E - 2007) for their cares and supports. Finally, may Allah SWT always bless them all and write their kindness as
worship.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
4.1.2.5 Set Fire to the Rain ... 28
4.1.2.6 Turning Tables ... 29
4.2 Discussion ... 33
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Conclusions ... 38
5.2 Suggestions ... 38
REFERENCES ... viii
LIST OF TABLES
4.1.1 Figurative Language ... 23
4.1.1.1 Don’t You Remember ... 24
4.1.1.2 I’ll be Waiting ... 24
4.1.1.3 One and Only ... 25
4.1.1.4 Rolling in the Deep ... 26
4.1.1.5 Set Fire to the Rain ... 27
4.1.1.6 Turning Tables ... 28
4.1.2 Meaning ... 29
4.1.2.1 Don’t You Remember ... 30
4.1.2.2 I’ll be Waiting ... 30
4.1.2.3 One and Only ... 31
4.1.2.4 Rolling in the Deep ... 32
4.1.2.5 Set Fire to the Rain ... 33
REFERENCES
Abrams, M.H. 1999. A Glossary of literary Terms. Seventh Edition. By Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
Azis, Abdul. 2011. A Study of Figurative Language Used in James Blunt’s Song Lyrics in “Back to Bedlam” Album. Malang: University of Muhammadiyah Malang.
Ary, Donald. 2010. Introduction to Research in Education 8th Edition. USA: Nelson Education, Ltd.
Fernandy, Andika. 2006. A Study on Figurative Language on Creed’s Song in “Weathered” Album”. Malang: University of Muhammadiyah Malang.
Fitriyah, Yuyun. 2004. An Analysis of Figurative Language and Message on the Lyrics of Raihan Song. Malang: University of Muhammadiyah Malang.
Hornby, A.S. 2000. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ibadillah. 2004. A Study on the Messages on The Beatles Song “Hey Jude”. Malang: The State College of Islamic Studies.
Mahzumi, 2005. Analysis on the Message and Figurative Language in Lyrics of Westlife Album “Coast to Coast”. Malang: State University of Malang
Panca Putra, Suatmo. 1995. The Anthology of History of English Literature, Part I and II. Malang.
Sundriyani, Hanik Azizah. 2002. Analysis of Figurative Language and Message on the Lyrics of Snada’s songs. Malang: The state College of Islamic Studies.
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the writer will discuss background of the study, statement of
the problems, purposes of the study, significance of the study, scope and limitation, and definition of the key terms.
1.1 Background of the Study
Literature is creative and imaginative work art either spoken or written. Literature is human beings’ creations or expressions of experiences, thoughts,
feelings, ideas, by using a language as a medium. According to Stableford (2005:10)
(in Aziz, 2011) literature means the production of written works having an excellence of form or expression and dealing with ideas of permanent interest. Panca Putra (1994:3) stated that literature is the human expression of beautiful thought and ideas
in beautiful language. This classification of literature can be divided into three different classifications: poetry, drama, and prose. Drama or play deals with acting
and dialogues. Prose deals with narrative, novel and short story, and poetry deals with sonnet and quatrain in appropriate language.
Wellek and Warren (1990) said that literature is a creativity of art. Literature
belongs to art because it has beautiful aspects like the diction of the words, the use of its elements like the rhythm, meter, and others. One form of literature is poem. Poems,
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and many people know what poem is. Poem can be expressed in a song to show
people’s deep feeling. Words, figurative language, and theme and subject, sound,
rhyme, form and structure, meter and rhythm are parts of a poem. Waluyo (1987:1) said that a song is a poem form which is sounded. Song is a poem that is voiced and
sung by solo voice or in-group with music. It means that when we are listening to the song, we enjoy literature.
Song is a short poem or number of verses set of music intended to be sung by the singer. Based on the statement above, the lyrics of songs are categorized into
poems. A poem is another way to express the author’s imaginations, illusions, ideas, feelings, and messages to other people. In discussing songs, the important things that must be known is finding the theme, meaning, and message because knowing these
matters can show the composer’s or the poet’s wishes, willingness, and his or her dreams.
Moreover, to make a song have more artistic value, composers usually use figurative language. It means that they will express their message by using words or sentences that need interpretation. Therefore, the authors of song will show their style
through the lyrics that they make because every composer has different style from others.
Every song commonly uses figurative language in order that people who listen to the song will be interested in and also understand what the author’s imagination is. Abram (1999:96) stated that figurative language is a conspicuous
3
effect. So, figurative language is part of composer style. If we discuss about song of
course, it cannot be separated from music. So, by singing a song we can enjoy it. The researcher takes a previous study, which relates to this study. Sundriyani (2002) in her thesis entitled “Analysis on Figurative Language and Message on The
Lyrics of Snada song” shows that the figurative languages in her religion songs are
hyperbole, antithesis, repetition, simile, metaphor, and personification.
Another one, Fernandy (2006) in his study entitled “A Study on Figurative
Language on Creed’s Song in “Weathered” Album” found out 7 kinds of figurative
language in the songs. They are metaphor, personification, hyperbole, antithesis, metonymy, allegory, synecdoche, and euphemism. Some researchers have conducted song analysis to reveal cohesion devises and meaning in songs.
Ibadillah (2004), in his research found that the message of song lyric “Hey Therefore, understanding the figurative language in literary works is important
because we would be able to understand every message in literary works.
The researcher was inspired to conduct a study of analyzing the figurative language in the lyrics of English song since many people like singing songs just for
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meaning of the figurative language. The researcher takes Adele’s song lyrics of “21”
album. Adele is one of the famous singers in the world inspiring the researcher to write this thesis. The researcher chooses a literature as the area of this thesis,
especially in Adele’s song lyrics, because the researcher wants to know more about
the figurative languages and their meanings in Adele’s songs and they have never been studied before.
1.2 Statement of Problems
Based on the background of the study in the preceding discussion, the following research questions are formulated:
1. What kinds of figurative languages are found in Adele’s song lyrics of “21”
album?
2. What are the contextual meanings on the figurative language in Adele’s song lyrics of “21” album?
1.3 Purpose of the Study
In line with statement of problems, this study is focused to answer the questions above. Considering that, the purposes of the study are:
1. To find out the kinds of figurative language that are found in Adele’s song lyrics of “21” album.
5 1.4 Significance of the Study
Firstly, the researcher of this thesis hopes that the result of this study is useful for the students of English Department especially and readers in general who are interested in appreciating literary works, particularly the lyric of a song. Secondly, this
study is expected to enlarge the knowledge about the figurative language expressed in the songs deeper. Finally, it is also expected to be useful to conduct further studies.
1.5 Scope and Limitation
The researcher only attempts to do an analysis on Adele’s songs in “21” album. The scope of this study is the analysis of the use of figurative language and the contextual meanings of the figurative language. This analysis is limited to six of the
songs: Don’t You Remember, I’ll be Waiting, One and Only, Set Fire to the Rain, Turning tables, and Rolling in the Deep.
1.6 Definition of Key Terms
In order to avoid misunderstanding the terms used in this study, here several
definitions are provided as follows:
Song is a relatively short musical composition for the human voice (possibly
accompanied by other musical instruments). It is typically for a solo singer, though it may also be for a duet, trio or for more voices (Mahzumi, 2005).
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Figurative language is a conspicuous departure from what users of a language
apprehend as the standard meaning of words, or else the standard of order of words, in order to achieve some special meaning or effect (Abram: 1999:96).
Adele is an English recording artist and songwriter. Her debut album is “19” released
in 2008 and “21” is her second album released in early 2011 (Wikipedia, 2012).
“21” album is the second studio album by English recording artist Adele. Released
