Expressões idiomáticas: explorando as trilhas da geração do sentido

Abstract

We had some questions that have driven our investigation: (i) What are the mechanisms that are involved in the metaphorical/literal meaning generation of the idiomatic expressions (IE) and its pictorial representation (PR)?, (ii) What is the role of the conceptual metaphor/blending in the metaphorical/literal meaning generation between the two modalities (verbal IE and non-verbal PR)? And (iii) What is the role of the congruent projections of each modality in the metaphorical/literal meaning generation? To answer these questions we had a main objective: describe the internal structure of the conceptual integration network of the mechanisms responsible for the metaphorical/literal meaning generation of the idioms and its PRs and some specific objectives: (i) to describe, by use of a model, the internal structure of conceptual integration network and of the mechanisms involved in the generation of meaning of IEs and their PRs; (ii) to describe the figurative and/or literal process that interferes in the meaning generation and (iii) propose a model that demonstrates the internal structure of the IE meaning generation and its PRs in the conceptual integration network.. The following works had been selected to compose the research corpus: (a) A vaca foi pro brejo – the cow went to the swamp (FERNANDES, 2001) and (b) Pequeno Dicionário de Expressões Idiomáticas (ZOCCHIO; BALARDIN, 1999). From the work by Fernandes (2001), the expressions (1) “o bom cabrito não berra”, (2) “não ter papas na língua” e (3) “só falam abobrinhas” were selected; from Zocchio and Balardin (1999), the IE “engolir sapo”. In order to reach our objectives, we based our research on the postulates of the Theory of Conceptual Integration (FAUCONNIER; TURNER, 2003) and on Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980, 1999) Theory of Conceptual Metaphor. With the analyses as a starting point, the designed model of the internal structure of conceptual integration networks revealed that the interrelation between the IE and its PR allows a multiplicity of projections which contribute to the generation of meaning. The model also allows the expansion of conceptual relationships, generating different blends, so that the image, in terms of its verbal representation, may be partially or totally congruent. The degree of (in)congruence between the literal and the idiomatic is, in a continuum, decisive for the determination of the blended result. It was possible to show that there is a close connection between one modality and the other. This suggests that the nature of the processing of an IE may have a metaphorical or literal basis. Still based on the analyses, our model of blends proved to be efficient to demonstrate the internal organization of the nets in the generation of meaning, from the interrelation between verbal and non-verbal representation. In the designing of the networks, the various creative and imaginative projections come into play, which allows for new configurations of meaning to be successively (re)constructed.