Name : Evania Angelica

Student Number : 2001541093

Class :D

Expressing Feelings Through Metaphor in Song Lyrics

in A Beautiful Blur Album by LANY

I. Background of The Study

A song is a piece of music, usually with vocals and an accompaniment of instruments. People
from all throughout the world appreciate this centuries-old form of artistic expression. More
than that, songs always linked to emotion and the performing body, drawing on the creative
and physical abilities of people for a variety of objectives. Songwriters are people who write
songs. Songwriters can freely convey their feelings and emotions through many types of music
since music can be used to deliver meanings, messages, and stories, both obvious and hideous,
in addition to communicating feelings. A song is composed of words, and the lyrics in a song
serves a meaningful purpose as well as several grammatical functions. Song lyrics are the
written expressions of emotions and narratives found in music. It brings up emotions and causes
us to think and feel differently. It uses words that suits the music and portrays different parts of
being human, such as love and dealing with sorrow. It turns emotions into words and melodies
that everyone might understand and relate to. Sometimes song writers want to make their songs
more lovely in their words. To do this, engaging language is required to make the work artistic
and appealing. Figurative language is one approach to add interest to the works. Figurative
language is the use of words or expressions to communicate a more creative or dramatic effect
that goes beyond their literal meaning. It's similar to creating a picture with words in order to
reach a better understanding or emotional connection with the audience. This method helps
give language more depth and richness, which enhances its expressiveness and engagement by
enabling the listener or reader to see and understand the information more deeply.

LANY is an American indie pop band formed in Los Angeles in 2014. The band consists of
Paul Jason Klein, Charles Leslie "Les" Priest, and Jake Clifford Goss. They gained popularity
with their dreamy and synth-pop sound, characterized by smooth vocals and atmospheric
production. LANY's name is an acronym for "Los Angeles New York," reflecting the bicoastal
nature of their early collaboration. They released their self-titled debut album in 2017, followed
by subsequent albums like "Malibu Nights" (2018) and "Mama's Boy" (2020). LANY has built
a dedicated fanbase with their emotionally charged lyrics and catchy melodies. While their
newest album is named ‘A Beautiful Blur’ was released on September 2023. The album consists
13 songs. The songs are Love at First Sight, No, Alonica, Heartbreak Can Wait, (Saturday
Night) 3:22 A.M., Sugar & Cinnamon, I Pray, Home Is Where the Hurt Is, Out of My League,
Congrats, ‘Cause You Have To, XXL, and It Even Rains in LA.

II. Problem of The Study

1. What kind of metaphor expression is used in LANY’s song lyrics in ‘A
Beautiful Blur’ album?
2. What meaning is implied in the metaphor used in LANY’s song lyrics in ‘A
Beautiful Blur’ album?
III. Aims of the Study
1. To find out the metaphor expression used in LANY’s song lyrics in ‘A Beautiful
Blur’ album.
2. To describe the metaphor meaning used in LANY’s song lyrics in ‘A Beautiful
Blur’ album.
IV. Scope of Discussion

By the reason for effectiveness in this research, the researcher needs to limit the topic discussed
in this research. Regarding the problems mentioned before, the scope of the discussion in this
research is focused on:
1. The types of metaphor used in LANY’s song lyrics in their newest album called ‘A
Beautiful Blur’. It is analysed using a theory from Lakoff and Johnson (2003). They
proposed three types of metaphor. They are structural metaphor, orientational
metaphor, and ontological metaphor.
2. The meaning of metaphor used in LANY’s song lyrics in their newest album called A
Beautiful Blur. It is analysed based on the theory from Leech (1981) about seven
functions of figurative language, which are conceptual, connotative, collocative,
reflective, affective, social, and thematic.

V. Review of Literature, Concepts, Theoretical Framework

5.1 Review of Literature
One related thesis to this study is entitled Hyperbole Analysis on Jokowi Speech which was
written Mita Nurhusnaini in 2020. The frequency of using hyperbole is significantly increased
in certain situation. The use really attracted many people especially as politician when they
commenting, debating, reasoning and giving argument and etc. Delivering a speech with
hyperbola is said to be a good approach to convey a specific idea. Its goal is to emphasize the
intriguing and mysterious aspects of literary works while avoiding generalizations in the speech
as much as possible. The aim of the research is to look into the meaning of exaggeration
expressions and examine how they were used in Jokowi's political speech. This study used
descriptive qualitative research. The data used in this study was the transcript of Jokowi's
political speech in 2014, 2015, 2019, and 2020. The data was gathered from the website of the
Cabinet Secretariat of the Republic of Indonesia. The data analysis identified 12 hyperbolic
statements in Jokowi's transcript speech. Four hyperboles at the speech in 2014, four in the
speech in 2015, three in speech in 2019, and one in the speech in 2020. Each hyperbole has a
distinct meaning depending on the context. The hyperbole can be realized by using three
different types of word classes as word choices. Three hyperboles as adjectives, five as nouns,
and four as verbs. Nonetheless, there will be a distinction between the theory and the target of
the investigation. Furthermore, the types and meanings of metaphors will be examined in this
study.

Another thesis was written by Dina Yuliana entitled An Analysis of The Types and Functions of
Irony Expressions In Twitter: Semantic Approach in 2018. Irony is a frequent expression in
everyday life, and it appears frequently on Twitter. Twitter is a social mobile platform with a
large user base. Twitter users might use irony to express or discuss an issue of society. The
Twitter user use irony's distancing or self-protective function. This is caused by the users'
intention to not directly criticize towards the event The researcher wants to know what kinds
of irony expressions are used on Twitter, one of the most widely used social media platforms.
The researcher used some approaches to collect data. She began reading the tweets which had
irony expressions. The irony phrases were then semantically interpreted. After collecting the
data, the researcher began categorizing the irony and, finally, she described the meaning
conveyed by the irony discovered. The researcher relies on Muecke's forms of irony theory and
Hutcheon's functions of irony theory as foundations, as well as other pertinent theories for
support. The researcher collects data through non-participant observation. In terms of data
analysis, the researcher employs Miles and Huberman's model, which includes data reduction,
data display, and conclusion drawing. The findings show that there are two types of irony
dominantly used on Twitter. The results showed that the most common type of irony used in
Twitter is the situational irony. Situational irony took parts for 60% of the data, while verbal
irony took parts for only 40%. The major function used is reinforcing function, which occurs
eight times, followed by distancing or self-protective function, which occurs six times. The gap
between her study and this study is the difference of figurative language types that is chosen
for analysing the object. She chose irony while this study will be explaining about metaphor.
Therefore, the analysis will be completely different.

The last related thesis is entitled An Analysis of Symbolism and Meaning Found in The Old
Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway which was written by Halimul Mufti Zain in 2017.
Symbolism can give literary works a sense of beauty and deepen their meaning. Symbols
usually are objects, representing another object, giving it a different, more meaningful and
deeper meaning. Despite bringing pleasure to the readers, literature also reflects humans' life
using its own characteristics. The aims of this study were to identify the symbolism that occurs
in the novel ‘The Old Man and The Sea’ and explain the meaning of symbolism found in the
novel. This study used a qualitative method to analyse the symbolism and its meaning. There
were several steps did by the researcher. First, he read the novel for couple of times. Second,
the researcher marked and underlined the sentences and dialogues which contain symbolism.
Lastly, the researcher proceeded the data by classifying into the types of symbolism. As a result,
the researcher only found three out of five types of symbolism from this novel. Those three are
symbols of colors, symbols of elements, and symbol of animals. The two types had not found
yet by the researcher was the rhetoric and idioms. Therefore, the researcher needs further
research according his constraint. His study described about one of figurative language which
is symbolism. However, in this study, the researcher will describe another figurative language
which is metaphor.

A related article to this study is one written by Yosua Timotius Natanael, Gina Indriani,
Muhammad Ridho Fajar Nugraha, and Nurma Dhona Handayani entitled An Analysis of
Simile in War Room Movie. Figurative language must first be separated from literal or
nonfigurative language in order to be considered. Furthermore, this is a more difficult task
than one may expect. The comparative adjectives 'like' or 'as' are frequently used in similes.
In short, a simile is the comparison of two distinct items that the connective words support to
make appear to be the same. One use of simile can be noticed in films. The use of simile can
be seen in the chat and conversation, as well as the narrator to do comparison. The purpose of
this study is to examine simile and its variations in the film "War Room" (2015), directed by
Alex Kendrick. In this study, data collection was carried out by the observational method.
The non-participatory technique was also used in this study since there were no participants
in this study. Several steps were taken by the researcher to collect data, including
watching War Room movie (2015), downloading and reading the entire movie script,
underlining and taking notes on the narrations and dialogues that contain similes, and lastly
classifying the acquired data. As a result of the investigation, 20 similes were discovered in
the film, including four similes that used "as" as the comparison word and sixteen similes that
used "like." Furthermore, the movie's narration and discourse contained 11 narrow-scope
similes and 9 wider-scope similes.

The international article entitled Global Bibliometric Analysis of Conceptual Metaphor

Research Over the Recent Two Decades which was written by Xia Zhao, Yi Zheng, and
Xincheng Zhao. This article was taken from a journal named Frontiers in Psychology. The
last twenty years have seen a rise in the study of conceptual metaphor in linguistics.
Numerous experts throughout the world have interest in it and written several academic
papers from various perspectives on the subject. So far, there are only a few scientific
mapping studies which analyse the overall parts. The aim of this study was to find out basic
facts about the development of international CM research during the last two decades,
determine the current state of CM research, and describe predictions about its future
development based on bibliometric analysis. The data source was 1.257 papers on Conceptual
Metaphors published between 2002 and 2022. It is collected in the Web of Sciences Core
Collection database using a bibliometric analysis method. These results are the most
noteworthy ones from the study. First of all, in the last two decades, there has been a trend in
the increase of conceptual metaphor study. Second, the five most prominent conceptual
metaphors research organizations are located in Spain, the United States of America, China,
the United Kingdom, and Russia. Third, future conceptual metaphor research may
concentrate on corpus linguistics, neurolinguistics, psychology, and critical discourse
analysis. Multidisciplinary research could help conceptual metaphors flourish. However, their
study focused on the conceptual metaphor without explaining the types of metaphor.
Therefore, in this study, the researcher will elaborate about types of metaphor, moreover, its
meaning.

5.2 Concepts
5.2.1 Figurative Language
According to Perrine & Arp (1992), a figure of speech is any way of saying something other
than the ordinary way, and some rhetoricians have classified as many as 250 separate figures.
Figurative language, often known as figure of speech language, is language that cannot (or
should not) be taken literally. When expressing our intentions, figurative language frequently
works better than direct statements. There are some factors according the statement before.
Initially, metaphorical language triggers our imagination. Figurative language is fulfilling in
and of itself, giving us joy when we use our imaginations. Second, figures of speech bring
images to poetry, making abstract ideas real and enhancing its sensory appeal. Tennyson's
eagle, for example, falls "like a thunderbolt," his swooping down for his prey charged with
energy, speed, and power. Third, figure of speech boosts the ordinary sentences, make the
sentence more intense and letting us share feelings along with facts. For example, saying "my
feet are killing me" isn't just about pain; it's also about how we feel. Fourth, the figure of speech
is an effective means of concentration, a way of stating a lot in a small amount of time.
Opportunely, each person has their own creativity level and that creativity can be improved.
Moreover, the ability to interpret figures of speech can be developed by doing some practices.
5.2.2 Metaphor
According to Perrine & Arp (1992), metaphor is used as a mean of comparing things that are
essentially unlike. The comparison is implied, the figurative term is substituted for or identified
with the literal term. For instance, if someone says “some dirty dogs stole my wallet at the
party”, the actual meaning of the sentence is I am not talking about a dog at all but I am talking
about someone who stole my wallet at the party. While, Knickerbocker and Reninger (1963)
define a metaphor as a comparative allusion implicitly made without the use of "like" or "as".
Lakoff and Johnson (2003) also stated that a device of the poetic imagination and the rhetorical
flourish. It is a matter of extraordinary rather than ordinary language. Moreover, metaphor is
typically viewed as characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or
action.
A metaphor is a linguistic device employed in both literature and everyday language,
facilitating the expression of abstract or complex ideas by drawing parallels between seemingly
unrelated concepts. Unlike similes, metaphors directly assert a shared quality between two
distinct entities. This figure of speech serves as a powerful tool to enhance communication by
creating vivid imagery and evoking emotions. In the realm of literature, metaphors contribute
to the richness of language, offering writers a means to transcend literal descriptions and imbue
their work with deeper layers of meaning. Everyday expressions are also rife with metaphors,
seamlessly woven into conversations to convey experiences, emotions, and perceptions.
Metaphors play an important role in creating our view of the world and enhancing the structure
of language, from depicting time as a thief to likening the world to a theatre.

5.2.3 Meaning
As language is employed for a variety of activities and requirements in society, the meaning of
language becomes a mix of things when seen from multiple perspectives. Various names and
forms of meaning have been proposed in various linguistic or semantic works. Meaning refers
to what is intended to be expressed or indicated by language, actions, or concepts. It can also
refer to the significance, purpose, or definition of something. A word's meaning can have
various interpretations, and it can change depending on the context and intention. According
to Leech (1981), there are different types of meaning, such as conceptual, connotative, social,
affective, reflected, collocative, and thematic, each related to a different aspect of language
use. While according to Lehrer (1970), meaning is concerned with the meaning of words and
how they are used in natural languages. Lehrer's theory relies on the notion that a word's
meaning is defined by its use in a language community. She also states that the meaning of a
word is not fixed, but rather it is constantly evolving and changing over time.

5.3 Theoretical Framework

5.3.1 Theory of Metaphor
According to Lakoff and Johnson (2003), there are three types of metaphor. There are
ontological metaphor, oriental metaphor, and structural metaphor.
5.3.1.1 Structural Metaphor
According to Lakoff and Johnson (2003), the essence of structural metaphor is
understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. For example,
'Argument is war'. 'Argument' and 'war' are two different kinds of things, as are the
various types of action. However, 'argument' is structured, understood, performed,
and discussed in terms of 'war'.
5.3.1.2 Orientational Metaphor
Lakoff and Johnson (2003) stated that orientational metaphor called as that since
most of them have to do with spatial orientation such as up-down, in-out, front-
back, on-off, and so forth. For example, ‘I’m feeling up, that boosted my spirits’,
 ‘I’m feeling down, I’m depressed’. Both sentences express the orientational
metaphor since they use spatial orientation to describe feelings.
5.3.1.3 Ontological Metaphor
As stated by Lakoff and Johnson (2003), ontological metaphor deals with objects
and substances which allow us to pick out parts of our experience and treat them as
discrete entities or substances of a uniform kind. Our interactions with physical
objects create the foundation for an unbelievably diverse range of ontological
metaphors, or ways of interpreting events, activities, feelings, ideas, and so on as
beings and substances. For instance, ‘It will take a lot of patience to finish this
book’. ‘A lot of patience’ here describes the abstract idea (patience) as it is a
countable thing you can possess a lot.

5.3.2 Theory of Meaning

According to Leech (1981), there are seven types of meaning. They types are conceptual
meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning,
collocative meaning, and lastly thematic meaning.
5.3.2.1 Conceptual Meaning
According to Leech's theory of meaning, the core type of meaning is conceptual
meaning, often known as denotative meaning. It is the basic or core meaning of a
word, based on contractive and hierarchical principlesConceptual meaning is made
up of a finite number of closed features, and it is the only sort of meaning that can
be characterized in terms of necessary and sufficient criteria. For example, the word
"cat" can be defined as a small carnivorous mammal with fur, whiskers, and
retractable claws.
5.3.2.2 Connotative Meaning
Connotative meaning is the communicative value of an expression beyond its
purely conceptual content. It goes beyond the dictionary meaning and hints at the
attributes of the word in the real world. Connotative meaning is subjective and
context-dependent, and it can vary from person to person and from situation to
situation. It is often influenced by cultural and personal associations, emotions, and
attitudes. For example, the word "home" may have positive connotations for some
people, while it may have negative connotations for others. Connotative meaning
can be used to create a certain tone or mood in a text, to evoke emotions in the
reader or listener, or to convey the speaker's attitude or stance towards a topic.
5.3.2.3 Social Meaning
Social meaning refers to the information about the social context of language use,
such as the formality or informality of the language, the speaker's identity, age,
dialect, and relationship with the hearer/reader. Social meaning is also known as
stylistic meaning, as it is related to the style of language use, especially in the use
of literary or artistic style. For instance, a handshake is a common greeting
signifying trust and agreement. However, in other cultures, different greetings or
gestures might hold varying social meanings.
5.3.2.4 Affective Meaning
Affective meaning refers to the emotions or mood of the speaker that are conveyed
through the language. It is the type of meaning that is related to the emotional
content of language use, and it can be conveyed through the choice of words, tone
of voice, and other nonverbal cues. Affective meaning is subjective and context-
dependent, and it can vary from person to person and from situation to situation.
For example, the word ‘home’ might evoke feelings of warmth, security, and
comfort for many, but for someone who has experienced a difficult or troubled
home life, it could evoke more complex emotions, such as sadness or anxiety.
5.3.2.5 Reflected Meaning
Reflected meaning is a phenomenon whereby a single word or phrase is associated
with more than one meaning. It arises in case of multiple conceptual meanings,
when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense. Reflected
meaning is related to the way in which language users associate a word with other
words or concepts, and it can be influenced by cultural and personal associations,
emotions, and attitudes. For example, the word "apple" can have different reflected
meanings depending on the context and the speaker's intention. In a health context,
it may reflect a healthy lifestyle, while in a political context, it may reflect a symbol
of power. Reflected meaning is important in communication because it can
influence the listener's interpretation and understanding of the message.
5.3.2.6 Collocative Meaning
Collocative meaning is when words are often used together in certain contexts, such
as idioms or phrases. It can vary from person to person and from situation to
situation, and it is influenced by cultural and personal associations, emotions, and
attitudes. Collocative meaning is important in communication because it can affect
how the listener understands the message. It is not essential or inherent to the words
 themselves, but rather it is a product of the speaker's intention and the listener's
interpretation. For example, the word "strong" may collocate with "coffee" or "tea"
to indicate a preference for a strong flavor.
5.3.2.7 Thematic Meaning
Thematic meaning is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer
organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis. This meaning is
mainly a matter of choice between alternative grammatical construction. For
example, “Mrs. Smith donated the first prize” and “The first prize was donated by
Mrs. Smith”. Both sentences are conceptually same but they have different
meaning. The first sentence answered the question “What did Mrs. Smith donate?”,
while the second sentence seems to answer a question “Who was the first prize
donated by?”. Moreover, it is stress and intonation rather than grammatical
construction that highlights information in one part of a sentence. The effect is to
focus attention on the words which contains new information, against a background
of what is already assumed to be known.

VI. Research Method

6.1 Data Source
The object of this research was 13 songs taken from an album entitled ‘A
Beautiful Blur’ by LANY. The songs are Love at First Sight, No, Alonica,
Heartbreak Can Wait, (Saturday Night) 3:22 A.M., Sugar & Cinnamon, I Pray,
Home Is Where the Hurt Is, Out of My League, Congrats, ‘Cause You Have To,
XXL, It Even Rains in LA.
6.2 Method and Technique of Collecting Data
This study used analysis of documents since the object of the study was song
lyrics which produced in written form. The data collected was gathered by
listening to the music for many times, and reading the lyrics for reasons of
certainty.
6.3 Method and Technique of Analysing Data
The collected data will be processed using descriptive qualitative method as it
described the song lyrics that were categorized into figurative language. The
techniques of analysing the data are classifying the song lyrics that used
hyperbole using a theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (2003). Then, the
 classified data will be analysed for the meaning implied and categorized it using
a theory from Leech (1981).
6.4 Method and Technique of Presenting Data
The data will be delivered in an informal form. The presentation data is
informal, as it is described verbally. The informal presentation takes the form of
verbal descriptions and explanations, as well as interpretation, of the data
analysis.
References

Knickerbocker K. L. & Reninger H. W. (19631960). Interpreting literature. Holt Rinehart

and Winston. Accessed on November, 5th 2023.

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2008). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago press.
Accessed on November, 24th 2023.

Leech, G. N. (1981). Semantics: The study of meaning (2nd ed.). Penguin. Accessed on
November, 5th 2023.

Lehrer, A. (1970). Theory of Meaning. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Ins. Accessed on

November 5th, 2023.

Natanael, Y. T., Indriani, G., Nugraha, M. R. F., & Handayani, N. D. (2022). An Analysis of
Simile in War Room Movie. INTERACTION: Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa, 9(2), 289-
296. Accessed on November 18th ,2023.

Nurhusnain, M. (2020). Hyperbole Analysis on Jokowi Speech (Doctoral dissertation).

Accessed on November 18th ,2023.

Perrine L. & Arp T. R. (1992). Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry (8th ed.).
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College. Accessed on November 5th ,2023.

Yuliana, D. (2018). An Analysis of The Types and Functions of Irony Expressions in Twitter:
Semantic Approach (Doctoral dissertation, Prodi Sastra Inggris). Accessed on
November 18th ,2023.

Zain, H. M. (2021). An Analysis of Symbolism and Meaning Found in the Old Man and The
Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Islam Sultan Agung).
Accessed on November 18th, 2023

Zhao, X., Zheng, Y., & Zhao, X. (2023). Global bibliometric analysis of conceptual metaphor
research over the recent two decades. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1042121. Accessed
on November 24th, 2023.