PRAGMATICS ANALYSIS OF ALL THE LITTLE LIGHTS ALBUM BY PASSENGER

This study conducted a pragmatic analysis of Passenger’s album, “All the Little Lights.” The aim of this study was to examine the contextual analysis of the 12 songs in the album, focusing on the illocutionary acts present and the pragmatic act. The first problem identified in the existing literature was the lack of examination of illocutionary acts and pragmatic theory in relation to music. Existing discourses on the genre of music had predominantly centered around code mixing, code switching, and semantic analysis of music. While some pragmatic studies had been conducted, these had primarily focused on the components of pragmatics in the songs such as deixis, etc. Little or no attention had been given to the analysis of the music from the perspective of J.L. Austin and John Searle’s illocutionary acts, as well as Jacob L. Mey’s pragmatic theory. By addressing this gap, this study sought to enrich the understanding of how music functions as a form of communication, beyond its linguistic features. The second problem was that previous studies on the album had primarily focused on the identification of figurative language. While this analysis was valuable, it did not provide a comprehensive understanding of the illocutionary acts and pragmatic aspects present in the songs. Thus, the study used Searle’s Speech Act Theory and Mey’s Pragmatic theory as the theoretical framework. The findings of this study revealed the complexity and richness of Passenger’s album, “All the Little Lights,” in terms of illocutionary acts and the pragmatic act as a whole. It demonstrated that music was not only a medium for conveying emotions but also a powerful tool for conveying messages, making requests, expressing opinions, and initiating social actions. This study concludes that Passenger album is an embodiment of contextual meaning.