An analysis on figurative language and theme used in english love songs sung by Michael Learns to Rock

ABSTRACT

Literature is a part of human life as the vital record of human experience, of what individuals have in life, of what they have experienced in life, of what they have thought and felt about these aspects of it. Individual expresses her or his experience through creative process in the form of literary works. The aim of literature is not only for entertainment but also for increasing knowledge and experience about human probk ms. The existence of figurative language cannot be denied and avoided. Figurative language is usually applied in a poem in order to enlarge the meaning of certain words. The uniqueness of figurative language is that someone cannot under؛ ;tand it by only reading at a glance but we have to understand and to compt ehend the lyrics of song which contain figurative language.

Figurative language is also found on the lyrics of the songs written by Denmark Composers, one of them is Jascha Richter. Their special characteristics are their poetic song, and the lyrics of the song contain theme about love. Singer is singing on the fact reality in express feeling that happen around us and they try to deliver the message for their listener.

The problem discussed here is about the use of figurative language, the classification of language style, the theme and the relationship between figurative language and theme. The data arc taken from ten songs (The Actor, Looking at Love, Out oi١ the Blue, Ocean of Love, That’s Why (You Go away), Love will Never Lie, I’m Gonna be Around, Forever and a Day, Paint My Love and 1 still Carry on from the fust until the fifth album. The writer obtains and collects all data to be observed. Theory that is used is theory that is related to the theory of literary criticism.

The result of this study shows that the lyrics of Michael Learns to Rock’s songs contain more than one the figurative language, they are: metaphor, metonymy, personification, symbol, antithesis, hyperbole, parallelism and cliche. '1'hc relationship between the figurative language and the theme is that figurative language can support theme. In choosing the words, the song writers use denotative meaning.

The writer realizes that this research is far from being perfect. The writer suggests other writers would continue this research with more complete data and discussion.