Linguistic Ambiguity and Indigenous Cognition in Iban Entelah: A Structural, Cognitive, and Pragmatic Analysis

Abstract

This study examines the structure, cognitive processes, and pragmatic strategies that shape ambiguity in entelah, the traditional Iban riddle genre. Although Iban riddles are rich in cultural knowledge and poetic language, previous research has often analysed them through Western frameworks, which do not fully reflect indigenous perspectives. To address this gap, the study investigates the structural terminology unique to entelah and explores how riddle givers use linguistic ambiguity to conceal meaning and guide interpretation. The research draws on mixed methods, combining ethnographic fieldwork in Saratok with a corpus-based linguistic analysis of 338 riddles, consisting entries from Entelah (Tun Jugah Foundation, 2019). The analysis identifies how Iban riddle givers employ devices such as ulu lungga (hint) (phonological clues), menua lama and menua baru (metaphorical imagery), lexical ambiguity, and culturally grounded cognitive categories to construct riddles that challenge solvers and transmit world knowledge. Findings show that ambiguity in entelah arises from both linguistic and cultural processes, including violations of salience, shifts in accessibility hierarchy, parallelism, and the use of deep and shallow Iban registers. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of Iban verbal art by demonstrating that riddling is a sophisticated linguistic act embedded in cultural cognition, intergenerational knowledge transmission, and poetic performance traditions.