SONG

SONG

#definition

Understanding the social function and language features of songs to learn the words, feelings and rhymes in songs, according to the contexts.

Here are some points to learn:

1. Words in songs.

What does “a certain word” mean?

Songs are similar to poems. There are beautiful words in songs and poems. Some of the words are new for us. To help us understand the songs, we need to know the meanings of the difficult words. Looking up the dictionary will certainly help us know the meanings of the words and enrich our vocabulary.

2. Synonyms and antonyms.

Singing and reading the lyrics of songs will help up enrich vocabulary by trying to find the synonym and antonym of the difficult words. We have to check the words in the dictionary and make notes.

3. Rhymes of the songs.

Learning the rhymes of the songs will help us learning how to pronounce the words. Pronunciation is an important aspect to learn when we learn a language. If we miss pronounce words, other will not understand what we are saying.

4. The feelings of the singer.

Songs and the lyrics show how the singers feel. Songs can suggest happiness, sadness, ignorance, care, hopes, love, friendship, and others.

5. How to understand a complete song.

Read the lyrics of this song:

I Believe I Can Fly

I used to think that I could not go on

And life was nothing but an awful song

But now I know the meaning of true love

I’m leaning on the everlasting arms

If I can see it, then I can do it

If I just believe it, there’s nothing to it

I believe I can fly

I believe I can touch the sky

I think about it every night and day

Spread my wings and fly away

I believe I can soar

I see me running through that open door

I believe I can fly

I believe I can fly

I believe I can fly

See I was on the verge of breaking down

Sometimes silence can seem so loud

There are miracles in life I must achieve

But first I know it starts inside of me

Sung by R.Kelly, taken from www.metrolyrics.com

From the song, we can learn:

• Meanings of words.

We can find some words that we don’t understand by looking up a dictionary.

For example:

Soar : in the dictionary, we find the meaning: to fly, especially very high up in the sky, floating in air currents.

• Same rhymes.

For example:

Fly /flaI/ - sky /skaI/

Down /daun/ - loud /laud/

• Synonyms

Find the synonyms or the similar meanings to help us enrich our vocabulary.

For example:

Awful - terrible

Silence - quietness

• Antonyms

Find the antonyms to help us enrich our vocabulary.

For example:

Open - closed

True - false

• The feeling of the singer

If we read the complete lyrics, we will see the singer’s feeling.

The first line of the first verse, the singer used to feel that he could not go on. But, the third line of the same verse, the singer now understands true love. He believes he can do what he wants to do as long as he believes it.

The singer is grateful that now he is optimist in living his life.