CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of The Study

Language is an instrument that can be used as a mean to communicate or convey idea,

information, message, etc among human. People are social beings, wherever they are living,

they use a language or an instrument to communicate to one another. Therefore, learning and

mastering language is needed since it becomes very im portant for people to live their life

both in small and big community.

Language has already become social need inside of a community. It has an important

role in building people relationship and connection either orally or written. Rubdy and Tan

(2008) stated that “Languages can be modes of entry into coveted social hierarchies or

strongholds of religious, historical, technological and political power bases. Languages are

seen now as commodities that carry different values in an era of globalization”. Without the

existance of langauge itself, people will not be able to express their feelings, ideas, opinions,

critics, even intention.

English has transformed, developed, even spread fast then used by millions of people

around the world. Whether, the character of language has shifted, some people sometimes

prefer using some idiomatic expressions in their daily activities in order to create deeper

meaning on their words or sentences.

According to Hornby (1995: 627), idiom is defined as that “It is a phrase of sentence

that the meaning is not obvious through knowledge of the individual meanings of the

constituent words but must be learnt as a whole”. Furthermore, idiomatic expressions can be

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just a group of words, and it has different meaning from the meaning of the words in the

expressions.

Song is such an important and popular media in this modern era for students to learn

English. Some students may get some difficulties in learning vocabulary by using books, or

another conventional media. According to Grammarist.com, idiom in song has been in use

since at least the early 1600s, and probably longer. The idiom is found in William

Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well: “…I know a man that had this tricke of melancholy

hold a goodly Mannor for a song”. The usage of English idioms can illustrate emotion more

quickly than a phrase that has a literal meaning, even when the etymology or origin of the

idiomatic expression is lost. Therefore, song can be used as a media of vocabulary building as

well.

Nowadays, there are many English songs from song writers that we can access on

YouTube. One of most popular singer is Jason Mraz. He is a song writer having many

meaningful lyrics on his songs which is covered within idiomatic lyrics. Especially, from his

latest album called “Know” that covers ten songs there, they are Love Is Still The Answer,

Might As Well Dance, Waking It Up, Sleeping To Dream, No Plans, Better With You,

Unlonely, Let’s See What The Night Can Do, More Than Friends, and Have It All. These all

are available on many online music platforms, particularly on Joox and Spotify.

Hopefully, by using songs, students will have a good understanding and interest to

learn English without feeling anxious and bored so that they are able to understand idiomatic

expressions better as their capability in their communicative language skill.

1.2 Research Questions

This research will try to answer following major questions:

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1. What types of idiomatic expressions are used in Jason Mraz’s songs lyrics in album

“Know”?

2. What are the meaning of idiomatic expressions used in Jason Mraz’s song lyrics in the

album “Know”?

3. What is the contribution of idiomatic expressions in the song lyric toward English

teaching?

1.3 Objective of the Research

This research proposal is intended to meet the following objectives:

1. To identify and explain the types of idiomatic expressions used in Jason Mraz’s songs in

album “Know”.

2. To describe the meaning of idiomatic expression used in Jason Mraz’s songs lyrics in

album “Know”.

3. To describe the contribution of idiomatic expression in the song lyric toward English

teaching.

1.4 Scope and Limitation of the Research

Based on the background of the problem stated above, this study will focus on

Idiomatic Expressions Used in Jason Mraz’s Songs in the Album ”Know” and Its Posibility to

be Used in ELT”. Besides, this study will find out the function or contribution of idiomatic

expression found in Jason Mraz songs in the album “Know” towards English Language

Teaching. Idiom that wll be analyzed here is only the lexical idiom that derived from book

Idiom structure in English by Adam Makkai.

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1.5 Significance of the Research

The result of this research is expected to be able to give the following benefits:

1.5.1 Theoritical Significance

This study is expected to enrich the study of Idiomatic Expression in English,

particularly to make people understand more about the meaning and its contribution to

English Language Teaching. Besides, it can give additional reference for other researchers

which are interested in analyzing idiomatic expressions for English department students.

1.5.2 Practical Significance

a. For Future Researcher

This study is quite useful and beneficial for the researcher ahead. This will give

much experiences in facing the challanges in term of english langauge teaching in which it

is needed as the preparation of the researcher as a candidate of teacher.

b. For English Teacher

Hopefully, this study can be a model of teaching idiom in teaching and learning

process in the class.

1.6 Definition of Key Terms

To make this study more intelligible, it is found that there are some key terms as follows:

1.6.1 Idiomatic Expression

If we looked for the definition of idiom in Vocabulary.com Dictionary, it is stated

that “an expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words

that make it up”. According to Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary (2008. 714)
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defines that idiomatic expression is a group of words in afixed order that have particular

meaning that is different from the meaning of each word understood by on its own. In

other words, Davies (1983. 68) defined an idiomatic expressions is a phrase which cannot

be correctly translated on the basis of translation of its syntactically distinguished

constituent words and modes of combination. The types of movement allowed for

certain idiom also relate to the degree to which the literal reading of the idiom has a

connection to its idiomatic meaning. This is referred to as motivation or transparency.

Thus, by the definition above, it can be concluded that idiomatic expression is a group of

words which cannot be translated literally since it has particular meaning that depends on

its context where it is used.

1.6.2 Song

According to Hornby (2000:1281), song refers to a short piece of music that sung.

According to Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary defines a song as short piece of

music with words which are sung. Whereas Oxford Learners’ Dictionary defines a song is

a short piece of music with words that you sing. Thus, From the definitions above, it can

be concluded that song is an artistic form of expression that is sung and taken from two

components that is music and lyrics.

c. Jason Mraz

Jason Thomas Mraz was born June 23, 1977 is an American singer-songwriter who

first came to prominence in the San Diego coffee scene in 2000. In 2002 he released his

debut album Waiting for My Rocket to Come and in 2005, Mraz achieved major

commercial success from his second album, Mr. A-Z. His latest album ‘Know’, is the sixth

studio album that was released on August 10, 2018 by Atlantic Records. The album’s lead

single “Have it all” was released on April 27, 2018. There are ten singles or tracks from
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the album Know such as Have it All, Unlonely, Might As Well Dance, More than Friends,

Let’s See What the Night Can Do, Better with You, No Plans, Sleeping to Dream, Making

it Up, and Love is Still the Answer.

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 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURES

2.1. Relevant Previous Study

Considering the topic discussed in this study, there are some research have been

conducted by other researchers before that is related to this topic such as:

Mukhtar (E1D114057), Figurative Languages Used in Guns N’ Roses Songs and Its

Contribution to English Learning at Senior High School, from Faculty of Teacher Training

and Education, University of Mataram, 2019. The method that used in the research was

descriptive qualitative approach in which it described the kinds and general meaning of

figurative language used in Guns N Roses Songs lyric and its contribution to English learning.

The result of the research showed that there are thirty fours figurative language in the songs

that have been analyzed.

The difference between his research and this study is on the object of the study itself.

He studied about figurative languages in the songs while this one will study about idiomatic

expressions.

Fatin (103411059), Analysis of idiomatic Expressions Found in Adele’s Song Lyrics in

the Album “25” and Its Possibility to be Used in English Teaching and Learning, from

Islamic Education and Teacher Training Faculty, Walisongo State University Semarang,

2016. The researcher used qualitative method in the study. He used content analysis research

and diclosed the idiom used in Adele’s songs lyrics. The result found in the study were there

are 56 idioms found. It contains 35 phrasal verbs, 17 tournure idioms, and 14 irreversible

binomial idioms. The idiomatic espressions found in the Adele’s songs from album “25” are

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mostly representing misery, pain, and sorrow. While the all idiomatic expressions found can

be used in English teaching and learning.

The difference between his research and this study is in the object itself. The

researcher used different sourch that is 11 Adele’s songs lyrics while this study is using 10

Jason Mraz’s songs lyrics.

In this study, the object used is that song lyrics. It tends to use qualitative research

method. Then this study will find out and reveal the frequency of each types of idiomatic

expressions in Jason Mraz’s songs from the album “Know”.

2.2. Idiomatic Expression

2.2.1 Definition of idiom

We all know that, all languages in every country have phrase or expressions that

cannot be understood literally. Those phrases actually can be the way to convey and

express what people feel that may be cannot be expressed in their own words and

occasionally require more than the literal and explicit word to explain with. Idiom also

can be said as a way to show off someone intention whether it is sarcastically or

indirectly.

Idiom is a group of words which cannot be translated literally since it has

particular meaning that depends on its context where and when it is used. According to

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, we will find the following definition “A group

of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the

meanings of each word on its own”. Another definition can also be found on Collins

COBUILD Learner’s Dictionary defines as idiom as “a group of words which have a

different meaning when used together from the one they would have if you took the

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meaning of each word individually”. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

(1996: 547) defines that an idiom is “a phrase which means something different from

their meanings of the separate words from which it is formed”. Webster’s New World

Dictionary of the American Language (1988: 711) gives a definition about idiom, “an

accepted phrase, construction, or expression contrary to the patters of the language’s

having a meaning different from the language or having different from the literal”.

Meanwhile, Mantyla (2004) defined an idiom as “an expression that contains more than

one word, and whose meaning is different from the sum of the literal meanings of its

components”.

Davies (1983:68), defined that idiom is a phrase (or sentence) which is

conventionally used with a meaning different from its constructed literal meaning (if it

has one). If the phrase has a constructed literal meaning, it will thus be ambiguous.

There will be a separate general truth specifying the idiomatic meaning of the phrase.

However idom itself actually was derived from a Greek word “idiomatikos” which

means “peculiar” or “private”. An idiom also used in high frequency whether in written

or oral language because idioms are able to convey a host language and cultural

information of the people when they comunicate to each other. As a language form,

idiom has its own patterns and characteristic but it has no semantic structure or even

gramatical rules.

From the definition above, it can be concluded that idiom is a group of words

which cannot be translated literally since it has particular meaning. Moreover, idiom can

be understood when each meaning is being used in context.

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2.2.2 Types of Idiom

Makkai (1972: 120) classified idioms into two kinds that are lexemic and

sememic idiom. Lexemic idiom means a minimal free form is that smallest meaningful

form of spoken or a written language which can occur in isolation, thus constituting an

utterance by itself. The lexemic idioms are idioms which are arranged from some part of

speech such as verbs, noun, adjective, and preposition. Lexemic idioms are composed of

more than one minimal free form and can occcur in another environments as the

realization of a monolexonic lexeme. This kind of idiom is devided into six types.

Meanwhile, sememic idom is polylexemic construction whose aggregate literal meaning

derive from its constituent lexemes functions additionally as realization of unpredictable

sememic network, Makkai (1972:128).

In addition, idioms are the reflection of native speakers environment, historical

culture, and life. In some senses, they are generally used in all types of languages both

formal and informal.

As stated above, Makkai (1972) devided lexemic idiom into six types:

a. Phrasal Verbs Idiom

Jake Allsop (2009: 5) defined a phrasal verb as a compound verbs consisting of

verb and a particle (adverb or preposition). It is formed by two or sometimes three parts

which consist of verb and an adverb or preposition. Commonly phrasal verbs are formed

from a combination of small number of verb (get, sit, go, come, etc.) and small number

of particles (off, out, in, up, away, etc.). Then Jake Allsop added that a phrasal verb

occurs in many idiomatic expressions. A phrasal verb has a meaning that quite easy to

know or guess (for instance go away, come in, or sit up). However in some cases, it can

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be quite different from its components which form it. For instance, hold up, has really

different meaning from the literal meaning to hold (to hold something in your hands)

that no longer used.

b. Tournure Idioms

According to Makkai (1972: 148) defined that tournure idioms is a polylexonic

lexeme of a larger size-level than a phrasal verb. This type of idiom is the largest

lexemic idioms. It commonly contains at least three words and is mostly verbs. A

tournure idiom mostly falls into sentences. Based on its structure, this kind of idioms are

devided into several types:

1) Containing the compulsory “it”. This form has two kinds. The first one is “it” that

stands in the middle of the sentence and another one is “it” that stands in the last. For

instance: to break it up which means (to stop fighting) and to step on it(to speed up).

2) Containing the compulsory definite and indefinite article. For example: to give

somebody A blank check (to blow somebody to do anything he wishes), to hit THE

books (to study hard).

3) Containing irreversible binomial. For example: to rain cats and dogs (to rain

profusely), to be at sixes and sevens (to be at state confusion, at odds), without rhyme or

reason (unmotivated).

4) Direct object and further possible modifiers follow the primary verb. For example: to

build castle in the air (to make unrealistic plans).

5) Leading the verb is not followed by direct object but by preposition plus noun or

nothing. For instance: to dance on air (to get hanged).

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6) The leading is “BE”. For instance: to be well off (to be prosperous wealthy).

c. Irreversible Binominal Idioms

According to Manar (2016:32), irreversible binomial idioms consist of two

words that are separated by conjunction. The words orders in this structure are fixed. For

example: high and dry (without resources), Romeo and Juliet (institutionalized symbols

of ideal love or symbol of true love), upside down (to upset someone or something; to

thoroughly sonfuse or something).

The priciples of defining this kind of idiom are as follows:

1. A and B may be the same word (class against class)

2. B embodies some variation upon A (bag and baggage)

3. A and B are near-synonyms (death and destruction)

4. A and B are mutually complementary (Brush and Pallete)

5. B is the opposite of A (sink or swim, assets, and liabilities)

6. A is a sub-division of B or vice versa (months and years)

7. B functions as a consequence of A (to shoot and kill)

d. Phrasal Compound Idiom

Phrasal Compound Idiom is idiom that contains primarily nominal made up of

“adjective plus noun”, “verb plus noun”, “noun plus noun”, “verb plus noun”, or

“adverb plus preposition” (Manar, 2016:34). For example: blackmail (any payment

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force by intimidation), bookworm (a person commited to reading or studying), hot dog

(food), white house (the Official Residents of the Presidents of the United States).

e. Incorporating Verbs Idioms

According to Manar (2016:34) incorporating verbs idiom has actually spread in

all out daily activities even wo do not realize it. This type of idiom is mostly used in

corporation or formal term. It has the forms of are Noun, Verb, Adjective-Noun, Noun-

Noun, and Adjective-Noun. Usually incorporating verbs idiom follows the pattern as

follows:

1. Noun-Verb

For Example: “to sight-see” which means visit the famous places in a city,

country, etc. Even a person looking out of his windows also sees sight, but it is not to

sight-see. Another example is word wife-hunt which means to seek for a wife. It does

not result in the killing of fugitive since hunt literally is systematically to search for

capture without killing.

2. Noun-Noun

For example: Bootleg which means Made and sold illegally. Another one is to

Money-Loundry which means the concealment of the origins of illegally obtained

money.

3. Adjective-Noun

For example: to Blackmail means “The crime of demanding money from a

person by treating to tell somebody else a secret about them”.

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 4. Adjective-Verb

For example: to Whitewash which means “An attempt to hide unpleasant facts

about somebody or something”.

f. Pseudo Idioms

Manar (2016:36) stated that Pseudo-Idioms are also being able to mislead or

misinform an unwary listener. For example: Cranberry (bright red acid berry produced

by any plant of the genus oxycoccus), in the sentence “make a cranberry face”. It means

the face become red. Another example is tic-tac-toe (special game), hocus pocus

(magic).

2.3 Theory in Meaning Related to Idiomatic Expression

British linguist, G. Leech (1981:9) classified meaning into seven kinds of

meaning, they are Conceptual Meaning, Connotative Meaning, Social Meaning, Affective

Meaning, Reflective Meaning, Colocative Meaning, and Thematic Meaning.

a. Conceptual Meaning

This kind of meaning is the essential and inextricable part of what language is, and

is widely regarded as the central factor in verbal communication. This type of meaning is

also called logical, cognitive, or denotative meaning. Leech (1981:9) explained that

conceptual meaning plays an enormous role in linguistic communication for it “has a

complex and sophisticated organization which may be compared with, and cross-related

to, a similar organization on the syntactic and phonological levels of language”. This is

connected, according to Leech, with “two principles of all linguistic patterning”, i.e. the

principle of contrastiveness and the principle of structure.

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b. Connotative Meaning

Manar (2016:48) stated that it is the communicative value that an expression has

by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content. This can vary

from age to age, from society to society, and from individual to individual.

If we compared this connotative meaning and conceptual meaning, connotative

meaningis peripheral, and relatively unstable, that is, it may vary according to culture,

historical period, and the experience of the individual. Moreover, connotative meaning is

indeterminate and open-ended in a sense in which conceptual meaning is not. For

instance: Father can mean strength, strong will, tolerance. While business person can

mean wealth, generosity.

c. Social Meaning

It is the meaning which an expression conveys about the contexts or social

circumstances of its use. It is the formality of the expression. For Instance: mother

(formal), mom (colloquial), mama (child’s language). Crystal and Davy (1969:66)

established a classification of socio-stylistic variations which vary according to:

1) Dialect (The language of a geographical region or social class)

2) Time (e.g. The language of the 18th century)

3) Province (Language of law, science, advertising, etc.)

4) Status (Polite, colloquial, slang, etc.)

5) Modality (Language of memoranda, lectures, jokes, etc.)

6) Singularity (The style of Dickens, Hemingway, etc.)

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 Therefore, it can be said that the words with the same conceptual and social

meaning are particularly rare, and, to prove that point. Depending on the situation

the social meaning can also include what is called the illocutionary force of an

utterance, which can be interpreted as a request, an apology, a threat, etc., as stated

by Leech (1981:15).

d. Affective Meaning

This type of meaning is the level of meaning that conveys the language user’s

feelings, including his attitude or evaluation in shaping his use of language. For instance:

Politician can mean “statesman” (Manar, 2016:49). In addition, affective meaning can be

expressed directly and indirectly depends on the context.

1) You are a horrible person and I hate you. (Direct message)

2) Boyfriend: “What’s wrong?”

Girlfriend (in a clearly nervous tone): “Nothing.”

As it can be seen from the examples above, the factors such as tone of

voice, mimic and gestures can be significant when “decoding” the message of an

utterance. (Leech, 1981:16).

e. Reflective Meaning

It is the meaning which arises in cases of multiple conceptual meanings, when one

sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense. It is the product of people’s

recognition and imagination (Manar, 2016:49). For instance: He took the drugs.

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f. Collocative Meaning

Collocative meaning is the associations a word gets because of the meanings of

words which tend to occur in its linguistic context.

g. Thematic Meaning

According to Manar (2016:50), the thematic meaning is arising out of the way in

which the writer or speaker organizes his message. For examples: 1) Tomorrow, I plan to

have an outing. 2) I plan to have an outing tomorrow. The first example seems to answer

the question: “When will you have an outing?”, while the second example answers the

question: “What will you do tomorrow?”

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 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

3.1 Research Design

The method that will be used in this research is qualitative research method. This will

disclose the idiom used in Jason Mraz song lyrics. By using this method, the researcher will

analyze the use of idiomatic expression along with their meaning. Also library research will

be determined as research approach in which it is able to find out as many data as possible

from written materials that are needed.

3.2 Sources of the Data

3.2.1 Primary Sources of Data

In this study, the data are taken from the album of Jason Mraz album ‘know’

which are available on the internet websites. The album had been released in 10 th August

2018. The album covers ten songs and already available on many music platform. It is

believed that there are many idiomatic expressions exist in that album. Besides, this

research is aimed to reveal the number of idioms exactly, the types of idioms they are and

definitely the meaning of each idiomatic expression found in Jason Mraz album. As cited

from various websites on the internet, here are the songs in that album:

Singer Duration
No. Song Title Album
(Minutes)

1 Let’s See What The Night Can Do Jason Mraz 4:05 Know

2 Have It All Jason Mraz 3:46 Know

Jason Mraz (Ft.

4 Unlonely Jason Mraz 3:51 Know

6 No Plans Jason Mraz 2:28 Know

7 Sleeping To Dream Jason Mraz 3:42 Know

8 Making It Up Jason Mraz 2:53 Know

9 Might As Well Dance Jason Mraz 3:56 Know

10 Love Is Still The Answer Jason Mraz 6:06 Know

3.2.2 Secondary Sources of Data

The secondary source of data in this study will be taken from sources such as

articles and reviews of related research result that support primary data which are related

to idiomatic expression.

3.3 Method in Collecting the Data

This study is using documentation method in collecting data. Arikunto (2013) stated

that this method is also able to collect data such as notes, transcripts, newspaper, magazine,

ancient inscription meeting notes, etc. The way to do data collection is described by

employing the following techniques:

1. Browsing and Downloading

Browsing is the first step in finding the data that will be researched. The song’s lyrics

of Jason Mraz in the album ‘Know’ will be searched by online from the internet. After

we find the data needed, then we have to download and save them as a reference to be

analyzed later.

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 2. Transcribing

Transcribing is a way to collect the data in which the lyric of the songs should be

transcribed first. Therefore, in order to make this precise, the data is taken from

unofficial website but still appropriate with the correct album which can be accessed

on www.creativedisc.com.

3. Reading

After transcribing, then the lyrics must be red in order to understand the whole content

particularly about idioms.

4. Note-Taking

There are two steps based on the kinds of idiomatic expression. The steps are:

a. Underlining

The data that already collected, are supposed to be underlined first based on the kinds

of idiom in order to make them easier to be classified. For example: And they are

falling down

b. Bracketing

Bracketing is used if a group of underlined words are beyond in one line. For example:

And they are (falling down). Since that will be difficult to determine whether it covers

of one or two suspected idiomatic expressions, therefore, this technique will be useful

to separate one another.

4.4 Methods in Analyzing the Data

In analyzing the whole data, the writer will use content analysis technique. There are

some steps taken as below:

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1. Identifying

From the data collected, there will be an identification of idiomatic expression itself,

identification of the meaning and finding out the contribution of the data toward English

teaching and learning.

2. Classifying

In this step, the data will be reduced. It means, that summarizes and chooses things that

are basic, focusing on important things, seeking theme, pattern, and removing the

unnecessary. In this case, the same idioms found in one song will be omitted.

Then, the meaning of the idioms should be found after classifying the idioms into their

kinds. The table is as follows:

No. Kinds of Idiom Expressions/Lyric Meaning

1. Phrasal verb idiom

3. Irreversible binomial
idiom
4. Phrasal compound
idiom
5. Incorporating verb
idiom
6. Pseudo idiom

3. Explaining

The idiomatic expressions used in Jason Mraz’s “Know” album will be described and

explained in terms of: a) Kinds of idioms, b) Idiomatic meaning, c) Idiom in English

teaching and learning.

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4. Inferring

The last step is making a conclusion based on the results of the research that is

conducted before.

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