O sistema metafórico da moralidade: uma abordagem cognitivista

Abstract

The present study has as a proposition the metaphorical conceptual system of Morality. As the theoretical scope, it presents the central theses of Cognitive Linguistic, taken from the assumption concerning the conceptualization, categorization and conceptual integration processes built by this theoretical model (LAKOFF & JOHNSON, 1980, 1999; LAKOFF, 1987; JOHNSON, 1987; FILLMORE 1977, 1982a, 1982B; FAUCONNIER & TURNER, 2002). In this perspective, the main theoretical construct of the present study is the Conceptual Theory of Metaphor (LAKOFF & JOHNSON 1980,1999), added to the contributions from the Conceptual Theory of Blending (FAUCONNIER & TURNER, 2002) and from the different discussions concerning the interaction between Metaphor and Metonymy (BARCELONA , 2003, RADDEN,20003). Equal outstanding has the Sociocognitive Hypothesis of the Language in terms of Salomão (1997; 1999) and Miranda (2000); given the importance that such hypothesis attributes to the interactive and sociocultural character of the meaning processes. In terms of this paradigm, the abstract concepts are broadly metaphorical and the moral thinking is imaginative and it depends fundamentally on metaphorical understanding (JOHNSON, 1993). This work take for grant such perspective, what implies the wondering of meanings in terms of its flexibility promoted by the imaginative integration processes, worked out from our physical and sociocultural experience. Assuming the hypothesis (LAKOFF & JOHNSON, 1999), that the cultural model of physical and social well-being would be the scope of the morality metaphorical net, our main investigative agenda was the search of conceptual system of this empirical evidences, in corpus of Portuguese from Brazil (PB) (VEJA magazine on line). The investigation of cognitive processes that establish such conceptual net was constituted as other goal, following by the importance evaluation of the analytical results obtained, for a lexicographical work in PB. Our conclusions confirm the existence of a complex metaphorical net of morality in our culture and language, from the conceptual system of well-being (MORALITY IS WELLBEING). They also point to the broad unconscious character of the conceptual metaphor, to its intricate relationship with the metonymy, as well as they reaffirm the relevance of the cognitive analyses of the meaning for the lexicographical work in Portuguese from Brazil.