Exploration of collocation and meaning of song lyrics in the album Hit me Hard and Soft by Billie Eilish: A corpus linguistics approach

Abstrak

This study examines complex language patterns and thematic components in Billie Eilish's album Hit Me Hard and Soft and aims to reveal how the use of collocations and conceptual metaphors is employed to convey themes such as social criticism, emotional conflict, and identity. The data consists of ten songs including Skinny, Lunch, Chihiro, Birds of a Feather, Wildflower, The Greatest, L’amour De Ma Vie, The Diner, Bittersuite, and Blue are analyzed using a qualitative descriptive method is applied, combining text linguistics and semantic analysis. The primary data is collected from the website Genius, the data were analyzed through corpus-based text analysis to identify word frequency, collocations, and patterns of collocations. Then, these language characteristics are analyzed through a semantic framework and conceptual metaphor theory to understand how meaning is constructed in song lyrics. This figurative language reinforces these patterns by representing complex states such as feelings of confinement, depression, and existential longing. This analysis highlights how the album constructs broader themes related to social critique, emotional struggle, and personal identity, while simultaneously creating a strong aesthetic and emotional resonance for listeners. This study contributes to discourse linguistics and literary analysis by showing how collocations and metaphors interact in contemporary popular music. It also underscores the value of corpus-based methods for uncovering hidden patterns in song lyrics and illustrates how language in music functions not only as a means of artistic expression but also as a form of cultural commentary.