A metáfora e a metonímia sob a perspectiva dos sistemas dinâmicos complexos e da teoria fractal no processo de conceitualização da violência urbana na cidade de Fortaleza-CE

Abstract

The metaphor has always occupied an important place in meaning studies and with the advances on Cognitive Linguistics researches this figure presents itself more evident when put in relation with metonym, which has less importance on academic researches. In this context, this very work aims: (i) establish the primacy of metonym over metaphor by the dynamic discourse analysis of focal group participants when discussing urban violence in the city of Fortaleza; (ii) verify if the metonymic relations appear both in context and wording; and (iii) demonstrate that metonyms are responsible for the emerging of great part of metaphorical vehicles, so important to the construction of meaning. Thus, it was necessary to discuss the main approaches of these phenomena in light of Complex Dynamic Systems theory, anchored on Larsen-Freeman (1997); Larsen-Freeman e Cameron (2008), on fractal theory, based in Paiva (2010) e Mandelbrot (1982), as Capra (2006). This theoretical reference served as base to verify the hypothesis that great part of metaphors emerge from metonyms and that the relations contribute to the emerging of that both contextual and wording levels arise fragmented in the real discourse of focal group participants. Furthermore, the research proposes itself to also describe the process of conceptualization of urban violence based in the criteria of complexity paradigm, showing its importance to the current researches. To give consistency to that discussion we based ourselves in authors such as Goosens (1990, 1995), Barcelona (1997) and Radden (2003), who also discuss the complex relation between metaphor and metonym. Our study is ruled by a qualitative and theoretical research that allows us to reflect about the primacy of metonym over metaphor, analyzing the transcription of three focal groups that discussed the urban violence in the city of Fortaleza. The analysis allowed until this moment the ascertainment that in some cases, in the process of conceptualization, the metaphor arises from metonym, as relations that structure metonym, such as take a tree for a forest, institution for its responsible ones, effect by cause, permeate both wording and context of the discussion of the focal group participants. This made us come to the conclusion that a series of metaphors come from metonyms, what shows that although metaphor and metonym interact themselves, there is a primacy of the second over the first in some cases.