Investigating Figurative Language Use in the Selected Songs of “Wicked: For Good” Musical Fantasy Film
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v13i2.8341Keywords:
Figurative Language, Songs, Musical Fantasy Film.Abstract
The aim of this research is to interpret the figurative language in the lyrics of the songs that accompany the movie “Wicked: For Good”. The data consisted of the lyrics to all the songs (6 songs) in the soundtrack of “Wicked: For Good”. This research utilized a combination of descriptive qualitative method and content analysis design in order to demonstrate the types of figurative language and their meanings used in soundtracks. The soundtracks of the movies contained ascribed nine different types of figurative language comprising of personification, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, symbolism, irony, paradox, alliteration and repetition. Personification has five data points (10%), metaphor has twelve data points (24%), hyperbole has six data points (12%), irony has nine data points (18%), symbolism has five data points (10%), paradox has two data points (4%), alliteration has two data points (4%), and repetition has four data points (8%). The song lyrics from the soundtrack of the movie "Wicked: For Good" revealed that the soundtrack employed a lot of metaphor to construct songs because figurative language may make a song more artistic, meaningful, and aesthetically pleasing. "Wicked: For Good" is a musical fantasy movie, and students can learn figurative language through movies.
References
Aitchison, Jean. (2008). Linguistics. London: Hodder Headline.
Alfiyani, W. (2021). Type and Meaning of the Figurative Language Found in Niki’s Selected Song Lyrics. Jurnal CULTURE (Culture, Language, and Literature Review), 8(2). https://doi.org/10.53873/culture.v8i2.271
Aniza, G. H., Wangi, W., & Wageyono. (2022). LUNAR (Language and Art). LUNAR (Language and Art), 4(2), 158–163.
Arditami, P. R. (2017). An Analysis of Figurative Language Found in Katy Perry’s Song Entitled “Firework.” Lingua Scientia, 24 (2), 45-58.
Bryman, A. (2004). Social Research Methods. New York: Oxford University Press.
Colebrook, C. (2005). Irony. London & New York: Routledge.
Creswell, J. W., Plano Clark, V. L. (2018). Designing and conducting mixed methods Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Dancygier, B., & Sweetser, E. (2014). Figurative Language. Cambridge University Press.
Kennedy. (2011). Literature. An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 12th ed. Pearson Education
Keraf, G. 2009. Diksi dan Gaya Bahasa. Jakarta: PT. Gramedia Pustaka Utama.
Leech, G. (1981). Semantics: The Study of Meaning (2nd Ed.). Penguin Books. Margono, S. (2010). Metodologi Penelitian Pendidikan. Rineka Cipta.
McKenzie, P. W. (2016). Interactive notebook language and arts. Carson-Dellosa Publishing.
Patel, C. M. (2014). Imagery and Figurative Language in Wordsworth’s Poems “The World Is Too Much with Us” and “My Heart Leaps Up.” International Journal of Research (IJR), 1 (6), 650-654
Murtadho, A. M., & Amelia, A. (2022). An Analysis of Figurative Language Used in Westlife’s Selected Songs. Journal of English Language and Literature (JELL), 7(1), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.37110/jell.v7i1.145
Syarifah, S., Manugeren, M., & Purwarno, P. (2020). Simile Used in Lenka’s Song Everything at Once. AICLL: Annual International Conference on Language and Literature, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.30743/aicll.v3i1.77
Wibisono, R. T., & Widodo, P. (2019). An analysis of figurative language in an online short story posted on the Jakarta Post. Journal of Linguistics, 4(2), 156–165.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Citation Check
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Srimaharani Tanjung; Abdurrohman Septiadi

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See the Effect of Open Access)
