Representações cognitivas socioculturalmente situadas de violência no cotidiano de jovens brasileiros que vivem na periferia de Fortaleza

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate socioculturally situated cognitive representations, such as systematic metaphors and metaphorical frames, in the discourse of young Brazilians living in the outskirts of Fortaleza when expressing ideas and attitudes about the violence they experience in their daily lives. This study is based on a discursivecognitive perspective based on assumptions of Cognitive Linguistics (Lakoff; Johnson, 1980; 1999; Gibbs, 2006, 2008), the theory of Complex Adaptive Dynamic Systems (Larsen-Freeman; Cameron, 2008) and the theory of frames and metaphorical frames (Goffman, 1974; Lakoff, 2004; Ritchie, 2006). To this end, we start from the following problem: What is the role of socioculturally situated cognitive representations, such as systematic metaphors and metaphorical frames, in the discourse of young Brazilians living in the outskirts of Fortaleza when expressing concepts about the violence they experience in their daily lives? We also have the following specific objectives: 1. to investigate how the conceptualizations of violence emerging in systematic metaphors translate feelings and values related to the phenomenon of violence in the discourses of young people; 2. to identify metaphorical frames about violence and investigate how these characterize the discourse of young Brazilians living in the outskirts of Fortaleza and translate feelings and values related to the phenomenon of violence; 3. to verify, through systematic metaphors and metaphorical frames, how young Brazilians living in the outskirts represent themselves discursively and socioculturally when revealing their ideas and feelings about the phenomenon of violence. To achieve these objectives, we adopted a qualitative analysis of a descriptive-exploratory nature, coupled with the discursive-cognitive approach called Discourse Analysis in the Light of Metaphor (ADM) (Cameron et al., 2009; Cameron; Maslen, 2010), in a link that refers us to the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary tradition of Applied Linguistics (AL) and Social Sciences. Firstly, the results indicate that systematic metaphors can reveal conceptions about the phenomenon of violence in the periphery, and at the same time can translate the emotions and feelings of young people living in the periphery, such as: VIOLENCE IS A MOVEMENT, A GESTURE, OR A LOOK MOTIVATED BY A NEGATIVE JUDGMENT OR BY PREJUDICE. Secondly, metaphorical frames allow an understanding of the issues of violence in the outskirts of Fortaleza, from the participants' point of view, providing an understanding beyond the apparent meaning, since it is constructed from cognitive, discursive, social and interactional aspects. Furthermore, we point out that the difference between a systematic metaphor and a metaphorical frame may lie in the temporary and interactional character that governs the systematic metaphor, in relation to the cognitive and social character of a metaphorical frame, and, therefore, more stable. We then verified the existence of at least three frames that constitute a metaphorical frame: basic frame: the described reality; conceptual frame: the underlying reality; interactional frame: the constructed reality. From these elements resulted what we call in this thesis a metaphorical frame, a perceptible reality.