Do concreto ao abstrato: o corpo humano como base experiencial para conceptualizações

Abstract

In order to demonstrate whether concrete terms have a tendency to occur more and more abstract through time, we based this research on the human body as a basis for concrete and experiential conceptualizations. Thus, the research was conducted by the Theory of Cognitive Metaphor, which shares the postulate of thought as 'rooted' in the body and thus it is the base of our conceptual system. Furthermore, the TCM provides that the human conceptual system is largely metaphorical. Therefore, to achieve this goal we took six concrete linguistic expressions, the lexemes mouth, stomach, hand, head, foot and leg and the support of the methodology of Corpus Linguistics to analyze each of them. Each lexeme was quantified and separated between literal and metaphorical. Then they were analyzed according to their frequently conceptualizations over five centuries. We present several conceptual metaphors and metonymies involving the terms and specifically discuss the conceptual metaphor GET CRAZY IS LOSE THE HEAD to explain the possible influence of social events on the process of conceptualizing concrete terms. Finally, we found that each lexeme has specific conceptualizations and that despite the body being a preferred source domain, it is not used uniformly.