lexical analysis

 

INTRODUCTION

            Communication is daily activity that we can do with all people around the world. But to make the communication pass well, we have to attention on the meaning based on the context where and when we are speaking. We have to know about the Lexical meaning. It covers among other things the discussion about denotation, connotation, synonymy, antonym, ambiguity, hyponymy, polysemy, homophony, and homonymy. Contribution to semantics has essentially two sources, namely linguistics and philosophy.  Linguistics have contribute primary to the study of the core meaning or sense of individual words whereas philosophers have especially contribute to the study of both sentential and discourse meaning. The meaning of words or lexical meaning is part of linguistic knowledge and is therefore a part of grammar. It is complementary to the grammar in that the vocabulary or lexicon not only lists the lexemes of the language, but associate with each lexeme all the information that is required by the rule of the grammar.

Here, we try to analyze the lyric of “All about Loving you” by Bon Jovi. Some of the words have lexical meaning that can we can analyze. The data of lexical meaning category is present discussed or analyzed and conclude. In that lyric, we found the several aspects of lexical meaning such as antonym, synonym, polysemy, hyponymy, and ambiguity. Furthermore, let we see the lyric. 

CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

2.1 The Data of Song Lyric

                        All about Loving You

Looking at the pages of my life
Faded memories of me and you
Mistakes you know I've made a few
I took some shots and fell from time to time
Baby, you were there to pull me through
We've been around the block a time or two
I'm gonna lay it on the line
Ask me how we've come this far
The answer's written in my eyes

Every time I look at you, baby
I see something new
That takes me higher than before
and makes me want you more
I don't wanna sleep tonight
dreamin's just a waste of time
When I look at what my life's been comin' to
I'm all about lovin' you

I've lived, I've loved, I've lost,
I've paid some dues, baby
We've been to hell and back again
Through it all you're always my best friend
For all the words I didn't say  
and all the things I didn't do
Tonight I'm gonna find a way

You can take this world away  
You're everything I am
Just read the lines upon my face
I'm all about lovin' you

2.2 The Analysis Data

            The lyric of song “All about Loving you” above shows that Bon Jovi used the lexical meaning. There are several aspects that could be found such as denotative, connotative, synonymy, antonymy, polysemy, hyponymy, and ambiguity.

1)      Connotative and Denotative

The meaning of word is primary what is refers to the real world, its denotative. This word can find in dictionary. Connotative arise as words become related with certain characteristics of items to which they refer, or the association of positive or negative feeling to which they evokes.

In the first lines of lyrics, we can find”Looking at the pages of my life”. The word “Life” has denotative meaning. It indicates the ability to breath. But the word My Life is also has connotative meaning. The word “Life” life is related with human life or animal life and the activity that happen in days, whether it about happiness, sadness or problem.  All of them can be call Life in connotative meaning.

2)      Antonym

            Antonym is words which are the same sense opposite in meaning. There are several types of antonym, complementary pairs, gradable pairs and relational antonym pairs of antonym. We can see the example of the antonym from the lyric of “All about loving you”, there are sentences:

“Baby, you were there to pull me through”

“Ask me how we've come this far”

“I don't wanna sleep tonight”

“That takes me higher than before”

“We've been to hell and back again”

“Through it all you're always my best friend”

            From the Lyric above, complementary pairs of antonym are the words before/after, friend/foe, sleep/awake, hell/paradise. The example of gradable pairs of antonymy is the word far/near. It is true gradable antonym that more of one is less of another. The characteristic of pairs of gradable antonym is that one is marked and the other one is unmarked. And the example of relational antonymy pairs is the word pull/push.

3)      Ambiguity

A word or sentence can be called as ambiguous if it can be understood or interpreted in more than one ways. The different words having same form or pronunciation may cause ambiguity among listeners or readers who do not attention to their context carefully. Let`s see the example of ambiguity sentence in the song lyric of “All about loving you”.

1. When I look at what my life's been comin' to
2. You can take this world away

In the first sentence (a), my life`s been coming’ may be understood to mean “I can life more or my love comes again”. And in the second sentence (b), you can take this world away can be interpreted to mean “you can do what you want to do in this world or it can be mean “you can reach your wealthy”.

So that, from the example above we can know that word ambiguous have many interpretation by people. 

4)      Polisemy

            Polisemy is a single word that has multiple meaning. For instance, we can see the word “baby” in the one of lyrics “all about loving you”.

“Baby, you were there to pull me through”

“Every time I look at you, baby”

While the word “baby” we find in standard dictionaries of English as a single lexeme with several distinguishable meaning, as being polysemous:

 “Baby”=very young child or animal,

 “Baby”=word used affectionately to address husband or  wife,

“Baby”= word used to address our beloved boy or girl friend.

5)      Hyponymy

            A word whose meaning contains the entire meaning of other words is called a hyponymy which is known as the super ordinate. Or the meaning of word includes the meaning of other words. For instance in the lyric of song “All about loving you”:

“Just read the lines upon my face”

The word Face here is super ordinates of the other words such as mouth, nose, eyes, lips and others.

CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION

The lexical meaning or the meaning of word is part of linguistic knowledge. From the analysis, a complete conclusion can be derived that Bon Jovi frequently used several aspects of lexical meaning in the lyric of “All about Loving You”, such as denotative, connotative, polysemy, ambiguity, antonym, and hyponym.

Finally your suggestion or opinion to our analyzing is our pleasure. If there are some mistakes and wrong in analyzing the lyric song, we beg your respect to critic and suggest us. In order we can make better in the next analysis.

(MUTMAINNAH)