MEANINGS OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN ED SHEERAN'S ...

MEANINGS OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN ED

SHEERAN’S SELECTED SONGS IN X ALBUM

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

DIMITRI LUSCAPUTRI

Student Number: 184214176

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA

YOGYAKARTA

2022

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ii



AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

DIMITRI LUSCAPUTRI


DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA

YOGYAKARTA

2022


iii

A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis



By

DIMITRI LUSCAPUTRI


Approved by

Dr. B.B.Dwijatmoko M.A. January 19, 2022

Advisor

Adventina Putranti, M.Hum January 19, 2022

Co-Advisor


iv

A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis



By

DIMITRI LUSCAPUTRI


Defended before the Board of Examiners

on January 26, 2022

and Declared Acceptable

BOARD OF EXAMINERS

NAME SIGNATURE

Chairperson : Dr. B.B.Dwijatmoko, M.A. _______________

Secretary : Adventina Putranti, M.Hum. _______________

Member 1 : Almira Romala S.S., M.A. _______________

Member 2 : Dr. B.B.Dwijatmoko, M.A. _______________

Member 3 : Adventina Putranti, M.Hum _______________

Yogyakarta, January 31, 2022

Faculty of Letters

Universitas Sanata Dharma

Dean

Dr. Tatang Iskarna


v

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I certify that this undergraduate thesis contains no material which has been

previously submitted for the award of any other degree at any university, and that,

to the best of my knowledge, this undergraduate thesis contains no material

previously written by any other person except where due reference is made in the

text of the undergraduate thesis

January 18, 2022

Dimitri Luscaputri


vi

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI

KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma

Nama : Dimitri Luscaputri

Nomor Mahasiswa : 184214176

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan

Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul



beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan

kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan,

mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan

data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau

media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta izin kepada saya

maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya

sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada 18 Januari 2022

Yang menyatakan,

Dimitri Luscaputri


vii

Sleepless,

Struggles,

Hard-work,

It all pays off


viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance of my thesis

advisor, Dr. B. B. Dwijatmoko M.A, who read my countless revisions and helped

me make understanding of the confusion and my old advisor Ma’am Fransisca

Kristanti S.Pd., M.Hum. for being so patient on me. I'd also like to express gratitude

to my thesis co-advisor Ma’am Adventina Putranti, M.Hum who provided guidance

and support. Next, I'd like to express my gratitude to my lecturers, Ma'am Scolastica

Wedhowerti, S.Pd., M.Hum. as my best class counselor, Ma'am Arina Istianah,

S.Pd., M.Hum. as my favorite lecturer all the time, and my lovely aunt and lecturer,

Maria Ananta Tri Suryandari, S.S., M.Ed..

I'm grateful to have a small group of friends who are truly devoted and less

controversy; Aris Lukman, Fitri Adinda, Maureen Lanongbuka, Kevin Dio and

Chandra Wisnu. I also want to thank my clever friends who helped and supported

during this difficult yet enjoyable college experience, Katarina Anggita, Bernadette

Nadia, Hugo Ramsey Teo, Boy Ertanto, and Lauren Karina; I couldn't have done it

without you all. I'd like to thank my Pretty Odd Coffee Bar team for sticking with

me through this long process and always offering support and love.

Lastly, my family deserves endless gratitude: my father, Tosca Wisnu, for

teaching me to be independent and giving me freedom, my mother, Lucy Adiyanti,

for teaching me how to be a strong and independent woman. To my family, your

one and only child have completed her undergraduate study.

Dimitri Luscaputri


ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ......................................................................................................... i

APPROVAL PAGE ............................................................................................. iii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE ........................................................................................ iv

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY .................................................................... v

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH

UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS .............................................................. vi

MOTTO PAGE ................................................................................................... vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................... viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... ix

LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................... xi

ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... xii

ABSTRAK ............................................................................................................ xiii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 1

A. Background of the study .............................................................................. 1

B. Problem Formulation ................................................................................... 4

C. Objectives of the Study ................................................................................ 4

D. Definition of Terms ...................................................................................... 5

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................... 6

A. Review of Related Studies ........................................................................... 6

B. Review of Related Theories ......................................................................... 8

1. Semantics .................................................................................................. 8

2. Figurative Language ............................................................................... 12

C. Theoretical Framework .............................................................................. 15

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY .................................................................. 16

A. Object of the Study..................................................................................... 16

B. Approach of the Study ............................................................................... 17

C. Method of the Study ................................................................................... 18

1. Data Collection ....................................................................................... 18

2. Data Analysis ......................................................................................... 19


x

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ......................... 21

A. Types of Figurative Language in Ed Sheeran’s Selected Songs in X Album

21

1. Hyperbole ............................................................................................... 22

2. Metonymy .............................................................................................. 26

3. Metaphor ................................................................................................ 29

4. Simile ...................................................................................................... 31

5. Personification ........................................................................................ 33

6. Synecdoche ............................................................................................. 35

B. The Types of Meaning and The Semantic Feature of The Figurative

Language in Ed Sheeran’s Selected Songs in X Album .................................... 36

1. Conceptual Meaning in Figurative Language with Semantic Feature ... 38

2. Connotative Meaning in Figurative Language with Semantic Feature .. 44

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .......................................................................... 54

REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 56

APPENDICES ..................................................................................................... 58


xi

LIST OF TABLES

No. Table Page

1. Table 1. Example of Semantic Features .................................................... 10

2. Table 2.Summary of Figurative Language Types ..................................... 22

3. Table 3. Song Lyrics with Hyperbole ....................................................... 23

4. Table 4. Song Lyrics with Metonymy ...................................................... 27

5. Table 5. Song Lyrics with Metaphor ........................................................ 30

6. Table 6. Song Lyrics with Simile .............................................................. 32

7. Table 7. Song Lyrics with Personification ................................................ 34

8. Table 8. Song Lyrics with Synecdoche ..................................................... 35

9. Table 9. Summary of the Types of Meaning of Figurative Language ...... 37

10. Table 10. Conceptual Meaning in Hyperbole with Semantic Feature ...... 38

11. Table 11. Conceptual Meaning in Metonymy with Semantic Feature...... 42

12. Table 12. Conceptual Meaning in Personification with Semantic Feature 43

13. Table 13. Conceptual Meaning in Synecdoche with Semantic Feature .... 43

14. Table 14. Connotative Meaning in Metonymy with Semantic Feature .... 44

15. Table 15. Connotative Meaning in Metaphor with Semantic Feature ...... 47

16. Table 16. Connotative Meaning in Simile with Semantic Feature ........... 49

17. Table 17. Connotative Meaning in Personification with Semantic Feature

................................................................................................................... 51

18. Table 18. Connotative Meaning in Synecdoche with Semantic Feature .. 52

19. Table 19. The Summary of “Thinking Out Loud” .................................... 62

20. Table 20. The Summary of “Nina” ........................................................... 64

21. Table 21. The Summary of “Photograph”................................................. 64


xii

ABSTRACT

LUSCAPUTRI, DIMITRI. (2022). Meanings of Figurative Language in Ed

Sheeran’s Selected Songs in X Album. Yogyakarta: Department of English

Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Ed Sheeran’s X album songs, specifically “Thinking Out Loud,” “Nina,”

and “Photograph,” are appealing objects of using figurative language in their lyrics.

Language also refers to the act of connecting two people. Language is essential in

a person’s life because it allows them to express their feelings, emotions, and ideas

in various ways. Someone’s style adds a figurative speech to express their feelings.

Lyrics in songs can use figurative language to add meaning and create different

perspectives.

The researcher achieved two necessary goals by using Ed Sheeran’s chosen

songs as the subject of their investigation. The first step is to identify all the

figurative languages used in the research object and classify them. The second goal

is to interpret the types of the meaning of the figurative language in Ed Sheeran’s

selected songs using semantic features and then categorize it according to

conceptual or connotative meaning.

To obtain all research goals, appropriate methods for both must be used. In

this case, a qualitative data collection method was used in order to be able to define

the interpretation in a based on fact, exact, and structured way—this research using

semantics theory from Leech (1981) and Yule (2010). The qualitative method has

resulted in researchers achieving both research goals and playing a significant role

in concluding the research.

In conclusion, there were 6 types of figurative language found, such as

hyperbole (8 data), metonymy (6 data), metaphor (4 data), simile (4 data),

personification (3 data), and synecdoche (3 data) in 28 data from 3 selected songs.

Then there are two types of meanings: connotative (17 data) and conceptual (11

data) types, so there are 28 data in total.

Keywords: figurative language, meaning, semantics, song lyrics


xiii

ABSTRAK

LUSCAPUTRI, DIMITRI. (2022). Meanings of Figurative Language in Ed

Sheeran’s Selected Songs in X Album. Yogyakarta: Department of English

Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Lagu-lagu album X Ed Sheeran, khususnya "Thinking Out Loud," "Nina,"

dan "Photograph," adalah objek yang menarik dari penggunaan bahasa figuratif

dalam lirik mereka. Bahasa juga mengacu pada tindakan menghubungkan dua

orang. Bahasa sangat penting dalam kehidupan seseorang karena memungkinkan

mereka untuk mengekspresikan perasaan, emosi, dan ide mereka dengan berbagai

cara. Gaya seseorang menambahkan kata-kata figuratif untuk mengungkapkan

perasaan mereka. Lirik dalam lagu dapat menggunakan bahasa kiasan untuk

menambah makna dan menciptakan perspektif yang berbeda.

Peneliti mencapai dua tujuan yang diperlukan dengan menggunakan lagu-

lagu pilihan Ed Sheeran sebagai topik penelitian. Langkah pertama adalah

mengidentifikasi semua bahasa kiasan yang digunakan dalam objek penelitian dan

mengklasifikasikannya. Tujuan kedua adalah untuk menginterpretasikan jenis-jenis

makna bahasa kiasan dalam lagu-lagu pilihan Ed Sheeran menggunakan fitur

semantik dan kemudian mengkategorikannya menurut makna konseptual atau

konotatif.

Untuk mendapatkan semua tujuan penelitian, maka harus digunakan metode

yang tepat untuk keduanya. Dalam hal ini digunakan metode pengumpulan data

kualitatif agar dapat mendefinisikan interpretasi secara berdasarkan fakta, eksak,

dan terstruktur—penelitian ini menggunakan teori semantik dari Leech (1981) dan

Yule (2010).

Metode kualitatif memiliki peneliti yang mencapai kedua tujuan penelitian

dan memainkan peran penting dalam menyimpulkan penelitian. Kesimpulannya,

terdapat 6 jenis majas yang ditemukan, yaitu hiperbola (8 data), metonimi (6 data),

metafora (4 data), simile (4 data), personifikasi (3 data), dan sinekdoke (3 data).

dalam 28 data dari 3 lagu yang dipilih. Kemudian ada dua jenis makna: konotatif

(17 data) dan konseptual (11 data), sehingga total ada 28 data.

Kata kunci: figurative language, meaning, semantics, song lyrics


1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the study

Goddard (2011, p.1) explains semantics as "The study of meaning that

occurs once linguists attempt to comprehend the nature of language." The purpose

of semantics is to assist us in comprehending the meaning of language. Semantic is

critical for portraying and auditing for linguistic knowledge necessary to understand

a language. It means that semantic understanding is crucial information that aids us

in speaking and understanding a language (Goddard, 2011).

Language also refers to the act of connecting two people. Language is

essential in a person's life because it allows them to express their feelings, emotions,

and ideas in various ways, such as writing poetry using a figure of speech. That is

kind of someone’s style, adding a figurative speech to express their feelings. This

research will discuss figurative language in three selected songs in X album, which

are entitled “Thinking Out Loud”, “Nina” and “Photograph” by a talented British

solo singer called Ed Sheeran. Three songs are chosen because there are 12 songs

in the X album and the researcher.

A song is a type of music created by singing words. Song has a solid

attachment to the use of exceptional writing, both the music and the words created

that can bring emotion and feeling to certain valuable connections of mind and soul

(Ittzet, 2006). Mostly, it to researcher used to convey their opinions, impulses, and


2

sentiments. Music is appealing to the listener and attracts attention. Composers and

skilled lyricists build them. Different types of literary works include drama,


3

journalism, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and song. As a result, each lyric has the

potential to convey a personal experience with or motivation for singing a song, as

well as a better understanding of how the song's concept is expressed to the reader.

According to Billboard.com, as the title suggests, "x," pronounced as

"multiply," is Sheeran's heavily hyped follow-up to his debut. While navigating pop

superstardom, he starts to sink even deeper into feelings of love, envy, and

drunkenness, a problem that this album will undoubtedly exacerbate. Asylum

Records and Atlantic Records released it on June 20th in Australia and on June 23rd

in the rest of the world. The album received good reviews from music critics. It was

a commercial success globally, reaching the first rank in several countries and

topping both the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard. Multiply or X album was

also a top-five album in several countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and

other countries, where it was the best-selling album in 2014. According to the

website grammy.com, he released an album titled X in 2014. The album won album

of the year and best pop vocal album at the 57th annual Grammy Awards.

This research examines the figurative language in Ed Sheeran's selected

songs in X album, which are "Thinking Out Loud," "Nina," and "Photograph"

which have a lot of implicit lyrics and the same theme of the song that is talking

about girl and love. The topic has not been researched by anyone. Ed Sheeran's

songs are unique and easy-listening, especially in X album. The lyrics of the

selected songs contain many figures of speech that make the music attractive to be

analyzed.


4

The researcher shows how figurative language helps people understand a

song that contains a lot of figurative language by classifying it into types of

figurative language using Baldick’s (2001) theory such as metaphor, simile

metonymy, synecdoche, personification, irony, and hyperbole. Including the types

of meanings by Leech (1981) which only two types that are conceptual meaning

and connotative meaning that the researcher used because both of the types of

meaning is the most close relatedly to the research which is finding out the literal

and figurative meaning. The researcher uses the theory of Yule (2010) that is

semantic feature that helps the researcher to relate the literal and figurative

meaning. Therefore, the reader will get understand the meaning behind the lyrics

by seeing the table of comparison between the literal and figurative meaning of the

implicit lyrics.

B. Problem Formulation

The following is a list of research questions:

1. What types of figurative language are conveyed in Ed Sheraan’s selected songs

in X album?

2. What types of meanings of the figurative language in Ed Sheraan’s selected songs

in X album?

C. Objectives of the Study

This research has two goals. The first goal is to identify which types of

figurative language, such as metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole,

synecdoche, and metonymy, are used in the lyrics of the chosen songs. The second


5

objective is to categorize the selected song lyrics that contains figurative language

into conceptual and connotative meanings.

D. Definition of Terms

The first term is figurative language is a form of affirmation that derives

from a non-literal understanding of words. According to Baldick (2001, p. 97). It

also said that figurative language is able to figure out something to be more than its

meaning.

Meanings is the second term. According to Geoffrey Leech (1981),

semantics is the study of meanings, those are classified into seven categories:

conceptual, connotative, social, affective, collocative, and thematic. The term aids

the researcher in determining the conceptual and connotative meanings behind the

lyrics


6

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter is divided into three sections, each of which reviews related

studies, theories, and theoretical framework. The researcher looks through sources,

journals, and relevant studies, which include two journals and two theses. The

researcher evaluates specific theories from experts in the associated theories section

in order to guide the analysis based on the study questions.

A. Review of Related Studies

The researcher examines two studies on the subject, both of which have

similar ideas about figurative language and the types of meanings conveyed by Ed

Sheeran’s chosen songs in the X album. Sanata Dharma’s university students wrote

theses in English that the researcher used for this thesis and have the same idea

about figurative language.

The first study was published in the journal “Semantic Analysis of

Figurative Language Found in Eminem’s Song” by L.P Karina Debriyanti

Aryawan, I.W. Suarnajaya, and I.W. Swandana (2019). They conduct a study for

the research journal on figurative language forms in song lyrics in Eminem’s song.

Perrine defines 14 types of figurative languages in their paper: simile, metaphor,

personification, hyperbole, metonymy, symbol, allegory, understatement, irony,

paradox, oxymoron, onomatopoeia, imagery, and synecdoche. They use Perrine and

Tarigan’s figurative language theory and Leech’s type of meanings theory to

interpret the results. Because the study’s goal is to explain the figurative language


7

and types of meaning in song lyrics, the researchers used a qualitative descriptive

method. Zed conducted library research for the researcher (2004).

The second journal related to this study is from Hariyanto. The researcher

writes a journal entitled “The Analysis of Figurative Language Used in the Lyric of

Firework by Katy Perry (A Study of Semantic).” This research examined Katy

Perry’s lyric “Fireworks.” This research aims to identify the figurative languages

used in lyrics of Fireworks and investigate their contextual significance. This

research aims to identify the figurative languages used in the lyric of Fireworks and

investigate their contextual significance. According to the findings, simile,

metaphor, exaggeration, affiliation, symbolism, paradox, and personification are

examples of figurative language employed in Katy Perry’s song “Firework.”

The first related thesis is written by Anastasia Rosella Aprilianingrum

(2019), who writes "The Meanings of Figurative Language in Led Zeppelin's

Stairway to Heaven." for her undergraduate thesis, the researcher look at the

meaning of figurative language in Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven. The

researcher's research methods included data collection and analysis. Before

analyzing it, the researcher takes an object from a website and divides it into two

meanings: literal and non-literal. The researcher concentrates on the non-literal

because the researcher has more information on figurative language in non-literal

contexts.

Naomy Bunga Rastafari's thesis, "Theme Seen from Figurative Language in

Eagle's Album Hotel California," is the second undergraduate thesis related to this


8

research. To determine which type of figurative language is present in the lyrics,

the researcher categorizes the implicit lyrics into different types of figurative

language and determines the literal and non-literal meanings. In the final step, the

researcher deduces the theme from the first step's outcome. The researcher employs

Leech's (1981) semantic feature theory to determine the theme of each song in the

Hotel California album.

B. Review of Related Theories

A number of theories are investigated by the researcher. In order to gain a

better understanding of figurative language, the researcher chose a theory that aids

in the analysis of figurative language and the gathering of additional information.

The two theories chosen by the researcher will guide the research in order to solve

the issues raised in Chapter I.

1. Semantics

In this section, the researcher will explain the theories that were used to

answer the problem formulation question. The researcher uses two theories to solve

the problem: the theory of semantics and the theory of figurative language. The

semantic theory is the first theory that the researcher used in this study.

"Semantics refers to the study of the meaning of words, phrases, and

sentences" (Yule, 2010, p.122). It shows that the reader must concentrate on the

generated word rather than the creator's intended meaning. Semantics notify people

to be unbiased and see things from a different perspective. Semantics is a broad

field of study because it enhances people's thinking.


9

Hurford (2013, p 1) semantics is defined as "the technical study of

meaning," and semantics is a component of linguistics because meaning is a

component of language. It links a statement to a system of symbols that can be

deciphered through the use of words. Semantics is the study of the discussion of

meanings. Semantics is divided into two categories: semantic features and semantic

meaning.

a. Semantic Features

According to Crystal (2008, p. 427), this semantic feature is defined as the

minor contrastive component of a word's definition. Semantic features, pluses, and

minuses can be used to demonstrate the occurrence of semantic characteristics.

Semantic properties are defined as knowledge that speakers already have. Semantic

features represent semantic properties.

Yule (2017, p.323) considers features including such "±animate," "±human"

and "±female" to be the fundamental components implicated in distinguishing the

meaning of the words in a language from another word. We could start with the

diagram below if we had to provide the key distinguishing features of the meanings

of a group of English words such as table, horse, boy, man, girl, and woman.


10

Table 1. Example of Semantic Features

table horse boy man girl woman

animate - + + + + +

human - - + + + +

female - - - - + +

adult - + - + - +

(Yule, 2017, p. 323)

Based on this feature analysis, we can conclude that the elements

[+human, +female, –adult] play a role in the English meaning of the word girl.

We can also characterize the feature that a noun must have in order to be the

subject of a specific verb, supplementing the syntactic analysis with semantic

features. Yule (2010), p.323.

Semantics incorporates both literal and figurative meaning (Saeed, 2009, p.

15). A term is said to have literal meaning when it has a comparable definition in a

dictionary or library book. Non-literal meaning, also known as figurative meaning,

occurs when the meaning goes beyond what a dictionary can provide. The figurative

interpretation is more profound than the literal interpretation. People may struggle

with metaphorical meaning because there are so many different perspectives and

interpretations.

b. Conceptual meaning and Connotative meaning

"Semantics is the study of meaning in the broad sense of all that language

communicates." says Leech (1981, p. 9). Leech (1981) classifies meaning into


11

seven categories: conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning,

affective meaning, reflected meaning, and collocative meaning. Because conceptual

and connotative meanings are the most suitable type to help the researcher analyze

the implicit lyrics which to find out about literal and figurative meaning.

Leech defines conceptual as one of seven categories of meaning in

semantics (1981). This form of meaning is a literal sense of a word; there is no

subtext; it is simply a straight-forward word that employs the dictionary definition

of the term. The conceptual meaning assists the researcher in analyzing songs that

contain figurative language by searching the literal meaning of the word in a

dictionary and determining the semantic feature for the word that is related to both

the literal and figurative meaning.

According to Leech, “connotative meaning is the communicative value that

an expression has because of what it refers to, in addition to its purely conceptual

content” (1981, p.12). The connotative meaning is used for the lyrics that has a

figurative language that has a word that goes beyond its formal definition.

People should have more knowledge to study meanings because meanings

have multiple perspectives, and they can then discuss and share their ideas. The

literal meaning of a word is provided by conceptual meaning. When people

understand the conceptual meaning, they can use dictionaries or general books to

find the meaning, such as woman, [+Human], [-Male], [+Adult], as opposed to, say,

boy, which can be 'defined' as [+Human], [+Male], [+Adult], according to Leech

(1981, p.10). In this example, the word girl is [+Human], [+Female], and [-Adult].


12

A young female human being is referred to as a girl. The features cover a variety of

topics related to the word "girl." [+Human] denotes that the girl is a human being,

[+Female] denotes the girl's gender, and [-Adult] denotes how she acts and thinks.

The figurative meaning is linked to connotative meaning. As a result, it is

broader than conceptual meaning, which is only concerned with actual meaning.

Connotative meaning enables people to improve a term's referent. Physical,

psychological, or social characteristics could be involved. According to Leech

(1981, p. 12), Connotative meaning defines the communicative value of what it

refers to.

2. Figurative Language

Baldick (2001, p. 97) defines figurative language as sound patterns are used

to important subjects in language that detracts from the acknowledged literal sense

or the normal order of words. Thus, figurative language is a method of expressing

meaning that differs from literal interpretation. Metaphor, simile, metonymy,

synecdoche, personification, irony, and hyperbole or overstatement are all

examples of figurative language. The researcher consults Baldick's (2001) book

because it contains numerous variants that can assist the researcher in answering

the questions. Each type of figurative language is described below by the researcher.

a. Metaphor

According to Baldick (2001, p.153), a metaphor is a term used to refer to

something, an idea, or an action that is normally denoted by another word or

expression in order to suggest a shared quality between the two. This resemblance


13

is assumed as an imaginary identity in metaphor rather than being stated directly as

a comparison: She is a daisy in a field of roses. This does not imply that the girl is

a literal daisy flower, but it does imply that she is a unique or different girl in her

surroundings.

b. Simile

"The words 'as' or 'like' are used to make an explicit comparison between

two things, actions, or feelings." writes Baldick (2001, p.237). The use of the words

like or as distinguishes simile from metaphor. Similes are frequently used in

everyday conversation, such as "He's as busy as a bee," which means he's working

hard because bees are known for their busyness. When someone says, "I'm as snug

as a bug in a rug," they're referring to how comfortable and cozy they are or how

tightly they're tucked up in bed. The use of similes draws readers' attention to their

senses. Similes allow readers to empathize with the author's emotions.

c. Metonymy

"Metonymy is a figure of speech in which one thing's name is replaced by

the name of another thing that is closely related to It." writes Baldick. (2001, p.154)

Formalized paraphrase Glucksberg (2001, p.6) uses a bench as an example of the

law, a vehicle bomb as an example of terrorism, a pen as an example of a writer,

and the oval office as an example of the President. A referring statement is not

considered metaphoric if it only serves to identify an entity and does not go beyond

that.


14

d. Synecdoche

Baldick states “Synecdoche is a term that refers to something indirectly,

either by naming only a part or constituent of it (for example, 'hands' for manual

laborers) or—less frequently—by naming a larger entity of which it is a part.”

(2001, p.254). For example, "I have five mouth in my house" is a synecdoche that

uses the word "mouth" to refer to people.

e. Personification

“A figure of speech in which animals, abstract ideas, or inanimate objects

are referred to as if they were human”, according to Baldick's book. (2001, p.190).

Personification easily can be found in daily thoughts such as “Donut in the show

case is calling me” it doesn’t mean the donut has mouth to call the person but the

donut seems really interesting and makes the person craving about the donut.

f. Irony

According to Baldicks “Irony is a subtly humorous perception of

inconsistency in which an apparently simple statement or event is undermined by

its context to take on a very different meaning.” (2001, p.130).Irony is classified

into two types: verbal irony and dramatic irony. A speech figure in which the

audience's meaning is contrasted with the speaker's meaning is known as verbal

irony. For example, "cheap" in the sentence "This shoes is so cheap." However, it

is prohibitively expensive. While dramatic irony is a speech figure in which the

author's words contrast with the literary work's means. "In Cinderella, the audience

is aware that Cinderella is a maid rather than a princess, but the Prince still chooses

her because of her kindness."


15

g. Hyperbole

Hyperbole is an exaggeration for emphasis in a figure of speech that is not

meant literally. (Baldicks, 2001, p. 119).It is used to emphasize the importance of

a fact or emotion. For instance, if a person runs into a long-lost friend and says, "It's

been ages since we met," the speaker may not see his friend for days or weeks. The

word ages, on the other hand, emphasizes how long the wait is. The writer's use of

exaggeration elevates ordinary human emotions to extraordinary levels, making

them stand out. The purpose of this strategy is to pique the reader's interest.

C. Theoretical Framework

Some of the ideas discussed in this study are evaluated in terms of their

worth and how those who make a contribution to the study's analysis of the two

previously mentioned difficulties. This study employs the theory of figurative

language and types of meaning to address the study's problems.

In this study, two theories are used. These theories are intended to assist the

researcher in answering problem formulations and gaining a deeper understanding

of this topic. Both theories are about figurative language and meanings.


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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

There are three sections to this chapter. The first is a research object that

explains the overall concept of this study. The second one discusses the study’s

approach, explaining why the researcher chose that approach. The last point to

mention is the research method. This section includes an explanation of the

difference among data collection and data analysis, which will assist the researcher

with in following section.

A. Object of the Study

The object being studied is a selection of songs from Ed Sheeran's X album.

The data was chosen because Sheeran is a huge British singer who has won

numerous awards, including Grammy’s, and all of Sheeran's songs are easy-

listening songs, so most people enjoy his music.

The songs "Thinking Out Loud," "Nina," and "Photograph" as the research

object because the album has 12 songs and the researcher make it specifically,

therefore the researcher chose three of the songs by classifying the songs that has

same meaning that is about love and happy memories, then most youths listen to

his music because he writes his songs based on his life story, so he is like a

storyteller but he tells his story through his songs. The songwriter can convey his

message with few words in such a unique way, and his fans each have their own

unique story or memory associated with his songs that they enjoyed.


17

The researcher got the object of the study from a music website called

AZLyric.com. The researcher uses the theory from Baldick (2001) to analyze the

lyrics that contain figurative language and to analyze the meaning behind the lyrics,

the researcher uses Leech’s theory. Baldick’s theory has variations of figurative

language that can help the researcher solve the problems, and Leech’s (1981) theory

for showing the conceptual and connotative meaning. Semantics theory that the

researcher use for analyzing the lyrics after classifying the conceptual and

connotative meaning is semantic feature by Yule (2010).

The researcher's goal in conducting this research is to determine the

meaning of figurative language in Ed Sheeran's selected songs in the X album lyrics

and to inform people that every song lyrics that contain figurative speech has its

own meaning, because many people still don't know what the meaning behind a

song is.

B. Approach of the Study

To respond to the problem formulation of this research, to better understand

the literary work, the researcher employs semantics theory by Leech (1981) and

Yule (2010) that can be used to analyze it linguistically. The theory of Leech (1981)

is the appropriate theory for analyzing the figurative language in the song lyrics that

has more than two meanings, and the second theory of linguistics is a semantic

feature theory by Yule (2010). The researcher uses the semantic feature theory

because it helps the researcher comprehend how literal and non-literal meanings are

related to one another, also it helps the reader understand the meaning of the text.

The researcher aims to get the topic's message using figurative language and both


18

of the semantic theories by Leech (1981) and Yule (2010). Because the purpose of

this study is to find out the meaning of the song lyrics that contain figurative

language in Ed Sheeran's X album songs "Thinking Out Loud," "Nina," and

"Photograph."

C. Method of the Study

A qualitative research approach was employed to conduct this study. The

data come from the lyrics of Ed Sheeran's chosen songs from his X album, which

feature a wide range of figurative languages. The study's methodology was

separated into two parts. The first section is on data gathering, which explains how

the data was acquired. The following section then described the processes for

examining the data. These procedures are as follows:

1. Data Collection

The research used a population study from taking all the lyrics from Ed

Sheeran’s selected songs in X album. The data were gathered by a library research

method that included note-taking and documenting. The first step was to read the

source material and comprehend each lyric in the song, also searched several

websites which has analyzed the songs. The next step was to create a collection of

lyrics with figurative language. The focus then shifted to the song's concept, with

the aim of determining the relationship between it and the figurative language. The

data will be collected by listening to Ed Sheeran's selected songs in X album, which

are "Thinking Out Loud," "Nina," and "Photograph" then, the process for finding

the figurative language is to keep on listening to it repeatedly and highlight the

lyrics that contain figurative language. After filtering the lyrics containing


19

figurative language, the author will write down the figurative language based on the

types one by one and write down the number of songs and the line in the brackets,

for example (1.1) is (Thinking Out Loud, the first line of the lyrics). The purpose

of finding out the figurative language in the lyrics of the selected songs is to figure

out what the songwriter wants to deliver to the listener.

2. Data Analysis

The song lyrics were collected from the website AZLyrics.com, which

provides all song lyrics worldwide. There are several websites that make the

analysis of Ed Sheeran’s songs that are shanideasblog.wordpress.com,

immortalreviews.com, and billboard.com, those websites help the researcher to find

the implicit lyrics and the meaning. The researcher classified the data based on the

types of figurative languages and the types of meanings. There were some processes

after the researcher found out two problems in this study in analyzing the data. The

first step was analyzing the figurative language by using the theory of Baldick

(2001).

To answer the two main questions, some steps were applied. First, to answer

the first question is analyzing the types of figurative language. After that, collect

the song lyrics from the website, listen to the song, and read the lyrics; while reading

the lyrics, find the implicit lyrics or lyrics with two meanings. Next, classify the

implicit lyrics into the types of figurative language, which in Baldick's (2001)

theory, there are six types of figurative language found in the song lyrics. After

classifying the lyrics into the table of each figurative language with percentage to

show the most used type of figurative language, the lyrics will be analyzed by


20

finding the two different meanings in each lyric, for example, if it is a hyperbole

table, there will be two labels of general assumption and contradiction to break

down the implicit lyrics. It will be applied to all types of figurative language tables.

The second problem is about the types of meanings. After classifying the

lyrics to the type of figurative language, the researcher classifies each lyric that

contains figurative language into two categorize of meanings by using Leech (1981)

theory that is conceptual and connotative meaning with a support theory of semantic

feature theory by Yule (2010) to get the relation of both meanings to one another.


21

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this research, the researcher will analyze the figurative language of Ed

Sheeran’s selected songs in X album using semantic feature, conceptual and

connotative meaning and its relation with the figurative language. To respond to the

first problem formulation, the types of figurative languages found are to be

discussed under the literary domain. This is done in order to correlate the presence

of the figurative languages and its linguistic function. The first analysis will focus

on the types of figurative language based on Baldick’s theory (2001) which contains

metaphor, simile, metonymy, synecdoche, personification, irony, hyperbole. The

first part is to analyze the figurative meaning in the song lyrics by dividing into six

types of figurative language. Next, the researcher elaborates more about the lyrics

using conceptual and connotative meaning and the categories that relate to the

lyrics.

A. Types of Figurative Language in Ed Sheeran’s Selected Songs in X

Album

Seven of figurative language expressions were discussed in previous

chapter. In the Ed Sheeran’s song “Thinking Out Loud” that were analyzed, six

types of figurative language types are found in the data. There are metaphor, simile,

personification, hyperbole, synecdoche and metonymy. The table below shows the

frequency of figurative language which h applied in the selected songs in the album


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Table 2.Summary of Figurative Language Types

No. Figurative Language

Types

Frequency Percentage

1. Hyperbole 8 28.57

2. Metonymy 6 21.43

3. Metaphor 4 14.29

4. Simile 4 14.29

5. Personification 3 10.71

6. Synecdoche 3 10.71

TOTAL 28 100

The frequency of figurative language types in song lyrics is explained in

Table 2. There is a quantity for each figurative language. In the three songs, there

are six types of figurative language and thirty lyrics with figurative language.

1. Hyperbole

A hyperbole is an assertion or expression that is boldly overstated or inflated

to add meaning without being literally true. In propaganda and literature, hyperbole

is frequently used for serious, comic, or satirical purposes. The table shows the song

lyrics that contain hyperbole by comparing the normal assumption and

contradiction of the bolded word. The normal assumption is based on Oxford

advanced learner’s dictionary by Hornby (2000). Therefore, the analysis of the

implicit lyrics will explain below the table.


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Table 3. Song Lyrics with Hyperbole

No.

Data

Lyrics Normal assumption Contradiction

1 And, darling, I will be

loving you 'til we're 70

(1.5)

Number or years Target age that the

narrator will love his

partner

2 And I'm thinking 'bout

how people fall in love

in mysterious ways,

Maybe just the touch

of a hand (1.8)

The part of body at the

end of the arm

A romance expression

or gesture

3 Well, me—I fall in love

with you every single

day (1.9)

Happening every day or

regularly

The time period of the

narrator’s feeling for the

partner

4 And, baby, your smile's

forever in my mind and

memory (1.23)

Particular situation or

state always exist

The eternal memory of

the narrator’s partner

5 Where our eyes are

never closing (3.9)

Not at anytime Human’s eyes opened

forever

6 Hearts are never broken

(3.10)

Not at anytime Human’s feeling stays

consistently

7 And time's forever

frozen still (3.11)

Kept at a very low

temperature to preserve

it

The narrator preserves

his memory with the

partner

8 You won't ever be alone

(3.14)

All the time The narrator stays by

her side forever

(1) And, darling, I will be loving you 'til we're 70 (1.5)

This section is an exaggeration, also known as hyperbole, because the

sentence "I will be loving you until we're 70" depicts something that hasn't yet

occurred because in this lyrics the narrator write the lyrics when he was in a young


24

age and he can’t predict the future. As a result, the narrator exaggerates the period

of time to the point of something that can’t be predicted when he says, "will loving

you till we're 70."

(2) And I'm thinking 'bout how people fall in love in mysterious ways, Maybe just

the touch of a hand (1.8)

The first song and the eighth line show that people can fall in love only by

being touched by a hand, which is called an overstatement because in the literal

meaning, hand is a part of human body but in reality people usually falling in love

by feelings, and not as instant as touching hand. People fall in love, there must be a

strong reason why they fall in love, or if it is "love at first sight," it is only an

attraction and not love. Love is a strong emotion that requires people to fall in love

with it. As a result, the narrator exaggerates the way people falling in love by saying

"by the touch of a hand."

(3) Well, me—I fall in love with you every single day (1.9)

In the ninth line on the first song “Thinking Out Loud” shows an

overstatement that is falling in love with the same person every day. Word “every

day” means happening every day or regularly that shows the period of narrator’s

time of loving his partner, despite the fact, the feeling of loving someone can’t

predict the time. As a result, the narrator exaggerates the time period of loving

someone by saying “I fall in love with you every single day”.

(4) And, baby, your smile's forever in my mind and memory (1.23)


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The first song and the 23rd lines shows an overstatement. According to

Hornby (2000, p.503), the word ‘forever’ means particular situation or state will

always exist. In this case, word ‘forever’ is used to show the time period of

remembering the smile of someone. This is called overstatement because human

can’t predict the future, and the narrator said “your smile’s forever in my mind and

memory” which is an exaggeration.

(5) Where our eyes are never closing (3.9)

The ninth line in the third song called “Photograph” is a hyperbole because,

it said “eyes never closing” which means in a normal condition is impossible

because the word ‘eye’ means two organs on the face that you see with and word

‘never’ means not at any time , which means can be opened forever. People’s eyes

can’t be always opened, they will close when they wink and by the time they sleep.

It can’t be open forever but in a figurative way, the narrator means that “eyes never

closing” is in their photograph their eyes are never closing. So it is called

overstatement.

(6) Hearts are never broken (3.10)

The 10th line has an overstatement sentence that is “Hearts are never broken”

which can be seen from the meaning of ‘never’ word is not at any time. In this case,

word ‘heart’ means part of the body where the feelings are thought to be. People’s

feelings and emotion always has its upside-down moment that can’t be controlled

by people, so that the hearts will have broken and can’t be stayed “never broken”.

The word ‘never’ is something that make this lyrics become an overstatement.


26

(7) And time's forever frozen still (3.11)

This line explains that time’s forever frozen is an overstatement because in

a normal condition time will always go by, but in this case, the narrator said that

time will be frozen forever because it is in a photograph. Therefore, the narrator

exaggerates the time period by saying “time’s forever frozen”.

(8) You won't ever be alone (3.14)

In the third song and 14th line, the overstatement is in the word ‘ever’

because it means all the time and the lyrics said “won’t ever be alone” which is an

overstatement because a person can’t always companying someone else and every

human sometimes need their time to be alone. Therefore, the narrator exaggerates

the time period to an absolute degree by saying “won’t ever”.

2. Metonymy

Metonymy helps the researcher to elaborate figurative language that has a

closely related words from the actual word, as mentioned before in the chapter two,

that Baldick state that metonymy is one thing that replaced by another thing that

has a closely related meaning. The actual term is the term that is actual word from

the bold words in the lyrics and the closely-related term is the explanation of the

bold word meaning in the lyrics. The explanation is based on dictionary entitled

“Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary” by Hornby (2000). In this research found

six lyrics that contain metonymy.


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Table 4. Song Lyrics with Metonymy

No. Data Lyrics Closely-related

Term

Associated Term

9 Place your head on my

beating heart (1.14)

The organ in the left

side of the chest

The narrator’s chest

10 And the crowds don’t

remember my name

(1.18)

A large of people

gathered together in

a public space

The narrator’s fans

or supporter

11 When my hands don't play

the strings the same way

(1.19)

A tightly stretched

piece of wire, nylon

or catgut

Guitar

12 I met you when I was a

teen (2.1)

The years of a

person’s life between

13-19 years old

Young age

13 Could you be a part-time

lover to me? (2.7)

Part of the day or

week in which people

work

Stevie Wonder’s song

about affair

14 Inside these pages you just

hold me (3.45)

One side of a sheet of

paper in a book,

magazine, et cetera

Page of photo album

(9) Place your head on my beating heart (1.14)

People’s head can’t be placed in someone’s beating heart because in an

actual way, heart is placed inside human’s body that can be a place to put your head

in but it is called metonymy because in this sentence using a word that is closely

related to something that is refers to the narrator’s chest where can be placed with

her head. The object ‘beating heart’ substitutes ‘chest’, because the heart is located

in the human’s chest.


28

(10) And the crowds don’t remember my name (1.18)

The literal meaning of the crowds is a bunch of people that placed in a small

and same place for example in musical concert. In this case, the crowds refers to

the narrator’s fans or supporter because Sheeran’s wrote this song based on his love-

life. It is metonymy because the narrator uses the word that is closely related to fans

or supporter. The word ‘crowd’ substitutes ‘supporter’ because supporter means a

bunch of people who support someone which in this case refers to Ed Sheeran’s

fans in real life.

(11) When my hands don't play the strings the same way (1.19)

In this section, it is a metonymy because the narrator uses the word ‘string’

which means in a literal way is a material that made from cotton to tight something

but the narrator refers to a string to a guitar, an instrument that Sheeran mostly use

to help him write a song. The word ‘string’ which is a part of a guitar is used to

substitutes the entire instrument.

(12) I met you when I was a teen (2.1)

Teen means a person who is 13 to 19 years old, in a literal way. In this lyrics,

the narrator refers a teen to a young age, the narrator doesn’t use an actual word but

use a word that has a meaning that is closely related to the actual word that is called

metonymy. The word ‘teen’ which is a young person is used to substitute the young

moment of the narrator.

(13) Could you be a part-time lover to me? (2.7)


29

In the second song called “Nina”, the seventh line shows a metonymy that

is a part-time lover that refers to a song by Stevie Wonder. The literal meaning of

part-time lover is a short period time of partner or unfaithful romantic partner. The

word ‘part-time lover’ which means a short-period partner substitutes ‘affair’ by

using Stevie Wonder’s song entitled “Part-time lover” which the whole song is

about affair.

(14) Inside these pages you just hold me (3.45)

In the 45th line of the song called “Photograph”, there’s a word “pages” that

is refer to an album which a lot of pages that save a lot of photograph. It is called

metonymy, because the narrator use a closely related word to write the song, instead

of using the actual word. The word ‘pages’ refers to a page of photo album.

3. Metaphor

The purpose of using a metaphor is to make it easier in a way that someone’s

picture in the public’s mind where none existed before. It allows someone to create

an imagination about something by using words to make a beautiful effect. The

simple way to describe the use of metaphor is to describe things that can’t be said

in ordinary language. The table ‘object’ and ‘comparison’ in the table below is for

comparing the literal meaning with a thing that is a comparison of the object. The

theory of the literal meaning from the object is based on Oxford advanced learner’s

dictionary by Hornby (2000). From the analysis, the research found four lines that

used the metaphor and will be explained in the following.


30

Table 5. Song Lyrics with Metaphor

No.

Data

Lyrics Object Meaning Comparison

15 Cause, honey, your

soul could never

grow old, it's

evergreen (1.22)

A person’s inner

character

Evergreen tree

16 We keep this love in

a photograph (3.7)

A person, a thing

that you like very

much

Moment

17 So you can keep me,

Inside the pocket of

your ripped jeans

(3.11-12)

The narrator Photograph

18 Oh, you can fit me,

Inside the necklace

you got when you

were 16 (3.39-40)

The narrator Photograph

(15) Cause, honey, your soul could never grow old, it's evergreen (1.22)

The twenty-second line has the object “soul” compared with “evergreen”

which means the song-writer explained the girl has a young soul and still interesting

even she turns old just like an evergreen which is a plant that retains green leaves

throughout the year, according to Hornby (2000, p.430). The word ‘soul’ refers to

‘evergreen’ which means never getting old. Therefore, the narrator claim that the

partner’s soul is everlasting.

(16) We keep this love in a photograph (3.7)

In the last song, Photograph, the seventh line shows word “love” which is

the strong feeling of enjoyment that something gives you (Hornby 2000, p.764).

The word ‘love’ is compared to “moment” because in a literal meaning love is a

feeling which means can’t be seen by people, so it cannot be shown in a photograph


31

but word ‘moment’ which means a short period of time can be more fit for

photograph because both of them are relate by the short period of time. The word

‘love’ which refers to their moment is used to substitute a lovely moment of them.

Therefore, the thing that is kept in the photograph is the picture of the lovely

moment of them and the narrator use word ‘love’ as a symbol of the picture.

(17) So you can keep me, Inside the pocket of your ripped jeans (3.11-12)

This line explains that word “me” refers to him or the song-writer that

compared to a “photograph” because in literal meaning, the song-writer or human

body can’t fit inside the ripped jeans ‘pocket’, which means a small bag sewn into

a piece of clothing (Hornby 2000 p. 972). His photograph is what the lyrics meant

which can be kept inside the ripped jeans pocket. The word ‘me’ refers to the picture

of the narrator which can be kept inside the pocket of the partner’s jeans.

(18) Oh, you can fit me, Inside the necklace you got when you were 16 (3.39-40)

It is similar like the line before, that the word “me” refers to his photograph

that can be kept inside her necklace which she got when she was 16 and she can

keep his photograph anywhere she goes. The word ‘me’ refers to the picture of the

narrator that can be kept inside the necklace’s partner.

4. Simile

The purpose of using a simile is to compare two different things using the

words, “like” or “as”. It can give a more emotional and complex feel to a piece of

writing. The simple thing that describes the usage or purpose of simile is something

is like or as something else.


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Table 6. Song Lyrics with Simile

No.

Data


19 And, baby, my

heart could still fall

as hard at 23 (1.6)

To drop down from

higher level to

lower level

Young age

20 And I could play a

guitar, Just like

ringing a bell (2.4)

A musical

instrument that

usually has six

string

Simple instrument

21 Getting high as two

kites when we

needed to breath

(2.13)

A light toy that can

fly in the air

The narrator’s and

partner

hallucination

22 Acting as if we was

two rabbits (2.36)

A small animal

with soft fur that

lives in holes

The narrator’s and

partner

(19) And, baby, my heart could still fall as hard at 23 (1.6)

In this part, the current age is compared to when he was 23 years old. The

song-writer means is his heart can fall in love with her as hard as when he was 23

years old or young man, even though he will get old. The conclusion is his love is

unchanging even after a long time has passed.

(20) And I could play a guitar, Just like ringing a bell (2.4)

In the second song, Nina, shows a comparison of the two nouns in the fourth

line that is “guitar” and “bell”. They both have the same function which is

producing sound, but the word “guitar” is something that harder to play compare to

play a bell that just can be played by everyone. The conclusion is the narrator is an

expert of guitar just like everyone can play a bell.

(21) Getting high as two kites when we needed to breath (2.13)


33

Lyric from song “Nina” above is a simile, it used a connection word “as”

to compare “two kites” and Ed Sheeran and Nina who are getting high. The phrase

“two kites” refers to Ed and Nina who get high because of illegal weed which shows

in the lyric before it. The conclusion is ‘getting high’ is compared to ‘kites’ because

kites fly aimlessly just like when they’re getting high of using illegal weeds.

(22) Acting as if we was two rabbits (2.36)

This shows that in the second line, the phrase “two rabbits”, the explanation

of rabbits here is based on the fact, rabbit is a type of animal that mates every two

weeks. The word ‘we’ which refers to the narrator and the partner is compared to a

pair of rabbits that frequently have sex. The entire lyrics are “acting as if we were

two rabbits and then you'd vanish” which means they meet only for having sex and

then the partner is gone. The conclusion is their relationship is aimless and unstable.

5. Personification

When something that is not human is given human characteristics, this is

known as personification. A figure or object is personified when it is given human

characteristics. It is also the use of language to convey ideas in an understandable

manner. Personification is commonly used to imbue non-human things, animals,

and ideas with human characteristics such as emotions and behaviors. The tables

'object' and 'comparison' in the table below are for comparing literal meanings with

things that are comparisons of objects. Oxford advanced learner's dictionary by

Hornby (2000) is the basis for the theory of literal meaning from the object.


34

Table 7. Song Lyrics with Personification

No.

Data


23 Will your mouth still

remember the taste of my

love? (1.3)

The opening in

the face used for

eating

Brain

24 Will your eyes still smile

from your cheeks? (1.4)

Two organs on

the face that you

see with

Mouth

25 And if you hurt me, Well

that's okay baby only

words bleed (3.43-44)

A single unit of

language and can

be spoken or

written

Part of body

(23) Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love? (1.3)

In the third line, the word “mouth” is used for remembering the taste of the

narrator’s love, the thing that can make someone remember his/her memory is the

brain, not a mouth, but in this third line, the narrator means that does she still

remember the kissing moment, a memory through her mouth. The conclusion is the

word ‘mouth’ refers to a brain that can keep a memory inside which is the memory

of the taste of the love.

(24) Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks? (1.4)

The fourth line in the first song, show a figure of speech, personification

that “eyes still smile”. The adjective “smile” is showing an emotion of someone’s

happiness by making a gesture from someone’s mouth, not eyes. But in this song

means that someone showing her really big smile until the eyes also shaping and


35

showing a happy face. The conclusion is the word ‘eyes’ refers to a big smile that

the eyes can make a shape and it shows bigger and brighter.

(25) And if you hurt me, Well that's okay baby only words bleed (3.43-44)

In the third song called “Photograph”, 43rd until 44th line shows “only words

bleed”. In a literal way, blood only appears when someone got an injury and it feels

hurt, but in a figurative way, the word “words” means that the girl hurts or attacks

the narrator only by her words or she says something bad to the narrator. The

conclusion is the narrator only can be hurt verbally.

6. Synecdoche

Synecdoche is a term or word that is refers to something indirect for

example all hands are on deck, the word “hands” refers to people. This figurative

language helps the researcher to elaborate three lyrics that contains synecdoche.

Table 8. Song Lyrics with Synecdoche

No.

Data

Lyrics Closely-related Term Actual Term

26 When my hair's all

but gone and my

memory fades

(1.17)

Hair-fall Having left a place

from a place

27 Under the covers

where we used to

lay (2.8)

Private space Sheets of blanket on

a bed

28 We'd use each

other's air just for

the people to see

(2.14)

Romance action The particular

feeling that is given

from somebody to

somebody

(26) When my hair's all but gone and my memory fades (1.17)


36

In this part, hair’s all gone and fading memory is indirect terms of

someone’s getting old or aging. It is called synecdoche, because the narrator uses a

term that is not directly explain about him getting old but uses an indirectly terms

which perhaps make more the lyrics become attractive, so he uses term “hair’s all

but gone and memory fades”.

(27) Under the covers where we used to lay (2.8)

In this section, word “covers” means something that hide or protect a thing

for example book cover which protect the book from the dust or water-drop. In this

lyrics, “cover” has different meaning that is actually an indirect term that refers to

blanket which something that someone’s can lay on. Therefore, this lyrics

considered as a synecdoche because word ‘cover’ refers to a blanket which is an

object where they use to lay.

(28) We'd use each other's air just for the people to see (2.14)

Lyric from the song “Nina” above is a synecdoche, and it used an indirect

term “air” that refers to a feeling because in British, the synonym of air is feeling.

In this lyric, the narrator uses synecdoche because when he wrote air, it will become

more exciting and unique rather than use “feeling” for the lyrics. Therefore, it is

synecdoche because the word ‘air’ refers to feeling which means they show their

relationship publicly.

B. The Types of Meaning and The Semantic Feature of The Figurative

Language in Ed Sheeran’s Selected Songs in X Album

This section will focus on figurative language elaboration using a semantic

approach. The researcher will compare the literal and figurative meanings of the


37

lyrics, and the result of the comparison will reveal the shared semantic features.

Following that, the theory of meaning will be used to classify the meaning of Ed

Sheraan's chosen songs from the X album. In this section, the researcher focuses on

figurative language words, phrases, or sentences. The table below shows the

frequency and percentage of the meaning used in Ed Sheeran's chosen songs from

the X album.

Table 9. Summary of the Types of Meaning of Figurative Language

No. Types of

Meaning

Figurative

Language

Frequency Percentage

1. Conceptual

Meaning

Hyperbole 8 28.58

2. Metonymy 1 3.57



5. Connotative

Meaning

Metonymy 5 17.85

6. Metaphor 4 14.29

7. Simile 4 14.29



TOTAL 28 100

According to the table above, the three songs contain two of the seven types

of meaning. There are 28 lyrics in total that use figurative language. Connotative is

the most prevalent type of meaning, followed by conceptual as the least prevalent

type of meaning in Ed Sheeran's chosen songs for the X album, with huge

differences in frequency and percentage.


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1. Conceptual Meaning in Figurative Language with Semantic Feature

As the first type of meaning examined, Ed Sheeran's chosen songs from the

X album validate the position of conceptual meaning as the central factor in

linguistic communication. The conceptual meaning is closed ended, which means

that the meaning of a word does not change at any time. After analyzing the data,

the researcher discovered number lines that used the conceptual meaning in the

table below. The result of the literal meaning and the figurative meaning is the

conclusion of the previous analysis which is the types of figurative language in the

song lyrics.

Table 10. Conceptual Meaning in Hyperbole with Semantic Feature

No.

Data

Figurative

Expression

Literal

Meaning

Figurative

Meaning

Semantic

Feature

29 And, darling, I will

be loving you 'til

we're 70 (1.5)

The ‘I’ will

loving the

‘you’ until

they are

turning 70

The ‘I’ will

love the

‘you’ until

they’re

getting old

[+Everlasting]

30 And I'm thinking

'bout how people

fall in love in

mysterious ways,

Maybe just the

touch of a hand

(1.8)

People can fall

in love easily,

only by the

touch of a

hand

Love at first

sight

[+Attract]

31 Well, me—I fall in

love with you every

single day (1.9)

The ‘I’ will

fall in love

with the ‘you’

every single

day

The ‘I’ deeply

falling in love

with the ‘you’

[+Loyalty]


39

32 And, baby, your

smile's forever in

my mind and

memory (1.23)

The ‘you’ will

always be

remembered in

the ‘I’ mind

The ‘I’ will

keep all the

happy

memories of

‘you’

[+Cherish]

33 Where our eyes are

never closing (3.9)

The ‘our’ eyes

are always

open in a

photograph

The ‘I’ said

that this

photograph

will stay and

won’t ever

change.

[+Eternal]

34 Hearts are never

broken (3.10)

The narrator

and the partner

hearts are

never broken

in a

photograph

In the

photograph,

their hearts

will be in the

same

condition

[+Eternal]

35 And time's forever

frozen still (3.11)

The

photograph

does not

change, so

time is literally

frozen,

capturing their

happy

memories

together.

In the

photograph,

their feelings

won’t be

changed

because

photograph,

time can’t

change.

[+Eternal]

36 You won't ever be

alone (3.14)

The ‘you’ will

never be alone

as long as the

narrator stay.

No matter

how far the

narrator go,

the narrator

will go the

girl because

the narrator

deeply in

love with her.

[+Return]

(29) And, darling, I will be loving you 'til we're 70 (1.5)

In literal meaning, it shows that the ‘70’ is a number of age. Meanwhile, in

figurative meaning, it shows that symbol of getting old. The narrator explains that


40

the ‘I’ will love the partner until they’re getting old. Both of them share

[+everlasting] as its semantics feature because the noun ‘70’ means a really long

age and an everlasting relationship. Therefore, the researcher can classify it as a

conceptual meaning.

(30) And I'm thinking 'bout how people fall in love in mysterious ways, Maybe

just the touch of a hand (1.8)

The literal meaning in the line above shows noun ‘hand’ that can make

people fall in love, beside that people fall in love mostly by feelings or attract the

personality or appearance, but in this case the narrator using an overstatement “by

the touch of a hand” that refers to love at first sight, that two sentences has the same

meaning but different saying, and they share semantic feature as [+attract].

Therefore, it is a conceptual meaning.

(31) Well, me—I fall in love with you every single day (1.9)

In the figurative meaning, the line above shows the ‘I’ will fall in love with

the partner endlessly, then in a literal meaning the ‘I’ will fall in love with the

partner literally every single day which means no matter how the condition is the

narrator will love the partner. It is an overstatement and they both shared semantic

feature that is [+loyalty] that resulting a conceptual meaning.

(32) And, baby, your smile's forever in my mind and memory (1.23)

In the literal meaning word ‘smile’ showing an expression of happiness, but

in the figurative meaning, the word ‘smile’ is a substitute word from the happy

memories with the partner. The narrator’s purpose of saying has the same meaning

but using different sentence. The narrator uses an overstatement “forever in my


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mind and memory”. Both of them shared same semantic feature that is [+Cherish]

because the literal and figurative meaning has the same meaning that is keeping the

memories forever. It is a conceptual meaning.

(33) Where our eyes are never closing (3.9)

Literal meaning in the line above shows noun ‘eye’ that always open in a

photograph, and the figurative meaning is the ‘I’ said that this photograph will stay

and won’t ever change. The shared semantic feature is [+eternal] because they both

have the same purpose and meaning that is in photograph the moment will stay

eternally. Therefore, the researcher can classify it as a conceptual meaning.

(34) Hearts are never broken (3.10)

In the 10th line of the third song shows the literal meaning of word ‘broken’,

it explains that in the photograph their hearts are never broken. In the figurative

meaning shows that in a photograph people’s feeling will stay forever the same.

The shared semantic feature is [+eternal] because the literal meaning and figurative

meaning shows that their hearts are captured in a photograph that will stay forever

the same. Therefore, the researcher classify it as a conceptual meaning.

(35) And time's forever frozen still (3.11)

In the third song and the 11th line, shows the literal meaning is the word

‘time’ is forever frozen. Basically, time is something that always goes on, it can’t

be stop. In figurative meaning, it shows that the ‘time’ forever frozen in a

photograph. They both has the same meaning that is eternal, so the shared semantic

feature is [+eternal]. Therefore, it can be classified as a conceptual meaning.

(36) You won't ever be alone (3.14)


42

The word ‘you’ in the line above, has a literal and figurative meaning. The

literal meaning is the word ‘you’ will never be alone. The figurative meaning is the

word ‘you’ always be accompanied by the narrator no matter how far each of them

go, they will be back together again. The both meaning has the same thing that is

return. Both of them has shared the semantic feature that is [+return] and it can be

classified as a conceptual meaning.

Table 11. Conceptual Meaning in Metonymy with Semantic Feature

No.

Data

Figurative

Expression

Literal

Meaning

Figurative

Meaning

Semantic

Feature

37 I met you when I

was a teen (2.1)

The ‘I’ meet

‘you’ when

they were

teenager

The ‘I’ knew

‘you’ since

they were

young or has

known for a

long time

[+Long-

term]

(37) I met you when I was a teen (2.1)

In the first line of the second song, it has two meanings which are literal and

figurative meaning. The literal meaning of the line above is, the ‘I’ met the person

when the ‘I’ was teenager. In figurative meaning, shows the ‘I’ has met the person

since they were young or for a long time. The both meaning shows the same that

they have a long-term friendship, so the shared semantic feature is [+Long-term]

and it can be classified as conceptual meaning.


43

Table 12. Conceptual Meaning in Personification with Semantic Feature

No.

Data

Figurative

Expression

Literal

Meaning

Figurative

Meaning

Semantic

Feature

38 Will your mouth

still remember the

taste of my love?

(1.3)

The ‘your

mouth’

remember the

narrator’s love

Remember

the kissing

moment

[+Memory]

(38) Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love? (1.3)

In the line above, the literal meaning shows that the word ‘mouth’ remember

the taste of ‘my’ love, while basically mouth function is for tasting flavors not love

but in this line also has a figurative meaning which means does the ‘mouth’

remember the kissing moment. Both of meanings has shared the same semantic

feature that is [+memory] because it suits both of them. The type of meaning of the

line can be classified as conceptual meaning.

Table 13. Conceptual Meaning in Synecdoche with Semantic Feature

No.

Data

Figurative

Expression

Literal

Meaning

Figurative

Meaning

Semantic

Feature

39 When my hair's all

but gone and my

memory fades (1.17)

The ‘my’ hair

is all fall and

forget all the

memory

Getting old [+Aging]

(39) When my hair's all but gone and my memory fades (1.17)


44

In the 17th line of the first song shows word ‘hair’ that has two meanings

which literal and figurative meaning. The literal meaning shows the ‘my’ hair is all

fall and forget all the memory and the figurative meaning shows that the line means

getting old. The narrator of the song conveys that when the narrator getting old until

the hair is all gone and the memory is fading. The shared semantic feature that suites

the line is [+Aging] because the losing hair and memory represents of someone

who’s getting older. This type of meaning is a conceptual meaning.

2. Connotative Meaning in Figurative Language with Semantic Feature

The communicative value of a word refers to something other than its purely

conceptual content, according to a definition of language. The researcher

discovered 17 lines that used the connotative meaning after analyzing the data, as

shown in the following explanation.

Table 14. Connotative Meaning in Metonymy with Semantic Feature

No.

Data

Figurative

Expression

Literal

Meaning

Figurative

Meaning

Semantic

Feature

40 Place your head

on my beating

heart (1.14)

The ‘head’

will be placed

in the

‘beating

heart’

The ‘head will be

placed in ‘my’

chest or hug

[+Gesture]

41 And the crowds

don’t remember

my name (1.18)

The people

forget ‘my’

name

The narrator is

longer famous

[-

Popularity]

42 When my hands

don't play the

strings the same

way (1.19)

‘My’ can’t

play the

instrument

which has

string in the

The narrator is

getting old and

can’t play guitar in

the same way

[+Aging]


45

same way

anymore

43 Could you be a

part-time lover to

me? (2.7)

Short time

period partner

Stevie Wonder’s

song; about affair

[-Loyalty]

44 Inside these pages

you just hold me

(3.45)

Inside the

book there

are

photograph

that shows

them holding

on

Inside the photo

album;photograph,

they are hugging.

[+Memory]

(40) Place your head on my beating heart (1.14)

In the 14th line of the first song, shows the word ‘heart’ which means

human’s organ that beating. In the line above, shows “place your head on my

beating heart” that means in literal meaning is the head will be placed next to the

heart beating but the figurative meaning means a gesture of hugging, because the

gesture of hugging is when one of them place the head on one of their chest. The

shared semantic feature is [+gesture] because both meanings shows the same

meaning that is about gesture and the type of meaning that suits the line in a

connotative meaning.

(41) And the crowds don’t remember my name (1.18)

The word ‘crowds’ in the literal meaning means a group of people but in the

figurative meaning word ‘crowds’ means supporter or fans since the song is based


46

on the song-writer true story and feeling. So, the literal meaning shows that when

people doesn’t know him anymore but in contrast the figurative meaning shows that

when the song-writer or the narrator is no longer famous. The semantic feature is [-

popularity] because it suits for both of them. The type of meaning of this line is a


(42) When my hands don't play the strings the same way (1.19)

In literal meaning the word ‘string’ means any instruments that has a string,

and the narrator can’t play the string instrument in the same way again. In figurative

meaning, word ‘string’ means guitar since the song is based on the song-writer

personal life and the narrator always composed all the songs with guitar before it

turns into final result, the line means when the narrator can’t play guitar in the same

way again because of aging, so the semantic feature is shared as [+aging] and the

type of meaning classify as a connotative meaning.

(43) Could you be a part-time lover to me? (2.7)

The seventh line in the second song, shows the word ‘part-time’ which

means a half-time or a short period. In this case, the literal meaning explains that

‘you’ could be the short-time period partner but in a figurative meaning shows that

the ‘you’ could be the affair, so the shared semantic feature is [-loyalty] and the

type of meaning is a connotative meaning.

(44) Inside these pages you just hold me (3.45)


47

The word ‘pages’ in the line above means a part of a book. In this case, the

literal meaning of the line is inside the book there are photograph that shows them

holding on but in the figurative meaning shows inside the photo album that is a

photograph, they are hugging. Therefore, the shared semantic feature is [+memory]

because both meanings discussing about a photograph in an album. The type of

meanings that suits this line is a connotative meaning.

Table 15. Connotative Meaning in Metaphor with Semantic Feature

No.

Data

Figurative

Expression

Literal

Meaning

Figurative

Meaning

Semantic

Feature

45 Cause, honey,

your soul

could never

grow old, it's

evergreen

(1.22)

The ‘your’

soul is

always stay

young

Whenever

the ‘you’

getting old,

the ‘you’

will always

have a young

spirits.

[+Youth]

46 We keep this

love in a

photograph (3.7)

Save their

memory in a

picture

Their feeling

of love will

stays in a

photograph

[+Cherish]

47 So you can keep

me, Inside the

pocket of your

ripped jeans

(3.11-12)

‘You’ can

keep the

photograph

of ‘me’

inside the

pocket

The ‘you’ can

bring the

photograph

wherever

‘you’ go

[+Treasure]

48 Oh, you can fit

me, Inside the

necklace you

got when you

were 16 (3.39-

40)

‘You’ can

keep the

photograph

of ‘me’

inside the

necklace

The ‘you’ can

bring the

photograph

and anytime

and anywhere

the ‘you’ go

[+Tresure]

(45) Cause, honey, your soul could never grow old, it's evergreen (1.22)

In the 22nd line of the first song called “Thinking Out Loud” shows the word

‘soul’ has two meanings that are literal and figurative meaning. The first one, that


48

is the literal meaning shows that, the ‘soul’ could never grow old is the soul will

always stay as a young soul and the figurative meaning explain that the word ‘soul’

means whenever the ‘you’ getting old, the ‘you’ will always have a young spirits,

so the semantic feature of both meanings is [+youth] cause word ‘youth’ represents

as a young thing. The line has classify as a connotative meaning since the meaning

is beyond the conceptual meaning.

(46) We keep this love in a photograph (3.7)

The word ‘love’ represents as a people’s feelings in the photograph but has

two different meanings that is literal meaning and figurative meaning. The literal

meaning explains that the narrator and partner saving their happy memory in a

photograph and the figurative meaning explains about their feelings won’t ever

change and stays forever the same in a photograph. The semantic feature that share

in this line is [+cherish] because cherish is keeping and taking care for something

that is important. The type of meanings is a connotative meaning.

(47) So you can keep me, Inside the pocket of your ripped jeans (3.11-12)

The word ‘me’ represents as the narrator in the photograph but has two

different meanings that is literal meaning and figurative meaning. The literal

meaning explains that the ‘you’ can keep the photograph of ‘me’ inside the pocket.

In figurative meaning explains, the ‘you’ can bring the photograph wherever ‘you’

go, so the semantic feature that suits for both meanings is [+treasure] because

treasure means take great care of something that consider it very valuable, just like

the photograph. The type of meanings in this line is a connotative meaning.

(48) Oh, you can fit me, Inside the necklace you got when you were 16 (3.39-40)


49

The word ‘me’ represents as the narrator in the photograph but has two

different meanings that is literal meaning and figurative meaning. The literal

meaning explains that the ‘you’ can keep the photograph of ‘me’ inside the necklace.

In figurative meaning explains, the ‘you’ can bring the necklace anytime and

anywhere, so the semantic feature that suits for both meanings is [+treasure]

because treasure means take great care of something that consider it very valuable,

just like the photograph. The type of meanings in this line is a connotative meaning.

Table 16. Connotative Meaning in Simile with Semantic Feature

No.

Data

Figurative

Expression

Literal

Meaning

Figurative

Meaning

Semantic

Feature

49 And, baby, my

heart could

still fall as hard

at 23 (1.6)

The

narrator can

fall in love

like when

the narrator

was 23

years old

The narrator

still can love

the partner

like the

narrator was

young

[+Loyalty]

50 And I could play

a guitar, Just

like ringing a

bell (2.4)

The narrator

can play

guitar easily,

just like

ringing a bell

The narrator is

a guitar expert

[+Skillful]

51 Getting high as

two kites when

we needed to

breath (2.13)

Fly as free as

kites

Feeling free [+Freedom]

52 Acting as if we

was two rabbits

(2.36)

Like a rabbit

that likes to

jump around

Cheerful

moment

[+Happiness]

(49) And, baby, my heart could still fall as hard at 23 (1.6)


50

The sixth line in the first song shows word ‘heart’ that refers to two

meanings that is literal meanings that describe a the narrator’s ‘heart’ could fall in

love like when the narrator was 23 years old but the figurative meaning explains

that the narrator’s can fall in love as hard as when the narrator was young. The

shared semantic feature is [+loyalty] because the narrator assure that the narrator

can fall in love with the partner as hard as 23 years old. The types of meaning is a


(50) And I could play a guitar, Just like ringing a bell (2.4)

The narrator writes the word ‘guitar’ and compare it to the ‘bell’ that has

two different meanings that is literal and figurative meaning. The literal meaning

means the narrator could play guitar as easy just like ringing a bell and the figurative

meaning means the narrator has an expert skill at playing guitar, so the narrator

could play the guitar just like ringing a bell. The semantic feature that suits to the

both of meanings is [+skillful] because the word skillful represents the narrator skill,

that is play guitar just like ringing a bell. The types of meanings which suits this

line is a connotative meaning.

(51) Getting high as two kites when we needed to breathe (2.13)

In literal meaning, it shows that fly high and free as a ‘two kites’. Meanwhile,

in figurative meaning, the narrator and partner are being compared to ‘kites’ as it is

a light thing than can fly freely and high and the narrator wanted to convey that the

narrator and the partner are getting high because of the effect of the weed that makes

them feel like a kite. Both of them share [+freedom] as its semantics feature


51

because the words ‘kite’ is referring to object that can fly high freely. Therefore,

the researcher can classify it as a connotative meaning.

(52) Acting as if we was two rabbits (2.36)

In literal meaning, it shows that the narrator and partner act like rabbit that

likes to jump around. Meanwhile, in figurative meaning, the word ‘rabbit’ is being

compared to something funny and cheerful and the narrator wanted to convey that

the narrator and partner are feeling cheerful and happy. Both of them share

[+happiness] as its semantics feature because the words ‘rabbit’ are referring to

living-creature that is funny and jumping around while they’re moving. Therefore,

the researcher can classify it as a connotative meaning.

Table 17. Connotative Meaning in Personification with Semantic Feature

No.

Data

Figurative

Expression

Literal

Meaning

Figurative

Meaning

Semantic

Feature

53 Will your eyes

still smile from

your cheeks? (1.4)

A big smile Happy

feeling

[+Emotion]

54 And if you hurt me,

Well that's okay

baby only words

bleed (3.43-44)

Only by

words the ‘I’

can feel hurt

If the

relationship is

not ending

happily, there

once was a

time in a

photograph

that they were

happy and in

love.

[+Memory]

(53) Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks? (1.4)


52

In the first song entitled “Thinking Out Loud”, the fourth line shows the

word ‘eyes’ which means body part has two different meanings in the line, that is

the literal meaning, shows that a big smile and the figurative meaning shows that a

happy feeling. Therefore, the semantic feature is [+emotion] because the two

different meaning shows the same feature that is an emotion and the type of

meanings is a connotative meaning.

(54) And if you hurt me, Well that's okay baby only words bleed (3.43-44)

The line above has a literal meaning and figurative meaning that is the word

‘words’ that is bleeding means only by word the ‘I’ or the narrator can feel hurt in

the literal meaning, but, in the figurative meaning the ‘words’ bleeding means if the

relationship fails, the photograph will show the happy memory of the narrator and

the partner.

Table 18. Connotative Meaning in Synecdoche with Semantic Feature

No.

Data

Figurative

Expression

Literal

Meaning

Figurative

Meaning

Semantic

Feature

55 Under the

covers where

we used to lay

(2.8)

They used

to lay under

the bed

Hidden place [+Private]

56 We'd use each

other's air just

for the people to

see (2.14)

In British,

‘air’ means

expose

Showing the

romantic

relationship

publicly

[-Hidden]

(55) Under the covers where we used to lay (2.8)

In literal meaning, it shows that it is the ‘cover’ which something that

has space under such as bed or blanket that place they used to lay. Meanwhile,

in figurative meaning, it refers to the phrase ‘hidden place’ because it is


53

showing somewhere that people don’t know since the narrator made the song

based on the narrator’s life and the narrator is a famous singer, so people will

notice, wherever the narrator goes and has no private place unless under the

‘cover’. Both of them share [+private] as its semantics feature because the

meaning of this line is showing the private place of them. Therefore, the

researcher can classify it as a connotative meaning.

(56) We'd use each other's air just for the people to see (2.14)

In literal meaning, it shows that it is the ‘air’ which in British is something

that exposed or it can be expressed. Meanwhile, in figurative meaning, it refers to

the phrase ‘open public relationship’ because mostly famous people, make the love-

life become private for the secure reasons since the narrator is a famous singer but

has different like the other famous people, the narrator wants to show the romance

relationship publicly. Both of them share [-hidden] as its semantics feature because

the meaning of this line is showing there’s nothing hide between the narrator and

partner. Therefore, the researcher can classify it as a connotative meaning.


54

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

The researcher discovered six types of figurative language in 28 lines:

hyperbole, metonymy, personification, metaphor, simile, and synecdoche. The

most common line is hyperbole, which has 8 lines (28.57%), followed by

metonymy (21.43%) with 6 lines, metaphor, and simile with 4 lines (14.29 %),

followed by personification and synecdoche (10.71%) with 3 lines. It shows that

hyperbole is the most used in the three songs in X album by Ed Sheeran, because

the hyperbole type help to express everlasting love and nostalgic with romance

partner.

The researcher classified the data based on the type of meaning produced

by the use of these meanings. In a total of 28 lines, there are two types of meaning:

connotative 17 lines (60.71 %) and conceptual 11 lines (39.29 %). The meanings

that contain figurative language starts from the conceptual meaning with hyperbole

(28.58%) with eight lines, conceptual meaning with metonymy (3.57%) with one

lines, conceptual meaning with personification (3.57%) with one line, conceptual

meaning with synecdoche (3.57%) with one line. The second is the result of the

connotative meaning with the figurative languages. The connotative meaning with

metonymy is (17.85%) with five lines, connotative meaning with personification is

(7.14%) with two lines, followed by metaphor and simile that has (14.29%) with

four lines and the last one is connotative meaning with synecdoche is (7.14 %) with

two lines.


55

After trying to identify the data, classifying it by type of figurative language,

and classifying it by type of meaning, the researcher concludes that a song-writer

use of a large number of connotative types of meaning because it makes the lyrics

catchy and have deep meanings. It does, however, imply that the songwriter intends

for the song to have an implicit meaning that requires further investigation. As a

result, the researcher hopes that this thesis will provide a better understanding of

the meaning of Ed Sheeran's selected songs in the X album through the use of

figurative language.


56

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58

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Lyric of “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran

When your legs don't work like they used to before

And I can't sweep you off of your feet

Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love?

Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks?

And, darling, I will be loving you 'til we're 70

And, baby, my heart could still fall as hard at 23

And I'm thinking 'bout how people fall in love in mysterious ways

Maybe just the touch of a hand

Well, me—I fall in love with you every single day

And I just wanna tell you I am

So, honey, now

Take me into your loving arms

Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars

Place your head on my beating heart

I'm thinking out loud

Maybe we found love right where we are

When my hair's all but gone and my memory fades

And the crowds don't remember my name

When my hands don't play the strings the same way (mmm...)

I know you will still love me the same

'Cause, honey, your soul could never grow old, it's evergreen

And, baby, your smile's forever in my mind and memory

I'm thinking 'bout how people fall in love in mysterious ways

Maybe it's all part of a plan

Well, I'll just keep on making the same mistakes

Hoping that you'll understand

That, baby, now



Place your head on my beating heart

Thinking out loud

Maybe we found love right where we are (oh, oh)

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, lo-ud

So, baby, now


59



Oh, darling, place your head on my beating heart

I'm thinking out loud

But maybe we found love right where we are

Oh, baby, we found love right where we are

And we found love right where we are

Appendix 2: Lyric of “Nina” by Ed Sheeran

I met you when I was a teen

But then you were one as well

And I could play a guitar

Just like ringing a bell

Sometimes I wonder

In any other summer

Could you have been my part-time lover to me

Listening to Stevie Wonder

Under the covers where we used to lay

And Re: Stacks is what the speakers played

I'd be on tour almost every day

When I was home up in my flat is where we used to stay

Just watching a DVD, smoking illegal weed

Getting high as two kites when we needed to breathe

We used each other's air just for the people to see

And stay up all night like when we needed to sleep

We'd go anywhere our minds would take us

And I'll say you are beautiful without your make-up

And you don't even need to worry about your weight 'cause

We can all be loved the way that God made us

And time's the only reason that we could break up

'Cause you would always tell me I'm away too much

Distance is relative to the time that it takes to get on a plane or make a mistake

So say it again

Oh Nina, you should go Nina

'Cause I ain't ever coming home Nina

Oh won't you leave me now

And I've been livin' on the road Nina

But then again you should know Nina

'Cause that's you and me both Nina

Oh won't you leave me now, now

And every weekend in the winter you'd be wearing my hoodie

With drawstrings pulled tight to keep your face from the cold


60

Taking day trips to the local where we'd eat on our own

'Cause every day when I was away we'd only speak on the phone

Watching Blue Planet, creating new habits

Acting as if we were two rabbits

And then you'd vanish

Back to the borough with all the Celtics

I disappear, you call me selfish

I understand but I can't help it

I put my job over everything except my family and friends

But you'll be in between forever so I guess we'll have to take a step back

Overlook the situation 'cause mixing business and feelings will only lead to

complications

And I'm not saying we should be taking a break

Just re-evaluate quick before we make a mistake and it's too late

So we can either deal with the pain or wait to get on a plane

But in a day we'll have to say it again


'Cause I ain't ever coming home Nina




'Cause that's you and me both Nina

Oh won't you leave me now, now

Love will come and love will go

But you can make it on your own

Sing that song

Go oh won't you leave me now

People grow and fall apart

But you can mend your broken heart

Take it back go oh won't you leave me now

[2x]


(Love will come and love will go)

Cause I ain't ever coming home Nina

(But you can make it on your own)


(Sing that song, go oh won't you leave me now)


(People grow and fall apart)


(But you can mend your broken heart)

Cause that's you and me both Nina

(Take it back, go oh won't you leave me now)


61

Oh won't you leave me now now

Appendix 3: Lyric of “Photograph” by Ed Sheeran

Loving can hurt

Loving can hurt sometimes

But it's the only thing that I know

When it gets hard

You know it can get hard sometimes

It is the only thing that makes us feel alive

We keep this love in a photograph

We made these memories for ourselves

Where our eyes are never closing

Hearts are never broken

Times forever frozen still

So you can keep me

Inside the pocket

Of your ripped jeans

Holding me closer

'Til our eyes meet

You won't ever be alone

Wait for me to come home

Loving can heal

Loving can mend your soul

And it's the only thing that I know (know)

I swear it will get easier

Remember that with every piece of ya

And it's the only thing we take with us when we die

We keep this love in a photograph

We made these memories for ourselves

Where our eyes are never closing

Hearts were never broken

Times forever frozen still

So you can keep me

Inside the pocket

Of your ripped jeans

Holding me closer

'Til our eyes meet

You won't ever be alone

And if you hurt me


62

That's OK, baby, only words bleed

Inside these pages you just hold me

And I won't ever let you go





Oh you can fit me

Inside the necklace you got when you were sixteen

Next to your heartbeat

Where I should be

Keep it deep within your soul

And if you hurt me

Well, that's OK, baby, only words bleed

Inside these pages you just hold me

And I won't ever let you go

When I'm away

I will remember how you kissed me

Under the lamppost

Back on 6th street

Hearing you whisper through the phone

"Wait for me to come home"

Appendix 3: Data Analysis

Table 19. The Summary of “Thinking Out Loud”

No. Data Figurative

Language

Types of

Meaning

Semantic

Features

1. And, darling, I will be

loving you 'til we're

70 (1.5)

Hyperbole Conceptual

Meaning

[+Everlasting]

2. And I'm thinking 'bout

how people fall in

love in mysterious

ways, Maybe just the

touch of a hand (1.8)


Meaning

[+Attract]


63

3. Well, me—I fall in

love with you every

single day (1.9)


Meaning

[+Loyalty]

4. And, baby, your

smile's forever in my

mind and memory

(1.23)


Meaning

[+Cherish]

5. Place your head on

my beating heart

(1.14)

Metonymy Connotative

Meaning

[+Gesture]

6. And the crowds don’t

remember my name

(1.18)


Meaning

[-Popularity]

7. When my hands don't

play the strings the

same way (1.19)


Meaning

[+Aging]

8. Cause, honey, your

soul could never grow

old, it's evergreen

(1.22)

Metaphor Connotative

Meaning

[+Youth]

9. And, baby, my heart

could still fall as hard

at 23 (1.6)

Simile Connotative

Meaning

[+Loyalty]

10. Will your mouth still

remember the taste of

my love? (1.3)

Personification Conceptual

Meaning

[+Memory]

11. Will your eyes still

smile from your

cheeks? (1.4)

Personification Connotative

Meaning

[+Emotion]

12. When my hair's all but

gone and my memory

fades (1.17)

Synedoche Conceptual

Meaning

[+Aging]


64

Table 20. The Summary of “Nina”

No. Data Figurative

Language

Types of

Meaning

Semantic

Features

1. I met you when I was

a teen (2.1)

Metonymy Conceptual

Meaning

[+Long-

term]

2. Could you be a part-

time lover to me? (2.7)


Meaning

[-Loyalty]

3. And I could play a

guitar, Just like

ringing a bell (2.4)

Simile Connotative

Meaning

[+Skillful]

4. Getting high as two

kites when we needed

to breath (2.13)

Simile Connotative

Meaning

[+Freedom]

5. Acting as if we was

two rabbits (2.36)

Simile Connotative

Meaning

[+Happiness]

6. Under the covers

where we used to lay

(2.8)

Synecdoche Connotative

Meaning

[+Private]

7. We'd use each other's

air just for the people

to see (2.14)

Synecdoche Connotative

Meaning

[-Hidden]

Table 21. The Summary of “Photograph”

No. Data Figurative

Language

Types of

Meaning

Semantic

Features

1. Where our eyes are

never closing (3.9)


Meaning

[+Eternal]

2. Hearts are never

broken (3.10)


Meaning

[+Eternal]

3. And time's forever

frozen still (3.11)


Meaning

[+Eternal]

4. You won't ever be

alone (3.14)


Meaning

[+Return]

5. Inside these pages you

just hold me (3.45)


Meaning

[+Memory]


65

6. We keep this love in a

photograph (3.7)


Meaning

[+Cherish]

7. So you can keep me,

Inside the pocket of

your ripped jeans

(3.11-12)


Meaning

[+Treasure]

8. Oh, you can fit me,

Inside the necklace you

got when you were 16

(3.39-40)


Meaning

[+Treasure]

9. And if you hurt me,

Well that's okay baby

only words bleed

(3.43-44)

Personification Connotative

Meaning

[+Memory]


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