CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study Lexical semantics examines the relationship
betweenword and meanings.
The words are sometimes called
lexical items or lexemes, the unity of lexicon (Finegan, 2004:187). The lexemes itself means
the minimal distinctive unit in semantic
system of a language. Lexical semantics isa subfield of linguistics that studies of how and what the words of a
language denote. Words may be taken to denote
either things in the word, or concepts depending on the particular approach to lexical semantics.
Lexical meaning is the meaning of
a word in isolation. The term “lexical meaning”
is to be interpreted as the meaning of lexemes depending on the meaning of the sentences in which they occur.
The technical term in dictionary is “lexeme”.
The noun lexeme is related to the words “lexical” and “lexicon”. A lexeme is a lexeme unit or a unit of the
lexicon. The lexical structure of a language
is the structure of its lexicon or vocabulary and lexical meaning is equivalent to the commonly used, less
technical (but ambiguous), term “word meaning”.
Language which always contains a vocabulary or lexicon not only lists lexemes of the language, but also associates
with each lexeme in all the information
that is required by the rules of the grammar. This grammatical information is of two kinds (a) syntactic and
(b) morphological. For instance, the English
lexeme ”take” would have associated with itin its lexical entry; (a) the information that it belongs to one or more
subclasses of intransitive verbs; and (b) all the information that is needed, including
the stem or stems, for the selection or contraction
of its forms (take, takes, taking, took, taken) Lyon (1984:144).
The meaning of words or lexical
meaning is a part of linguistic knowledge and is therefore a part of the grammar.
Additionally, Oka (1994: 234) says that lexical
meaning is the meaning of lexeme which can stand by itself and it is not on the context but out of context. Linguists say
that the lexical meaning is the meaning
as stated at dictionary.
This study also discusses message
because the message is very important especially
in the song of Eminem. Through this we can also understand what actually Eminem want and hope in expressing
the songs. Message is a note, letter, report,
bulletin, cable, word, news, information. The function of message is to understand or to transmit something by
signaling the object (Nurgiyantoro, 2002: 54). Message in literary works is not shown
explicitly by the author but the reader can
find it after having a complete understanding from the works. On the other hand, in written form, the author writes his
idea in which the reader finds the message
directly from the work. Usually the messageis in the end of story. It might be sadness, happiness, good, bad,
motivation or even failure. Nurgiyantoro (2002: 56) divided the messages into three
parts; moral, religious and social message. Kurniati
(2007) who studied semantic analysis on Cranberry’s song focused on lexical meaning generally in song. She
found that lexical meaning such as denotative,
connotative, and figurative are more dominant. For instance, “ how I’m killing you” as denotative killing means
to make somebody or someone dies and
connotative means that drugs can kill somebody softly. Then, figurative language of “like” means her eyes are like
sparkle of diamond. Nugroho (2007) studied
lexical meaning found on the lyrics of Metallica lyrics focused on denotative and connotative. He stated that the
lyrics contain positive and negative connotation.
Positive connotation means purr words or the sentences are constructed for daily expression like
“psychotic” means mentally unbalanced.
Negative connotation means snarl
words or the sentences are mostly written in figurative language like “psychotic” means mad
or crazy.
The present study is slightly
different from the earlier studies. This study examines lexical meaning of the lyrics found
in Eminem songs including synonymy,
antonym, polysemy, hyponymy, denotation, and connotation and messages. Yet, it has different subject. This
study uses rap lyrics which have not been
analyzed before. The reason for taking the Eminem lyrics is because Eminem is a great rapper in America. He is a
very controversial rapper whom many
parents and teachers dislike because of his dirty and challenging lyrics, but he has so many fans, songs, and gets many
awards. The Eminem has received more
than fifty awards such as Grammy, musical award, especially on solo album of Mockingbird as the best song, and many
others. Second, this study focuses on lexical
meaning: synonymy, antonym, polysemy, hyponymy, denotation, and connotation and messages used in the lyrics of
Eminem.
1.2
Problems of Study Based on the background of the study in preceding discussion
the following research problems are
formulated; 1. what lexical meanings are found in Eminem’s
songs? 2. what messages are found in Eminem’s songs? 1.3 Objectives of Study The objectives of this
study are to explain the lexical meanings found in Eminem’s songs and to know the messages found
in Eminem’s songs.
1.4 Scope and Limitation There
are many songs produced by Eminem; however, this study focuses and analyzes on five lyrics. Those are
Nobody’s Perfect, I Love You More, Mosh, Crazy in Love, and Mockingbird.
1.5 Significance of the Study The findings
of this research
are expected to
give valuable input
for students who
are interested in
semantics field, especially
lexical meaning and messages used
in analyzing the
lyrics of songs.
Hopefully, this will
help to develop and give description on semantic study
on lexical meaning analysis.
Hopefully this study can be an
alternative to understand semantics field, especially lexical meaning in the lyrics of
songs. It is because this study investigates
all aspects of lexical meaning. Yet, it is to understand the lyrics of Eminem. As a result, the song are mostly
dominated by hyponymy and followed by
connotation. This study will be beneficial for the lecturers and students of
UIN Malang. The next researchers,
perhaps, will be different result in investigating the songs by using semantics theory. The
researcher also hopes that this study can be used as references for further relevant
researchers.
1.6 Definition of Key Terms To
avoid ambiguity and misunderstanding, some key terms are defined: 1. Eminem
: Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), who is better known as Eminem or Slim Shady,
is an Americanrapper, record producerand
actorfrom Detroit, Michigan. Having sold
seventy million albums worldwide. Eminem
is one of the highestselling musicians of the early 2000s and one of the highest-selling
rap artists of all time.
2. Message : a spoken or written communication sent from
one person to another.
3. Lyrics : any fairly short poem
consisting of the utterances by a single speaker,
who expresses a
state of mind
or process of perception, though
and feeling.
CHAPTER
II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This
chapter discusses kinds of meaning; lexical meanings (synonym, antonym, polysemy, hyponymy, denotation, and
connotation), messages, lyrics, and
biography of Eminem.
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