A Descriptive Study on the Functions of Idioms with Magical Terminology in Building the Story of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

摘要

The main aims of this study are to describe the idioms with magical terminology in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, to compare real English idioms and the idioms with magical terminology in the novel, and to describe the functions of the idioms with magical terminology in building the story. udThis study was descriptive qualitative research. The subject of this research was the idioms with magical terminology found in the novel. This novel was part of a series fantasy novel written by J.K. Rowling. Previous studies have been done to the novel, but they only focused on the literature and the cultural aspects of the novel. This study analyzed the novel from the linguistics perspective. The idioms with magical terminology found in the novel were compared to real English idioms. Comparison was done word by word and also to the context of the story. The analysis was also done by comparing words’ meaning and the semantic features. Finally the data were analyzed with related theories of linguistics and discourse analysis. The result was tested using related theories as Denzin’s triangulation technique to achieve trustworthiness.udThe results of the study show that idioms have been used in the novel as an integral part of the story. Rowling modified the common English idioms by changing some words with other words that have magical features. For example, the idiom crying over the spilt milk was changed into crying over the spilt potion. There are 21 modified idioms found in the novel. This study describes the use of the idioms and the meaning according to the magical words that form it. The results show the use of idioms with magical terminology in the novel is to make the reader believe that the world of magic does exist as it even has its own language (idioms) and culture. Those idioms also occur without any further explanation of the words that form them such as galleon or pixies. The magical terms have already been clarified in prequels series. This means the readers who want only to read the latest series will be obligated to read the previous series to understand the meaning of the terms and the idioms. Next, the idioms also have function in the plot about discrimination. Some rude idioms such as mudblood or blood traitor support the idea of discrimination in wizarding community. The results of this study can be used as a consideration in teaching cultural relevancy in language teaching from the linguistic point of view in a novel