Sudipa, I Nengah (2012). Makna “mengikat” Bahasa Bali: Pendekatan Metabahasa Semantik Alami [Meanings related to ‘tying up’ in Balinese: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach]. Jurnal Kajian Bali, 2(2), 49-68. PDF (open access)

Written in Indonesian. All NSM explications are formulated in the language of the paper.

The Balinese verb ngiket ‘to tie up’, quoted here in its agentive voice usage (base form: iket), is only one of a number of different verbs having similar meanings: the list includes ngiket/negul, nalinin, mesel, ngimpus, nyangkling, ngeju, nyamok, nyeet, medbed/maste, nyangcang, ngantus, ngancét, and nyepingin (all forms quoted in the agentive voice). Adopting the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach, the author reveals that the first three words are slightly different in meaning, even though they belong to the same semantic field; the remainder, however, display overt semantic differences. Ngiket/negul, nalinin and mesel seem to apply to similar objects and involve the same tool used to carry out the activity, that is tali ‘string, rope, thread, etc’. The other verbs apply to specific objects: ngimpus, for instance, relates to the legs of an animal or a human being to be tied up, while nyangkling relates to the hands.


Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner