THE ANALYSIS OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGES IN ED SHEERAN SELECTED SONG LYRICS

ABSTRACT

Figurative language is the language used to express one's thoughts, feelings,
imagination or messages in a work, which is conveyed through a different language
from the original literature with the aim of making the work more beautiful and more
interesting. Usually style is used in poetry and song lyrics. The purpose of the study was
to determine the types of language style and the most dominant style of language used
in several selected songs by Ed Sheeran, namely the song Thinking Out Loud, Perfect,
and Photograph. This study uses a qualitative descriptive research method where the
researcher tries to find out the type of language style used and the most dominant in Ed
Sheeran's songs. The data source is all the lyrics of Thinking Out Loud, Perfect, and
Photograph. From the results of data analysis, the researcher concludes that in the song
Thinking Out Loud there are 5 types of figurative language, namely: simile, metaphor,
personification, hyperbole and synecdoche. In the song Perfect, there are 4 types of
figurative language, namely: metaphor, hyperbole, paradox, and simile. While in the
song Photograph, there are 3 types of figurative language, namely: personification,
metaphor and synecdoche. These findings indicate that the most dominant language
style used in the three songs is metaphorical style.

Keywords: figurative language; lyric; song