O gênero da expressão convencional ‘cabra’: um modelo categorial com extensões metafóricas e suas implicações de natureza cultural

Abstract

This article presents a discussion supported by the results obtained in a research about the nature of the link between form and meaning of the conventional expression ‘Cabra’, especially its gender variation. In light of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory approach, in special Goatly (2007), Kövecses (2010), Lakoff (1987) the cultural, historical and cognitive aspects involved in the conceptualization of such expression, mostly used in the Northeast of Brazil, to refer to bothfemale gender of animal and men were analysed. Therefore, definitions in the first general dictionaries of the Portuguese language (BLUTEAU, 1712; SILVA, 1823) contemporary dictionaries (HOUAIS, 2008; FERREIRA, 2010), etymological dictionaries (MACHADO, 1952) and also data collected from the application of three questionnaires to 93 participants from 2010 to 2013 were examined. The evidence found suggests that gender variation is related to the sociocultural situatedness of the members of the community from the Northeast of Brazil.