The Beatles' Lyrics: Spontaneous Songwriting, Conventional Metaphors, and Open Readings from a Cognitive Linguistic Perspective

• Autorzy: Krzysztof Kosecki
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

Spontaneous songwriting underlies so many well-known lyrics by the Beatles. Many texts, such as "A Day in the Life" (1967), originated in current newspaper articles or situational contexts (Marchbank, 1978, 92). In this way, Lennon and McCartney have written many songs which not only involve a lot of musical novelty, but are also open to various interpretations. These interpretations often go well beyond the ideas that actually shaped the lyrics. Some of the songs were considered poetry by the Beatles themselves. Lennon, for example, thought so about Across the Universe (1970), which appeared on the "Let It Be" album (Marchbank, 1978, 80). Whether one regards them as such or not, the lyrics frequently employ metaphors which make various readings possible. As in all poetic or artistic texts, the metaphors in the Beatles' lyrics are like those used by people in everyday interaction. In what follows, lyrics of four songs will be discussed. Each of them contains conventional metaphors. In the case of Maxwell's Silver Hammer (1969), the metaphor is deeply entrenched in everyday discourse. In "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" (1968), the conventional metaphors spring from a non-conventional piece of advertisement. "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" (1965) and "Nowhere Man" (1965) both contain probably the most common of all metaphors, yet they take the possible interpretations much further than the original intentions of the authors. It is especially evident in the case of "Nowhere Man", which will be given most attention below. (fragment of text)

Słowa kluczowe

EN

Linguistics; Text analysis

PL

Językoznawstwo; Analiza tekstu

• Czasopismo: Przedsiębiorczość i Zarządzanie
• Rocznik: 2011
• Tom: 12
• Numer: z. 11 Participations and Assessments (2)
• Strony: 109--122

Twórcy

autor

Krzysztof Kosecki

• University of Lodz, Poland

Bibliografia

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