Functional effects, prepositional semantics, and metaphorical containment in Brazilian Portuguese: the case of em, dentro de, and fora de

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5752/P.2358-3428.2016v20n40p61

Keywords:

Metaphor, Experiential correlation, Containment functional relation, Prepositional meaning, Brazilian Portuguese.

Abstract

I analyzed conventional metaphorical expressions in Brazilian Portuguese having lexicalized functional effects of spatial scenes as complements of the prepositions dentro de [inside], em [in, on, at], and fora de [out of]. The functional effects investigated were ‘protection’, ‘covering/hiding’, ‘control’, and ‘envelopment’, which constitute the family resemblance concept of Containment. I provided a cognitive account of these conventional expressions in terms of primary metaphors such as invisible is inside and uncontrolled is outside, emerging through experiential correlation in primary scenes. I described twelve meanings based on the container image schema, four based on the verticality schema, and four based on the nonimagetic notion of ‘non-existence’. Contradicting my initial expectations, the corpus-based analysis revealed little overlapping between em and sob [under], and fora de and sem [without]. However, the study confirmed the asymmetry between the prepositions meaning ‘in’ and those meaning ‘out’.

 

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Author Biography

Aparecida de Araújo Oliveira, UFV

Possui graduação em Letras - portugues - inglês e suas literaturas (Funedi-UEMG; 1997); especialização em Língua Inglesa (PUC-Minas, 2000), mestrado em Linguística Aplicada ao Ensino/Aprendizagem de Língua estrangeira, com ênfase no estudo da interlíngua (UFMG, 2003) e doutorado em Linguística, com ênfase em Linguística Cognitiva (UFMG, 2009, como bolsista FAPEMIG; com estágio sanduíche na Universidade Católica Portuguesa, em Braga, em 2007, como bolsista CAPES), pós-doutorado em Linguística teórica e descritiva (UFMG), na área de valências verbais e construções de movimento. Na área de Aquisição de Línguas Estrangeiras, tem pesquisado temporalidade, aspecto gramatical e aspecto lexical. No quadro teórico da Gramática Cognitiva, tem interesse na conceitualização e expressão linguística do espaço e do tempo, com ênfase na semântica de preposições. Em suas pesquisas, tem procurando a convergência empírica entre córpus e experimentação. Como docente, lecionou língua inglesa na UIT e na UFMG, inglês e português instrumentais na UFV, no campus de Rio Paranaíba, e, atualmente, atua na área de linguística do departamento de Letras da UFV em Viçosa. Atua na pós-graduação da UFV, na área de aquisição de L2, associada à Ling. Cognitiva.

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Published

2016-12-23

How to Cite

OLIVEIRA, Aparecida de Araújo. Functional effects, prepositional semantics, and metaphorical containment in Brazilian Portuguese: the case of em, dentro de, and fora de. Scripta, Belo Horizonte, v. 20, n. 40, p. 61–83, 2016. DOI: 10.5752/P.2358-3428.2016v20n40p61. Disponível em: https://periodicos.pucminas.br/scripta/article/view/P.2358-3428.2016v20n40p61. Acesso em: 21 oct. 2025.

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 40 (2016): Metaphor

Section

Dossiê Metáfora

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