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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this part, the researcher presented the object of the study, research design, role of the

researcher, procedures of data collection, and procedures of data analysis.

3.1 Object of the Study

The object is divided into two kinds of objects. They are material object and formal object.

Material object is the study of Imagine song lyric seen from the text content point of view,

while formal object is the study of the lyric seen from the reader’s point of view where the

reader found that the lyric contains some problems that should be analyzed concerning on

the representation of peace, humanity and new world order concept and also the portrayed

culture inside the Lyric of Imagine song.

3.2 Research Design

In this research, the researcher has drawn design relating to the steps in doing the analysis.

This section consists of:

3.2.1 Type of Research

To gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations toward the

phenomenon described in Imagine song lyric, the researcher focused on applying

descriptive qualitative method. Qualitative research relies on linguistic that numerical data

and employs meaning-based rather than statistical form of data analysis (Polkinghorne,

1983). Based from that, the researcher described the signs which indicate a cause and effect

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relationship followed by the evidence to vindicate his statements. The data used were

words, phrases and clauses instead of numbers and it has been taken from the lyric of

Imagine song.

3.2.2 Source of Data Collection

The analyzed data is in the form of written language. The researcher only focused on the

analysis of textual data. All of the data are in the form of composing words and sentences

which are called qualitative data. In this research, there are two kinds of data sources which

are used; they are primary and secondary data. Primary data is the data extracted from the

Imagine song lyric. The data taken can be a word, phrase or clause. Meanwhile, secondary

data is the data taken from the outside of the Imagine lyric that are relevant to the topic.

The data can be taken from books, dictionaries, articles, e-books and journals.

3.2.3 Research Approach

In order to give semiotic meanings in the text, the process of approaching the text was

applied by doing heuristic and hermeneutic or retroactive reading, finding the matrix and

also the hypogram according to the step described in the poetic semiotics approach of

Riffaterre. This approach was applied in attempt to uncover the meaning and phenomena

contained in John Lennon's Imagine. Heuristic reading, according to Riffaterre (1978:5) is

the first reading step which is intended to comprehend the meaning linguistically while

hermeneutic reading is the second step of reading which is intended to interpret intact

meaning of the text.

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3.3 Role of the Researcher

The main point of research instrument in conducting the research is the role of the

researcher. Researcher’s role is explained as follows:

3.3.1 Data collector.

The researcher collected as many as possible data to support the study.

3.3.2 Data classifier.

Another important role done by the researcher was classifying which of the gathered

data used to support the analysis.

3.3.3 Data analyzer.

The researcher classified the data analysis.

3.3.4 Data interpreter.

In this phase, the researcher gave comment and interpretation based on the research

findings.

3.4 Procedures of Data Collection

There were some steps in collecting qualitative data. The step can be seen as the following:

3.4.1 Reading the Text

Although the research object is a song, the study focused only in analyzing the lyric.

Therefore, applying reading method was the best way to understand the content of the lyric

so that the researcher could find which part of the lyric directly related to the research

problems.
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3.4.2 Gathering primary data

After understanding the content, the researcher carefully selected any parts of the lyric

which showed the relation between the lyric and research problem and gathered it as the

primary data.

No Word/Phrase Interpretation Source

Table 3.1

3.4.3 Gathering data support

The researcher gathered data support such as the definition and purpose of each point which

were used as the analysis tools of the topic on which the lyric was written, as well as

reading and understanding some other researches and journals with similar topic.

3.4.4 Interpreting

By using the help of data support, the researcher has done an interpretation to decipher the

condensed meaning inside the lyric as the data which were analyzed in this research.

3.4.5 Classifying and Inventorying

In the next step, the researcher listed the interpreted data into a distinctive table. The table

consists of the number of data which were collected based on the problem statements. The

table also shows what research question has been answered by the data.
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Heuristic Reading Table

Form of Data Heuristic Data Position

No (Word) Interpretation (Verse/Line)

Table 3.2

Hermeneutic Reading Table

Form of Data
Author’s Life Social/Cultural Hermeneutic
No (Word/Phrase/ Moment Phenomena Interpretation
Clause)

Table 3.3

3.4.6 Reporting

The researcher did his report using the classified data of the research. The data was reported

in the form of word(s), phrase(s) or sentence(s). The table is also used to give a clear

correlation between the subject matter and Lennon’s concept of ideal future world.

3.4.7 Concluding

From the data drawn in the previous steps, the last step done was concluding the whole

interpretations of the data in order to answer the problem questions.

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3.5 Procedures of Data Analysis

After the data are obtained, the next task of the researcher was to analyze the data. In this

phase, the researcher applied a descriptive qualitative technique in analyzing the data.

According to Semi (1993: 23), a qualitative study does not use numbers but prioritizing the

appreciation and the interaction between the concepts being studied empirically. Moleong

(2000: 6) says qualitative research is the data found or collected in the form of words,

images and not numbers. The approach applied by the researcher was poetic semiotics

approach of Michael Riffaterre. It was intended to dismantle Lennon’s real concept of

“Imagine” song lyric. There were some steps to do in applying poetic semiotic s approach.

The steps can be seen as the following:

3.5.1 Describing the explanation of Lennon’s concept of peaceful world

The first step done in this analysis was applying what so called “first step reading” or

heuristic reading. The text was analyzed linguistically based on the language conversion

according to the dictionary meaning. In this phase, the reading was applied in sequence,

from the first until the last line of the lyric. The researcher gave the meaning word by word,

phrase by phrase and then line by line until he got the actual meaning of the whole parts.

The next step to do was applying what so called hermeneutic reading. Hermeneutic reading

was applied by modifying the actual meaning obtained from the first reading phase using

the background knowledge which the researcher has and also using the references from

outside the text which were decoded to get an in depth understanding about the text content.

Ultimately, the researcher pulled the matrix out to get a clear sense of literary works.

Matrix should be abstracted from the text and it is not explicitly appear (Riffaterre, 1978:

13-21, in Pradopo, 2007: 227). Matrix is the keyword to understand the whole concept, the
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idea, and the theme of the text. Matrix can be a word; can also be a phrase, or a simple

sentence.

3.5.2 Explaining the background cultures which influence John Lennon

The researcher knows that Imagine song basically constructed from the influence of a

certain or some cultures. It can be previous literary works that the writer has read or a

culture which exists around him that forms his idealism. In this phase, the step the

researcher has already done was finding out what so called “hypogram”. Hypogram is the

background influence that becomes foundation of the text creation although it is not

implicitly appear (Nurgiyantoro, 2010: 51). By finding out the hypogram, the researcher

was able to describe the cultures which influence John Lennon in creating his literary

works.