A construção superlativa de expressão corporal: uma abordagem construcionista

Abstract

This paper focuses at the Superlative Construction of Body Expression (SEC Construction) (“solteirona e toda virgem, ignorava machezas, quase morreu de vergonha numa tarde de conversas”; “Padre Dito quase estourou de rir”; “O Lúcio rolou de rir com a explicação, e como consequência acabou virando a vítima e a cobaia do seminário”), a major link in the network of constructions of Portuguese named by Miranda (2008a) as Superlative Constructions. Having as theoretical basis the Cognitive Linguistics (FAUCONNIER, 1997; FAUCONNIER AND TURNER, 2002; FILLMORE, 1977, 1982; FILLMORE AND ATKINS, 1992; JOHNSON, 1987; LAKOFF, 1987, 1993; LAKOFF AND JOHNSON, 1980, 1999; MIRANDA, 2002, 2008a, 2008b; SALOMÃO, 2002, 2008; among others) and, more specifically, its Usage-based Model of Construction Grammar (CROFT AND CRUSE, 2004; GOLDBERG, 1995; LAKOFF, 1987; PERINI, 2001, 2008; TOMASELLO, 2003[1999]), it aims at the description of formal standards and the semanticpragmatic value emerging from the occurrences of this construction. Given the amount of use in the theoretical and analytical model adopted, the Corpus Linguistics (ALUÍSIO E ALMEIDA, 2006; SARDINHA, 2000, 2004) was the methodological approach chosen due to the possibility of working with a large mass of natural data and verification of the degree of conventionalization/grammaticalization and productivity of the construction focused (GOLDBERG, 1995). The corpus used for this research is the Corpus do Português (DAVIES AND FERREIRA, 2006), composed of forty-five million words, allocated in texts that pervade the XIV-XX centuries. Based on the work of Sampaio (2007), in which part of the SEC Construction was analyzed within the limits of the metaphorical field of "death" (morrer de rir, morrer de medo), our analysis extend such study, investigating the productivity of this network (frequency of types) and the nature of the semantic and syntactic disagreement or discrepancy (the phenomenon of mismatch) that establishes, synchronously, its pattern. This pattern – [Xv de YN/V] – has a verb as the X (chorar de, rolar de, morrer de, se acabar de, se arrebentar de...) that stands for the physical or physiological impact triggered by the excess of Y, a NP (de medo, de tristeza) or a VP (de rir, de estudar). Yet, our analysis points to: (1) a conventionalization of the SEC Construction, which instantiates 19 different types in the corpora investigated, (2) the articulation of the image schema of the Compulsion (JOHNSON, 1987) – which, in turn, requires the Force Dynamics (TALMY, 2000) –, the notion of Causality (LAKOFF AND JOHNSON, 2002[1980]; TOMASELLO, 2003[1999]) and the primary metaphors Causes Are Physical Forces and Intensity Is Scale (LAKOFF E JOHNSON, 1999) as conceptual basis of the constructional standard discussed; (3) the semantic reanalysis of X (verbs that raise the frames of physical or physiological impact) as a Scalar Operator, aligning itself with other canonical structures present in Portuguese, in the frame of Superlative Scale; (4) the pragmatic use of the construction as an argumentative strategy relevant to discursive contexts in which the speaker/writer has more freedom of subjective expression; and (5) the centrality of figurative processes in the institution of grammatical patterns.