ISSN: 2302-920X

E-Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Sastra dan Budaya Unud

Vol 15.2 Mei 2016: 119-125

IDIOMS IN THE SONG LYRICS OF THE ALBUMS ROLL ON AND STATE OF EMERGENCY BY THE LIVING END

Made Alit Wahyudi

email: alitwahyudimade@gmail.com

English Departement Faculty of Letters and Culture Udayana University

ABSTRAK

Judul skripsi ini adalah “idiom didalam lirik lagu dari album Roll On dan State Of Emergency oleh The Living End band”. Skripsi ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi tipe-tipe idiom di dalam lirik lagu dan menggambarkan makna yang dimaksudkan dari idiom.

Data dari penelitian ini diambil dari album-album resmi The Living End band berjudul Roll On yang mana diluncurkan pada tahun 2000 dan State Of Emergency yang mana diluncurkan pada tanggal 11 Juli 2006. Data yang dikoleksi menggunakan metode dokumentasi dengan mengaplikasikan teknik pengambilan catatan.

Teori-teori yang digunakan untuk analisisnnya adalah teori makna yang disebut semantic triangle diusulkan oleh Ogden dan Richards (1976) dan tipe-tipe idiom oleh F.R Palmer (1976) sebagai teori-teori utama.

Temuan dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa ada tiga tipe-tipe idiom seperti kata kerja frasa, rankaian kata kerja berpreposisisi, idiom yang berat sebelah. Idiom juga dianalisa dengan teori semantik yang disebut semantic triangle oleh Odgen and Richards pada buku Palmer yang mana mempunyai tiga komponen seperti simbol, pikiran atau referansi, dan sasaran. Tambahan lagi, makna-makana idiom bisa dilihat didalam konteks-konteksnya pada yang mana itu terjadi supaya memahami makna dari idiom secara lebih lengkap.

Kata kunci: idiom, tipe-tipe idiom, makna yang dimaksudkan, semantic tringle, konteks-konteks.

  • 1.    Background

Idioms are words, phrases, and expressions that cannot be translated literally.

In other words, when we use them in every day language, they have different meanings from the basic ones you would find in a dictionary. Idiom is part of figure of speech. Actually there are many figures of speech such as metaphor, hyperbole,

proverb, idiom, etc. And many people do not realize that they often meet idioms in song lyrics.

A song is one of the best entertainments to be enjoyed by all the people in the world; it contains a variety of techniques of presentif vocal, melodious music, beat of the drum so that through the song we can change our persfective about the world. When we analyze and learn a song indirectly we can get four skills of language (in this case English) such as speaking, listening, writing, and reading. Through comprehension of idioms we can explore the deepest meaning in the song. There are a plenty of variations of language that can be found in the song, such as the variations types of figurative language, including idioms.

Goffin and McMordie, 1976:6 state that idiomatic expressions are to be found even in daily speech of English rather than in elaborate, polished compositions. Likewise, on radio, in novels, newspapers and magazine articles, and books of travel, idiomatic turns of expression abound. In general, idioms can be categorized into phrasal verbs, prepositional phrases and partial idioms. Mostly the types of idioms are formed by verb phrases, and in this paper the types of idioms that are formed by such phrases will bediscussed.

Being interested in the study of idioms, especially the idioms that can be found in the song lyrics, the study will analyze idioms used particularly in the song lyrics sung by The Living End, which is composed by Chris Cheney, the lead vocalist and also the front man of the band. The songs were taken from their second album Roll on and their fourth album State Of Emergency. The Living End is an Australian punk

rock band which formed in 1994. The members of the band are Chris Cheney

(vocals, guitar), Scott Owen (double bass, vocals), and Andy Strachan (drums). They have also gained chart success in the United States and the United Kingdom. The band has released six studio albums. They also have won five awards: Highest Selling Single for “Second Solution / Prisoner Of Society (1998), Breacktrough Artist – Album and Best Group for The Living End (1999), Best rock Album for White Noise (2008), and the same category for The Ending is Just The Begining Repeating (2011). Based on the themes of the songs and many figures of speech contain in the songs, it is interesting to analyze the special figures of speech of idioms.

  • 2.    Problem of the Study

In analyzing the song lyrics composed and song by The Living End band, there are some problems that can be formulated in connection to the use of idioms in the song lyrics of The Living End, which are as follows:

  • 1.    What types of idioms can be identified in the song lyrics sung by The Living End in the Roll On and State Of Emergency albums?

  • 2.    What are the intended meanings of the idiomatic expressions found in the song lyrics contained in the Roll On and State Of Emergency albums?

  • 3.    Aims of the Study

The aims of this Study are as follows:

  • 1.    To identify the types of idioms in the song lyrics in the Roll on and State Of Emergency albums by The Living End band.

  • 2.    To describe the intended meanings of the idiomatic expressions found in the song lyrics in the Roll on and State of Emergency albums.

  • 4.    Analysis and Result

    4.1    Types of Idioms

Data 17: And there’s a black cat waiting for a moment to strike..” (Cheney, 2006)

The expression black cat belongs to a partial idiom since the word cat has its usual meaning, while the word black has different meaning from what it usually means. Its meaning is peculiar to a particular sequence of the word in the idiom.

  • 4.2    Intended meaning

    Idiom in Black Cat

The song entitled black cat talks about politics, where the song writter place himself as person who try to give an advice to someone. In this story of the song that talks someone who has fallen down in problem. Then song writer as a person said that he or she must wait for a moment and cross the path.

Data 17: and there’s a black cat wait for the moment to strike (stanza 4)

In stanza 4 of line 1 the idiom black cat were found. In the sentence context above, the idiom is classified as partial idiom. In order to help people in making a good understanding, we will put the idiom into its context as follows.

And there’s a black cat waiting for the moment to strike

Crossing your path at the dead of midnight

A black cat waiting for a moment to strike

The context refers to what language is used. And the context of situation based on the song lyrics above is needed to make a clear distinction through the idiom. The context of the idiom black cat shows the effort of action which must be wait. On the other way, the intended meaning of the idiom black cat revealed, based on the cultural context and the story of the songs, black cat means someone who gets destruction.

An idiom is a group of words that has figurative meaning. Idiom appears because of culture, knowledge, experience, and association. Sometimes idiom in a country has different meaning with other countries. Example idiom black cat in Indonesian means unlucky. But in some west countries black cat means a good fortune, lucky. And in another west country black cat also means destruction. Sometimes idioms that is found in Indonesian with form Indonesian language is diffucult to understand by foreign people through English language. On the contrary idioms that formed in west country is acceptable by people in Indonesian. Thus we will find it difficult to understand idioms if we are not a native people.

Thought or reference

Destruction

Symbol


Black cat


Referent

An animal that has black skin or black fur

In semantic triangle, the symbol (The word) is black cat. And the referent (the object) can be simple image when we imagine in the real world. Thus the referent refers to an animal that has black skin or black fur. But remember idiom has different meaning with the meaning from the lexical item. Since the idiom has figurative meaning.

  • 5.    Conclusion

Based on the analysis, the following points can be drawn as conclusion as follows:

Based on the types of idioms, from the 10 songs of roll on album and state of emergency album, totally 18 idioms have been collected, There are 7 phrasal verbs, 3 prepositional verbs, and 8 partial idioms. The idioms have been analyzed according to its element and classification in order to determine the degrees of idiomaticity and its types.

Concerning the meaning, an idiom is an expression in which the whole meaning cannot be easily dicovered by the meaning of the words composing it. The theme of the song is reflected by the meaning of idioms. And the semantic triangle by Ogden and Richard is applied to guide the audience grasps the process of understanding through the thought or reference (concept in mind). Since thought or reference (concept in mind) can give many perceptions of idiom’s meaning, therefore the context is needed to limit the interpretation, and finally the intended meaning of the idiom can be revealed.

  • 6.    BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dini, 2009. “Meaning of Idioms in Sum 41 Underclass Hero Lyrics’’. Denpasar: English Department, Faculty of Letters Udayana University.

Elena Rosa, 1973. Relevance Theory and the Construction of Idiom Meaning. Journal Press.

Hornby, A.S. 1987. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Walton Street: Oxford University Press.

Ismiyanti, 2002. “English Idioms in Novel Disclosure and their translation into Indonesia”. Denpasar: English Department, Faculty of Letters Udayana University.

Oxford University, 2001. Oxford Phrasal Verb. London: Oxford University Press.

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

Shindue, 2000. “A Comprehension of Black and White in Idiom: Semantic Point of View”. Denpasar: English Department, Faculty of Letters Udayana University.

THE LIVING END Discography. 2014. Wikipedia. Retrieved from URL: http://www.wikipedia/thelivingend

THE LIVING END Lyrics. 2014. THE LIVING END Official sites. Retrieved from URL: http://www.kapanlagi.com

THE LIVING END Lyrics. 2014. THE LIVING END Official sites. Retrieved from URL: http://www.A-Zlyrics.com

W . Mc Mordie, R.C. GOFFIN, M.A. 1965. English Idiom and How to use Them. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

125