Implicações discursivas das expressões idiomáticas sob a ótica da análise construcional do discurso

Abstract

In this thesis, we investigate the role of idiomatic expressions in the process of meaning construction and its implications for speech. To that end, we assume that the application of the Grammar Model for Embodied Construction in the analysis of idiomatisms, in specific contexts of use, provides subsidies for the understanding of the studied phenomenon, since it highlights the way in which frames, schemes and metaphorical projections are integrated in the production semantic specifications (semspec); the way in which these “semspec” are addressed in the scope of the situational and discursive contexts; and the way in which the inferences are produced throughout the discursive processing. In this work, we rely on the notions of categorization (LAKOFF, 1987; FELDMAN, 2006), constructions (BERGEN, CHANG, 2003, 2005), frames (LAKOFF, 2004; DUQUE, 2015), framing (LAKOFF, 2004), schemes (LAKOFF, 1987; JOHNSON, 1987; DUQUE, 2015), metaphors (LAKOFF, JOHNSON, 1980, 1999; LAKOFF, 2008), context (VAN DIJK, 2012), corporeality (LAKOFF, JOHNSON, 1999; BERGEN, 2005, 2010), affordances (GIBSON, 1977, 1979) and idiomaticity (FILLMORE, KAY, O’CONNOR, 1988; SILVA, 2012). The advocated hypothesis claims that idiomatic expressions organize a set of metaphorical mappings based on framing, i.e., the framework modeling process, through which the speech is structured. The corpus of this work is made up of the Portuguese idiomatic expressions “abandonar o barco”, “chutar o balde”, “agarrar com unhas e dentes” and “filho de peixe peixinho é”, which are distributed in 15 texts extracted from the internet by means of the Google search engine. The employed methodology has a qualitative nature, as it enables the accomplishment of an empirical analysis of data, without the worry about relying on quantitative information, and is underpinned by the Model of Constructional Analysis, which has a formalism of linguistic analysis specifically made to compose a simulation-based modeling of meaning construction. The information obtained in the analysis points out that idiomatic expressions not only associate conventionalized and schematic meanings, but also integrate elements such as actions, inferences and abstractions, thereby influencing the discursive organization and the processes of meaning construction of texts.