Representation of Fishermen’s Activities in Balinese Language, Art and Culture: A Multimodal Study

ABSTRACT: This study aims to find out how fishermen’s activities are represented in Balinese language, artand culture. The data in this study are Satua Tukang Pancing palm-leaf manuscript and Nelayan dance.Furthermore, this study explains the process of sign-making of the representation from these data. The datainvolves verbal and visual language, therefore multimodal study with a social semiotic approach were used. Inanalyzing the process of sign-making, the theories were used are Systemic Functional Linguistics by Halliday(1994) to analyze the transitivity system of verbal language and Visual Grammar by Kress and van Leeuwen(2006) to analyze representational meaning of visual. This study is a qualitative study. In collecting verbal andvisual data, documentation methods were used, in addition, interview was conducted in order to validate themeaning of semiotic resources with the life and culture of Balinese fishermen. In presenting the analysis, formaland informal methods were used. Based on the transitivity system analysis, the Satua Tukang Pancing palm-leafmanuscript has thirty clauses containing words related to fishermen. From these clauses, there are eighteenmaterial processes which are the most dominant processes. Based on the representational meaning analysis,Nelayan dance has twenty-one parts that have representational meaning processes. These parts have thenarrative process of action, and it becomes the most dominant process. Furthermore, the semiotic resources ofthese works are associated with social semiotics and show that both works have signs that represent fishermen’sactivities. The representation is then connected with the interview to found its value and meaning in Balinesefishermen culture.

Keywords: fisherman, multimodality, Nelayan dance, representation, Satua Tukang Pancing palm-leafmanuscript