Visual Sovereignty over Poetics: Deconstructing the Resistance to Metaphor in the Linguistic Cognition of Boang Speakers

Abstract

This research explores the cognitive structure of the Boang language in Aceh Singkil, a mother tongue which is now facing the threat of extinction due to language shift and lack of scientific documentation. In the midst of the dominance of conceptual metaphor theory which considers abstraction to be universal, Boang language actually presents an anomaly in the form of extreme attachment to physical reality. The main aim of this research is to deconstruct lexical mechanisms that indicate the speaker's empirical honesty through three main domains: vertical kinematics, control thermodynamics, and scale-based taxonomy. This study employed a qualitative ethnosemantic approach supported by the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework. Data were collected from native Boang speakers through observation and in-depth lexical elicitation. The analysis focused on several key lexical items, including Leneng, Milas, Hangat, and Kedek, to examine how meanings are structured and categorized within the Boang cognitive system. The findings indicate that these lexical items tend to prioritize concrete physical parameters, such as direction of movement, source of energy, and physical size, rather than subjective intentions or abstract conceptual associations. Based on these patterns, this study proposes the analytical concept of Semantic Monolithism, referring to a semantic tendency in which lexical categorization is predominantly organized around stable and directly observable physical features. Rather than suggesting a complete absence of metaphorical thinking, the findings highlight an alternative semantic orientation that emphasizes empirical categorization within the examined lexical domains. The study contributes to cognitive linguistics by providing evidence of semantic variation in an under-documented language and highlights the importance of documenting local linguistic knowledge before it is affected by ongoing language assimilation.