A Functional Stylistic Analysis on Lyrical Text of Selected Country Songs

Abstract

This thesis analyses three lyrical texts of intimate relationship: Back To December, If This Was A Movie and Dear John by Taylor Swift. The theory of the thesis is Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics. This thesis is intended to prove how lexicogrammatical patterns (Transitivity, Mood and Theme) apprehend semantic components (Experiential, Interpersonal and Textual Meanings). Then, how to know that the semantic components realize situational dimensions (Field, Tenor and Mode). Library research is employed in this thesis. The data used in this thesis are qualitative data applying bibliographical technique as the data collection. The data are written lyrical texts. The descriptive method is used to describe lexicogrammatical patterns, semantic components and situational dimensions. The result of this thesis indicates that the three lyrical texts share the same Tenor: the interaction of two lovers. However, they differ in many ways. The Field of first lyrical text is the impression of past memory; whereas the Mode is a narrative text. The Field of second lyrical text is the expectation of his coming back; meanwhile the Mode is a persuasive text. The Field of third lyrical text is the description of a past love, and the Mode is a descriptive text. In conclusion, It is proved that there is a link between lexicogrammatical patterns, semantic components and situational dimensions. Systemic functional analysis is presented to describe the relation and uncover and state how a text means.