On Associative Meanings of Medicinal Traditional Fruits: A Semantico-Pragmatic Perspective of Local-Cultured Environmental Richness

Abstract

This research studies the associative meanings contained in the traditional medicinal fruits found in Indonesia. The object of research is not the benefits of the traditional medicinal fruits to cure any diseases. Instead, the research objective is the associative meanings contained in the traditional medicinal fruits. The perspective used in this research is the semantico-pragmatics theory. The research results show that the names of fruits found in various regions in Indonesia has associative meanings, such as iconic, collocative, affective, social, and reflective. The associative meanings are found in the traditional medicinal fruits, such as mengkudu, permot, tin, parijoto, leunca, kalaloyang, manggis, mahkota dewa, berunuk, cermai, delima, takokak, and jarak. This research contributes to the following purposes: (1) preserving the local wisdom values found in traditional medicinal fruits; (2) providing socio-cultural documentation of traditional medicinal fruits in various regions in Indonesia; (3) developing the study in the semantic-pragmatic field.