An analysis of figurative language in selected songs about loneliness

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Dhurika, Wita Sulistiyowati (2023) An analysis of figurative language in selected songs about loneliness. Undergraduate thesis, UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya.

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Abstract

This study aims to analyze the figurative language found in songs about loneliness. The researcher is interested in investigating the songs about loneliness because many people felt lonely during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, there are two research questions 1). What types of figurative language are found in the selected songs about loneliness? 2). What meanings are revealed through the figurative language in the selected songs about loneliness? This study used the theory from Kennedy (1979), figurative language consists of comparative it is divided into personification, metaphor, and simile. Contradictive consists of hyperbole, litotes, paradox, and irony. Moreover, Correlatives consist of metonymy, synecdoche, symbol, allusion, and ellipsis. The data of this study took from song recommendations by the followers of @englishfess base on Twitter. The song lyric was then analyzed by identifying the types of figurative language, and the analysis continued by identifying the meaning of the song lyric. The researcher found out 63 data, and the most frequent figurative language in the data analysis is a metaphor with 33 data, hyperbole with 19 data, and personification with 7 data. The least found is simile with 3 data and symbol only found 1. Those types of figurative language are often found in literary work because they add more colors to the songs. The meaning of each type of figurative language is divided into three types. Comparative consists of personification that compares things to another by giving a human quality to a thing or non-human being, a metaphor that compares something to another thing with the same characteristics, and a simile that compares things using a conjunction such as like or as. Contradictive only found hyperbole in this research, and hyperbole is exaggerated something. The last is the contradictive, only symbol of the type of figurative language found in this research. Symbol can symbolize something, thoughts or things.