Semantic Structure of Indonesian Verbs Mengira and Menyangka: A Cognitive Explication Study

Abstract

Epistemic mental verbs are essential in signaling a speaker's degree of certainty, yet the semantic boundaries between the Indonesian verbs mengira and menyangka remain ambiguous due to lexical overlap and circular definitions in traditional dictionaries. This study aims to uncover the distinct semantic structures of these two near-synonyms by identifying their diagnostic features and cognitive profiles. Adopting a qualitative-descriptive design, the research utilizes a bottom-up approach that integrates empirical data from the Indonesian Leipzig Corpora Collection with the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework. The analysis of 400 purposive concordance lines reveals that mengira and menyangka occupy different cognitive spaces. The results indicate that mengira functions primarily as a verb of intellectual miscalculation, representing a tentative supposition that is frequently invalidated by factual correction, often collocated with ternyata. Conversely, menyangka operates as a verb of failed expectation or suspicion, encoding a clash between a pre-existing mental model and a contradictory reality, evidenced by its high frequency in negative constructions (tidak menyangka). The NSM explications succeed in bypassing circularity by using universal primes to map these distinct "cognitive scenarios." These findings prove that while both lexemes belong to the "thinking" category, mengira is more intellectual-proactive, whereas menyangka is more affective-reactive. This study provides a robust model for understanding the Indonesian mental lexicon and offers a practical solution to the synonymy problem in pedagogical contexts.