Ecopragmatic roles of insect lexicons: A case of Indonesian Javanese Penginyongan parikan.

This study investigates the ecopragmatic roles of insect lexicons in Penginyongan parikan, a traditional rhymed couplet from the Banyumas region of Central Java, Indonesia. Drawing on Capone's concept of pragmeme and Wong's triple articulation framework, parikan is examined as a culturally situated speech act where linguistic form, meaning, culture, and ecology intersect. Using qualitative participant observation across 16 rural villages, 128 speakers contributed examples of parikan containing insect references. Analysis integrates speech act theory, ecopragmatics, and ethnolinguistic perspectives. Findings reveal that insect lexicons serve ten illocutionary functions – including stating, asserting, lamenting, and flirting – while embedding ecological knowledge and social norms. Insects such as kinjeng (dragonfly), buli (cicada), ampal (beetle), and coro (cockroach) operate across three interconnected levels: ecological (species traits and environmental context), cultural-symbolic (moral values, social etiquette), and linguistic-aesthetic (rhyme, rhythm, mnemonic appeal). These eco-pragmemes enable indirect communication that preserves social harmony, aligns with Javanese tata krama (politeness), and sustains environmental literacy. The study shows how parikan transforms everyday ecological references into culturally intelligible metaphors, facilitating emotional expression, social negotiation, and moral instruction without direct confrontation. By preserving insect nomenclature in poetic discourse, Banyumas communities maintain an oral archive of ecological observation, despite environmental change and lexical attrition. This work contributes to pragmatics by expanding the typology of pragmemes to include environmental encoding, and to ecolinguistics by demonstrating how poetic tradition functions as a medium for ecological knowledge transmission and cultural resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]