Reconsidering Chomsky's Linguistic Internalism: The Cognitive Representation of Local Knowledge in the Sasak Ethnic Community as Reflected in Wasiat Renungan Masa Pengalaman Baru by TGKH Zainuddin Abdul Madjid
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58258/4xdt6e31Abstract
The local knowledge of the Sasak ethnic community embedded in the manuscript Wasiat Renungan Masa Pengalaman Baru (WRMPB) by TGKH. Zainuddin Abdul Majid has predominantly been examined through external sociological and anthropological perspectives. Such conventional approaches tend to overlook the mental-biological capacities underlying the formation and interpretation of the text.This study aims to deconstruct and remap the representation of Sasak local knowledge through the lens of Noam Chomsky's philosophy of language, particularly the paradigms of methodological naturalism and linguistic internalism.This research employed a qualitative descriptive approach with a structural-computational orientation using a library research method. The data consisted of textual units, phrases, and poetic stanzas from the WRMPB manuscript representing Sasak local knowledge. The data were collected using cognitive data cards and validated through theoretical triangulation.The findings demonstrate that the manifestation of Sasak local wisdom in WRMPB as densely reflected in selected poetic stanzas is not merely a passive record of external social conventions based on stimulus-response mechanisms. Rather, it represents the expression of complex competence and the internalization of the speaker's cognitive grammatical system within the mind-brain. The WRMPB text internally organizes the semantic dimensions of local knowledge including educational emancipation, the preservation of institutional trust, moral metaphors, and the ethics of scholarly spirituality through distinctive syntactic structures.By integrating Chomsky's theoretical framework, Sasak local knowledge in WRMPB is reconceptualized as a form of I-Language (Internal Language) that is structured, rational, and grounded in biological-mental processes. This internal linguistic system enables the transformation of external empirical experiences into fundamental pillars of a holistic and enduring civilization.References
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