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FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE ANALYSIS IN

BIRTHDAY AND VALENTINE GREETING CARDS

I Putu Hendra Putrawan

Non-regular Program English Department Faculty of Letter Udayana University

Abstract:

Penelitian ini berjudul “Figurative Language Analysis in Birthday and Valentine Greeting Cards”. Penelitian ini adalah tentang menganalisis bahasa kiasan dalam kartu ucapan. Tujuan mendasar dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui apa jenis bahasa kiasan yang digunakan dalam kartu ucapan, dan menganalisis makna bahasa kiasan yang digunakan dalam kartu-kartu ucapan.

Data ini dianalisis secara deskriptif kualitatif. Sepuluh kartu ucapan terpilih sebagai data seperti, Kartu Ucapan Hari Ulang Tahun dan Kartu Ucapan Hari Kasih Sayang. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan membaca beberapa kartu ucapan dan mengklasifikasi setiap kata yang mengandung bahasa kiasan, kemudian bahasa kiasan tersebut dicatat untuk mendapatkan jenis dan makna bahasa kiasan dalam kartu-kartu ucapan.

Teori utama yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah teori bahasa kiasan yang diusulkan oleh knickerbocker and Renninger. Penelitian ini difokuskan pada analisis penggunaan bahasa kiasan yang ditemukan dalam kartu ucapan dan makna bahasa kiasan. Unsur-unsur bahasa kiasan yang diamati adalah “simile, metaphor, personification, synecdoche, metonymy, hyperbole, irony, paradox, dead metaphor and allusion”.

Dalam penelitian ini, bahwa ada beberapa jenis bahasa kiasan yang ditemukan yaitu simile, personification, synecdoche dan hyperbole. Penggunaan bahasa kiasan dalam kartu ucapan memainkan peran penting karena berfungsi untuk mengekspresikan perasaan pengirim kartu ucapan, sehingga membangkitkan rasa istimewa untuk seseorang yang membaca kartu ucapan. Pengirim ingin menyampaikan pesan dan makna melalui kartu ucapan kiasan.

Kata kunci : Figurative Language, Greeting Card

  • 1.    Background of Study

Language is a means of communication and cannot be separated from the society. Language is one of human cultures that cannot be separated from life as it is a part of human behavior. It is used to communicate, to interact to one another and also to express one’s feelings. For a certain function, language plays an important role in a greeting card.

Greeting card is a practical and unique way to communicate with others. Although there are many means of communication through the distance, but sometimes people need a permanent or semi permanent record for their special occasions. Furthermore, certain types of message are more appropriate in writing form, especially greeting card. Greeting card is still used by modern people to greet their family, friend, colleague, etc. It may seem amazing that in this day and age of the Internet, people still send greeting cards. The language in greeting cards is different from most of other languages used in daily lives. The greeting cards are always presented in various ways and full of figurative language, beautiful words to represent the sender’s feeling. Sometimes, someone finds it difficult to describe the literal meanings of figurative languages that are used in greeting cards. To understand that, it is imperative that one should learn how to interpret the figurative language.

Figurative is used in particular way to explore the fake through the known. It is so accustomed to figure of speech in our everyday reading and conversation. It is the best therefore to have kinds of figurative language in mind, add their names to our critical vocabulary. Figurative language is sometimes called metaphorical language or simply metaphor because its Greek ancestor “metaphoric” means to carry meaning beyond its literal meaning (Knickerbocker, 1963).

  • 2.    Problem of The Study

Based on the background as stated above, the problems of research can be formulated as follows:

  • 1.    What types of figurative language in birthday and valentine greeting cards?

  • 2.    What are the meanings of the figurative language used in birthday and valentine greeting cards?

  • 3.    Aims of Study

The aims of this study are:

  • 1.    To find the type of figurative language in birthday and valentine greeting cards.

  • 2.    To explain the meanings of figurative language in birthday and valentine greeting cards.

  • 4.    Research Method

The data was descriptively and qualitatively analyzed based on the theory of figurative language proposed by Knickerbocker & Willard Reninger (1963). The method of analyzing data is fundamentally important on this analysis. It is a process and procedure of how we approach the problems and find out the answers through finding, collecting and analyzing the data.

The data was insensitively studied, classified and analyzed based on the theory applied in this study. First, those greeting cards were read repeatly, after that classified the cards based on their types of greeting cards. Then classified again based on the types of figurative language. Furthermore analyzed based on the types of the greeting cards to find out the types figurative language and also their meanings.

  • 5.    Analysis

The types of figurative language found are analyzed based on the relevant theories. In order to build a deeper understanding, each use of figurative language is supported by an illustration and a brief description of the particular meaning carried by the figure itself.

There were four types of figurative language found in those greeting cards, and they are simile, personification, synecdoche and hyperbole.

  • 1.    Simile

Based on the theory, the meaning of Simile is a stated of comparison of two dissimilar things introduced by “like” or “as”.

For example:

“I love you almost as much as I love me” (in Valentine Greeting Card, no 7)

This sentence is called a simile form because it uses word as. The meaning of this sentence is the sender would like to compare I love you and I love me, it means that the way of the sender loves the receiver with the way the sender loves himself/herself.

  • 2.    Personification

Based on the theory, the meaning of Personification is Giving human characteristics to an object, animal, or an abstract idea, personification is a metaphor, of course, in the sense that there is an implied comparison between a non human thing and human being.

For example:

“Your friendship makes every a special day” (in Birthday Greeting Card, no 1)

This sentence is called a personification form because the word “makes” shows a human action whereas the word “your friendship” is an abstract idea. The meaning is the sender wants to remain his/her friend who is on birthday that friends are very important since they can accompany them in sad or happy situation.

  • 3.    Synecdoche

Based on the theory, the meaning of Synecdoche is a figure of speech showing the use of part for the whole. Synecdoche substitutes

some significant details or aspects of an experience for the experience itself.

For example:

“You’ve passed another round of time” (in Birthday Greeting Card, no 5)

This sentence is called a synecdoche because it is using a part for the whole. We can change the sentence You’ve passed another round of time into You’ve passed another year. The use of the phrase round of time seems to be more interesting than the use of the word year. And the meaning is someone passed another year because today just his/her birthday.

  • 4.    Hyperbole

Based on the theory, Hyperbole is a figure of speech which employs an exaggeration that used for special effect.

For example:

“Today and always you are in my heart” (in Valentine Greeting Card, no 9)

The words today and always you are in my heart is a hyperbole because the words ‘today and always’ means forever, and it exaggrates how long someone will be in your heart because someday they will die and they can not be in your heart if you are dead. The words you are in my heart is a hyperbole form because we can not literally be in someone heart, the sender just want to the reader know that he/she will always remember and love her/him.

And the meaning of the sentence is the sender always remembers the one that he/she loves, and he/she is a special person for him/her.

  • 6.    Conclusion

This study had been analyzed and discussed about the figurative language found in ten greeting cards. Based on the analysis that had been done, there are several conclusions that can be drawn.

The analysis of two kinds of greeting cards have been done in the previous chapter, there are Birthday Greeting Cards and Valentine Greeting Cards. Those greeting cards have employed four types of figurative language, that are found namely personification, hyperbole, simile and synecdoche. From the figures that are used, personification and hyperbole seem to be dominant in the data analyzed. Those figures are actually presented to express the sender’s feelings. For the sender of the greeting cards, the use of figurative language helps to convey ideas and thoughts in an artistic way.

The use of figurative language has also made the greeting cards sound more beautiful, and the use of such figures also made the greeting cards memorable to the readers. All the meanings of the sentences in the greeting cards analyzed are connotative meanings, in which the meaning on the figurative level was much deeper and impressing, and even in a very different sense, than the literal or surface meaning. The use of figurative language in the greeting cards is to make the sentences more interesting and to evoke a special feeling for someone who reads the greeting cards. The sentences in those greeting cards consist of full good wishes from the sender of the greeting cards to the reader or receiver. By figurative language the readers will get the total idea, the message or what actually the writer wants to convey through greeting cards figuratively.

  • 7.    Bibliography

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