2025/10/30 by Sadieli Telaumbanua · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Literary Theory and Cultural Hermeneutics #Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature #Language, Metaphor, and Cognition
paper · pdf · doi:10.37708/ezs.swu.bg.v23i3.5
openalex created_date 2025/10/30 · openalex publication_date 2025/10/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
This study applies Stibbe’s ecolinguistic framework to analyze how Jajang A. Sonjaya’s novel Manusia Langit constructs Nias cultural identity and environmental consciousness. Ecolinguistics examines the intersection of language, culture, and environment, focusing on narratives that shape human-nature relationships. The analysis examines Stibbe's concept of “stories-we-live-by” – culturally embedded narratives that influence perception and behavior toward the environment. Through linguistic analysis of modal expressions, presuppositions, and culturally significant terms such as banua (heaven) and niha (human), the study reveals how the novel reinforces Nias cosmology and the sacred relationship between the Nias people and their ancestral land. The protagonist Mahendra’s first-person narration, which traces his transformation from skeptical outsider to cultural participant, provides a narrative framework for exploring ecological identity formation. By focusing on the ecolinguistic concepts of conviction, identity, and ideology, this research reveals how Manusia Langit constructs an ecological worldview grounded in local epistemology. It demonstrates the value of ecolinguistics in analyzing Indigenous narratives by showing how specific linguistic choices – such as metaphor, repetition, and appeals to authority – construct ecological meaning rooted in local cosmology. Manusia Langit portrays the Nias people's response to ecological disruptions, particularly deforestation driven by rubber and patchouli cultivation. These changes are linked to the loss of sacred traditions, such as ancestral stone sites and house-building rituals. By analyzing these narratives, the research contributes to ecolinguistic debates on how Indigenous worldviews shape sustainable relationships with the environment in Southeast Asia.