THE ANALYSIS OF IDIOMS AND MEANING IN THE BOYS LIKE GIRLS’ SONG LYRICS
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THE ANALYSIS OF IDIOMS AND MEANING IN THE BOYS LIKE
GIRLS’ SONG LYRICS
Surya Dipta
Jurusan Sastra Inggris Fakultas Sastra UNUD
ABSTRACT
Naskah yang berjudul “The Analysis of Idioms and Meaning in the Boys Like Girls’ song lyrics” terpusat pada dua aspek: (1) macam-macam idiom yang terdapat pada lirik-lirik lagu, dan (2) tipe-tipe makna dan bagaimana makna-makna dari idiom menyampaikan pesan-pesan pada lagu.
Sumer data diambil dari lirik-lirik lagu pada lagu-lagu populer milik sebuah band bernama Boys Like Girls, yang ditulis oleh Martin Jhonson. Data-data tersebut dikumpulkan menggunakan metode dokumentasi dengan mengaplikasikan teknik membaca dan membuat catatan. Demikian, data-data yang diperoleh diperiksa dengan sumber-sumber yang menyediakan informasi ataupun daftar mengenai idiom.
Pada analisis, teori yang digunakan dalam mengklasifikasi macam-macam idiom adalah teori milik F.R Palmer dari bukunya berjudul Semantic: A New Outline (1976). Untuk mengkategorikan tipe-tipe makna diaplikasikan teori dari Geoffrey Leech pada bukunya berjudul Semantics (1974). Analisis makna dibantu dari sumber-sumber seperti Oxford Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition (A.S Hornby, 2010) dan English Idiom and How To Use Them dari Seidl and McMordie (1988) untuk menemukan makna idiom.
Berdasarkan hasil temuan dari analysis, tiga tipe idiom dan tiga tipe makna ditemukan pada lagu-lagu yang dianalisa. Mengenai makna, maknda dari idiom mempunyai hubungan yang kuat pada pesan-pesan di setiap lagu, maka dari itu makna dari idiom harus ditemukan terlebih dahulu agar pesan-pesan pada lagu bisa ditemukan.
Kata kunci: Idiom, tipe-tipe idiom, makna, tipe-tipe makna
Song is a media in expressing feelings and ideas which has plenty interesting things behind the lyrics of the song to discuss. Song lyrics are written language used by the writer as an instrument to convey his feeling. Sometimes, lyrics cannot be understood or interpreted easily. The writer often put a lot of expressions in the song lyrics, and most of expressions found could be idioms.
Cruse (1986) states that Idiom is expression whose meaning cannot be acounted for as a compositional function of the meanings when they are not parts
of idioms. That means even though people understand every single word, however it will not that easy to catch what exactly the sentence means.
This study works through the idioms and meaning in the song lyrics of Boys Like Girls, a band from Massachussetts, United States with the primary song-writer, Martin Jhonson.
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1. What types of idioms can be identified in the Boys Like Girls’ song lyrics?
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2. What are the meanings of idioms found and how are the meanings conveyed through the idioms found in Boys Like Girls’ song lyrics?
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1. To classify the types of idioms in the song lyrics of Boys Like Girls
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2. To analyze the meaning of idioms found in the song lyrics of Boys Like Girls and how they convey the messages of the songs.
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1. Data Source
The data were taken from Boys Like Girls band in their albums Self Titled (2006) and Love Drunk (2009). The lyrics were taken from the site addressed http://www.plyrics.com/b/boyslikegirls.html.
Song lyrics which contain a lot of idioms were chosen. There were only three popular songs from Boys Like Girls analyzed in this study. They are: Someone Like You, Thunder, and Contagious.
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2. Method and Technique of Collecting Data
The data were collected through documentation method and by reading and taking notes technique. After looking up all the lyrics from the site addressed on data source, the songs which were considered as good data and contain idioms were chosen and downloaded. The next step was
reading the lyrics carefully to understand the meanings or messages in the songs. After all, the words or phrases which were considered as idioms were noted down.
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3. Method and Technique of Analyzing Data
The data were qualitatively analyzed based on theory and also by checking the existence on source like books.
The collected data were classified according to its types. The types of idioms were categorized based on the theory of Idioms proposed by Palmer (1976).
In analyzing meaning, the types of meaning were categorized based on the theory proposed by Leech (1974). The meanings were found in the books entitled English Idioms by Seidl and Mc Mordie (1988) and Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition (Oxford University Press 2005).
Phrasal Verb
Phrasal verb is very a common type of idiom in English, which includes the combination of verb plus adverb. The meaning of those combinations cannot be predicted from the individual verb and adverb (Palmer, 1976:99). From the chosen Boys Like Girls’ song analyzed, the phrasal verbs found are as follows:
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1. “When I finally burn out, I need someone to carry me home” (Jhonson, 2009).
The expression burn out can be classified into phrasal verb since it is built from a verb (burn) and an adverb (out) and combined together to produce a new meaning.
Based on the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary by Hornby (2010), the idiom burn out means to stop working or make something stop working because it gets too hot or used too much. Therefore, the expression I finally burn out in this song can be interpreted as a state where the writer becomes extemely tired
and sick as he used his feeling too much. It reflects that the writer is hurt, could not move on anymore and needs somebody to cure him or make him better again.
Based on Seven Types of Meaning by Leech (1974), this expression belongs to connotative meaning since the phrase burn out has the meaning above its purely conceptual content. It does not mean literally ‘burned’, but reflects ‘the writer’s tired feeling’. This expression also refers to the writer’s feelings and attitude. Therefore, it can be categorized into affective meaning as well.
Prepositional Verb
It is not only a sequence of verb plus adverb that may be idiomatic. There are also sequences of verb plus preposition, and sequences of verb, adverb and preposition (Palmer, 1976:99).
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1. “..but I’m going after you..” (Jhonson, 2009).
The idiom going after consists of two words formed by a verb (go) followed by a preposition (after), with the verb placed in present continous tense (-ing). Moreover, based on Greenbaum and Quirk from their book A Student’s Grammar of the English Language (1990), this expression belongs to prepositional verb since the particle of a prepositional verb (after) must precede the prepositional object, and the personal pronoun (you) that follows the particle of the prepositional verb (after).
The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines the prepositional verb go after somebody as an action to chase or follow or to try to get somebody (Hornby, 2010). Reviewing from the whole lyrics, the expression I’m going after you describes how the writer is trying to get a girl who makes him feel so excited.
The prepositional verb going after belongs to conceptual meaning. As Leech (1974) stated in his book, conceptual meaning deals with the core meaning of expression. It is denotative or literal meaning.
Partial Idiom
Partial idiom is where one of the words has usual meaning,the other has a meaning that is peculiar to the particular sequence. It is also explained that even partial idioms can be matter of degree and may in some cases be little more than a matter of collocation restriction (Palmer, 1976:99).
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1. “I tried to read between the lines, I tried to look in your eyes..” (Jhonson, 2006).
The expression read between the lines is considered partial idiom since the word read in this idiom has its usual meaning while the following words between the lines have the meaning is peculiar to a particular sequence.
The expression read between the lines means to look for or discover a meaning in something that is not openly stated (Hornby, 2010). From the book English Idioms by Seidl and McMordie (1988), read between the lines means understand or sense more than the actual words say; have insight into a situation. The writer might try to explain that he is in a situation where he does not really know what he is feeling inside, and he thought the answer could be found by looking into the girl’s eyes since the feeling he had is caused by the girl. Thus, the expression I tried to read between the lines, I tried to look in your eyes in this case reflects the writer’s intention to understand a meaning about his own feeling to a girl that is not stated openly.
Since the expression read between the lines goes beyond mere referent of a word, this idiom belongs to connotative meaning.
Based on the analysis in the previous chapter, the answers of two problems of the study were found. Those are as follows:
The three types of idioms all occurs in the Boys Like Girls’ song lyrics. They are phrasal verb, prepositional verb, and partial idiom. There are only three types of seven types of meaning emerging in three analyzed song lyrics from Boys
Like Girls band. Those are conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, and affective meaning. Moreover, sometimes, there are more than one types of meaning arising at once in one expression as well.
Concerning the meaning, the messages of the songs are reflected by the meaning of Idiom since the meaning of idiom excessively helped reveal the real meanings hidden behind the expressions. Therefore, the messages of the songs would appear clearly after analyzing the meaning of Idiom.
Cruse, D.A. 1986. Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Greenbaum, Sidney and Quirk, Randolph. 1990. A Student’s Grammar of the English language. Addison Wesley Publishing Company.
Hornby, A.S. 2010.Oxford Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. Great Britain: Oxford University Press.
Leech, Geoffrey. 1974. Semantics. Great Britain: Hazell Watson &Viney Ltd.
Palmer, F.R. 1976. Semantics: A NewOutline. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Seidl,Jennifer and Mc Mordie.1988.English Idiom and How to use Them. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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