Meanings Of Figurative Language With Reference To Four Iron Maiden Songs
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ISSN: 2302-920X
Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud
Vol 17.2 Nopember 2016: 241 - 247
Meanings Of Figurative Language With Reference To Four Iron Maiden Songs
Rahardian Daniswara1*, I Made Winaya2, I Gusti Ngurah Parthama3
123English Department Faculty Of Arts, Udayana University
1[[email protected]] 2[[email protected]] 3[[email protected]]
Corresponding Author
Abstract
Penelitian ini berjudul Meanings of Figurative Language with Reference to Four Iron Maiden Songs. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengidentifikasi dan mengklasifikasi jenis-jenis kata kiasan yang di temukan di dalam empat lagu Iron Maiden serta menjelaskan makna yang terdapat di dalam ke empat lagu tersebut. Sumber data diambil dari empat lagu yang dipopulerkan oleh heavy metal band asal Inggris, Iron Maiden. Ke empat lagu tersebut adalah Run to the Hills, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Rime of the Ancient Mariner dan 2 Minutes to Midnight. Teori-teori utama yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini diadopsi dari teori figurative language yang dikemukakkan oleh Knickerbocker dan Reninger (1963) kemudian sebagai teori tambahan adalah teori figurative language dari Wellek dan Warren (1984) dan teori meaning dari Leech (1974). Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode kualitatif. Diawali dengan memilih beberapa kalimat yang mengandung kiasan dari ke empat lirik lagu. Kemudian mendengarkan ke empat lagu tersebut . Setelah membaca, beberapa Bahasa kiasan dipilih secara intensif. Setelah itu, mencatat data yang berhubungan. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa terdapat delapan macam bahsa kiasan yang ditemukan dari ketiga belas atau keseluruhan total dari kedua teori figurative language. Sedangkan makna yang digunakan untuk mengetahui arti dari bahasa kiasan terdapat tiga macam dari tujuh macam makna berdasarkan teori.
Kata Kunci: Iron Maiden, Bahasa kiasan, makna
Figurative language is a different word or phrase that contains hidden meaning behind it. Figurative languages can be found in most writing such as dramas, poetries, and the common writing in song lyrics. Because sometimes the lyric itself represents the writer’s feelings, sometimes some writers want to hide the meaning behind the work they make to make other people think more about it. One example is when a writer writes a song lyric, the writer needs an imagination and figurative sense. Figurative languages are divided into several kinds. According to Knickerbocker and Renninger
(1963), there are: simile, metaphor, personification, allusion, paradox, dead metaphor, irony, hyperbole, synecdoche, and metonymy.
A language or simply a word contains many hidden meanings behind it. Each word that we speak, hear and listen are sometimes very different from what what we can understand literally. According to Leech (1971) the meaning of a word is complex. Leech divided meaning into seven types. There are: conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, stylistic meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning and thematic meaning.
Iron Maiden is one of the greatest and influential heavy metal music. Founded in 1979 with its leader Steve Harris; it made sixteen albums from 1980 to its recent album in 2015. By learning the figurative language in the lyric song, hopefully we will understand what actually the writer wants to convey in those songs. That is why the figurative language is interesting to analyse. Based on description above, this study is focused on discussion of the figurative languages and its meaning found in four Iron Maiden songs.
From the background of the study, the research problems can be formulated as follows:
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1. What kinds of figurative language can be found in each song lyrics?
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2. What kinds of meaning from each figurative language are found in each song lyrics?
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3. Aims of the Study
Based on the problem of study, the aims of study are:
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1. To identify the kinds of figurative languages used in the lyrics of the iron maiden songs.
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2. To analyze the meaning of figurative language conveyed in the song lyrics of iron maiden songs.
In this research, Run to the Hills, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Rime of the Ancient Mariner and 2 Minutes to Midnight by Iron Maiden are used as the data source. The four songs were released in different albums separately in 1982 (The Number of the Beast) and 1984 (Powerslave). It is a heavy metal song which had different kind of theme in each song. The different contents of the four songs are very interesting because they describe the moral value of life (in songs Hallowed Be Thy Name and Rime of the Ancient Mariner) and War (Run to the Hills and 2 Minutes to Midnight) and in the content of this four songs, there are many figurative languages can be found so it is relevant to the topic of the study.
The data in this study were collected using the method of documentation. The collecting of the four songs in Iron Maiden was done with following steps. First, downloading the four songs from the internet then four songs were listened to very carefully. Second, each of the songs lyric already downloaded from the internet was read repeatedly in order to understand the message. Third, finding and taking notes of the related data.
The data were analysed qualitatively based on the theory of Figurative Language in morphology stated by Knickerbocker and Renninger (1963) and Wellek and Warren (1984). In addition to the theory of Meaning stated by Leech (1984) to analyse the meaning of the figure of speech words found in the song lyric. All the data were classified based on the kinds of the figurative language. The analyses were continued by analysing the meaning of figure of speech found.
This part deals with the result and discussion of the analysis of kinds of figurative language and the meaning of figure of speech word in which the data were taken from song lyric in four songs written and performed by Iron Maiden.
Based on the data source, the analysis shows that there are eight kinds of figurative language found in all of four songs by Iron Maiden.
Metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common. In other words, a resemblance of two contradictory or different objects is made based on a single or some common characteristics. White man came across the sea. The previous word is from a song ‘Run to the Hills’. White Man in line one is the metaphorical word of a British Soldier. The result showed that the skin which British soldier was different from that the Indian Tribes had. The song itself is a reference to the British Soldier who came to Invaded America.
Hyperbole is a figure of an exaggeration used for special effect. (Knickerbocker and Reninger 1963 : 367). As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean (line 31) is a word from the song ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. Painted ocean showed the use of hyperbole. It is the exaggeration of what the mariner saw the ocean that had a color. Perhaps from the mariner’s view the ocean is painted because the light from the moon then it comes back to normal again.
Wellek and Warren (1984: 190) state imagery is a topic which belongs both to psychology and literary studies. The songs ‘2 Minutes to Midnight’ , The body bags and little rags of children torn in two in line thirty-two use imagery. It is imagery of the situation in what happens in a war. The song itself refers to the fantasy of war.
Irony is a statement whose real meaning is completely opposed to its professed or surface meaning. The love of living death is one example of irony from the song ‘2
Minutes to Midnight’. It is an irony, because there is no one who wants to live miserable.
Personification
Giving human characteristic to objects, animals, or an abstract idea. (Knickerbocker and Renninger, 1963; 367). One example for this kind of figurative language is found in song ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. About his neck, the dead bird is hung. The dead bird is a reference to a real bird of albatross, which mariner crew shot to death based the song lyric.
Simile is a state of comparison, introduced by the words “like” or “as”. Sinks down like lead into the Sea is what the simile word found in ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ song. The word itself is comparison of albatross dead bodies which is drown easily in sea.
Symbol appears as a term in logic, in mathematics, in semantics and semiotics and epistemology; it has also had a long history in the worlds of theology ("symbol" is one synonym for "creed"), liturgy, the fine arts, and poetry. (Rene and Warren (1984: 193). One example is the symbol of an omen found in the song ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. It is in line sixty-seven The albatross falls from his neck. The albatross is a symbol of an omen which leads to various situations faced by the mariner.
Metonymy is a figure used to describe one thing using the term for another thing closely associated with it. (Knickerbocker and Reninger 1963:367). Bodies lifted by good spirit is metonymy of an angel. It is found in ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ song.
In order to know the meaning of the figurative words in all of four songs by Iron Maiden, Leech theory about meaning is used here. There are three kinds of meaning used to analyse the data.
Conceptual meaning is also called logical or cognitive meaning. It is the basic propositional meaning which corresponds to the primary dictionary definition. About his neck, the dead bird is hung is a line from ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. The bird is personification of the albatross itself which can be understood with conceptual meaning. And based by the logical thinking it is a reference to the dead body of the albatross.
Connotative meaning is the communicative value of an expression over and above its purely conceptual content. The word sands of time in the fourth line of ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ shows the use of metaphor. And by using the conceptual meaning, the word refers to time. It is kind of logic, because there is the keyword to know it; time. And the words sands of time show how the reaction to time by the prisoner who will get a dead execution is.
Affective meaning can often be called explicitly conveyed through the conceptual or connotative content of the words stated by Leech (1971:18). In ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ the seventh line of the songs, “Of a world that has gone very wrong for me”can be understood by affective meaning. In this line, it is shown how confused the prisoner about the condition in his life is. Whether what he does is right or wrong, he still has a doubt about it.
Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that there are eight kinds of figurative language found in four songs by Iron Maiden. They are metaphor, hyperbole, irony, imagery, simile, metonymy, personification and symbol. The meanings that used to analysed the figurative languages founds are conceptual, connotative and affective meanings. The use of figure of speech in song lyric is used to make the song more interesting to hear for listener to listen. The song ‘2 minutes to Midnight’ mostly explains about the fantasy in what if post-cold warfare happens. ‘Run to the Hills’ lyrically explains about the British invasion to occupy American tribes. ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ talks about the prisoner who is sentenced to death that remembers every memories of his life. While Rime of the Ancient Mariner tells the tale from the mariner life’s changing situation which he has a nightmare journey where he gets what is the value of the life.
ironmaiden.com. the band. Available from: http://www.ironmaiden.com/the-band
Knickerbocker, K.L and Willard Reninger. 1963. Interpreting Literature. New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Leech, G.N. 1971. Meaning and the English Verb. London: Longman.
Wellek.Rene and Warren Austin. 1984. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcoourt, Brace and Company.
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