Figurative Language in English Stand-Up Comedy

Abstract

This descriptive qualitative research was about the analysis of figurative language in English stand-up comedy. The purposes of this study were to identify the types of figurative language and to describe the functions of figurative language found in the selected video of stand-up comedy show. The data source was taken from one of selected videos of Russell Peters stand-up comedy show. Russell Peters's speech contained about figurative language in the video is observed. The data were collected through content analysis technique by collecting the verbal language used by Russell Peters. The first research questions was analyzed by McArthur (1992) theory and supported by Crystal (1994) theory to find out the types of figurative language found in English stand-up comedy. To answer the second research questions about the functions of figurative language found in English stand-up comedy was analyzed by Chunqi (2014) theory and suppoted by Kokemuller (2001) theory and Turner (2016) theory. After analyzing data, it was found that Irony was the most dominant figurative language used by Russell Peters in "Russell Peters Comedy Now! Uncensored" with 29.94%. It was happened because the kind of topics used by Russell Peters in that show were about ethnics (canadian, white people, black people, brown people and asian), society case (beating child) and culture (accent and life style of various ethnics in the world, habitual of various ethnics in the world). Irony and Hyperbole were needed dominantly in the performance, to entertain the audiences in the stand-up comedy show. The function of eleven types of figurative language which were used by Russell were concluded. The functions were to amuse people in comedic situations, to expand meaning, to explain abstract emotions, to make sentence interesting represented and give creative additions.

An Analysis of Figurative Language in The Song Lyrics By Saif Adam

“…However, those studies focus only on the types of figurative language, the contextual meaning of the figurative language used, and how the figurative language used for different genders. Meanwhile, certain Figurative Language also have some functions such as to compare two things (Risdianto, 2016), to hide the real meaning (Putri et al, 2016), to exaggerate the statement (Chunqi, 2014), etc.…”

Vietnamese EFL Students’ Perceptions of Difficulties in Achieving English Oral Communicative Competence

“…They admitted having difficulties to use the words in a correct context (item 9) due to the fact that many words have fixed meanings in different norms (Bajracharya, 2018). Under certain circumstances, students were confused when native speakers of English used a rhetorical phrase to express their ideas (item 10) because in order to truly understand English, students should have basic knowledge of some most common types of figurative language (Putri, Oktoma & Nursyamsu, 2016). As for cultural differences, students agreed that they lacked the knowledge necessary for effective communication with speakers of English (item 11).…”

An Analysis of Minor Figurative Language Used in Stand-Up Comedy Performed by Hasan Minhaj Entitled Homecoming King

“…To use Figurative language, the speaker needs an ability of word sense to make a figurative language suits the whole sentence. Figurative language is different from literal language (Putri et al, 2016). When the speaker uses literal language, the fact or the thing that the speaker wants to convey is already stated as the reader needs to know.…”

“…When the speaker uses literal language, the fact or the thing that the speaker wants to convey is already stated as the reader needs to know. Putri et al (2016) add that the main determination is to strengthen the audience's imagination through communication. So the audience's knowledge has a great impact on their result in receiving the message.…”

“…Two studies related to figurative languages are stand-up comedy and song lyrics. First, the study is conducted by Putri, Oktoma, and Nursyamsu (2016) which purpose of this research is to find out the types and functions of figurative language used in stand-up comedy. It is found that there are functions of the figurative language in stand-up comedy: 'to amuse people in comedic situations,to expand meaning, to explain abstract emotions, to make sentence interesting representedand give creative additions'.…”