Emergência de metáforas sistemáticas na fala de mulheres vítimas diretas de violência doméstica: uma análise cognitivo-discursiva

Abstract

This study, which falls within Cognitive Linguistics, consists of an investigation into the emergence of systematic metaphors in the speech of women direct victims of domestic violence, a growing phenomenon that presents alarming escalation indices. To understand this violence which makes victims in all social strata, it was necessary to investigate how ideas and feelings relating to domestic violence against women emerge in the speech of its direct victims. Based on the theoretical framework of the Metaphor-led Discourse Analysis (CAMERON, 2003, 2007a, 02007b, 2008; CAMERON; DEIGNAN, 2009; CAMERON et al, 2009; and CAMERON; MASLEN, 2010), this study is based, according to Cameron (CAMERON; MASLEN, 2010), on the understanding that metaphor is local and emerges in the discourse; has several dimensions to consider (linguistic, embodied, cognitive, affective, sociocultural and dynamic); and may, as a research tool, reveal what people who use it feel and think (CAMERON; MASLEN, 2010). Also according to Cameron (2007b), metaphors in language use result from a temporary stability of the trading concepts that are established among participants in a discursive event. Descriptive and exploratory, this qualitative research has a corpus composed of transcripts of the speech produced by six women about the domestic violence they have suffered, in a two-hour discursive event of a focus group which was recorded in digital audio. In order to collect data, along with the focus group technique, those of direct documentation were used. After transcription and proofreading procedures in accordance with the methodology adopted, the legitimated collected data were uploaded into the software Atlas.ti so as to complete the remaining steps of data preparation. With the data obtained at the end of these methodological procedures, it was possible to develop both the qualitative analysis of the speech of the participants and the quantitative survey related to recurrence of identified metaphorical vehicles. The results indicate the emergence of the following systematic metaphors, among others, in the speech of women direct victims of domestic violence when expressing their ideas and feelings about such phenomenon: CHANGING IS BEING A NEW PERSON; CHANGING IS GETTING OUT OF SOMEWHERE; GOVERNMENT ACTIONS AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ARE SLOW MOVEMENTS, BEING SAFE IN THE HOUSE SHELTER IS BEING IMPRISONED, and TAKING AN ATTITUDE IS PUTTING AN END TO SOMETHING. These results suggest that, by means of the emergence of systematic metaphors, figurativity plays an important role in the expression of what direct victims think and feel about domestic violence against women. Data also indicate that systematic metaphors present metaphorical vehicles that are subject to metaphorical changes of three different kinds: re-employment , development (repetition, explanation and relexicalization) and literalization, among which the most frequent ones are those of development.