Metaphor Construction in Caci Performance of Manggarai Speech Community Karolus Budiman Jama Universitas Nusa Cendana, Kupang, Indonesia I Wayan Ardika Universitas Udayana, Denpasar, Indonesia I Ketut Ardhana Universitas Udayana, Denpasar, Indonesia I Ketut Setiawan Universitas Udayana, Denpasar, Indonesia Sebastianus Menggo Universitas Katolik Indonesia Santu Paulus, Ruteng, Indonesia Abstract—The construction of metaphoric expressions has awesome power in organising flexible performance aesthetics. It provides new angles on values of cultural rituals, encourages interlocutors’ psychological functions in producing appropriate figurative languages, utilises awareness of all forms of linguistic and non- linguistic knowledge, and increases the awareness of a community’s values, belief systems, ideologies, and culture intertwined in speakers’ minds. The aims of this study were to analyse and disclose the metaphor constructions in caci performance. The study was conducted between February and October 2018 and involved 24 caci actors from six villages in the Manggarai region, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. Interviews, a set of stationery, field notes, and audio-visual recordings were used to collect data. These data were then analysed qualitatively through the phenomenological method. The findings revealed that caci performance is thick with metaphor usage, such as animal, plant, physical, and water metaphors, and these were used in three stages of caci performance. Two ideologies underline caci performance, namely pragmatism and indoctrism. Caci actors are advised to employ metaphoric expressions to help them think and act, to reflect on living in harmony, and to deliver cultural values to the younger generation appropriately. Index Terms—Caci performance, cultural communication, ideology, metaphor construction I. INTRODUCTION The art of language use or poetry is an art that appears mainly in the aesthetic spaces of caci performance in the culture of the Manggarai speech community. The Manggarai are one of the ethnic groups in western Flores, East Nusa Tenggara province, east Indonesia. They have diverse rituals which offer fundamental cultural values. The dictions used are strongly associated with metaphors and rhymes as an aesthetic feature. Metaphors have been found in all sorts of cultural rituals in this community such as caci performance, marriage proposal, mortality, naming of a newborn, opening new land, customary law, harvest ritual, and many more. Metaphor construction from a caci performance perspective is an awesome tactic in arousing the enthusiasm of caci doers and viewers. These metaphors begin to appear with custom ceremony planning, communicating to the invited village as the opponent of caci, opening ritual, welcoming the opponent of caci, caci performance as an aesthetic climax, and closing ritual. The metaphor constructions are closely related to the customary rituals performed. The most fundamental values in a culture are coherent with the metaphorical structure of the most fundamental concepts in the culture (Menggo, 2018). The metaphors delivered have an important role in transferring messages and stimulating the emotions of the caci viewers. The art of language contains awesome power in organising the flexibility of the caci performance aesthetics. The power of language art, through metaphor, imprisons the psychology area of caci opponents and viewers. This aesthetic power in terms of permissive function is accepted as a fact without being rejected. Communicating through metaphorical language implies the language role and diction are communication strengths. This is in line with Habermas’s notion (Suseno, 2005, pp. 162–163). Habermas affirmed that language must become the centre of attention. Life is strongly determined by communication; this is called the institutional frame of a social system. This frame regulates interaction through the language function to guide oneself to be a meaningful communicator. Habermas’s concept has been strengthened by research conducted by Menggo, Suastra, Budiarsa, and Padmadewi (2019), who claimed that knowledge of language function is believed to be a strong basis for a ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 418-426, May 2020 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1103.10 © 2020 ACADEMY PUBLICATION