THE ANALYSIS OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN ED SHEERAN SELECTED SONG LYRICS

ABSTRACT

Kharis, Zulfatun Maghfiroh. 2021. The analysis of Figurative Language in
Ed Sheeran Selected Song Lyrics.
Key Word: figurative language, Ed Sheeran selected song lyrics

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.
Likewise in the lyrics of Ed Sheeran's song which contains several styles of
language and contains an indirect message. 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. According to Perrine, the various styles of
language include metaphor, simile, personification, synecdoche, metonymy,
symbol, hyperbole, and paradox. 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 metaphor. From the conclusion of this research, the writer suggests that
in order to increase students' knowledge about language style, readers should
apply language style analysis or type of language style analysis.