LEXICAL METAPHOR IN SURA’ AL WAQI’AH
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
By :
AHMAD KHOIRUL AKHIR TANJUNG Registration Number: 8106112024
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
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Tanjung, Ahmad Khoirul Akhir. Registration Number: 8106112024. Lexical Metaphor in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah. Thesis: English Applied Linguistics Program, Postgraduate School, State University of Medan. 2016
ABSTRACT
This study deals with lexical metaphor in Sura’Al Waqi’ah by applying Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The objectives of the study are to describe the types of lexical metaphor used in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah, how are the metaphors used in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah and the reason for the use of lexical metaphor in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah. This study was conducted by using descriptive research. The sources of data were Sura’ Al Waqi’ah. The findings indicated that firstly, there are three concepts of lexical metaphor in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah such as 13 verses (23.21%) for Noun – Noun concept, 23 verses (41.07%) for Noun-Verb concept or verb-noun concept and 20 verses (35.71%) for Noun- Adj concept or adjective-noun concept. Secondly, linguistics realization of Lexical Metaphor in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah are through comparing Noun – Noun, Noun-Verb or Verb-Noun and Noun – Adjective or Adjective-Noun. The dominant type of lexical metaphor in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah is Noun-Verb concept or Verb-Noun Concept. It means that most of the lexical metaphor is compared by noun and verb or verb and noun. Because this Sura’ tells us about the day of resurrection. The day of resurrection mostly tells about what will happen before and after the day of resurrection. So, we can find the most lexical metaphor in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah is comparing noun into verb or verb into noun. Finally, the reasons of lexical metaphors used in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah are explaining the idea which is out of human life experience, explaining an abstract thing concretely and explaining something unknown yet with something familiar. In this study, the most dominant reason of using lexical metaphor in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah is explaining an abstract thing concretely. There are 18 verses in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah about this. Sura’ Al Waqi’ah tells us about the resurrection day. This Sura’ explains about what will happen before and after resurrection day. Resurrection day is an abstract thing. No one in this world has experience about the resurrection day. So, this Sura’ mostly discusses about it. That’s why, the most dominant reason of using lexical metaphor in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah is explaining an abstract thing concretely.
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Tanjung, Ahmad Khoirul Akhir. Registration Number: 8106112024. Lexical Metaphor in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah. Thesis: English Applied Linguistics Program, Postgraduate School, State University of Medan. 2016
ABSTRAK
Penelitian ini berkaitan dengan Metafora Leksikal dalam Surah Al Waqi’ah dengan menerapkan Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menjelaskan jenis-jenis Metafora Leksikal yang terdapat dalam Surah Al Waqi’ah, bagaimana metafora digunakan dalam Surah Al Waqi’ah dan alasan mengapa metafora leksikal digunakan dalam Surah Al Waqi’ah. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan disain penelitian deskriptif. Sumber data nya adalah Sura’ Al Waqi’ah. Temuan penelitian ini adalah, pertama ada tiga konsep metafora leksikal yang terdapat dalam Surah Al Waqi’ah, yaitu sebanyak 13 ayat (23.21%) untuk konsep noun-noun, 23 ayat (41.07%) untuk konsep noun-verb atau konsep verb-noun dan 20 ayat (35.71%) untuk konsep noun-adjective atau konsep adjective-noun. Kedua, realisasi linguistik metafora leksikal dalm Surah Al Waqi’ah ialah dengan membandingkan kata benda dengan kata benda, kata benda dengan kata kerja atau sebaliknya dan kata benda dengan kata sifat atau sebaliknya. Dalan penelitian ini, jenis metafora leksikal yang paling dominan ialah konsep noun-verb atau konsep verb-noun. Karena, Surah Al Waqi’ah sebagian besar menceritakan tentang hari kiamat. Jadi, dalam Surah Al Waqi’ah banyak meneceritakan tentang kejadian-kejadian sebelum dan sesudah hari kiamat. Jadi, kita bisa menemukan metafora leksikal yang paling dominan dalam Surah Al Waqi’ah ialah membandingkan kata benda dengan kata kerja atau kata kerja dengan kata benda. Terakhir, alasan menggunakan metafora leksikal dalam Surah Al Waqi’ah ialah menjelaskan idea diluar daya nalar atau pengalaman manusia, menjelaskan hal yang abstrak menjadi konkrit dan menjelaskan sesuatu yang tidak diketahui dengan sesuatu yang terkenal. Alasan yang paling dominan penggunaan metafora leksikal dalam Surah Al Waqi’ah ialah menjelaskan hal yang abstrak menjadi konkrit. Ada 18 ayat dalam Surah Al Waqi’ah yang menjelaskan tentang ini. Surah Al Waqi’ah bercerita tentang hari kiamat. Surah ini menjelaskan tentang peristiwa-peristiwa sebelum dan sesudah hari kiamat. Hari kiamat ialah hal yang abstrak karena tidak ada seorang pun di dunia ini yang pernah merasakan hari kiamat. Jadi sebagian besar isi Surah Al Waqi’ah menjelaskan tentang itu. Oleh sebab itu, alasan yang paling dominan penggunaan metafora leksikal dalam Surah Al Waqi’ah ialah menjelaskan hal yang abstrak menjadi konkrit.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the nama of Allah the most Gracious and the Most Merciful
First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Allah SWT who has given
chance and health to the writer until he can finish this thesis. And the second, sholawat and
salam to our prophet Muhammad SAW (peace be upon him) who has brought Islam and
guided human to have good life and faith.
The writer would like to express his thanks to his first advisor Prof. Dr. Busmin
Gurning, M.Pd, and his second advisor Prof. Dr. Sumarsih, M.Pd for their valuable advice,
guidance, constructive comments and precious time spent out supervising and commenting
this thesis until it appears in its present form.
His special grattitude goes to Dr. Rahmad Husen, M.Ed, as the Head of English
Applied Linguistics Study Program, Dr. Anni Holila Pulungan, M.Hum as the secretary of
English Applied Linguistics Study Program, Farid Ma’ruf as the staff of English Applied
Linguistics Study Program and all Lectures, for the valuable knowledge and instruction they
have imparted to him during the years studying.
Then, a very special debt of grattitude is directed to his beloved parents, H.
Alimuddin Tanjung and Hj. Nur ‘Asyiyah Nasution, his family and Puteri Maisyarah for their
love, support, care, and prayers.
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2.3 Accuracy Muhkamat and Mutasyabihat 27
2.4 Sura’ Al Waqi’ah 30
2.5 Relevant Studies 31
2.6 Conceptual Framework 34
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 36
3.1 Research Design 36
3.2 Data and Source of the Data 36
3.3 The Instrument of Data Collection 37
3.4 Technique of Data Collection 37
3.5 Technique of Data Analysis 37
3.6 Trustworthiness of the Study 41
3.6.1 Credibility 41
3.6.2 Transferability 41
3.6.3 Dependability 41
3.6.4 Confirmability 42
CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS, FINDING AND DISCUSSION 43
4.1 Data 43
4.2 Data Analysis 43
4.3 Finding 60
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 67
5.1 Conclusions 67
5.2 Suggestions 67
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1 Selecting Data 44
Table 4.2. Data Analysis of concept of Lexical Metaphor 45
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix I Sura’ Al Waqi’ah 71
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Every Moslem must be able to recite and comprehend Al Qur’an well since Al
Qur’an is the holy book of Moslem. But in reality, some people can’t recite and
comprehend Al Qur’an well. The most common reason for this phenomenon is because
Al Qur’an is revealed in Arabic language. So, if we want to comprehend it, we have to
understand about Arabic language. Sometime, people can recite Al Qur’an well with
tajweed (the discipline of knowledge about reciting Al Qur’an) but when he or she is
asked to explain what the verse means; he or she can’t explain it well. It is normally,
since Al Qur’an is not in Bahasa Indonesia. So, it is really hard to comprehend what the
verse means.
But, nowdays, some publisher have published the translation of Al Qur’an.
When someone recites Al Qur’an and its meaning based on the translation of Al Qur’an,
some verses can be comprehended easily, while the others are not. This also happened
when the writer studied in religious education. The writer found that it is really hard to
find the real meaning of what the verse in Al Qur’an means. It happened because; some
of verses in Al Qur’an is in Mutasyabihat verses. Mutasyabihat verses mean that the
verses aren’t clear enough. We can’t get the real meaning of what the verses said only
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As a written text, the language used in Al Qur’an is so interesting to be
researched. The verses in Al Qur’an are very rich in various kinds of language styles
such as metaphor, personification, hyperbole, etc. In Al Qur’an it is clearly said that Al
Qur’an was revealed in Arabic (QS. Yusuf:2). The words are also in Arabic. But the
style of its language arrangement is neither a prose nor a poetry as well as te beauty of
tne resulted while reading had made the experts of Arabic language at that time realized
that they could not make or arrange verses resembling those in Al Qur’an. Some people
always read Al Qur’an but they don’t know what does the meaning of the surah. It
generally happened because AlQur’an is written in Arabic. They tend to try to find the
translation by reading the translation of Al Qur’an. But, some sura’ in Al Qur’an, need
to be interpreted.
Basically, the public schools is lack of discussing the interpretation of sura’ in
Al Qur’an. That’s why; it is really hard for Moslem to comprehend the message or
knowledge which cointain in Sura’ in Al Qur’an. Lakoff (1993) tells that there is a
relationship while people are talking about metaphor and Al-Qur’an. Al-Qur’an as one
of the discourse will have its own contextual reason why it should be written on each
different type of metaphor. Besides, Qur’an is a book which emphasis deed rather than
idea. This condition then lead the readers to really understand the meaning of the
metaphors to apply the idea in the real life of people.
The study of language in Al Qur’an is interesting because people can find some
various kind of semantic in it, one of which is metaphor. Almisend (2001) investigated
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appropriate way to translate the metaphor is to explain or paraphrase the translation to
make it more comprehensive for the target audiences. People can see the examples
below :
You have already had a sign in the two hosts that met in battle, one host fighting in God's cause and the otherdenying Him; with their own eyes [the former] saw the others as twice their own number: but God strengthenswith His succor whom He wills. In this, behold, there is indeed a lesson for all who have eyes to see. (Ali Imran : 13).
People can see the metaphor from the underlined words in the above verse. “eyes
to see”. It does not describe the eyes in its literal meaning, but here, according to some
interpreters,the above Qur'anic passage has a general import and alludesto an
occurrence often witnessed in history - namely, the victory of a numerically weakand
ill-equipped group of people, filled with a burning belief in the righteousness oftheir
cause, over a materially and numerically superior enemy lacking a similar
conviction.The fact that in this Qur'an-verse the believers are spoken of as being faced
by an enemy"twice their number" (while at the battle of Badr the pagan Quraysh were
more than threetimes the number of the Muslims) lends great plausibility to this
explanation – therefore here the eyes to see is meant the great plausibility to the power
of God. (The Message of the Qur’an : 1980).
Using metaphor in a discourse can not be separated from the function of
language as a means of communicating ideas. It means that metaphor as one of
linguistic component is also a means of communicating ideas. In communication, using
direct language sometimes can not elaborate the ideas conveyed, particularly when the
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that metaphor is used in a discourse due to several contextual reasons. The contexts are
(1) to explain the idea which is out of human life experience, (2) to explain an abstract
thing concretely, (3) to explain something unknown yet with something familiar, and
(4) to explain the idea about something untouchable to be as if it can be touched and
felt.
Metaphor is as a word or phrase used to describe something else, in a way that is
different from its normal use, in order to show that the two things have the same
qualities and to make the description more powerful, (Oxford Advance Learner’s
Dictionary, 2010, p. 965). The use of metaphor in the Quran, along with other rhetorical
usages, is a feature of the Quranic text. Therefore, translators should not ignore its use
when attempting to translate the Quranic text (Al-Misned, 2001, p. 145). Consider this
example: Sura’ Al Hajj verse 5.The meaning : Thou seest the earth barren and lifeless,
but when we pour down rain on it, it is stirred (to life), it swells and it puts forth every
kind of beautiful growth in pairs. (Yusuf Ali’s translation, 2000)(Surah al-Hajj: 5).
The trembling of the earth after a long quiescence iscompared to an animal that
calms down after moving. Here,the Almighty God borrows some features from an
animal todescribe what happens to the earth after it rains. In this case,the literal
translation cannot convey the exact meaning ofthe verse to the audience. To show how
the earth (stirredand swells) these features for animals, we need to usecommunicative
translation or paraphrasing to convey theintended meaning, the features, and the context
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We can also take the exmple in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah in verse 18 :
“with [crystal] glasses and flagons and serving [hard] drinks brought from source reservoir.[56:18]”
The Arabic word َﻕﻱِﺭﺍَﺏَﺃfinds mention as the container for serving drinks circularly to glasses individually held by friends sitting together confronting each other.
Its meanings in English are flagons. It denotes a large bottle, container with a wide base
having a narrow neck for storing and sprouting alcoholic drinks to the glass of the
drinker. In the same context, ٍﺓَﻱِﻥﺁِﺏis the substitute used in 76:15, which denotes a similar vessel/container.
َﻕﻱِﺭﺍَﺏَﺃIt is plural of singular ﻕﻱِﺭْﺏِﺇ, formed on the pattern of ُﻝﻱِﻉﺍَﻑَﺃ. The Root is " ﺏ ﻕ
ﺭ " (pronunciation: barq) which means lightning in Arabic. The basic perception
infolded in it is that of lightning. It means that those َﻕﻱِﺭﺍَﺏَﺃ (Abareeq) flagons to serve liquid are sparkling like lightning. This word was not borrowed from any other
language. it is the opposite. other languages have borrowed it from Arabic. It is a
Quranic word and the Quran is an Arabic book as it clearly says about it self.
By seeing this explanation, the researcher will find the contextual reason
between the metaphor and Al Qur’an through its verses and background of the sura. It
relates to Sperber and Wilson’s in Andrew Goatly (1998) theory that background
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the essential point since the people know that the concept of metaphor is an interesting
topic to be discussed since the ancient time as Aristotle had defined the metaphor.
Metaphor which is dicussed in this case is Al Qur’an as one of the contemporary
subject nowadays. Its own language and content bring the spesific analysis of metaphor
because not all the object of the research have the same characteristic as Al Qur’an.
Because of the reasons, it is very important for the people to find the reasons why some
types and functions are there in Al Qur’an with its relation to the context.
Al Waqi’ah is one of the Sura’ in Al Qur’an. The Surah takes its name from the
word al-waqi`ah of the very first verse. There are so many unclear (meaning) verses in
this sura’. The writer tries to explain the mutasybihat verses in this sura’. That’s why the
writer is interested in doing a research entitle Lexical Metaphor in Sura’ Al Waqi’ah.
1.2 Problems of the Study
Based on the explanation from the background, the problems are formulated as
the following.
1. What types of metaphors are used in surat Al Waqi’ah?
2. How metaphorsare used in Sura Al Waqi’ah?
3. Whymetaphors are used in Sura Al Waqi’ah?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
Based on the problem of the study, the objectives of the research are formulated
as the following.
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2. To find out how the metaphors are used in Sura Al Waqi’ah.
3. To explain why the metaphors are used in Sura Al Waqi’ah.
1.4 Scope of the Study
The scope of the study in this research is mutasyabihat verses in Sura’ Al
Waqi’ah. The sura’ consist of 96 verses.
1.5 Signifances of the Study
Finding of the research are expected to be useful for the readers both
theoretically and practically in some respects.
1. Theoretically the finding can be useful for enriching the theories on
metaphor particularly for :
a. Knowing the metaphorical symbols used in Al Qur’an especially Surat
Al Waqi;ah, and
b. Understanding the metaphorical language styles in Al Qur’an especially
surat Al Waqi’ah
2. Practically the finding can be useful for those who have focus on theology
study especially in the metaphor undertanding is Surat Al Waqi’ah.
Moreover, the ideas and the point of views of the finding can significantly be
ueful to be used as :
a. Review of literature for the coming researches
b. Material reference for language learning particularly related to metaphor
c. Material for helping people particularly Moslem in comprehending and
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