FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN KARONESE POP SONGS.

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FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN KARONESE POP SONGS

A THESIS

Submitted to Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

By:

MEIRANI DEBORA BR GINTING

Reg. No. 2101220006

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to the almighty GOD for the blessings and the protection that the

writer has been greeted that she finally completed this thesis in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra at English and Literature

Department of Faculty of Language and Arts in the state University of Medan.

In completing this thesis, the writer has received a lot of assistance and

academic support from some people. Therefore, the writer would like to express

her gratitude, love and special thanks to:

1. Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si, the Rector of State University of

Medan

2. Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum, the Dean of Faculty of Language and

Arts, for her administrative help during her study in University Negeri

Medan.

3. Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd, the Head of the English Department, for

their suggestion and administrative help during her study and conducting

this thesis.

4. Drs. Elia Masa Gintings, M.Hum, as her Thesis Advisor, for his advices,

constructive comments, supervisions, encouragements and his precious

time in making corrections to this thesis draft.

5. Dra. Meisuri, M.A, as her Academic Advisor, for the advice, guidance,

valuable knowledge that she given to the writer.

6. All of the Lecturers throughout her academic years at the State University

of Medan who have shared their knowledge to her.

7. S. Ginting and R. br Sinulingga her beloved parents, who have patiently

given moral and spiritual support including their endless love and prayers

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8. The one and only my young sister Jeni Florida br Ginting for giving love

and support.

9. Erik Imanuel Sinuraya S.Pd her dearest friend who has patiently given

and prayers for the writer.

10.Rika Anastasia Sitepu, Eva Inriani Rajaguk-guk, and Monica Ghea Luwiq her lovely friends who have given support for the writer.

11.All of my friends class “A” and “B” who given support and prayers for

the writer to finishing this thesis. The last but not the least thanks to

IMKA (Ikatan Mahasiswa Karo) FBS and IMKA Rudang Mayang Unimed.

12.Many other writers’ colleagues and their precious moments during the

college years and their moral support in finishing this thesis.

Thanks for all of their supports in helping for finishing her thesis

Medan, Juni 2014

The writer

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ABSTRACT

Ginting, Meirani Debora. 2101220006. Figurative Language in Karonese Pop Songs. A Thesis. English Department. Faculty of Language and Arts. State University of Medan. 2014.

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LIST OF TABLES

Tabel 4.1 The Data of each lyrics ... 28

Table 4.2 The Distributive Of Each Type Figurative Language In Karonese

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix I The Lyrics that Consist of Figurative Language in Karonese

Pop Song ... 44

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of The Study

There is no one in this world that can live without the other. In this case

they form a relationship. This proves that humans are social beings. As social

creature, humans need to build a relationship with others to show their existence,

opinion, ideas and feelings. So, human require language as a means of

communication.

As social creature, humans need to build a relationship with others to show

their existence, opinions, ideas, and their feeling, giving information, etc. So,

humans require language as a means of communication. Communication is basic

feature of social life, and language is a major component of it.Language is human

needs; it is a system of signs (indices, icons, symbols) for encoding and decoding

information.Language can combine with art in order to find various kind of

communication or to entertain people with messages contain in it. Language is an

inseparable part of human life to express thoughts, feeling, desires and intension

both in spoken and written way. Spoken is the process of expressing ideas and

feelings or giving information orally, song, speech, and conversation. Written is

done in writing activity, available in short story, article, novel, newspaper, poetry

letter, magazine poem, song lyrics, and etc. The word meaning is commonly

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Language is a subtle and complex instrument used to communication with

an incredible number of different things, but for these purposes here people can

reduce the universe of communication to four basic categories: information,

direction, emotion, and ceremony. The first and the second are often considered

same because they express cognitive meaning while the later two commonly

express emotional meaning.

Tarigan (1990:2) written that the use of language as means of

communication, both in oral and written form, varies according to the knowledge

of language competence owned by the users. Language may refer either to be

specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems as

communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex

redefine semantics into more spesific definition, the one that limit semantics into

the the study of more specific types of meaning only. simply semantics is the

study of linguistics meaning. These more specific definitions have led people to

an important basic assumption that meaning is the part of speaker’s knowledge

about their language. The speakers of a language have different types of linguistic

knowledge, including how to construct sentences, and about the meaning of

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Language and culture are two major things that can be separated in human

life. It means that language as means of communication, which is used in human

life to interest another.

Indonesia is a big country, and has many tribes as well as their languages.

One of the tribes in Indonesia is Bataknese. The batak’s society consists of a few

sub tribes, such as Simalungun, Karo, Pak-pak, Toba, Angkola, and Mandailing.

The karo language is one of the regional languages in Indonesia. They use this

language for their daily activity or other culture ceremony. Karonese people

mostly live in Karo high land (Berastagi, Kabanjahe, etc).

Language can be expressed into two form, they are: written and spoken.

Written language can be found in the novel, newspaper, poetry, letter, magazine,

and spoken language can be found in the song, speech, and conversation.

Song is a tool or media for people to show their feeling, idea, opinion, and

emotion. Almost people in the world love songs, because by singing the song,

people can be entertained. Songs also give people happiness and enjoyment when

they listen it. A song writer may use words figuratively in his/her song in order to

beautify the language, a songwriter intends to say something cynically, but

indirectly so that the lyrics of the song look like beautifully and the listener more

interest to hear it. A song may express happiness, disappointment, or criticism, to

the government.

Douglas (2012)states that a song is a short piece of music with words that

are sung. The words in a song are called lyrics that many consist of an

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word for a word for a sung by the lyre, “Lyrikos” and came to be used for

the “words of a song”.

Kempson (1977: 47) states that the meaning of a linguistic form has to be

analyzed in terms of the important elements of the situation in which the speaker

utters it.

There are two kinds of language that studying in semantics, they are

literal and non-literal (Saeed, 2004:15). The following discussion will be about

non literal uses of language are traditionally called figurative language. The

meaning can be literal and figurative, this is the important thing for the writer to

describe because the focus of the research is figurative meaning. Figurative

language is used in any form of communication, such as in daily conversation,

articles in newspaper, advertisements, novels, poems, song lyrics, etc. Literature is

one of arts, which has its own language. In other words, literature is writing which

expresses and communicates though feeling and attitude toward life. Song is one

example 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

metaphors, well-turned phrases, elegant syntax, rhyme, alliteration, which are

aesthetically read or intended by the author to be aesthetically read and are

deliberately somewhat open in interpretation.

There are some similarities between a song and a poem. A song has to be

rhythmic and so does a poem. Rhythm is one of the important elements in both

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called a lyric poem. They can be used in songs to express the thoughts and

feelings of the author. Music without words is poetry, only not in the generalized

sense.

Semantics is the study of linguistics meaning. It is concerned with what

sentences and other linguistics objects express. Semantics is the scientific study of

the meaning of words. While from the advanced learner’s Dictionary of current

English’ (1972).

Figurative language is language that uses words or expressions with a

meaning that is different from the literal interpretation”, when a writer uses literal

language, he or she is simply stating the facts as they are. Figurative language, in

comparison, uses exaggerations or alterations to make a particular linguistics

point. “Figurative language seeks to clarify and accentuate meaning by

referencing a word or phrase in terms of something familiar to the audience,

usually to achieve special meaning. The writer uses figurative language in order to

beautify their language, so that the reader feels interesting to read it,and especially

the reader knows about the types of figurative language such as simile, metaphor,

personification, etc.

Based on the explanation above, the writer analyzed the use of figurative

language in Karonese Pop Song. The writer takes some Karonese Pop Song as her

sample of the study. Analyzing figurative language in song lyrics is important for

some reason. First, singing a song and knowing the meaning of the lyrics is better

than singing without an adequate understanding concerning the lyrics. We can

also gain some lesson learning and fruitful information when we understand the

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language provides us more practices to better understand non-literal expression.

Based on the above reasons, it is interesting to analyze the use of the figurative

language.

The figurative language in karonese pop songs is different from each

other. Some figurative expressions contained in those songs require a deep

analysis. Each song conveys different message. One is about struggle and the rests

are about love in different situations. Therefore, their songs were chosen as data

source in this study.

Karonese are the indigenous people of the Karo plateau in North

Sumatera, Indonesia. They tend to belong the Batak people but often consider

themselves as separate. They speak the Batak Karo language. There are six Bataks

in North Sumatera: Batak Karo, Batak Toba, Batak Mandailing, Batak

Simalungun, Batak Angkola and Batak Pak-Pak.Tanah Karo locates in one of the

highlands of Northern Sumatera in Indonesia, and it is not far from Medan City. It

takes two hour drives from Medan City to Tanah Karo. Karonese people are often

called as Kalak Karo.

As a Karonese, the writer interst to analyze about Batak Karo, There are so

many interesting cultures in Karonese. For example : the traditional dance,

wedding ceremony, ancient calendar, funeral ceremony, songs etc. and in this

paper the writer will explain about “The Figurative Language in Karonese Pop

Song ”. It is very important to know, especially for Karo people, to know about

the meaning of each the song.

Some previous researches have been conducted on “Figurative Speech”

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The Jakarta Post”, in his thesis, he found that Hyperbole is most dominant

Sihombing, Yoko (2010) studied “Figurative Language in Michael Jackson

Selected Songs’, Mariana (2010) studied “Figurative Meaning in Charles

Simbolon’s Song Lyrics’.

B. The Problems of the Study

Based on the background above, the problems of the study are formulated

as the followings:

a) What types of figurative languages are used in Karonese pop songs?

b) What type of figurative language is dominantly used in the karonese

pop song?

C. The Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study arerelations of the problems are:

a) To describe what types of figurative language as found in Karonese

pop song

b) To derive the most dominant type of figurative languageused in the

karonese pop song

D. The Scope of the Study

The main concern of this research focuses on the 5 ways of the types of

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simile, metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, personification. Thiscase, the writer

analyzes the figurative language in ten Karonese pop songs.

E. The significance of the Study

The findings of the study can be used to increase the knowledge of the

people who are interested in figurative meaning of language in language in

general and song lyrics, and as ass additional knowledge to improve the figurative

speech for learners who study English. The finding will be useful for:

1) The readers who are interested in studying figurative language and can

give them a clear and better understanding about figurative, especially

for them who is not understand about Karonese song so by this

findings the reader can catch the meaning of the song

2) The student who are majoring English in studying listening and

meaning in sentences.

3) The students who want to get many examples of figurative language

from the song lyrics.

4) For people who do not understand the karonese language, by reading

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusions

After analyzing all the 28 data of song lyrics that have types of figurative

language, the writer drawn the conclusions as follows:

1. There were 28 song lyrics in ten songs of Karonese pop songs contain

figurative language, which are divide into 10 lyrics of personification

(35,71 %), 6 lyrics of hyperbole (21,42 %), 4 lyrics of metaphor (21, 42

%), 4 lyrics of simile (21,42 %), 4 lyric of metonymy (21,42 %).

2. Personification is the dominant type of figurative meaning found in

Karonese pop song lyrics, which is 10 data from 28 data or 35, 71 %, then

it follows by Hyperbole which is 6 data or 21,42 %, Metaphor is 4 data or

21,42 %, Metonymy is 4 or 21,42 %, and Simile is 4 data or 321,42 %.

3. Karonese used Personification dominantly in each song lyrics to beautify,

to make the lyrics more flowery so it can interest the listener to hear the

song because of the used of expressive meaning from the song lyrics.

Therefore, personification means a figure of speech where animals, ideas

or inorganic objects are given human characteristics. By giving human

characteristics to things that do not have them, it makes these objects and

their actions easier to visualize for a reader or hearer. These attributes may

include sensations, emotions, desires, physical gestures, expressions, and

power of speech, among others.

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B. Suggestion

Based on the conclusion above, the would like to purpose some

suggestions as follows:

1. to the listeners of Karonese Pop Songs to have background knowledge

about figurative language, since it has been found that there are many

lyrics containing of figurative language in Karonese Pop Songs.

2. to everyone who wants to learn about writing songs lyrics to study about

the use of figurative language to see that the figurative language can give

vigor and style of language in communication between the writers and the

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN KARONESE POP SONGS.