CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents to tal k
about background of the study, probl ems of the study, obj ect ives of the
study, scope and limi tati on, si gnificance of the study, and the defini t i
on of the key terms.
1.1. Background of the Study In
Holy Qur’an surah Ali Imran: verse 7, Allah said: “It i s He who has sent down
to you (Muhammad) the Book (thi s Qur'an). In i t are Verses that are enti rely
clear, they are the foundat ions of the Book [and those are the Verses of
Al-Ahkâm (commandments, etc.), Al-Farâ'id (obligatory duti es) and Al-Hudud (l
egal laws for the punishment of thi eves, adul terers, etc.)]; and others not
enti rely clear. So as for those in whose hearts there is a deviat i on (f rom
the truth) they foll ow that whi ch is not enti rely clear, seeking Al -Fi t
nah (polyt heism and tri als, etc.), and seeking for i ts hi dden meanings, but
none knows i ts hidden meanings save Allah. And those who are fi rmly grounded
in knowl edge say: "We believe in i t ; the whol e of i t (cl ear and
unclear Verses) are f rom our Lord." And none receive admoni t i on except
men of understanding” (Ali Imran: 7).
PDF Creator - PDF4Free v2.0
http://www.pdf4free.com Thi s verse
explains that in the Holly Qur’an, there are two ki nds of verse; Muhkam and
Mutasyabih verses. Muhkam is verse wi th clearly meaning and i t can be
interpreted. Mutasyabih is verse wi th meaning that cannot be understood except
by Allah Himself. From the explanat i on above, we know that Isl am all ows us
to analyze text because Qur’an as a holy book of Islam can be interpreted or analyzed.
We know that meaning is necessary
to be understood. If you sai d “I sat on the chai r”, you may defined the word
"chai r" as a pi ece of furni ture wi th a back and four legs
designed to be sat upon. But if you have been walking all day and you finally
get a chance to rest, you might see a chai r and say "Ah! At l ast a chair."
Or you were wal king through a dark room and tri pped over a chair, hurting yourself
, you might say "Stupi d chair!”. These three sentences used the same word.
But, do they have the same meaning? Words have two main kinds of meaning,
denotati on and connotati on.
Denotati on is the meaning of a
word whi ch is primarily refers to the real word, the "di ct i onary
defini t i on”. It is the type of meaning which may be described in terms of a
set of semantic properti es which serves to i dentify the parti cular concept associ
ated wi th the word in quest i on. For instance “cow” shows a kind of animal , “house”
shows a kind of building (Fromkin, 1990: 205).
On the other hand, connotati on
ari ses as words become associ ated wi th certain characteri st i cs of the i
tems to whi ch they refer, for instance, the burdening of woman for many years
wi th attributes such as frailty, inconstancy and irrationality has resul ted
in these becoming connotati ons of the word woman for PDF Creator - PDF4Free
v2.0 http://www.pdf4free.com many peopl
e. The words “for many people” are important here because connotati on is rel
ated to the real word experience that one associates wi th a word and they will
therefore vary (unlike denotative meanings) f rom individual to individual ,
and communi t y to communi t y. The word “woman” has different connotati ons
for a misogynist than will have for a feminist (Fromkin, 1990: 205).
The study of meaning normally
refers to Semantics. Semanti cs is the study of meaning in language. It means
that l anguage must have meaning. Language wi thout meaning is useless. In
Linguist i cs, Semantics i s the subfield that is devoted to the study of
meaning, as borne on the syntact i c levels of words, phrases, sentences, and
even l arger uni ts of discourse (referred to as texts). As wi th any empirical
science, Semant i cs involves the interpl ay of concrete data wi th theoreti
cal concepts. Tradi ti onally, Semant i cs has included the study of connotative
sense and denotative reference, truth condi t i ons, argument structure, themat
i c rol es, di scourse analysis, and the linkage of all of these to syntax.
Semant i cs is appropri ated to
be used on invest i gat ing the meaning of lyrics of songs because i t deal s
wi th the meaning of l anguage used by people in order to convey thei r
intended meaning of speaking or message of a l anguage used.
The researcher chooses Creed’s
songs as the obj ect of study because the word Creed i tself (also the band' s
namesake), denotes a popul arly Christ i an theol ogi cal concept, of absol ute
individual belief, usually monothei st i c. It also focuses on questi ons of
fai t h, christ i ani t y, and eterni t y.
Actually, thi s study related to
previ ous research such as Nugraha (2007), she wrote “A Study on Lexical
Meaning Found on the Lyrics of Metallica Song”.
PDF Creator - PDF4Free v2.0
http://www.pdf4free.com The other previ
ous researcher i s Laily (2002), in her study ent i t l ed “semantic analysis
on the lyrics of Bon Jovi’s songs”. She researched kinds of meanings used on
the l anguage of Bon Jovi’s songs but she did not specify on analyzing the denotative
and connotati ve meaning.
Based on the previ ous explanat i
on, the researcher is interested in conducting research about “An Analysis on
the Denotative and Connotative Meaning of Lyrics of Creed’s Songs” because the
researcher thinks that Creed’s Songs are not j ust the song but i t contains an
individual believe and understanding the denotative and connotative meaning of
lyrics of Creed’s songs will be fascinat ing.
1.2. Statement of Problems Based
on the descri pt i on above, the researcher i s going to show that there are
some probl ems related wi th thi s study, the problems are as foll ows: 1. What
kinds of denotative and connotative meaning are shown on the lyrics of Creed’s
songs? 2. What are the dominant words of denotative and connotative meaning found
on the lyrics of Creed’s songs? 1.3. Objectives of the Study This research is
aimed at invest i gat ing the ment i oned probl ems. To be more specifics, thi s
study is intended to: PDF Creator - PDF4Free v2.0 http://www.pdf4free.com 1. Describe the denotative and connotative
meaning shown on lyrics of Creed’s songs.
2. Describe the dominant words of
denotative and connotative meaning found on the lyrics of Creed’s songs.
1.4. Scope and Limitation The
researcher focuses on observing the denotative and connotati ve meaning of
lyrics of Creed’s songs. The researcher chooses five lyrics such as My Sacrifice,
Don’t Stop Dancing, One Last Breath, My Own Pri son, What' s this Life for. The
researcher chooses those lyrics because i t contains allusi on to Chri st i an theol
ogy (http: //en.wi kipedia. org/wi ki/Creed).
1.5. Significance of the Study The
resul ts of this study provi de a pi cture on how words not only have denotative
meaning but al so connotative meaning. The resul t of thi s study is expected
to be useful and give new informat i on to the semant i c study especially about
the denotative and connotative meaning on lyrics of Creed’s songs.
Besides, the resul t of thi s
study woul d give contributi on for the l ectures and the students of UIN Mal
ang, especially at English Depart ment. It i s expected to be able to broaden
the knowl edge in understanding the denotative and connotative meanings of
lyrics of songs. Also i t i s hoped to give contribut i on for readers who are
interested in thi s study and i t will be the al ternat ive reference for the
readers who are i nterested in researching this area.
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