Chapter III-V - 2

3.
LITERAL AND NON-LITERAL MEANING
3.1. Types of Meaning
A piece of language conveys its dictionary meaning, connotations
beyond the dictionary meaning, information about the social context of language
use, speaker’s feelings and attitudes rubbing off of one meaning on the another
meaning of the same word when it has two meanings and meaning because of
habit occurrence.
Broadly speaking, ‘meaning’ means the sum total of communicated
through language. Words, Phrases and sentences have meanings which are studies
in semantics.
Geoffrey Leech in his ‘Semantic- A Study of meaning’ (1974) breaks down
meaning into seven types or ingredients giving primacy to conceptual meaning.
The Seven types of meaning according to Leech are as follows.
1. Conceptual or Denotative Meaning
Conceptual meaning is also called logical or cognitive meaning. It
is the basic propositional meaning which corresponds to the
primary dictionary definition. Such a meaning is stylistically
neutral and objective as opposed to other kinds of associative
meanings. Conceptual meanings are the essential or core meaning
while other six types are the peripheral. It is peripheral in as sense
that it is non-essential. They are stylistically marked and subjective
kind of meanings. Leech gives primacy to conceptual meaning
Universitas Sumatera Utara

because it has sophisticated organization based on the principle of
contrastiveness and hierarchical structure.
Examples :
/P/ can be described as- voiceless + bilabial + plosive.
Similarly
Boy = + human + male-adult.
The hierarchical structure of ‘Boy’ = + Human + Male-Adult
Or “Boy” =Human – Male/Female-adult in a rough way.
Conceptual meaning is the literal meaning of the word indicating
the idea or concept to which it refers. The concept is minimal unit
of meaning which could be called ‘sememe’. As we define
phoneme on the basis of binary contrast, similarly we can define
sememe ‘Woman’as = + human + female + adult. If any of these
attribute changes the concept cease to be the same.
Conceptual meaning deals with the core meaning of expression. It
is the denotative or literal meaning. It is essential for the
functioning of language. For example, a part of the conceptual
meaning of ‘Needle” may be “thin”, “sharp” or “instrument”.
The organization of conceptual meaning is based on two structural
principles- Contrastiveness and the principle of structure. The
conceptual meanings can be studied typically in terms of
contrastive features.
For example the word “woman” can be shown as:

“Woman = + Human, -Male, + Adult”.
On the contrary, word
“Boy” can be realized as:-
“Boy = “+ human, + male, - Adult”.
By the principle of structure, larger units of language are built up
out smaller units or smaller units or smaller units are built out
larger ones.
The aim of conceptual meaning is to provide an appropriate
semantic representation to a sentence or statement. A sentence is
made of abstract symbols. Conceptual meaning helps us to
distinguish one meaning from the meaning of other sentences.
Thus, conceptual meaning is an essential part of language. A
language essentially depends on conceptual meaning for
communication. The conceptual meaning is the base for all the
other types of meaning.
2. Connotative Meaning
Connotative meaning is the communicative value of an expression
over and above its purely conceptual content. It is something that
goes beyond mere referent of a word and hints at its attributes in
the real world. It is something more than the dictionary meaning.
Thus purely conceptual content of ‘woman’ is +human + female+

adult but the psychosocial connotations could
be ‘gregarious’, ‘having maternal instinct’ or typical (rather than
invariable) attributes of womanhood such as ‘babbling’,’
experienced in cookery’, ‘skirt or dress wearing ‘etc. Still
further connotative meaning can embrace putative properties of a
referent due to viewpoint adopted by individual, group, and society
as a whole. So in the past woman was supposed to have attributes
like frail, prone to tears, emotional, irrigational, inconstant ,
cowardly etc. as well as more positive qualities such gentle,
sensitive, compassionate, hardworking etc. Connotations vary age
to age and society to society.
As example :
Old age ‘Woman’ - ‘Non-trouser wearing or sari wearing’ in
Indian context must have seemed definite connotation in the past.
Present ‘Woman’---- Salwar/T-shirt/Jeans wearing.
Some times connotation varies from person to person also.
As example :
Connotations of the word ‘woman’ for misogynist and a person of
feminist vary.
The boundary between conceptual and connotative seems to be
analogous. Connotative meaning is regarded as incidental,
comparatively unstable, in determinant, open ended, variable
according to age, culture and individual, whereas conceptual

meaning is not like that . It can be codified in terms of limited
symbols.
3. Social Meaning
The meaning conveyed by the piece of language about the social
context of its use is called the social meaning. The decoding of a
text is dependent on our knowledge of stylistics and other
variations of language. We recognize some words or pronunciation
as being dialectical i.e. as telling us something about the regional
or social origin of the speaker. Social meaning is related to the
situation in which an utterance is used.
It is concerned with the social circumstances of the use of a
linguistic expression. For example, some dialectic words inform us
about the regional and social background of the speaker. In the
same way, some stylistic usages let us know something of the
social relationship between the speaker and the hearer.
For example :
“I ain’t done nothing”.
The line tells us about the speaker and that is the speaker is
probably a black American, underprivileged and uneducated.
Another example :
“Come on yaar, be a sport. Don’t be Lallu”.
The social meaning can be that of Indian young close friends.

Stylistic variation represents the social variation. This is because
styles show the geographical region social class of the speaker.
Style helps us to know about the period, field and status of the
discourse. Some words are similar to others as far as their
conceptual meaning is concerned. But they have different stylistic
meaning. For example, ‘steed ’, ‘horse and ‘nag’ are synonymous.
They all mean a kind of animal i.e. Horse. But they differ in style
and so have various social meaning. ‘Steed’ is used in poetry;
‘horse’ is used in general, while ‘nag’ is slang. The word ‘Home’
can have many use also like domicile ( official), residence (formal)
abode (poetic) , home (ordinary use). connotative meaning plays a
very vital role in the field of semantics and in understanding the
utterances and sentences in different context.
4. Affective or Emotive Meaning
For some linguists it refers to emotive association or effects of
words evoked in the reader, listener. It is what is conveyed about
the personal feelings or attitude towards the listener.
Examples :
‘home’ for a sailor/soldier or expatriate and ‘mother’ for a
motherless child, a married woman (esp. in Indian context) will
have special effective, emotive quality.
In affective meaning, language is used to express personal feelings
or attitude to the listener or to the subject matter of his discourse.

I.A. Richards argued that emotive meaning distinguishes literature
or poetic language from factual meaning of science. Finally it must
be noted that affective meaning is largely a parasitic category. It
overlaps heavily with style, connotation and conceptual content.
5. Reflected Meaning
Reflected meaning and collocative meaning involve
interconnection. At the lexical level of language, reflected meaning
arises when a word has more than one conceptual meaning or
multiple conceptual meaning. In such cases while responding to
one sense of the word we partly respond to another sense of the
word too. Leech says that in church service ‘the comforter and the
Holy Ghost ’refer to the third in Trinity. They are religious words.
But unconsciously there is a response to their non-religious
meanings too. Thus the ‘comforter’ sounds warm and comforting
while the ‘Ghost’ sounds ‘awesome’ or even ‘dreadful’. One sense
of the word seems to rub off on another especially through relative
frequency and familiarity (e.g. a ghost is more frequent and
familiar in no religious sense).
In poetry too we have reflected meaning as in the following lines :
‘Are limbs so dear achieved, are sides,
Full nerved still warm-too hard to stir’
Owen here uses ‘dear’ in the sense of expensiveness. - But the
sense of beloved is also eluded.

Another examples :
“The could not but be gay
In such jocund company”
The word ‘gay’ was frequently used in the time of William
Wordsworth but the word now is used for ‘homosexuality’.
In such type cases of multiple meaning, one meaning of the word
pushes the other meaning to the background. Then the dominant
suggestive power of that word prevails. This may happen because
of the relative frequency or familiarity of the dominant meaning.
This dominant meaning which pushes the other meaning at the
background is called the reflected meaning.
Reflected meaning is also found in taboo words. For examples are
terms like erection, intercourse, ejaculation. The
word ‘intercourse’ immediately reminds us of its association with
sex (sexual intercourse). The sexual association of the word drives
away its innocent sense, i.e. ‘communication’. The taboo sense of
the word is so dominant that its non-taboo sense almost dies out. In
some cases, the speaker avoids the taboo words and uses their
alternative word in order to avoid the unwanted reflected meaning.
For example, as Bloomfield has pointed out, the word ‘Cock’ is
replaced by speakers, they use the word ‘rooster’ to indicate the
general meaning of the word and avoid its taboo sense. These
words have non-sexual meanings too. (E.g. erection of a building,

ejaculate-throw out somebody) but because of their frequency in
the lit of the physiology of sex it is becoming difficult to use them
in their innocent/nonsexual sense. Thus we can see that reflected
meaning has great importance in the study of semantics.
6. Collocative Meaning
Collocative meaning is the meaning which a word acquires in the
company of certain words. Words collocate or co-occur with
certain words only e.g. Big business not large or great.Collocative
meaning refers to associations of a word because of its usual or
habitual co-occurrence with certain types of
words. ‘Pretty’ and ‘handsome’indicate ‘good looking’.
However, they slightly differ from each other because of
collocation or co-occurrence. The word ‘pretty’ collocates with –
girls, woman, village, gardens, flowers, etc.
On the other hand, the word ‘handsome’ collocates with – ‘boys’
men, etc. so ‘pretty woman’ and ‘handsome man’. While
different kinds of attractiveness, hence ‘handsome woman’ may
mean attractive but in a mannish way. The
verbs ‘wander’ and ‘stroll’ are quasi-synonymous- they may have
almost the same meaning but while ‘cows may wonder into another
farm’, they don’t stroll into that farm because ‘stroll’ collocates
with human subject only. Similarly one ‘trembles with fear’ but
‘quivers with excitement’. Collocative meanings need to be

invoked only when other categories of meaning don’t apply.
Generalizations can be made in case of other meanings while
collocative meaning is simply on idiosyncratic property of
individual words. Collocative meaning has its importance and it is
a marginal kind of category.
7. Thematic Meaning
It refers to what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or
a writer organizes the message in terms of ordering focus and
emphasis .Thus active is different from passive though its
conceptual meaning is the same. Various parts of the sentence also
can be used as subject, object or complement to show prominence.
It is done through focus, theme (topic) or emotive emphasis.
Thematic meaning helps us to understand the message and its
implications properly. For example, the following statements in
active and passive voice have same conceptual meaning but
different communicative values.
For example :
a. Mrs. Smith donated the first prize
b. The first prize was donated by Mrs. Smith.
In the first sentence “who gave away the prize” is more
important, but in the second sentence “what did Mrs. Smith gave
is important”. Thus the change of focus change the meaning also.

The first suggests that we already know Mrs. Smith (perhaps
through earlier mention) its known/given information while it’s
new information.
Alternative grammatical construction also gives thematic meaning.
Example :
a. He likes Indian good most.
b. Indian goods he likes most.
c. It is the Indian goods he likes most.
Like the grammatical structures, stress and intonation also make
the message prominent. For example, the contrastive stress on the
word ‘cotton’ in the following sentence give prominence to the
information.
a. John wears a cotton shirt
b. The kind of shirt that john wears is cotton one.
Thus sentences or pairs of sentences with similar conceptual
meaning differ their communicative value. This is due to different
grammatical constructions or lexical items or stress and
intonations. Therefore they are used in different contents.
“Ten thousand saw I at a glance”
Wordsworth here inverts the structure to focus on ‘ten thousand”.
Sometimes thematic contrast i.e. contrasts between given and new
information can be conveyed by lexical means.

Example :
a. John owns the biggest shop in London
b. The biggest shop in London belongs to John.
c. The ways we order our message also convey what is
important and what not. This is basically thematic meaning.
Associative Meaning:
Leech uses this as an umbrella term for the remaining 5
types of meanings( connotative, social, affective, reflective
and collocative).All these have more in common with
connotative than conceptual meaning. They all have the
same open ended, variable character and can be analyzed in
terms of scales or ranges ( more/less) than in either or
contrastive terms. These meanings contain many
imponderable factors. But conceptual meaning is stable.
CONCEPTUAL MEANING or Sense Logical, cognitive, or denotative content

ASSOCIATIVE CONNOTATIVE What is communicated by virtue of what language refers to
MEANING MEANING
STYLISTIC What is communicated of the social circumstances of
MEANING language use
AFFECTIVE What is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the
MEANING speaker/writer
REFLECTED What is communicated thorough association with another
MEANING sense of the same expression
COLLOCATIVE What is communicated through association with words
MEANING which tend to occur in the environment of another word
THEMATIC MEANING What is communicated by the way in which the message is
organized in terms of the order and emphasis
Seven types of meaning (Leech 1974)

Other authors, of course, use a different classification of meaning. If we
extend our interest beyond onomatology we may distinguish lexical and
grammatical meaning, which is a distinction corresponding to Aristotle's material
and formal meaning. Lexical meaning then is the meaning as discussed in
onomatology and grammatical meaning, also called structural meaning, is of three
kinds: (i) morphological meaning, (ii) the meaning of the minor parts of speech,
(iii) the meaning linked with grammatical functions, eg 'subject-of', (iv)
the meaning associated with sentence types, eg declarative.
When the relationship between naming units and the extralinguistic reality is
considered we may come across terms used in the above paragraphs (conceptual,
denotative, cognitive and basic meaning) and across other
terms, eg referential meaning (the naming unit refers to an item of extralinguistic
reality), factual meaning, objective meaning, descriptive meaning. When the
relationship between language and the emotional, personal state of the speaker is
considered, the terms used are attitudinal, emotive, and expressive meaning, all
corresponding to affective meaning in Leech's system. Contextual meaning is
another term for collocative meaning. Phonetic meaning is connected with sound
symbolism and phonological meaning is connected with alliteration and rhyme in
poetry.
TERMS, technical, scientific, linguistic etc, differ from non-terms in that
their conceptual meaning is well defined and in that they have no connotative,
affective and other secondary meaning. Terms can be used in isolation.

Similarity of meaning is the only principle according to which the
paradigmatic features of naming units can be put into relationship. The terms used
in the description are polysemy, homonymy, paronymy, hyponymy,
synonymy and antonymy. Although polysemy is a feature of an individual naming
unit and the other five are features connected with the relationships between
naming units they are linked together. Polysemy was mentioned in the previous
chapter (crane, duše) and so was homonymy (bank, kolej). If we take crane -
jeřáb as an example of polysemy, we might separate the meanings of 'bird' and
'device' because the metaphor between the two is no longer visible as the shapes
of the modern lifting devices are not similar to the bird. The result of this
separation would be two homonyms. If we take bank and kolej as examples of
homonymy, we might disregard the origin and the meaning of bank as 'institution',
'raised ground' and 'row of objects' and of kolej as 'rut, rails' and 'hall of residence'
and join them in one polysemous naming unit, as the Collins Cobuild dictionaries
did in their first editions.
While polysemy, homonymy, synonymy and antonymy function on the
horizontal level, hyponymy functions on the vertical level because it imposes
hierarchical structure on sections of the vocabulary. Hyponyms are members of a
paradigm defined by a hyperonym, also called a superordinate. Scarlet,
vermilion andcrimson are immediate hyponyms of red, the hyperonym, because
their meanings are included in the meaning of red: scarlet 'a vivid red colour,
sometimes with an orange tinge', vermilion 'a bright red to reddish-orange
colour', crimson 'a deep or vivid red colour'. Red is then the superordinate of the

three. Hyponymy is not an absolute feature because in taxonomical structures we
can choose several levels, eg in the animal kingdom we can take the subphylum
('podkmen') of vertebrates('obratlovci') and move either upward in the structure to
the phylum of chordates ('strunatci') or downward to the classes (leaving out the
divisions 'oddělení', which are too technical for the our purpose): eg fishes,
amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals. If we continue downward we reach the
breed of the already mentioned the English setter as one of the hyponyms
of setter.
Hyponymy does not operate systematically outside the systems of
scientific taxonomy because there are many gaps, asymmetries and
indeterminacies in the natural languages. LYONS (1968.456) gives the following
example: there is no superordinate term in English of which all the colour-words
are co-hyponyms becausecoloured is sometimes in contrast with white (laundry,
race, chalks) as well as with transparent (liquid). Lyons also quotes come, go,
person, thing, event as lexical items with very general application. If they were
regarded as hyperonyms the numbers of hyponyms would run into hundreds and
thousands.
A word is a synonym 'if it or one of its senses shares with another word
or sense of a word one or more elementary meanings' (Webster's Collegiate
Thesaurus). The elementary meaning of nose is 'the prominent part of the human
face that bears the nostrils and covers the nasal passage'. This elementary
meaning is shared by beak 'a hooked nose', conk - British slang word for

'nose', proboscis 'elephant's trunk' or 'long flexible nose of the tapir', schnozzle -
American slang word based on Yiddish, smeller, sneezer - slang words, snout -
British derogatory slang word. The lists show that there is no absolute, total
synonymy and that to the elementary meaning is added the description of the
shape, or the typical bearer of the part of body, or a stylistic meaning. The lists
also show similarities in the use of metaphor in English and in Czech.
Near-synonyms are words which are closely related with the members of
a synonym group (or, in other words, a semantic field), eg the verb mix has a
number of synonyms such as admix, blend, fuse, make up, merge, mingle etc and a
number of near-synonyms, or related words, such as associate, combine, join,
link, unite.
The relationships between near-synonymic members of a semantic field
are shown in the following tables. The first one, based on Leisi, deals with various
types of sounds and their causes.
The inner circle (I) gives the most general terms, sound and noise,
without any connection to a cause. The next circle II links the sound and the
cause. The words outside the circle (III) refer to the cause only, the sound being
irrelevant. The words in III then do not belong to the field proper. (The diagram
does contain all types of sounds, among those missing are
eg crackle, crunch, jingle, ring, splash, squelch, tick, tinkle.)

Pairs of words which are opposite in meaning are traditionally
called antonyms. Some words have a single opposite, eg the opposite
of large is small and the opposite of small is large. A very frequent type of
antonymy is based on negation, eg charming - charmless, legal - illegal, like v. -
dislike, like adj. - unlike, polite - impolite. Polysemous words and words with
complex meaning may have two antonyms, eg the adjective single in
the meaning of 'being without a spouse' (Cz. svobodný) has the
opposite married and in the meaning of 'one as distinguished from two or more or
all others' (Cz. jediný) has multiple as an opposite. We find similar relationships
in cheap - costly, expensive, precious, noble; late - early, prompt, punctual; long -
short, brief; lose - gain, win; loud - low, soft. On the whole, only a very small
proportion of words has antonyms. There are no words of
opposite meaning to cemetery, engine, feather, gin, pudding, puppet, to whistle
etc.
Near-antonyms are words which are clearly contrastable with the
members of a synonym group, eg divide, part, separate, sever are near-antonyms,
or contrasted words, of the verb mix and its synonyms.
In the area traditionally called antonymy, LYONS (1968.460-70)
distinguishes three types of 'oppositeness' of meaning: antonymy,
complementarity and converseness. Antonymy is a relation limited to gradable
items. Complementarity is a type of oppositeness which holds between pairs of
non-gradable words such as single: married, male : female. The words in these

pairs are complementaries because the denial of one implies the assertion of the
other and the assertion of one implies the denial of the other.
Lyons (1977:2) says that “the meaning can be, distinguished by the
technique of substituting other words in the same context and inquiry whether the
resulting sentences are equivalent. Dongoran (1991:1) says that the meaning is
ideas or concept, which can be transferred from the mind of the speaker to the
mind of the hearer by embodying them, as it was, in the forms of language or
another. Nikelas (1988:231) says that meaning is a complex phenomenon
involving relationship between a language and the mind of its speakers and the
practical use to which it is put.
3.2. Definition of Literal Meaning
In studying semantics, there are two kinds of meaning, they are literal
and non-literal meaning. Siregar (1992) says, “if we speak literally, than we mean
what our words mean”.
Literal meaning is a meaning without any other meanings besides the
lexical meaning or the surface meaning of words or sentences. Therefore, there
will be no differences between the linguistic meaning and speaker meaning.
Sometimes, a hearer is easy to understand what someone means. But in particular
condition, there are possibilities that are the hearer might have difficulties to
understand the utterance although what the speaker means is what the word really
means lexically because there is no limitation of the hearer’s ability. This

particular reason is related to whether the speaker uses his/her sentences without
any hidden meaning in his/her sentences. It is reasonable to call it literal meaning.
The literal meaning is according to the letter scriptures, adhering to fact,
not figurative or metaphorical, being without exaggeration or embellishment and
based on the exact sense and characterized by a concern mainly with fact. The
examples below illustrate the literal meaning:
a. She loves swimming.
b. He is eating a pasta.
c. My aunt is an English teacher in TBI.
All the sentences above are literal meaning and easy to understand as
long as the writer intends them as what they really mean lexically.
There will be no important difference between linguistic meaning and
the speaker meaning. If a speaker is always speaking literally it means what his
words mean. But it does not mean that everyone can understand the utterance
what the speaker intends what the word really mean lexically. The listener would
enrich his vocabulary.
In other words, literal meaning also means true meaning. For example,
someone is saying “She is a beautiful girl”. In the case of literal meaning, the
speaker really means that the girl is beautiful. The speaker means exactly what his
words mean without having hidden meaning or particular intention when saying
the words.

3.3. Definition of Non-Literal Meaning
Non-literal meaning is included as a part of communication which is
directly meant as an activity that occurs when there is no conversation between
speaker and hearer. To make the communicative conversation, it is necessary for
the speaker to give her/his intentional meaning and, in the same time, the hearer
accepts the speaker’s intension and responds the sense by giving the intentional
meaning in return with words or sentences as the reaction. But when all of those
aspects do not come, the predictable result that probably happens is the
conversation may not continue any longer and it will be automatically stopped.
Therefore, before making further steps in conversation of non-literal meaning,
both of the communicants must concern to those aspect above and understand the
context that is sentences atmosphere being expressed.
Non-literal meaning occurs when the speaker means different from what
the words or sentences really mean. In other word, when the speaker speaks a
word and a sentence, which implies the different meaning from its real meaning
and that is the time for the speaker to speak non-literally. In addition, the word or
sentence which is spoken by the speaker had hidden meaning besides the lexical
meaning.
Before having the conversation which has non-literal meaning in it, it is
important for the hearer to know or understand the context of the atmosphere of
the sentences being expressed it is quite difficult to understand the meaning
without any understanding to the context of the sentences atmosphere.
Misunderstanding might happen when the hearer cannot get the speaker’s idea. It

possibly happens, because non-literal meaning is way to express someone’s idea
abstractly or imaginatively and it might be the special way to express the idea
which seems very innovative and better for human’s ear.
Non-literal meaning is not always used for imaginative or abstract way
in expressing the idea, but it also has a certain purpose behind the lexical
meaning. Non-literal meaning might be the best way to substitute any offensive
words or the replacement of unpleasant words for some people.
3.4. Kinds of Non-Literal Meaning
Language in application may be divided into two ways, written and
spoken. When we use one of those ways, of course it is because we intend to
reveal something to other people or there is a meaning in what is spoken or
written.
There are several meanings commonly found, and those meanings are
divided in speaker meaning and linguistic meaning. Sometimes, word is needed
by speaker in producing an utterance because it is necessary to be done when the
speaker wants to express something different from it really means, and that is time
when the speaker speaks non-literally.
In particular situation, we have to understand the different function of
the meaning of words in order to have the right and clear understanding. For
examples :
a. He keep doing this to her.

b. I keep my clothes in the closet
In (a), ‘keep’ means continuous activity, in (b), ‘keep’ means putting
something in a place.
3.4.1. Personification
Personification is the figure of speech in which a thing, an animal, or an
abstract term (truth, nature) is made or the object are likely considered as having
human since human characteristics are attached to the objects themselves. In
Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (2000) states that personification is the
arbitrary of human qualities to an inanimate object. The representing of the
imaginary creatures or things as having human personalities, intelligence, and
emotion
“Personification consists in giving the attributes of a human being to an
animal, an object, or an idea (Perrine, 1973). Personification is a special form of
metaphor that pictures inanimate things to act, speak, or talk like humans. An
example of personification is in the quotation of Keat’s Personification of autumn
as a harvester “sitting careless on a granary floor” or “on a half-reaped furrow
sound asleep” (Perreine, 1973). Shaw (1972:283) says that “Personification is a
figure of speech in which abstractions, animals, ideas, and inanimate objects are
having human form, character, traits, or sensibilities”. For example; “the wind
speaks in whisper”. It is already know that “speaks” is the characteristics of
human, and able to speak, it needs the articulatory organ to make it possible which
the wind does not has. Therefore this characteristic is given to personify the
inanimate object.

Another example of the uses personification is “my heart says yes”. The
word “say” can be interpreted literally as an activity of a person to express the
person’s idea. But according to the sentence above, this activity is done by ‘heart’,
which is an inanimate object. Although, the idea of the sentence above is non-
literally meant as an expression of agreement of something.
3.4.2. Hyperbole
The word hyperbole itself derived from Greek. It is from two words,
hyper means over and balle means to throw. Hyperbole is one of the exaggerated
way which consist of exaggerated statement which is not mean to be literally.
Whereas exaggerated way is an expression to make something looks bigger or
greater than it really is. In Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary, hyperbole is
indicated as a way of describing something in order to make it sound bigger,
smaller, better, worse, etc. than it really is. For example, “I miss you like crazy”,
here it does not really become crazy person but the strong feeling of miss
someone or it may mean “I miss you so much”. Another example of hyperbole is
“I’m dying again”. Dying is connected with or happening at the time of
somebody’s death. In addition, it happen to people only once in life. It is
impossible to say, “I’m dying again” as if ever happen before. “Dying” here may
means that the feeling of unpleasant, useless, and hopeless. So the sentence may
means “I feel unpleasant, hurt, and disappointed.

3.4.3. Synecdoche
“Synecdoche is a term derived from Greek word Synekdechesthai that
means ‘receiving together’” (Keraf, 1984). Synecdoche is a kind of figurative
language that mentions part of a thing to signify the whole thing or uses the whole
to signify the part. Shakespeare uses synecdoche when he says that the cuckoo’s
song is unpleasing to “married ear”, for he means “a married man” (Perrine,
1973).
Synecdoche is a kind of non-literal meaning, which states one thing
partly instead of its universe or vice versa. Keraf in Diksi dan Gaya Bahasa
(1991:142) says “sinekdoke adalah semacam gaya bahasa yang mempergunakan
sebagian dari sesuatu hal untuk menyatakan keseluruhan (pars pro toto) atau
mempergunakan keseluruhan untuk menyatakan sebagian (totum pro parte)”.
Based on those definition above, we notice that synecdoche is a kind of
figurative language that uses the name of a part of something as the name of its
whole part or vice versa. Synecdoche can be divided into two kinds, they are:
1. A part is used to mean the whole of the thing.
For example: “All eyes on you”.
The word “all eyes” represent “the people or public”, not only the eyes
of the people but also the whole of their body, since eyes are part of
human body.
2. The whole is used to mean a part.
For example: “Did you see the competition between Italy and England?”

In this sentence, Italy and England are used as substitution of some
players of both countries.
3.3..4. Simile
Simile is an explicit and direct comparison of similarities of two
different objects. Simile is usually characterized by the use of as or like to mark
the comparison between the objects (Keraf, 1984). Perrine (1973) adds that in
simile the comparison can also be expressed by some other words such as than,
similar to, resembles, or seems. The sentence “her lips are like a red coral” is a
classic example of simile where the writer compares someone’s lips to a coral,
whose colour is red. Siregar (1992:12) says, “Simile is a comparison between two
objects using ‘like’ or ‘as’”. For examples:
• Your eyes like the stars.
• You are as fresh as daisy.
• Your braveness as a lion.
In the first sentence, it does not mean that your eyes like stars. The writer
wants to compare your eyes and the stars. In literal, we can say that you eyes is
beautiful or you have beautiful eyes. In the second sentence, the writer wants to
compare you and daisy. The writer wants to compare the freshness between you
and fresh flower like daisy. In literal, it becomes you are fresh like a fresh daisy.
In the third sentence, the writer wants to compare you with lion. In literal, we can
say that you are a strong and brave person like a lion.
A simile is not just an ordinary comparison. If you say “my bag is like
your bag” or “I run as other boy run” you are not making a simile. Such

comparison are important and necessary in daily conversation, but they are literal.
A simile must compare two basic things that are found to be alike in one respect.
3.3.5. Metaphor
Metaphor is the way to express the idea by using the substitution words
with the similar qualities as the representation of first object which is substituted.
It describes one thing or idea by using words usually use of something else. The
use of similar qualities does not mean one object is like another.
For example of metaphor “she hide from mortal eyes”. If we think about
mortal, we may consider it as a kind of dangerous thing as the eye. In this case,
the word mortal used to express the idea of someone who is having a sharp
looking. Another example is “Departing summer hath assumed”. The word
departing emphasizes a condition means by gone. Metaphorically it may mean
that a situation where the season was by gone or change with other season.

4. THE ANALYSIS OF NON- LITERAL MEANING IN SELECTED
SONG LYRICS OF THE CORRS
4. 1. The Data
1. My imagination just stole me away (A15)
2. So can’t you see I’m tortured, oh can’t you hear my pain (C11)
3. My heart aches with a hunger (D4)
4. Sharing summer kisses and city sounds (E3)
5. Wondering why my mind plays tricks (E17)
6. We are chasing the moon (G5)
7. Where our dreams collide (J6)
8. When the daylight takes you (K10)
9. It reaches through my skin (L7)
10. My sleeping cry (L39)
11. Open your heart, baby leave with me, don’t be afraid (N17)
4.1.2. Hyperbole
1. I live my dreams but it’s not all they say (A4)
2. Then I’ll give… all the love in the world (A10)
3. Just to get you through the loneliest days (A12)
4. And the nights grow colder (A26)
5. Go on, go on, leave me breathless (B1)
6. The daylight’s fading slowly (B3)

7. Don’t want you for the weekend, don’t want you for a day (C2)
8. It’s indefinable, it’s magical, illogical (C8)
9. I’ll be your summer rain (C13)
10. It can take you places, like never before (C24)
11. With a full glass and an empty heart (E5)
12. But you are in my head, swimming forever in my head (E7)
13. Tangled in my dreams, swimming forever… (E8)
14. Caught up in a distant dream I try (E14)
15. I would runaway with you (F6)
16. On these lazy summer days (G17)
17. You’ve been keeping me warm (H6)
18. In coffee city, we borrowed heaven (H9)
19. Do you ever think you’re someone else inside, when no one
understands you are (I3)
20. And wanna disappear inside a dream but never wanna wake up
(I4)
21. Leave, love you wave goodbye (J14)
22. When loving you is my finest hour (J21)
23. Leaving you, the hardest day of my life (J22)
24. I feel empty inside (J27)
25. I’m falling for you everyday (K5)
26. I’, aching for you only I’ll never tire (K17)
27. Oh and when life defies you (K26)

28. You’ll never go astray (K28)
29. Fly with me, loose reality (K30)
4.1.3. Synecdohe
1. Wondering, waiting for the day to fade away (K1)
2. You’ll find that you can’t stand to be away (K24)
3. I love my love and well he knows (M5)
4. Its out of our hands, we can’t stop what we had begun (P12)
4.1.4. Simile
1. Just like I need you (the way I see you) (C5)
2. And I want you to see me, like no one before (C6)
3. My faith in love is like blood, it flows in everyone (N12)
4. Some say the heart is just like a wheel (O1)
4.1.5. Metaphor
And suddenly I know why life is worthwhile, that’s what I see
through your eyes (P7&8)
4.2. The Analysis
1. My imagination just stole me away
Imagination is not human, it is not real and it is in our brain. It’s
impossible if imagination can really stole someone. So, the
sentence above may mean that she/he is enjoying her/his fantacy.
2. So can’t you see I’m tortured, oh can’t you hear my pain?

Pain is not human, unseen, and it can’t be heard by people. But we
only can feel it. So “hear my pain” may mean that she/he wants
her/his beloved one feel her/his sadness.
3. My heart aches with a hunger
Heart is life (it is beating) but it can’t talk or walk. The sentence
above may mean that had lost her/his beloved one.
4. Sharing summer kisses and city sounds
City is not human, it cannot move or talk. So the sentence above
may mean that couple which expressed their love with sharing each
other.
5. Wondering why my minds plays tricks
As we know mind is nit human and it can play anything. The
sentence above may mean that she/he had been fool by her/his
imagination.
6. We are chasing the moon
The sentence above is not really mean that they will chase the
moon, because moon is up in the sky and human is on earth, so it is
impossible to catch or case the moon. The literal meaning is they
are looking for happiness, where they belong to and feel
comfortable.

7. Where our dreams collide
As we know, dream is imagination and it is not real. The word
“collide” here means loose. So the sentence may mean that they
lost their hope of something.
8. When the daylight takes you
Daylight is not human, it can do any activities, and it is impossible
to take people. The sentence above may mean that her/his beloved
one doing some activities outside the house.
9. It reached through my skin
“it” here mean love. The sentence above may mean that she/he
really feel the love so that it make her/his happy and comfortable.
10. My sleeping cry
As we know sleep is kind of activity, it is not human. The word
“sleeping cry” is not really mean that she/he is crying while sleep,
but it may mean that she/he really need her/his beloved one.
11. Open your heart, bay leave with me, don’t be afraid
Heart is part of our body and it is in our body. We can really open
our heart because we will need the surgery to open it. So the literal
meaning is someone try to make her/his believe or trust him and
receive his love.

4.2.2. Hyperbole
1. I live my dream but it’s not all they say
Dream is imagination, it is not human and it is not real. The word
“live my dream” is not mean that we really live and do activities in
a dream. The sentence above may mean that she/he is
dreaming/imagining something.
2. Then I’ll give… all the love in the world
The world “give all the love in the world” is not really mean that
we have to gathered all the love in the world and give it to our
beloved one. The sentence above may mean that she/he will give
everything to her/his beloved one.
3. Just to get you through the loneliest days
Day is not human and it cannot feel alone like human. The word”
loneliest days” here is not mean that the day is really quiet. The
literal meaning may mean that she/he wants her/his beloved one
also feel her/his sadness.
4. And the nights grow colder
Night is not human, it can be grow or feel the cold. The sentence
above may mean that she/he is alone and need her/his beloved one
to accompany her/him.
5. Go on, go on, leave me breathless

The sentence above is not really mean that someone has no breath.
The literal meaning may mean that her/his beloved one had left
her/him and makes she/he does not have spirit to live her/his life.
6. The daylights fading slowly
It is impossible if the sun lose its colour. The sentence above may
mean that she/he had lost her/his spirit.
7. Don’t want you for the weekend, don’t want you for a day
The sentence above is not really mean that she/he does not need
her/his beloved one. The literal meaning may mean that she/he
want to have/be with her/his beloved one completely (not in
temporary condition, but in permanent condition).
8. It’s indefinable, it’s magical, illogical
The word “magic” here it is not really mean that something made
by magic. The literal meaning may mean that she/he is really
impressed by her/his beloved one.
9. I’ll be your summer rain
“Summer rain” here may mean that is her/his beloved one in a
trouble/problem, she/he will always support and make her/his
beloved one calm down.
10. It can take you places, like never before
The word “it” here mean love. But the sentence above is not really
mean that love can bring or take you from to place to another

place. The literal meaning may mean that with love we can learn
everything or even the new thing that we never done before.
11. With a full glass and an empty heart
As we know heart is in our body, it fulfill with blood and liquid. If
our heart is empty, it means that we had died. The sentence above
may mean that she/he is lonely, eventhough in a crowd.
12. But you are in my head, swimming forever in my head
Head is part of our body, we cannot swim in our head. The literal
meaning may mean that she/he always think about her/his beloved
one.
13. Tangled in my dreams, swimming forever…
The word “tangled in my dreams” is not really mean that someone
is fighting in a dream, because dream is not real. The sentence
above may mean that she/he is dreaming of her/his beloved one.
14. Caught up in a distant dream I try
The sentence above is not really mean that someone is trap in a
dream. The literal meaning may mean that she/he cannot
receive/accept the reality/fact and always shadowed by her/his
dream.
15. I would runaway with you
“Runaway” here is not really mean that someone is really run and
leave the city. The sentence above may mean that she/he want to
spent her/his life with her/his beloved one.

16. On these lazy summer days
“Day” is not human which can be lazy to do something. The
literal meaning may mean that the day which we can relax.
17. You’ve been keeping me warm
The word “warm” here is not really mean that someone is warmed
you as a fire or someone is next to the fire so you can feel warm.
The sentence above may mean that she/he feels comfortable with
her/his beloved one.
18. In coffee city, we borrowed heaven
We do not even know where heaven is, in our imagination is
beautiful place which made by ALLAH Swt. So the literal
meaning may mean that they are having fun in some place.
19. Do you ever think you’re someone else inside, when no one
understands you are
The sentence above may mean that she/he want to be a different
personality because no one believe her/him.
20. And wanna disappear inside a dream but never wanna wake
It is impossible to get in a dream and lost in it. Dream is an
imagination, we cannot go inside a dream. The literal meaning is
she/he cannot receive/accept the fact that happen to her/him.
21. Leave, love you wave goodbye

The sentence above may mean that she/he can accept the reality
that her/his beloved one leave her/him with all of her/his heart and
soul.
22. When loving you is my finest hour
The literal meaning is her/his beloved one is really mean to
her/him, but she/he must brake up/leave her/his beloved one.
23. Leaving you the hardest day of my life
“Day” is not human, it cannot be touched or carried. The sentence
above may mean that she/he still love her/his beloved one but
she/he must let her/his beloved one go.
24. I feel empty inside
“Empty” here is not really mean that nothing in our body. The
literal meaning is she/he is lonely.
25. I’m falling for you deeper everyday
The word “fall” here is not really mean that someone fall from
some high place and get wound. The literal meaning may mean
that she/he more loving her/his beloved one.
26. I’, aching for you only I’ll never tire
“Aching” here is not really mean hurt or suffering of something.
The word “aching” mean need or addicted of love. The sentence
above may mean that she/he will always need and love her/his
beloved one.
27. Oh and when life defies you

“Life” is not human, it cannot walk or talk or ask us to do
something. The literal meaning is she/he will always support
her/his beloved one no matter what happen.
28. You’ll never go astray
“Astray” here is not really mean that someone go to somewhere,
get lost, and cannot go back home. The sentence above may mean
that she/he makes sure her/his beloved one will never regret for
choosing her/him.
29. Fly with me, loose reality
As we know, we as a human cannot fly like a bird. The literal
meaning is she/he wants her/his to let her/his burden and enjoy
life with her/him.
4.2.3. Synecdoche
1. Wondering, waiting for the day to fade away
The word “fade” here means the change of time. So the sentence
may mean that she/he is waiting for the time of her/his beloved
one’s back.
2. You’ll find that you can’t stand to be away
“Stand” here refers to help and love. The literal meaning is she/he
tell her/his beloved one that her/his beloved one cannot life alone
without her/his love and help.

3. I love my love and well he knows
The word “love” here refers to someone. So the sentence above may
mean that she/he love someone and the one is already know that
she/he is love her/him.
4. Its out of our hands, we can’t stop what we have begun
“Hand” here mean out of control (without further thought). The
literal meaning is what they have been done is out of their control.
4.2.4. Simile
1. Just like I need you (the way I see you)
The sentence above may mean that she/he need each other (the love
and the careless).
2. And I want you to see me, like no one before
The sentence above may mean that she/he wants her/his beloved one
accept her/his just the way she/he is.
3. My faith in love is like blood, it flows in everywhere.
The literal meaning is she/he could love everyone, no matter the
occupation, the skin colour, the races, etc.
4. Some say the heart is just like a wheel
As we know wheel is round, it can be turn over. The sentence may
mean that someone’s feeling can change, sometimes she/he is happy
and the other time she/he can feel sad.

4.2.5. Metaphor
And suddenly I know why life is worthwhile, that’s what I see
trough your eyes
We cannot learn about life by looking someone’s eyes.
Metaphorically, it may mean that someone (her/his beloved one)
brings happiness to her/his life.

5. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1. CONCLUSIONS
Lyric is the part of the song in which particular circumstances contained
and expressed non-literal meanings. Lyric is commonly used to express the
feelings, ideas, thought, and expression of the composer.
Lyrics which are consisting of non-literal meaning can make the lyrics
itself more interesting in analyzing it.
It is not easy to understand the meaning of non-literal meaning because the
reader should be able to recognized the kinds of non-literal meaning first then the
context of non-literal meaning when it used in the song.
After analyzing the non-literal meaning in The Corrs song lyrics, the
writer can draw some conclusions as follows :
1. There are 49 cases of non-literal meaning found in the articles, they are
11 cases of personification or 84%, 29 cases of hyperbole or 5%, 4
cases of synecdoche or 5%, 4 cases of simile or 5%, and 1 case of
metaphor or 1%.
2. The most dominant type of non-literal meaning is hyperbole which is
represent 29 cases from 49 cases.
Based on this analysis, the writer concludes that is important to study and
to understand about literal and non-literal meaning. If not, there will be

misunderstanding or misinterpretation the meaning in which the composer wants
to convey in their works.
5.2. SUGGESTIONS
The writer thinks it is very interesting to study and analyze meaning
especially non-literal meaning in the song lyrics. Besides it can increase the
vocabulary, we can increase our knowledge about meaning. Meaning is not as
simple as the reader thought, because it is important to understand not only the
idea but also the context of the words, phrases or sentences where the meaning
exist.
For English learners who are interesting in analyzing the non-literal
meaning, the writer suggests that learners cannot separated the text without
understanding the whole text and context since they are related one another.

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3.

LITERAL AND NON-LITERAL MEANING

3.1. Types of Meaning

A piece of language conveys its dictionary meaning, connotations

Broadly speaking, ‘meaning’ means the sum total of communicated

Geoffrey Leech in his ‘Semantic- A Study of meaning’ (1974) breaks down

meaning into seven types or ingredients giving primacy to conceptual meaning.

The Seven types of meaning according to Leech are as follows.

1. Conceptual or Denotative Meaning

Conceptual meaning is also called logical or cognitive meaning. It

is the basic propositional meaning which corresponds to the

primary dictionary definition. Such a meaning is stylistically

neutral and objective as opposed to other kinds of associative

meanings. Conceptual meanings are the essential or core meaning

while other six types are the peripheral. It is peripheral in as sense

that it is non-essential. They are stylistically marked and subjective

kind of meanings. Leech gives primacy to conceptual meaning

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contrastiveness and hierarchical structure.

/P/ can be described as- voiceless + bilabial + plosive.

Boy = + human + male-adult.

The hierarchical structure of ‘Boy’ = + Human + Male-Adult

Or “Boy” =Human – Male/Female-adult in a rough way.

Conceptual meaning is the literal meaning of the word indicating

the idea or concept to which it refers. The concept is minimal unit

of meaning which could be called ‘sememe’. As we define

phoneme on the basis of binary contrast, similarly we can define

sememe ‘Woman’as = + human + female + adult. If any of these

attribute changes the concept cease to be the same.

Conceptual meaning deals with the core meaning of expression. It

is the denotative or literal meaning. It is essential for the

functioning of language. For example, a part of the conceptual

meaning of ‘Needle” may be “thin”, “sharp” or “instrument”.

The organization of conceptual meaning is based on two structural

principles- Contrastiveness and the principle of structure. The

conceptual meanings can be studied typically in terms of

For example the word “woman” can be shown as:

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On the contrary, word

“Boy” can be realized as:-

“Boy = “+ human, + male, - Adult”.

By the principle of structure, larger units of language are built up

The aim of conceptual meaning is to provide an appropriate

semantic representation to a sentence or statement. A sentence is

made of abstract symbols. Conceptual meaning helps us to

distinguish one meaning from the meaning of other sentences.

Thus, conceptual meaning is an essential part of language. A

language essentially depends on conceptual meaning for

communication. The conceptual meaning is the base for all the

other types of meaning.

Connotative meaning is the communicative value of an expression

over and above its purely conceptual content. It is something that

goes beyond mere referent of a word and hints at its attributes in

the real world. It is something more than the dictionary meaning.

Thus purely conceptual content of ‘woman’ is +human + female+

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be ‘gregarious’, ‘having maternal instinct’ or typical (rather than