Ethnolinguistic Study of Marine Fishes’ Characters of the Biak Tribe, Papua

Abstract

This study aimed to describe lexical and cultural meaning of marine fish characters from the perspective of the Biak tribe, Papua. The Ethnolinguistics method used was assisted by Charles Carpenter Fries' lexical and cultural meaning theory. Lexical or general meaning referred to denotation, while cultural meaning described the connotation of the Biak tribe. The data was obtained from an informant belonging to the Biak tribe, possessing comprehensive knowledge of the nomenclature, morphology, and cultural significance of marine fish used. Meanwhile, data was collected using interviews, recording, listening, and note-taking methods. The analysis was done by identifying fish names according to characteristics and traits before classifying them into lexical and cultural meanings. The results showed 13 types of the Biak marine fish, whose characteristics were similar to humans.