A Syntactic Analysis of Interrogatives Sentences in Taylor Swift’s 1989 Album
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33005/ijl.v3i1.76Keywords:
interrogatives sentences, Taylor Swift’s 1989 Album, syntatic analysisAbstract
Background: This study contains an analysis of the structure and role of interrogative sentences in Taylor Swift's 1989 album (2014). The interrogative sentences in her song lyrics express emotions such as doubt and heartbreak, creating personal and interesting meanings. Although pop lyrics are often analysed based on theme, grammatical aspects, especially interrogative sentences, are still under-explored. Objective: To address this gap, the present study analyses interrogative sentences in eight songs from 1989 using a qualitative descriptive approach. Method: In this album, only eight of the 21 songs contain interrogative sentences. The study adopts the classification of English interrogative sentence types proposed by Quirk et al. to identify yes/no questions, WH-questions, and tag questions. The data consist of 24 interrogative sentences identified from the official song lyrics. Data were collected through documentation, classified according to their syntactic forms, and interpreted based on their contextual meanings. Results: The findings reveal that yes/no questions dominate the corpus with 19 occurrences (79%), followed by five WH-questions (21%), whereas tag questions are absent. Yes/no questions, such as ‘Is it over now?’, use inversion to convey surprise or regret. WH questions, such as ‘What was shiny?’, build drama by asking for specific details. This study shows that interrogative sentences create tension and connection with listeners, especially in the chorus. Conclusion: By combining syntax and pragmatics, this study reveals how Swift's questions mimic everyday conversation. This research contributes to linguistics by highlighting the importance of grammar in music
References
Agnes, P. (2016). A Syntactical Analysis on Sentence Patterns Used in Coldplay ’ s Song Lyrics
Alyousef, H. S. (2021). A multimodal discourse analysis of interpersonal meaning in selected English songs based on Systemic Functional Linguistics. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 11(4), 392–401.
Analisti, D. (2016). Evaluating the Quality of Sentence Structures, Citations and References in. 1-18
Bagasbas, L., Cuadro, S., & Luares, E. S. C. (2025). Anatomizing Taylor Swift’s ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ Album. Journal of Professional Communication and English Studies, 1(1), 46-60. Retrieved from http://ejournal2.pnp.ac.id/index.php/PROCESS/article/view/1808
Bennett, A. (2017). Popular Music and Youth Culture: Music, Identity, and Place. London: Palgrave.
Chomsky, N. (1957)Syntactic Structure. Mouton, The Hague
Christianto, Danin. (2018). Syntactic Analysis on Sentence Patterns in John Denver’s Song Lyrics. Thesis. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma
Coffin, C., Donohue, J., & North, S. (2022). Exploring English grammar: From formal to functional approaches (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches (5th ed.). SAGE Publications
Damayanti, N. W. Y., Putra, I. G. B. W. N., & Maharani, P. D. (2021). Sentence Structure of Interrogative Sentences in “After You” Novel. ELYSIAN JOURNAL: English Literature, Linguistics and Translation Studies, 1(2), 25-36.
Eggins, S. (2015). An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics (3rd ed.). London: Bloomsbury.
Fillmore, Charles J. & Collin Baker. (2009). Semantic Analysis. In Bernd Heine & Heiko Narrog (eds). The oxford handbook of linguistic analysis, 791-816. Oxford: Oxford University Pers.
Fung, A. (2020). Global Pop Music and Linguistic Style. Journal of World Popular Music, 8(2), 50–66.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2014). Halliday's introduction to functional grammar (4th ed.). Routledge.
Hawkins, S. (2020). Popular Music Studies: Syntax, Discourse, and Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Herbert, D. (2018). Music and Identity in Twenty-First Century Popular Culture. Popular Music and Society, 41(1), 35–50.
Keith Brown, J. M. (1991). Syntax a Linguistic Introduction to Structure. HarperCollins Academic.
Martin, J. R., & Rose, D. (2021). Working with discourse: Meaning beyond the clause (3rd ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.
Moore, A. (2016). Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song. New York: Routledge.
Munday, J. (2016). Introducing translation studies: Theories and applications (4th ed.). Routledge. (Particularly useful for discourse and interpersonal meaning.)
Putri, R. G. (2020). A syntactical analysis of interrogative sentences in Aladdin movie script [Undergraduate thesis, Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Ampel Surabaya]. UIN Sunan Ampel Digital Library.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. Longman.
Smith, J., & Lee, H. (2022). Interrogative Strategies in Contemporary Songwriting. Linguistics & the Human Sciences, 18(1), 5–25.
Taylor, K. (2022). Transformations in Taylor Swift’s Lyricism: From Country Roots to 1989 Pop Sensibility. Popular Music Review, 45(2), 30–45.
Thompson, G., Bowcher, W., Fontaine, L., & Schönthal, D. (2019). The Cambridge handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Cambridge University Press.
Zappavigna, M. (2018). Searchable talk: Hashtags and social media discourse. Bloomsbury Academic. (Useful for discussing interpersonal meaning and popular discourse.)
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Intan Marisa, Dahnil Syah, Hapni Nurliana H.D Hasibuan, Asyifa Adha Putri, Yohana Fitri Novita
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
