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THE MEANING OF IDIOMS IN JOHN MAYER’S CONTINUUM ALBUM

BY

Ida Ayu Citra Puspita Dewi

English Department, Faculty of Letters and Culture, Udayana University

Abstrak

Studi ini di fokuskan pada analisis dari lirik-lirik lagu di album Continuum dari penyanyi John Mayer. Tujuan dari studi ini di bagi menjadi dua pertama studi ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi idiom yang ada pada lirik lirik lagu. Kedua, studi ini bertujuan untuk menjelaskan arti dari idiom yang ada pada lirik-lirik lagu di album Continuum dari penyanyi John Mayer. Metode yang digunakan untuk memilih data pada studi ini adalah metode dokumentasi. Studi ini menganalisi secara kualitatif berdasarkan teori idiom dari Palmer (1976) dan teori makna kata dari Leech (1974).

Hasil analisis dalam studi ini menunjukan bahwa lirik lirik lagu di album Continuum mengandung Idiom, diantaranya Phrasal verb, Prepositional verb, partial idiom dan Makna kata diantaranya konotatif, afektif dan reflektif. Fitur-fitur idiom dan makna kata tersebut digunakan oleh penulis lagu dengan tujuan untuk menghibur pendengar dari lagu lagu tersebut.

Keyword : Lirik lagu, idiom, makna kata.

  • 1.    Background of the Study

A song is one of the ways in which people to express their feelings; a song seems interesting to be analyzed since it has various combination of vocabulary and unique set of wording which has its own function. It sometimes contains some

idioms. Idiomatic expression is very close to our daily life without realizing it. The language of the song is built in a specific way; therefore, it becomes different from any language.

A song is one of the best forms of entertainment to be enjoyed. As one of media in expressing feelings, a song seems interesting to be analyzed since it is one of the best forms of entertainment to be enjoyed. Moreover, the language of the song is built in specific way, so it becomes different from any language. We can get knowledge through interpreting the words in song lyrics while we have more time to listen and explore the deepest meaning in the song.

  • 2.    Problems

Referring to the background illustrated previously, two research questions are the focus of current study:

  • a)    What are the types of idioms found in John Mayer: Continuum album?

  • b)    What are the meanings of idioms and how the meaning reflect the message in John Mayer: Continuum album?

  • 3.    Aims

The aims of this study are:

  • a)    To determine the types of idioms in the song lyrics of John Mayer: Continuum album.

  • b)    To analyze the meaning of idioms found in the song lyric of John

Mayer: Continuum album

  • 4.    Research Method

The data were directly taken from John Mayer: Continuum album, Continuum has 12 songs. From the 12 songs in the John Mayer’s Continuum album the idioms were found in 9 songs. The 9 selected songs were Waiting on the World to Change, I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving you), Belief, Gravity, The Heart of Life, Vultures, Stop this Train, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room and Dreaming With a Broken Heart. In conducting this study, documentation methods was applied in collecting the data Based on theory of Idiom proposed by palmer (1976; 98) and theory of meaning proposed by Leech (1974).

  • 5.    Result and Discussion

This part deals with the result and the discussion of the data. The data analysis is divided into two parts; analysis of Idioms and the analysis of its meanings.

  • 5.1    Analysis of Idiom

  • 1.    Phrasal Verb

The common type of idiom in english is phrasal verb. Phrasal verb usually called the combination of the verbs and adverb ( Palmer,1976). The meaning of these combination cannot be predicted fron the individual verb and adverbs.

(a.)To rise above and beat it’ (The song Waiting on the World to Change stanza 2, line 8). The expression rise above is a phrasal verb where the verb (rise) followed by an adverb (above).

  • 2.    Prepositional Verb

Prepositional verb is the squence of verb and preposition or verb, adverb and preposition (Palmer,1979).

(b.)“They say we stand for nothing” (The song Waiting on the World to Change, stanza 1, line 3).The expression stand for is a prepositional verb where the verb is (stand) and the preposition is (for).

  • 3.    Partial Idiom

Partial idiom is another type of idiom exist. Partial idiom is where one of the words has its usual meaning and the other has meaning that is peculiar to particular sequence (Palmer,1976:99).

(c.)“I will beg my way into your garden” (The song I don’t trust myself (with loving you) stanza 3, line 9). The expression your garden is a partial idiom, the word your has its usual meaning and the word garden has the meaning that is particular. In this song Mayer wants to tell about a girl that he met when his career began to rise. He didn’t believe her “love”. Mayer believed that she had an ulterior motive.

  • 5.2    Analysis of Meaning

  • 1.    Connotative meaning

Leech (1974) claims that connotative meaning is “the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely

conceptual content; it is something that goes beyond mere referent of a word and hints at its attribute in the real world.

The words rise above have connotative meanings, contains the communicative value of an expression according to the meaning referred to, "We just feel like we don ' t have the means To rise above and beat it ", the songwriter did not mean to do anything.

  • 2.    Affective meaning

Affective meaning is a sort of meaning which can reflect the personal feelings .of the speakers, including his attitude to the listener, or his attitude to something he is talking about.

The Idiom beautiful armor also has affective meaning, the meaning of which reflect the personal emotions of the author, including his attitude towards the listener, or attitude towards something he says

  • 3.    Reflected meaning

Reflected meaning is the meaning which arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense.

The words stand for mean that support or fight for something. It is categorized as reflective meaning, the meaning arises in the case of multiple conceptual meaning, if a sense of a word used, it is automatically bring up the majority of

people’s sense to another meaning. This meaning often understood as suggestions

  • 6.    Conclusion

Concerning the meaning, an idiom is an expression that the whole meaning cannot be easily discovered by the meaning of the words composing it. The theme of the song is the reflected by the meaning of idioms. Since the meaning of idiom has a strong relation with the theme of the song, as the consequences the meaning of the idiom should be analyzed first to find the theme and the message of the song.

From 7 types of meaning proposed by Leech (1974) only 3 meaning were used to analyze the meaning of the idioms. Those meaning are, Connotative meaning, Affective meaning and Reflected meaning. Connotative meaning is when the idiom has a communicative value of the third expression, besides the idioms also had a different meaning from the meaning of the word combinations. Affective meaning is the meaning of which reflect the personal emotions of the author, including his attitude towards the listener, or attitude towards something he says and Reflected meaning is the meaning arises in the case of multiple conceptual meaning, if a sense of a word used, it is automatically bring up the majority of people’s sense to another meaning. This meaning often understood as suggestions. The phrase stand for is used to states that people said he and his friends do not mean anything.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Leech, Geoffrey. 1974. Semantic. Great Britain: Hazel Watson & Vine Ltd.

Palmer, F.R. 1976. Semantic: A New Outline. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.