191 the Figurative Language in Dark Horse Song Lyrics By

Home , Give It Up to Me

Proceedings of the 2nd English Education International Conference (EEIC) in conjunction with the 9th Annual International Conference (AIC), Universitas Syiah Kuala, September 18-19, 2019, Banda Aceh, Indonesia ISSN: 2527-8037

THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN DARK HORSE SONG LYRICS BY KATY PARRY

Mirwana Siska

English Applied Linguistics, Postgraduate Program, Universitas Negeri Medan, Medan, Indonesia

Email: [email protected]

Abstract Figurative language is language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation. Figurative language is a language which employs various figures of speech. Some examples are metaphor, simile, synecdoche, personification, Onomatopoeia, allegory, hyperbole, irony, symbol, and paradox. This study focuses on analyzing the figurative language used in “Dark Horse” song lyrics by Katy Parry. The aims of this study were to know the types of figurative language and to know the most dominant figurative language used in Dark Horse” song lyrics by Katy Parry. The research was qualitative descriptive to describe the analysis factually. The data of this research are the sentences or phrases that had the type of figurative language. the result of the study shows that “Dark Horse” song’s lyric by Katy Parry contains 13 sentences which include three types of figurative language, i.e. simile, personification, and hyperbole. According to the result, the song lyrics are dominated by hyperbole to give effects that cannot be expressed literally to listeners and readers.

Keywords: Figurative language, types of figurative, song.

INTRODUCTION Language is a tool for communication. Communication is the way to get information. Sometimes, someone can catch the message from the information, but others are not understood. In receiving information, someone has to understand the intended meaning. In this time, people can communicate or speak with other through songs. Through song, someone can convey his voice to many people, so that people can know their feeling. Literature is everything that has been written. It includes poetry, comic, novel and song lyric. Song lyric is meaningful. It can express what the writer feels at that moment. The writer may say something in an extraordinary and different way. It cannot be taken literally. It means that the writer uses figurative language. Figurative meaning is talking about the implicit interpretation in sentences or paragraphs. According to (Hatch, 1995, p.88), “figurative language has been described in terms of categories, namely simile, metaphor, allusion, personification, and so forth.” Figurative language is used to beautify a sentence structure whose primary purpose is to obtain a certain effect in order to create an imaginative impression to listeners or audience, both orally and in writing. Each author has a different style to express their writing idea, each produced will have a writing style that is influenced by its author. Figurative language is used for creating and making a literary work to be better, looking more alive, and creating more quality literary works. All of them (simile, metaphor, allusion, personification, and so forth) can be found in literatures, such as novels, newspapers, poems, and songs. Take the expression, “Hold you make me fly to heaven Not see you for a second, would make me die sudden” This means that “I will die in that second as well if not see you for a second”. In the real life, people who do not see their boyfriend or their loved one all day will not immediately die. From the example before, we can identify it into the hyperbola part, but it turns out to be part of the antiphrasis. It looks very easy, but in fact interpreting figurative language is not easy for us, it can cause misunderstanding between us. So, here the researcher will choose ‘Dark Horse” song from Katy Parry to be analyzed, because it is a famous song. This song is easy listening and its song lyrics also contain figurative language. Based on the explanation above, the problem of study is formulated as the following: “What are types of figurative language found in “Dark Horse” song lyrics?” and “Which type of figurative language is more dominant in “Dark Horse” song lyrics?” with the focus on the analysis of the figurative language used in “Dark Horse” song lyric using Perrine L’s theory. The researcher also provided to propose the significance

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THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN “DARK HORSE” SONG LYRICS BY KATY PARRY by Mirwana Siska of study, as follows: Tries to give information and knowledge about figurative language. Then, the researcher also wants to tell the readers that figurative language is not only a figurative of language but also gives meaning of communication. Finally, it can be a reference for the next researcher who wants to analyze the relevance study. According to Perrine (1978, p. 58), figurative language often provides a more effective means saying what we mean than does directly. Reaske (1996, p. 27) states that figurative language is a language which employs various figurative of speech. Risdianto (2011, p. 33) state that figurative language is wording that makes explicit comparisons between unlike things using figures of speech such as metaphors and similes. Figurative language is an essential certain type of writing to help convey meaning and expression. According to Tarigan (1986, p. 113), figurative language is divided into four types, namely, comparison figurative language which includes simile, metaphor, personification, and allegory; opposition figurative languages which includes hyperbole, understatement, irony, antithesis, paradox and apostrophe; linkage figurative languages including metonymy, symbol, synecdoche, and euphemism; and repetition figurative languages including antanaclasis, alliteration, chiasmus and repetition. Reaske (1996) said that there are many kinds of figurative language such as: allegory, allusion, anthithesis, hyperbola, irony, metaphor, metanomy, paradox, simile, symbol, sycnedoche and euphemism. Perrine (1983, p. 571) divided it into ten types, i.e. metaphor, simile, synecdoche, personification, onomatopoeia, allegory, hyperbole, irony, symbol, and paradox.

Types of Figurative Language Metaphor A metaphor is a comparison made between things which are not essentially alike.

Example: It rained at night, it scared me. Then the daddy log leg come. Explanation: In this poem the author is a man as a daddy long leg, who comes to save him from his fears when it rains. Daddy long leg itself is an audience of kind people, good listeners who always help anyone wherever and whenever.

Simile A simile is like a metaphor and often uses the words like or as.

Example: Your smile as bright as the sun. Explanation: The words ‘like’ and ‘as’ that indicate that some lines of the poem contain a fax. The word ‘as’ in the sentence refers to someone he admired or was pleased with as his light in the darkness of the Night

Personification When something that is not human is given human-like qualities, this is known as personification.

Example: The pen already dancing on the paper. Explanation: In the example, the writer refers to a dancing pencil on paper in which the real sense of the pencil is being used to write on the paper and the pencil is moving by humans.

Hyperbole Exaggerating, often in a humorous way, to make a particular point is known as hyperbole.

Example: Hold you make me fly to heaven. Explanation: In this example says that by only holding a person’s hand can make him fly to heaven but in fact, no one can go to heaven just by holding someone’s hand

Synecdoche A synecdoche is a figure of speech using a word or words that are a part to represent a whole.

Example: The sound of war on my back. I can see many bots everywhere.

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Explanation: In the second line above there is a sentence that reads I can see many bots everywhere, in that sentence there is a word bots that represent the word soldiers as the intended word.

Onomatopoeia When you name an action by imitating the sound associated with it, this is known as onomatopoeia.

Example: I got my date. Its take me to heaven. Ding... Dong... The bell chime. Explanation: In this example there is a sentence indicating onomatopoeia “Ding Dong” The Bell Chime, there is a voice “Ding Dong” originating from a wheeled bell.

Irony Irony is a relation between the realities describes and the term used to describe it.

Example: How quick you did job, till I wait for a long time. Explanation: The example above means to do the job, no need a long time that it keeps his friend waits for a long time too.

Paradox Is a figurative language that links apparently contradictory terms in a single statement that is in fact true.

Example: He is rich but also poor. Explanation: The example means that he has much money but he has lack of good morality.

Symbol Symbol is sign of some kind that suggest something outside and beyond itself.

Example: The national flag is the symbol of the practice feeling. Explanation: The example above means that national flag has strong powerful in a country.

Allegory An allegory is a literally statement presenting its meaning in veiled way. Allegory is simply one thing consistently being presented in the guise of something else.

Example: Don’t be lazy, or lost time is never found. Explanation: It means that who to be lazy he or she will lose their time.

Song Song is a collection of sentences that are performed using a variety of instruments such as guitars, drums, pianos, and others. Moreover, “song is a kind of poet sung with music accompaniment” (Ratnasari, 2007, p. 4). It consists of voice or voices performed by a singer with rhythm or intonation. In short, it is used to convey to readers and listeners the intent of the author. Meanwhile in Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary, it is explained that “song is a piece of music with words that is sung or music for the voice singing”. It may be a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing or using instrumental. A song may be for a solo singer, a duet, trio, or larger ensemble involving more voices. Songs with more than one voice to a part are considered choral works. Songs can be broadly divided into many different forms, depending on the criteria used From the explanation above, the researcher chose Katy Perry’s song with the aims to know the types of figurative language and the most dominant figurative language used in Dark Horse song lyrics.

METHODS The methodology adopted in this research was descriptive qualitative methods. Qualitative description is a widely cited research tradition and has been identified as important and appropriate for research questions focusing on discovering the who, what, and where of events or experiences and gaining insights from informants regarding a poorly understood phenomenon. The data is about the figurative

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THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN “DARK HORSE” SONG LYRICS BY KATY PARRY by Mirwana Siska language analysis in “Dark Horse” song lyrics. The data of this research are the sentence or phrase that had the type of figurative language. The data source of the study is the lyric of “Dark Horse” by Katy Parry because it is one of popular songs and an iconic song from Katy Parry. In collecting the data, the following steps are done: the data were collected by downloading the lyric, searching the keyword of the data and finding the source of the data on “Dark Horse” song lyrics. After getting the data, the researcher did these following steps: reading the whole text of the data, analyzing the figure of speech found in the lyric, summarizing the analysis into table, interpreting and concluding.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION The data were collected from Song title “Dark Horse” by Katy Parry. The words used in this lyric will be analyzed with the theory of figurative language from Perrine, L’s theory. The data analysis results are:

Simile A simile is a comparison made between things and often uses the words like or as.

Cause I’m coming atcha like a dark horse

The word ‘like’ in the sentence refers to someone with a strong and powerful woman like a dark horse.

This love will make you levitate, like a bird

The word ‘like’ in the sentence refers to love because the love can make you fly like a bird.

Like a bird without a cage

The word ‘like’ in the sentence same like example above, someone can fly free like a bird because of love.

She swears by it but if you break her heart, she turns cold as a freezer

The word ‘as’ in the sentence refers to someone who is a good person, if you betray her love, she will be transformed into a cold person as cool as freezer.

Her love is like a drug

The word ‘like’ in the sentence refers to someone who loves her, it will be an opiate for him like dope.

Personification When something that is not human is given human-like qualities, this is known as personification.

She got my heart in a roller coaster

She got my heart in a roller coaster refers to a man falling in love with the women that makes his heart spin as he rides on a roller coaster

Hyperbole Exaggerating, often in a humorous way, to make a particular point is known as hyperbole

‘Cause I’m capable of anything

The sentence says that she can do whatever she wants, but the fact that nobody can do everything that we want except God.

Cause once you’re mine, once you’re mine. There’s no going back

The sentence says that if we are her then there is no way to back, feel that she has a whole, but in fact no one can’t comeback moreover it’s a matter of love.

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This love will make you levitate

The sentence says that her love will make you fly, but in fact there is no love that can fly someone.

She’s a beast

The sentence says that she considers herself savage, but in fact that the beast is only for animals.

She eats your heart out

The sentence says she will eat out of your heart, but in fact there is no human who eats someone’s heart because of love.

Turn the bedroom into a fair

The sentence says that he will change his room to like a fair in an instant, but the fact that no man is turning it in a snap.

But lil’ mama so dope

He considers that the love of the woman is like an addictive poison but in fact there is love that makes addiction, it is addicted only to alcoholic, drugs etc.

Based on explanation about, we know that the used of figurative language according to Perrine, L’s theory is only 3 types from 10 types. Hyperbola has the largest amount of number with 7 sentences. The second place is Simile with 5 sentences, and the last is personification with 1 sentence. Metaphor, Synecdoche, Onomatopoeia, Allegory, Irony, Symbol, and Paradox which are in the last place has none.

CONCLUSION Based on the results, there are some conclusions of the study that can be drawn. First, the result of the study shows that “Dark Horse” song’s lyric by Katy Parry contains 13 sentences which include three types of figurative language; simile, personification, and hyperbole. According to the result, the song lyrics are dominated by hyperbole with 7 sentences. It can be concluded that the author of that song wants to give effects that cannot be expressed literally to listeners and readers. Then, in this song lyric, the singer was found that the song lyrics delivered more messages to be careful if you are faced with love. So, the analysis here provides better understanding of figurative language. Every sentence has meaning that not everyone can understand easily. Understanding the word is not really helpful to comprehend the meaning of the whole sentence. However, with figurative language, we can absorb the meaning in the sentence well because each word has its function and it is very helpful for readers to comprehend the sentence well. Finally, it is recommended to the teacher or lecturer to add their knowledge about figurative language. For students, or whoever concerns about figurative language and for the next researcher who will conduct research with the same subject, this research can be a reference.

REFERENCES Hatch, E. M. (1995). Vocabulary, semantic and language education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Perrine, L. (1978). Sound and sense: an introduction to poetry. New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich, Inc. Perrine, L. (1983). Literature: Structure, sound, and sense. New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich. Ratnasari, H. (2007). Songs to improve the students’ achievement in pronouncing English words. (Bachelor’s thesis). Semarang State University, Jawa Tengah. Reaske, C. R. (1996). How to analyze poetry. New York: Monarch Press. Risdianto, F. (2011). Introduction to literature. Yogyakarta: Trust Media Publishing. Tarigan, H. G. (1986). Pengajaran semantik [Semantics teaching]. Bandung: Angkasa. Dark House lyrics. Retrieved from https://liriku7.blogspot.com/2017/10/dark-horse-katy-perry-feat-juicy- j.html

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THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN “DARK HORSE” SONG LYRICS BY KATY PARRY by Mirwana Siska

APPENDIX

Dark Horse (Katy Perry)

I knew you were You were gonna come to me And here you are But you better choose carefully ‘Cause I’m capable of anything Of anything and everything

Make me your Aphrodite Make me your one and only Don’t make me your enemy, your enemy, your enemy

So you wanna play with magic Boy, you should know whatcha falling for Baby do you dare to do this Cause I’m coming atcha like a dark horse Are you ready for, ready for A perfect storm, perfect storm Cause once you’re mine, once you’re mine There’s no going back

Mark my words This love will make you levitate Like a bird Like a bird without a cage But down to earth If you choose to walk away, don’t walk away

It’s in the palm of your hand now baby It’s a yes or no, no maybe So just be sure before you give it up to me Up to me, give it up to me

She’s a beast I call her Karma She eat your heart out Like Jeffrey Dahmer

Be careful Try not to lead her on Shawty’s heart was on steroids Cause her love was so strong You may fall in love When you meet her If you get the chance you better keep her She swears by it but if you break her heart She turn cold as a freezer That fairy tale ending with a knight in shining armor She can be my Sleeping Beauty I’m gon’ put her in a coma Woo! Damn I think I love her Shawty so bad I’m sprung and I don’t care

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She got me like a roller coaster Turn the bedroom into a fair

Her love is like a drug I was tryin’ to hit it and quit it But lil’ mama so dope I messed around and got addicted

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