1

LEXICAL COHESION IN SONG

LYRIC PERRY’S FIREWORK

BY

AGA SEBASTIAN

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

NON-REGULAR PROGRAM, FACULTY OF LETTERS

UDAYANA UNIVERSITY

2013

Abstrak

Penelitian ini berjudul “Bahasa kiasan dalam lyric lagu firework perry”. Topik terpilih karena bahasa kiasan yg digunakan dalam banyak cerita dan bnayak lagu dan kemudian terpilih lagu karena lagu yg berisi dengan banyak bahasa kiasan. Data penelitian ini diambil dari download di internet. Dan kemudian membaca serta menelaah lirik lagu yang dipilihdengan focus mengidentisifikasilagu tersebut. Setelah itu mengklasifikasikan bahasa kiasan yang ditemukan dalam lirik. Data yang terkumpul dianalisis dengan menggunakan teori Knickerbocker untuk menemukan jenis bahasa kiasan tersebut, apakah itu ironi, hiperbola atau personifikasi dan setelah itu, dan yang terakhir, mencoba menafsirkan maksud dari penulis didasarkan pada teori Leech.

Kata kunci : lirik lagu, katy perry, figurative

  • 1.    Background of the Study

Figurative language is sometimes called methaporical language or simply methapor because Greek ancestor “metaphoric” means to carry meaning beyond its literal meaning (Knickerbocker, 1963 : 637). In classical theories of language, metaphor is seen as a matter of language not thought. Metaphors is linked only to literature in the past. Metaphorical expressions were assumed to be mutually exclusive with the realm of ordinary everyday language: everyday language has no metaphor (Lakoff, 1993 : 202). Figurative language is dependent on the situation of communication and context in which a word is used and this seems to be characteristic of language in general. Many such comparisons, of figures speech, in which something is pictured or imaged in terms of something else is already familiar to us, and this is

really so familiar that it is taken for granted in daily life. In this paper language operates in a context in a situation and is called a text.

And in this case, Perry’s song “Firework” received positive reviews from music critics, with some noticing its catchy melody and danceable beat and comparing it to songs by English band Coldplay. The song was commercially successful, reaching the top spot on Billboard Hot 100 and the top five on 20 charts around the world. This lyrics are very popular, as it used a lot of more beautiful words and deep meaning in it than the song by Ronan Keating (When You Say Nothing at All) that just has deep meaning but its lyrics do not have figurative language. By learning more about figurative language in song lyrics, hopefully we will understand what the song’s writer actually wanted to convey in that songs.

  • 2.    Problems of the Study

Based on the background state above, the problem of the study was “What kinds of lexical cohesion found in the song lyrics ?

  • 3.    Aims of the Study

Based on the background and problems stated above, the aim of te study was “To identify the lexical cohesion in the song lyrics

  • 4.    Research Method

The methodology is intended to give an idea of how to carry out a research. Surdayanto (1993:10) claims that “methodology is the way of having to do something; technique is the way of carrying out the methodology. In this section there are three points covered, firstly data source, method and technique of collecting data, and also method and technique of analyzing data.

  • 4.1    Data source

The data used in this study all were directly taken from the primary sources, in this case Perry’s song which contain a lot of figurative language.

  • 4.2    Method and Technique of Collecting Data

The methods applied in collecting the data was the observation method. the data (lyrics) were collected from internet with the web address www.google.com downloaded the data and save in computer. the subsequent approaches, of course, to read as well as to observe the lyrics of the chosen songs attentively with the major focus on identifying the figure speech expressions inside that song, classifying the lyrics or the words found in the song to classification the figurative language in the song lyrics themselves, so were found how many figurative languages were used.

  • 4.3    Method and Technique of Analyzing Data

The data were analyzed qualitatively. The lyrics were read carefully to find figurative language in the lyrics. try to classify the figurative language found, whether it is irony, hyperbola, or a personification, etc. find lexical cohesion in that lyric and were classified the word whether they include repetition, synonymy, collocation, etc. try to interpret the intent of the writer of the song eas interpreted based on the theory of Leech (1974: 923).

  • 5.    Analysis of Lexical Cohesion Found in The Text

Before do analysis, the text of this will be presented as follows :

“Firework”

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag

Drifting through the wind

Wanting to start again

Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin

Like a house of cards

One blow from caving in

Do you ever feel already buried deep

Six feet under scream

But no one seems to hear a thing

Do you know that there’s still a chance for you

Cause there’s a spark in you

(*)You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine

Just own the night

Like the forth of July

Cause baby you’re firework

Come on show’em what your worth

Make’em go “oh, oh, oh!”

As you shoot across the sky

Baby you’re a firework

Come on let your colors burst

Make’em go “oh,oh,oh!”

You’re gonna leave ‘em falling down

You don’t have to feel like a waste of space

You’re original, cannot be replaced

If you only knew what the future holds

After a hurricane comes a rainbow

Maybe you’re reason why all the door are closed

So you can open one that leads you to the perfect road

Like a lighting bolt, your heart will blow

And when it’s time, you will know

Back to (*)

Boom, boom, boom

Even brighter that the moon, moon, moon

It’s always been inside of you, you, you

And now it’s time to let it through

Cause baby you’re firework

Come on show ‘em what your worth

Make ‘em go “oh,oh,oh!”

As you shoot across the sky

Baby you’re a firework

Come on let your colors burst

Make ‘em go “oh, oh, oh!”

You’re gonna leave ‘em goin “oh, oh,oh”!

Boom, boom, boom

Even brighter that the moon, moon, moon

Boom, boom, boom

Even brighter that the moon, moon, moon

By reading the text presented above, not all kinds of lexical cohesion were found in it. Therefore, only the occurring types of lexical cohesion were analyzed here.

Reiteration

As already explained previously reiteration is a form of lexical cohesion which has such subcategories as repetition, synonym, superordinate and the use of general word to refer back to a lexical item in preceding text.

  • a.    Repetition

Repetition is one kind of reiteration that shows the same lexical item that is repeated in the text, and commonly functions as reference. In the text analyzed here, repetition occurs with the highest frequency. There are many words repeated and this automatically gives cohesive effects to the text that carries them.

The repetition in this text is repeated in different frequency and in different parts of the text. The complete lists of repetition can be seen as below :

  • 1.    Feel (L-1)

Feel (L-4 ; L-6)

  • b.    Synonym

Synonim is a kind of reiteration which deals with the sameness of meaning of words in the text, and near synonym when the occurrence of two lexical items in the text have nearly the same meaning. Synonym also found in the text analyzed.

The following shows the synonym that are found in the text :

  • 1.    Shine (L-16)

Brighter (L-33)

Those both words refer to the same idea and similar referent, that of those words belong to the same class, that is, a adjective in the text “and let it shine” and in “even brighter than the moon”. The word “shine” (L-16) refers to the word “brighter” (L-33) that shows the relation of synonym.

  • c.    Superordinate

Superordinate is a kind of reiteration that explains a word in its general class. According to the text that already presented, it was also found kinds of superordinate as presented below d. General Word

General word which is commonly used with cohesive force, explain about a class of noun which refers to human beings, animate or inanimate in a wide of reference.

The example below shows the kind of general word found in the text that already presented above :

  • 1.    Buried deep (L-7)

Six feet under (L-8)

In the example above, the phrase “buried deep” in number 1 is considered general word. The phrase “buried deep” in the text above refers to “six feet under”. It means that the phrase refers to the lexical item forward. Here “buried deep” refers to “six feet under” that occurs in the next sentence. In the phrase “buried deep”, the word “deep” it means that is buried under six feet.

  • 6.    Conclusion

From the previous analyses, it can be concluded that there are some lexical cohesion found in Perry’s song: reiteration and collocation. Kinds of reiteration found in the song are repetition, synonym, superordinate and general word.

From kinds of figures of speech used in the song, there are four kinds of figures of speech found in the Perry’ s song “Firework” they are : simile, for example : do you ever feel like a plastic bag; hyperbole, for example : like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow; metaphor, for example : you don’t have to feel like a waste of space; and paradox, for example : cause there’s a spark in you.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Halliday, M.A.K & Hasan, R. 1976. Cohesion in English. New York. Longman.

Halliday, M.A.K & Hasan, R. 1985. Language, Context, and Text Aspect of Language in Social-Semiotic Perspective. Victoria : Deakin University.

Halliday, M.A.K & Hasan, R. 1995. Spoken and Written Language. Victoria : Deakin University.

Klarer, Mario. 2004. An Introduction to Literary Studies. Routledge.

Knickerbocker, K.L & H. Willard Reninger. 1963. Interpreting Literature. New York. Chicago. San Francisco. Toronto : Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Lakoff, George. 1993. Metaphor & Thought. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.

Leech, G.N. 1974. Semantics. Auxland : Penguin Books.

Minarsih, Ni Kadek. 2007. The Analysis of Cohesion and Coherence of the Article in Girlfriends Magazine. Denpasar : Udayana University.

Morner, Kathleen & Ralph Rausch. 1991. NTC’s Dictionary of Literary Terms. USA : NTC Publishing Group.

Smith, Sylbille. 1985. Inside Poetry. Victoria : Pitman Publishing Pty Ltd.

Sudaryanto. 1993. Metode & Aneka Teknik Analisis Bahasa Pengantar Penelitian Wahana Kebudayaan Secara Linguitis. Yogyakarta : Duta Wahana University Press

Sutarini, Ni Wayan. 2004. Figurative Language in William Blake’s “The Tiger”. Denpasar : Udayana University.

Welleck, Rene & Austin Warren. 1948. Theory of Literature. New York : Harvest Book.

Wiguna, I.G.A. Putra. 2004. The Analysis of the Poetic Devices in Green Day song Lyric “Boulevard of Broken Dream”. Denpasar : Udayana University.

www.google.com

Yudistira. 2010. Cohesive Devices in Political Articles in Different Printed Media. Denpasar : Udayana University.

9