AN ANALYSIS OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN DRAMA

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AN ANALYSIS OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN DRAMA

‘NEMESIS’ BY ROBERT IGO AND JEFF C. KUNNIS

Ardilla Nurfitriana

¹

), Siska, S.S, M.Pd,

²

), Melati, S.S, M.Hum

³

)

1

)English Department, STKIP PGRI Padang, Jalan Gajah Mada Gunung Pangilun

) English Department, STKIP PGRI Padang, Jalan Gajah Mada Gunung Pangilun

Abstract

This study is about the analysis of figurative language or figure of speech used in the drama.

The main problem in this research is to determine the type of figurative language in Nemeses drama by Robert Igo and Jeff C. Kunnis. The main source of research data conducted by using qualitative method of designing the content analysis. Researchers used the main source of data is the text of drama itself. Methods of data collection is read. Based on this study, researchers concluded that in analyzing literary works, especially for drama Nemesis, researchers used some of the overall figure of speech; namely simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia and hyperbole.

Based on the analysis, the study reveals that there are many types of figurative language of this drama. This drama is more likely to give emphasis to a sentence or Alliteration, and compare the informative statement by giving human attributes to animals, objects, and the concept or personification.

Penelitian ini adalah tentang analisis bahasa kiasan atau majas yang digunakan dalam drama.

Masalah utama dalam penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui jenis bahasa kiasan dalam drama Nemeses oleh Robert Igo dan Jeff C. Kunnis. Sumber utama data penelitian dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode kualitatif yang merancang dalam content analysis. Peneliti menggunakan sumber utama data yaitu teks drama itu sendiri. Metode pengumpulan data adalah membaca. Berdasarkan penelitian ini, peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa dalam menganalisis karya sastra, terutama untuk drama Nemesis, peneliti menggunakan beberapa dari keseluruhan bahasa kiasan; yaitu simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia and hyperbole. Berdasarkan hasil analisis, penelitian mengungkapkan bahwa ada banyak jenis bahasa kiasan dari drama ini. Drama ini lebih cenderung memberikan penekanan pada kalimat atau Aliterasi, dan membandingkan pernyataan informatif dengan memberikan atribut manusia untuk hewan, objek, dan konsep atau Personifikasi.

Key Word: Figurative Language, Drama, Nemesis INTRODUCTION

Literature as a result of human creativity in addition to providing entertainment is also loaded with good value and the beauty of the moral values of life. Literary work was born in the middle of the community as a result of an author's imagination to social phenomena in the surrounding neighborhood. Literary work is a portrait of life when literature was created.

Some people are more interested in reading a literary book rather than scientific book, there are two reasons. Firstly, reading a literary book is just an entertainment for them.

By reading the literary book, they get their own

pleasure. Secondly, reading a literary book makes them see, feel, and understand lives, human beings, and nature better. According to Atmazaki (2007:37) In general, literature is divided into three: the prose, in the form of poetry, and in the form of drama. A literary book such as drama, poetry, and prose is a writer imagination of world, life, and experience remarked in words. One of literary books, which are discussed here, is drama. The figurative language, after all, belongs to a language of phenomenon, which is interested to analyze, because it’s the product of creative imagination.

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Figurative language served to deepen the meaning of the word that the writers use in his/her work. Many literary works that use Figurative Language, one of which is in the drama ‘Nemesis’ by Robert Igo and Jeff C.

Kunnis. The researcher interested in studying the Figurative language used in the drama Nemeses because a lot of Figurative languages that can be found in this literary work. In this research, the researcher focused on figurative language used in ‘Nemesis’ drama because it makes the researcher interesting in knowing the knowledge of Drama and its elements in order to be more clearly understood by the researcher in particular and the reader in general. The research question which were explored in this research is: What are the kinds of figurative languages found in drama

‘Nemesis’?

Drama is part of the art. Many elements are contained in the drama. According to Klarer (2004:41) the dramatic or performing arts, however, combines the verbal with a number of non-verbal or optical-visual means, including stage, scenery, shifting of scenes, facial expressions, gestures, make up, props, and lightning. This means that the drama is not just a dialogue, but there are many things that must be prepared either before or during the drama staged.

Hasanuddin (2009:8) said that Drama adalah genre sastra yang ditulis dalam bentuk dialog dengan tujuan untuk dipentaskan sebagai seni pertunjukan. istilah drama lebih fokus pada genre drama sastra (masalah naskah, teks, unsur-unsur cerita), sedangkan pementasan teater untuk menunjukkan masalah (tentang seni pertunjukan, akting). This means that the drama is a genre of literature that contains text form dialogue for the purpose of performing or staging.

Atmazaki (2007:43) said Pertama-tama yang menentukan bahwa sebuah karya sastra yang disebut drama adalah dialog. Kedua, drama diciptakan pertama-tama tidak dinikmati dengan melalui membaca tapi untuk pementasan. Ketiga, cerita prosa sastra insiden, drama atau teater adalah insiden itu sendiri, peristiwa di atas panggung. This means that the drama is a literary work written are meant to be displayed, the text in the form of events that will be displayed on stage. Letwin et al (2008: xii) drama is stories of human beings in conflict, performed through action for an audience, either live, over the radio, or on screen. It means Drama is the acting of some performers on human life displayed for the audience entertaining. Drama is closely related to the playwright, because without the playwright, the drama will not appear.

In the literature typically uses figurative

language to the beauty of the work. There are several figurative languages that could be used, depending on the author itself. Dancygier and Sweetser (2014:1) said figurative language was thought of as being one aspect of what gives a text, in particularly, a poetic text, special aesthetic value. With the figurative language, literatures become more beautiful and have stronger value of artistic. According to Spivey (2011) Figurative language is simply a colorful way to express an otherwise boring statement. That means figurative language used in a work to create a colored atmosphere so that the reader does not get bored with the work.

Based on Deignan et al (2013:1) it is well known that figurative language is often used in speaking and writing to express ideas and emotions, and to affect the views and attitude of others. Which mean the figurative language is not only used in writing, but also in communicating. The language used also able to describe a person's emotions. Which means the figurative language is also a communication tool that can be used in the community both in speaking and writing.

There is several kind of figurative language in every literary work. According to Edwards (2012) the kinds of figurative language are: simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and hyperbole.

Based on Joseph (2002:241) simile expresses through the word, like, as, or resembles an imaginative comparison between objects of different classes. According to Spivey (2011) metaphor suggests something or someone actually becomes or is something else.

According to Edwards (2012) personification is giving human characteristics to inanimate object. According to Knapp and Watkins (2005:53) alliteration is the figurative technique of repeating the same sound, usually the initial consonant of a word, for narrative, literary or rhetorical effect. Base on Joseph (2002:241) onomatopoeia is a use of words or rhythms whose sound imitates the sense. According to Spivey (2011) hyperbole is a statement so exaggerated that no one believes it to be true.

RESEARCH METHOD

In this research, the researcher analyzed the figurative language used in drama

‘Nemesis’. This study was a kind of qualitative research that design in content analysis.

According to Mayring (2000) the object of (qualitative) content analysis can be all sort of recorded communication (transcripts of interviews, discourses, protocols of observations, video tapes, documents). This research is appropriate with this design, because this research used the writing document, which is ‘Nemesis’ drama. The object of this research was the figurative language that used in

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‘Nemesis’ drama written by Robert Igo and Jeff C. Kunnis.

Source of data are divided into primary and secondary source. The main data sources were taken from the drama ‘Nemesis’ by Robert Igo and Jeff C. Kunnis. The secondary sources were taken from the script of drama ‘Nemesis’

by Robert Igo and Jeff C. Kunnis. The technique of collecting data in this research was by reading the script many times in order to understand the conversation from the drama.

According to Endraswara (2011:162) pengadaan data karya sastra, dilakukan melalui pembacaan secara cermat. Pembacaan berulang-ulang akan membantu peneliti mengadakan data. The data used in this study was in the form of drama scripts, so the researcher must read it in the process of data collection, so that the data can be analyzed.

After collecting the data, the researcher analyzed the data to answer the research question and get the result of this research.

Analyzing of the data was done by description each data according to functional and relational.

The researcher used the terminology of analysis according to Miles and Huberman (2014:12) which consist of three activities: data condensation, data display and drawing and verification conclusion.

FINDINGS

After presented and analyzed the data, the researcher found there were four common kinds of figurative language in drama Nemesis.

There were Simile, Personification, Alliteration, and hyperbole. The Simile on this drama found in following monologue:

Dean: This is a momentous day, gentleman! Merril Weber has an 8:30 with us. And why is that?

Greg: because he likes his defense team to be tired as hell, I guess. (p: 2)

In the phrase tired as hell, there is the word 'as' as a comparison between the words tired and hell. The characteristic of the simile is the use ‘as’ or ‘like’ as a comparison, because it is based on Joseph (2002:241) simile expresses through the word, like, as, or resembles an imaginative comparison between objects of different classes. This sentence compare tired with hell which has different classes, because tired is a condition, whereas hell is a place.

The Personification on this drama found in following monologue:

Barnan: Too many years, I have lived this masquerade. I thought the past was just that, the past, and then it comes and stares me

in the face. Teiivio, I thought that you were gone from this place, gone from this place. And I gotta find a way to make it right. Muster up the magic again, call in from the night, something to fight, Teiivio. You broke your bonds, escape your chain. Now you walk again and you revel in the carnage and pain. I won’t stop till you’re slain.

Teiivio…Teiivio Lady: Barnan, why are both the

moons red-is something wrong? (p: 7)

The word comes and stares usually only intended for humans, while the past is the condition, and the condition cannot comes and stares. In the dialog, the past, and then it comes and stares me in the face, tells the past as human being, as if they can comes and stares in the face, on the other hand the past is not human, and it can not come, or to stares into someone's face.

The Alliteration on this drama found in following monologue:

All: Pumpkin and broccoli, corn, wheat, and radishes. These are seeds that we sow in spring. Celery, sage, sweet potato, and garlic, in hope of the harvest we dance and sing. (p: 4)

Alliteration is used there is a repetition of consonant sounds ‘s’ found in word seeds/siːd/, sow/soʊ/, celery/selɚri/, sage/seɪdʒ/, sweet/swiːt/ and sing/sɪŋ/.

The Hyperbole in this drama found in following monologue:

Rh’Mel: I can’t believe this, should I be sick or die from laughter?

The monster from my daughter’s storybook has come life and theatens mine? (p: 9)

This sentence is overstatement because it said she could die or get sick just because laughter. In this drama Nay, do not believe what Barnan say of the resurrection of Evil in their village. Then he felt want to laughing until sick or die. But no one is dead or sick simply because laughing.

Based on the analysis of figurative

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language above, the researcher found one figure appearing frequently in subject matter. The author give the emphasis of the sentence, it is because this drama used some song makes the drama more interesting to read. Also the author style in this drama was with giving the attributes of a human being to animal, an object or a concept. It was comparison between inanimate things and person. The figurative languages are alliteration, personification, hyperbole and simile.

CONCLUSION

After analyzing drama Nemesis, the researcher then comes to conclusion. Regarding the first problem, the researcher took Edwards theory and other scientists to find out kind of figurative language in the drama. After the researcher took the data and classified them based on their categories of figurative language, she concludes that the drama use some figurative language. They are: Simile, Personification, Alliteration and Hyperbole.

Based on the discussion above, figurative language used in drama Nemesis can be identified as, firstly is Alliteration, using the same consonant at the beginning of the word, middle or end of a word, it aims to give emphasis on sentence. The second position is personification which is giving an attribute of human being to an animal, an object or a concept and it is the most of figure of speech used. The third position is hyperbole and the last position is simile based on the frequency of occurrence. The figurative language in drama Nemesis mostly give an emphasis on sentence.

SUGGESTIONS

From this research, the researcher hopes that this research can be as a beginning reference for the following researchers. Then, the researcher also suggests the further researcher to study more about figurative language in different opinion and way in the analysis, and perception. For the students, they can learn more about figurative language with using literary work, that would be fun because they can also learn about the literary work itself.

Also for the readers, the researcher hopes they would not be confused about the figurative language used in another literary works. From this research the readers have an alignment about the figurative language.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis is presented to the English Department of STKIP PGRI SUMBAR as a partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree. It is the great honor for the researcher to make acknowledgement to covey her sincere gratitude Siska, S.S, M.Pd as the first advisor for precious encouragement, understanding, guidance, and correction in completing this thesis and also to Melati Theresia, S.S, M.Hum

as the second advisor for her valuable suggestion, patience, and understanding and assisting, who has patiently given valuable advice and guidance to finish this thesis. Alhamdulillah, the researcher has finished this thesis. In this occasion, the researcher presents great honor to Armilia Riza, M.Pd as a head of English Department, Mayuasti M.Pd as a secretary of English Department, Lily Perpisa, S.S, M.Pd as academic advisor, Syayid Sandi Sukandi, S.S, M.A, Rika Afriyanti M.Pd, and Sesmiyanti, S.S, M.Pd as the examiners and all lecturers in English Department, for giving new knowledge, advices in facing life, and for giving

gorgeous study experiences.

REFERENCES

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EServer. (1992). Retrieved on June 2015 from http://drama.eserver.org/plays/contemp orary/nemeses.txt

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AN ANALYSIS OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN DRAMA