A construção do conceito de Heimat (Alemanha) / pátria (Brasil) em âmbito intercultural

Abstract

The present study aims to describe the thematic reference frames connected to the lexical items Heimat and pátria. This work is underpinned by a multi-disciplinary theoretical framework and specially by a semantic-pragmatic interface. Special emphasis is given to lexical field theory and corpora distribution analysis in the initial semantic characterization of the terms under analysis. In the more pragmatically-oriented part of the study, two theoretical-methodological perspectives were chosen as the basic tools to observe how the concepts under scrutiny are discursively co-constructed: on the one hand, concessive and contrastive sequential patterns in Conversation Analysis, and on the other hand, paraverbal (such as intonation and stress patterns) and nonverbal cues (visual and gestural behaviour). Interaction among two Brazilian and two German women, who communicated mostly in German, was video-recorded. As for the results, it can be stated that the participants communicative behaviour is defined by the link between the terms Heimat/pátria and daily life spheres (such as family, food, costumes, etc.), which work as reference frames in the conversation. In addition to that, a different referential layer connected to the military regimes in Brazil and Germany emerged. As different frames overlapped, conflicts arose in the interaction. As a result, both Brazilian and German participants used a high number of contrastive structures in order to verbally highlight their disagreements. The way in which the participants applied definition strategies to Heimat and pátria was also noteworthy. The Brazilians preferred narrating anecdotes using specific drammatic intonation to support their arguments, while the Germans behaved in a more self-reflective manner, which led them to use more synthactically elaborated ideas. It is also important to point out that the analyses carried out in this research are defined by the situational context of interaction. This means that the assertions and insights in this work only partially reflect fragments of more complex studies. Finally, with this research we intend to offer yet another contribution to the studies on the relation between culture and language.