The ‘Brazilian jeitinho’ from a cognitive-interactional perspective

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22481/el.v18i2.6287

Keywords:

Cultural linguistics; Cultural conceptualizations; Cultural metaphors; ‘Brazilian jeitinho’; Gestural metaphor.

Abstract

According to cultural linguistics, world experiences and interpretations of different speech communities should be conceived dynamically regarding cultural conceptualizations. ‘Brazilian jeitinho’ is generally seen as a creative strategy applied in emergent situations and oscillates between favor and corruption. The article aims to realize a microanalysis of an elicited conversation between four professors at the UFMG (two of them are Brazilian and two originally German). The objective is to reveal how the concept ‘Brazilian jeitinho’ is co-constructed multimodally through conceptual metaphor on the linguistic level and how metaphoric gestures, as well as prosodic cues are present in this interactional process. We found seven cultural metaphors which revealed that the interlocutors co-constructed the concept in question (a) in a multimodal way, (b) primarily through basic image schemas and by means of conceptual metaphors. Additionally, the incorporation of prosodic and gestural metaphors was more highlighted in the case of the two Brazilian participants.

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Author Biographies

Ulrike Agathe Schroder, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG/Brazil)

Ulrike Agathe Schröder is a doctor and Associate Professor of the Postgraduate Program in Linguistic Studies, at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. She is a Free Lecturer at the University of Essen, Germany in 2012. She is the coordinator of the International Research Center of Intercultural Communication in Multimodal Interactions - ICMI and develops research especially in the area of Cognitive and Interactional Linguistics.

Ruan de Castro Silva, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG/Brazil)

Ruan de Castro Silva has a degree in Letters, a degree in Portuguese, at the Faculty of Letters of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG).

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Published

2020-08-03

How to Cite

SCHRODER, U. A.; SILVA, R. de C. The ‘Brazilian jeitinho’ from a cognitive-interactional perspective. Language Studies, [S. l.], v. 18, n. 2, p. 117-134, 2020. DOI: 10.22481/el.v18i2.6287. Disponível em: https://periodicos2.uesb.br/index.php/estudosdalinguagem/article/view/6287. Acesso em: 22 jul. 2024.

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 2 (2020): Estudos da Língua(gem) - ISSN: 1982-0534

Section

Papers

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