Cognitive Relations in the Semantics of Brazilian- Portuguese Preposition em

Transcription

1 Cognitive Relations in the Semantics of Brazilian- Portuguese Preposition em APARECIDA DE ARAÚJO OLIVEIRA Universidade Federal de Viçosa Copyright 2012 Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings Vol 1: In this paper, we present a semantic description of the polysemy of Brazilian- Portuguese preposition em, by following Ronald Langacker s model of Schematic Network. We based our study on an introspective analysis of a 1.2-million-word corpus of journalistic texts published in three newspapers from major Brazilian cities between 2007 and A locative sense has long been ascribed to this word, although it can be found in some uses which do not invoke this concept. Furthermore, em occurs in less specific contexts than locative prepositions with approximate values in other languages, such as dans, sur, à, and in, on, at, into, and onto, a fact which renders its meaning strongly context-dependent. Our aim then is to propose an account for both its abstractness and its polysemy, by adopting Langacker s (1987) usage-based model of language and his concept of construal, Johnson s (2005; 1987) ideas about image schemas, Lakoff and Johnson s (1980) theory of conceptual metaphor, Talmy s (2000) closed-class semantics, and Vandeloise s (1991) study of functional relations as determinants of the meaning of spatial prepositions. The analysis of 2813 samples revealed two highly schematic senses for the preposition em, derived from the CONTAINER schema: location and specification. The first is elaborated in twenty-two categories and subcategories, representing 86.78% of the uses. As a result of the functional effects of control and support, nine categories were found to instantiate the latter sense of specification, also in various concrete and abstract domains. Most of the variation obtained in spatial contexts could be explained by construal effects and the Container/contained functional relation. Other uses were interpreted as emerging from metaphorical and metonymic processes. Keywords: preposition, construal, functional relation, polysemy, schematic network 1. Introduction i This paper provides a semantic analysis of the Brazilian-Portuguese preposition em, traditionally known for its highly abstract semantic pole. Even though a vague locative sense has long been ascribed to this word, some of its uses do not invoke this concept. Furthermore, em occurs in less specific contexts than locative prepositions with approximate values in other languages, such as the French dans, sur, and à and the English in, on, at, into, and onto, a fact which renders its meaning strongly context dependent. In order to achieve this purpose, we propose a cognitive account for both its abstractness schemas obtained from its use in context, and its polysemy

2 Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings 20 spatial and non-spatial locative meanings, and non-locative meanings as well. The distinction between abstractness and polysemy is not at issue in this article, so the choice for these terms should not imply any theoretical stance. Instead, we aim to demonstrate how these meanings can be organized as to form a prototypical category structured as a network such as the Schematic Network Model proposed by Langacker (1987). This model allows for both schematic and prototypical meanings, as well as cognitive interconnections between the nodes representing the different classes of use. In order to present as comprehensive a description as possible, we based our study on an introspective analysis of a 1.2-million-word corpus of journalistic texts published in three newspapers from major Brazilian cities between 2007 and A more detailed presentation of this corpus will come in due course. As for the analysis itself, we adopt Langacker s (1987) usage-based model of language and his concept of construal, Johnson s (2005, 1987) ideas about image schemas, Lakoff and Johnson s (1980) theory of conceptual metaphor, Talmy s (2000) closed-class semantics, and Vandeloise s (1994, 1991) study of pragmatic determinants of the meaning of spatial prepositions. As relational words, prepositions have a semantic structure containing schematic information about the elements they relate named trajector and landmark. Prepositional meaning may include more specific relations, i.e., schemas containing topological and geometric notions, and in some cases, information concerning the shape of a region. As for the trajector and the landmark, these entities are thought to stand in asymmetry to each other, as seen in Talmy (2000: 183). Thus, the trajector tends to be more salient although its spatial or temporal properties may be unknown. It is usually more mobile, smaller, geometrically simpler, and more dependent. The landmark, on the other hand, is often less salient but acts as a reference for the trajector. As a result, its position is known and more stable and its geometric properties tend to be relevant and complex. The landmark is also more independent. In meaning interpretation, context with its physical, cultural, social and linguistic dimensions (Langacker, 2008: 464) determines the most salient aspects of the domain a preposition applies to (Silva, 2006: 80). Further specification is obtained by means of conceptual schemas abstracted from spatial configurations, which include geometrical features of entities, functional effects of spatial configurations (Vandeloise, 1991) and the selection of different facets of a view, a type of focal adjustment in the construal of a scene (Langacker, 1987: 117). According to Vandeloise s (1991: 217, 227-8) monosemist view of spatial prepositions, geometric or topological notions alone cannot account for the meaning of these words. In order to explain possibilities and constraints in the use of French spatial prepositions, he proposes that objects stand in functional relations in space, which can be described as rules. One such relation is called the Container/contained Relation, which defines the meaning of a preposition such as the French dans. This relation involves the ideas of inclusion and control. This latter is seemingly crucial to the Container/contained Relation, especially in contexts involving non-canonical containers, such as open

3 21 de Araújo Oliveira containers, which only partially hold some object located within. An example of this Relation can be obtained from the comparison of Le fil est dans la pince (The wire is in the pliers) versus??le fil est dans la pince à linge (??The clothesline is in the clothes pin) (p.217). Although the spatial configuration is the same in both examples, Vandeloise argues that dans sounds natural only in the first example because the pliers actually control the wire. On the other hand, in the second sentence, the clothes pin is hanging from the clothes line, not really holding it, and thus, does not conform to the Container/contained Relation. Control is thought to motivate meaning extension in the semantic network as discussed in section 5.9. As stated earlier, contextual meaning depends largely on construal. The understanding of the spatial scenes described in (1) and (2) involves the selection of a different facet of the landmark (Langacker, 1987: 117), although the noun caixa (box) profiles a same kind of tridimensional paper object in each case. This focal adjustment results in a different relation invoked by the phrases: for nas caixas (on the boxes) in (1), the outer surface of the box is highlighted and for em uma caixa (in a box) in (2), the interior of the box is in focus. (1) A recomendação para o teste genético também vai ser impressa nas caixas dos remédios. (JB Jul ) (Advice to the genetic test will also be printed on the boxes of medicine.) (2)... encontrou a criança em uma caixa de papelão... (JB May ) ( found 3S the child in a cardboard box.) Thus, it is argued that in order to understand the polysemy of this preposition, one should consider the several other lexical items available in context, identify the conceptual domain they invoke, and only then try to obtain higher-order schemas. In example (1) above, due to our pragmatic knowledge, the word impressa (printed) sets the focus on the outside of the box. In (2), unless it were overtly marked otherwise, the landmark s main function as a container determines the preposition s specific meaning. Besides functional effects of spatial configurations, differing patterns of construal, metaphorical and metonymical processes of semantic extension are also to be taken into account in any semantic analysis of these forms. 2. The Preposition em Starting from its form, the preposition em also appears as n- as it blends with articles, numerals, and demonstrative pronouns and adjectives: na casa [em+a casa] > in the FEM house; nesta casa [em+esta casa] > in this FEM house; nisso [em+isso] > in this NEUTER; naquele [em+aquele] > in that one MASC. In some usages with indefinite articles and pronouns, this merging is not obligatory, the choice of the form depending mostly upon register variation: em uma casa > numa casa (informal)= in a FEM house.

4 Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings 22 Regarding its semantics, this highly abundant preposition is frequently said to invoke a conventionalized sense which is a vague [topological] notion of location (for instance, Neves, 2000: ), although this particular sense may not be applied to all uses of this word. Almost as a rule, most of the meaning evoked by em is the result of context, i.e., of possible conceptualization schemas emerging from the domain in which the evoked scene takes place. One such schema which is often associated with the meaning of em is the CONTAINER schema that could be noted as the diagram below. The rectangle is the landmark or ground which contains the trajector or figure, represented as a black circle. This schema is the result of the very nature of the elements involved in the configuration as well as of the way they stand to each other. As an abstraction of similar but not exactly the same experiences, this schema provides for both partially open as well as completely closed containers, and that is why the line at the top of the diagram is broken. (3) Imaginem o suco num copo ii (Imagine PL the juice in a glass.) Figure 1. The CONTAINER schema. This schema involves the more specific topological notions of inclusion and closure, but as shown below, the trajector need not necessarily be totally inside the landmark nor need these entities have any specific orientation in space, except for pragmatic reasons. As argued by Vandeloise (1994), constraints on spatial orientation are often determined by the nature of the trajector and the landmark. For instance, in an adaptation of his classical example, one would probably say peras numa tigela (pears in a bowl) to describe a scene with the bowl opening facing upwards. Were the bowl turned upside down, one would probably use peras debaixo de uma tigela (pears under a bowl). On the other hand, fumaça numa tigela (smoke in a bowl) would sound odd simply because a bowl opening would be far too wide to hold any smoke inside. Just as in and under, the use of em and debaixo de depends on the ideas of containment and location. Encyclopedic knowledge about the structure and physical properties of liquids and gases also explains this case of partial inclusion conveyed by em. One can say a espuma da cerveja no copo (beer foam in the glass), even if only the liquid is indeed inside the glass. The liquid and the foam are the same substance, and the foam can hold to the liquid, so, we can think of them as a single entity. A more specific complex preposition such as dentro de (inside)

5 23 de Araújo Oliveira would not be used in Brazilian Portuguese unless the foam itself were inside the glass. Another image schema emerging from external context which can also be conveyed by em is shown in Figure 2. The diagram represents the CONTACT schema, which may involve the functional concept of support due to the landmark s conceptualization as a surface and the way the trajector interacts with it. (4) Se for preciso, vamos acampar na quadra. (E. de Minas Aug ) (If necessary, we shall camp on the court.) Figure 2. The CONTACT schema. As for conventionalized meaning, we understand that em does not evoke movement of any sort. This notion is conveyed by the verb. Suffice to compare examples (3) and (5). (5) Imaginem uma jarra despejando suco num copo. (Imagine PL a jug pouring juice in a glass.) Figure 3. A complex schema. The diagram in Figure 3 represents a complex image schema including a PATH to the interior of a CONTAINER. Regarding (5), the smaller rectangle represents the container copo (glass) with its interior highlighted. The arrow indicates the movement evoked by the verb despejar (to pour). And the circle represents the trajector suco (juice) that moves. This schema is neuter regarding the direction of the movement and can be used to describe various other scenes. Other contexts in which em may occur are seen below. (6)... brincando com o canudo no copo vazio. (... playing with the straw in the empty glass.) (7)... cada linha no copo medidor representa 10 ml. (... each line [carved] in the measure cup represents 10 ml.) (8) Colocou a mão no copo d'água. (Put 3S-PAST his/her hand on the glass of water.)

6 Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings 24 (9) Ele mantém o olhar no copo. (He keeps his eye on the glass.) (10) O DEM oficializou nesta quinta-feira, 19, a candidatura do deputado ACM Neto. iii (Estadão Jun ) (The DEM Party made ACM Neto s candidacy official this Thursday, the 19 th..) (11) o Plano prevê investimentos em outras três áreas prioritárias. (JB Jun ) ( the Plan includes investments in three other priority areas.) (12) Japan Times trazia uma enorme foto em preto e branco de uma favela. (Estadão May ) ( the Japan Times brought a huge picture in black and white of a shantytown.) (13) É graduada em Psicologia pela PUC Minas. (E. de Minas Aug ) (She has a degree in Psychology from PUC Minas.) These examples (or other similar ones) of attested use will be more thoroughly described in section 5. Thus far we can say that (3) through (9) express situations in the space domain, and the latter involves the idea of a virtual path toward someone s eyes. iv They all illustrate that the geometrical features of the trajector are not always sufficient or adequate to define the spatial notions perceived. The greater salience attributed to one of the facets of the g and the existence of fictive motion of the line of sight kind (Talmy, 2000: ) should provide a better account of the phenomenon. Metaphorical and metonymical processes are involved in uses (10) through (13), with mappings from space to time and to other domains. These mappings derive from schema structure and schema logic, which are obtained from the reoccurrence of similar experiences. Thus, the uses above belong to a same complex, internally coherent semantic category, resulting from different cognitive processes. 3. The Network Model As stated earlier, we propose to explain the polysemy of the preposition em by using a R. Langacker s Schematic Network model, which includes schemainstance categorizing relations, patterns or generalizations (the schema in each node), and the sanctioning of new uses. Sanctioning may be total, the case being when a use fully reproduces the pattern (a conventionalized unit). However, most of the times sanctioning is only partial, that is, the higher order schema is not totally compatible with the new use and, still, a language user takes it as a peripheral member of the prototypical category the pattern represents. We understand a prototypical category (Rosch, 1978) as one in which members are related to each other in terms of family resemblance (Wittgenstein, 1953) and one or some members are more salient (a schema more recurrent in the network) than others. The picture below is an example of the application of the model to nominal concepts.

7 25 de Araújo Oliveira FRUIT FRUIT TOMATO APPLE BANANA PEAR Figure 4. Schematic network for nominal concepts. Source: Langacker (1987:74) The vertical relations in the diagram represent categorization through instantiation or, the other way around, abstraction. A higher order schema appears at the beginning of the arrow, an instance at the head of the arrow. Thus, FRUIT is a very schematic concept, which includes highly abstract notions found in FRUIT and TOMATO, and also in APPLE, BANANA and PEAR. A FRUIT has some facets found in both FRUIT and TOMATO, and these are both instances of FRUIT. The diagram also includes a case of meaning extension, represented as a broken line between FRUIT and TOMATO. This means that TOMATO does not perfectly instantiate the concept FRUIT. Also included in this network there could be a metaphorical extension of FRUIT, meaning the result of a process, for instance. 4. The Corpus Table 1 shows how the research corpus was thematically stratified according to the content in the newspaper sections. Categories were labeled after these sections. The texts come from three of the major newspapers in Brazil: Jornal do Brasil (JB), from Rio de Janeiro, Estadão, from São Paulo, and Estado de Minas, from Belo Horizonte. Distribution and word count of linguistic items tend to remain stable among texts from a same genre/register (Biber, 1990). However, although no evidence was sought, the semantic categories analyzed might have been influenced by the variety of themes. By adopting a thematic stratified organization for the corpus we expected to obtain greater variety of domains in which em might occur. In this kind of conservative procedure, random samples of texts were taken from the thematic categories instead of random sampling from the whole population of texts. There was also an attempt to keep the number of texts proportional to the newspaper issue, so that strata would be more adequately represented (Biber, 1993: 244).

8 Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings 26 Thematic category JB Estadão E. Minas TOTAL Cities Science and technology Behaviour Crime Economics Education and culture Sports International Environment National Politics Health Traffic TOTAL Table 1. Thematic structure of the corpus and word counting per source. A total number of concordance lines were obtained by using the software TextSTAT. From these we selected 3000 instances of prepositional use, proportionally distributed according to the frequency of combined forms in the corpus. Table 2 summarizes the frequency of the different forms in the corpus, as well as the statistical procedures adopted to select the samples to be analyzed. The table shows, for instance, that forms such as naquilo, nisto, nisso, num and numa were fairly rare in the corpus, very likely due to the genre chosen. Moreover, some of these forms are more common in certain contexts than in others. One such example is nesta (in/on this FEM), which collocates with nouns referring to days of the week in 82% of its occurrences, a bias towards the notion of location in time. Thus, besides the number of samples of each form being proportional to their frequency in the corpus, the selection of concordance lines was based on a systematic random sampling strategy, which means that one in every fourteenth line underwent analysis. Finally, in some cases, exactly the same text appeared in different newspapers. These doubles were deleted and the total number of samples analyzed was reduced to 2813.

9 27 de Araújo Oliveira Singular Plural Percentage Samples Analyzed One out of Em Z 35.05% Na(s) % Naquela(s) % 2 14 Naquele(s) % 3 14 Naquilo 3 Z 0.00% 0 0 Nessa(s) % Nesse(s) % Nesta(s) % Neste(s) % Nisso 15 Z 0.04% 1 14 Nisto 3 Z 0.00% 0 0 No % Num(ns) ,10% 3 14 Numa(s) ,70% Totals: ,0% 3000 Total occurrences in the corpus: Table 2. Frequency of em and its formal variants in the corpus 5. Some Analysis Spatial uses of the preposition em are classified here according to the most salient topological notion ( inclusion, contact etc.) obtained from the spatial configuration. This notion emerges from the way the landmark and sometimes the trajector are construed in terms of their dimensions and of other elements in the scene. Other than that, metaphorical and metonymical explanations were found for the non-spatial uses. 5.1 Inclusion The CONTAINER schema invokes a topological notion of closure (of the landmark), which, by its turn, relates to other components of the container structure. The boundary, for example, is an intuitive notion corresponding to the external surface of an object in contrast with its interior and its complement (the remaining space not including the object). Thus, the concept of closure comprises the interior and the boundary of a container and is also the operation that produces this effect (Smith, 1994). Although the topological notion of inclusion may seem undisputed, the examples below illustrate some differences which can only be explained in terms of conceptualization. One such case is the distinction between total and partial inclusion conveyed by the lexical items in the context together with encyclopedic knowledge.

10 Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings 28 The scene described in (14) involves a trajector (água) inside a landmark construed as a sealed tridimensional CONTAINER (garrafas), and gives rise to the idea of total inclusion. In (15), although the trajector (água) is totally included, the landmark (copo) is now open. In (16), one way the scene can be construed is having Quartiero standing in the back of the truck, in which case, part of the trajector would exceed the landmark s height, and thus, represent partial inclusion. In all three examples though, the trajector is contained in the landmark and the preposition em applies. (14) Nem toda a água que compramos em garrafas é mineral. (Estado de Minas Aug ) (Not all water we buy in bottles is mineral). (15) Suponha que a água no copo à direita se transforme na água no copo à esquerda. (Estado de Minas, Aug ) (Suppose the water in the glass on the right becomes the water in the glass on the left) (16) Quartiero seguiu na carroceria de uma caminhonete. (JB May ) (Quartiero went on in the back of a pick-up truck.) Inclusion in a Medium A variation of total inclusion occurs when the landmark is some unbounded substance that totally involves the trajector as a result of their physical nature. In the cases immediately below, we assume the landmark is a medium involving the trajector. (17) A Mars Express nos confirmou a presença de metano na atmosfera marciana. (Estado de Minas Aug ) (The Mars Express has confirmed the presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere.) (18) A estiagem prolongada favoreceu o aparecimento das algas na água. (Estado de Minas 2007) (The long drought fostered algae growth in the water.) (19) Sem terra, água, sol, nutrientes e minhocas no chão, nosso arroz e feijão já era. (Estadão May ) (With no soil, water, sunlight, nutrients or worms in the ground, you can get no food.) An Empty Trajector Included in a Medium In the examples seen so far, the trajectors have always been entities with some sort of positive concrete existence. Nevertheless, it may be the case that a medium will come to involve a certain entity having a negative concrete existence, which is, in essence, an absence or flaw in the landmark, such as buraco (hole) in (20). These entities constitute empty spatial trajectors. (20) O buraco na parede foi feito com dois pedaços de ferro. (The hole in the wall was made with two pieces of iron.) According to the Gestalt principle of closure, we tend to see complete figures even when part of the information is missing. So, by adapting Langacker s ideas (1987: ) about closure, Vandeloise (1991: ) proposes that

11 29 de Araújo Oliveira the viewer (conceptualizer) completes the surface of the landmark in such a way that it becomes a medium which involves the entity with a negative existence. In this configuration, the boundary of the internal closure of the landmark and the external boundary of the trajector overlap. In the figure below, the broken line completes the landmark and the shaded region is the trajector. Figure 5. Closure of the landmark during conceptualization. Source: Vandeloise (1991:214) Cuyckens (1993: 50) argues that, in cases like this, the whole interior of the landmark is its active zone, and not only its boundaries. Thus, entities like holes, cracks, perforations of any sort must be construed the same way as any concrete object, for instance, a nail in a wall. Again, in this case the idea of inclusion is not so emphasized in Portuguese as in English, for instance. One evidence might be the fact that buraco na parede (hole in the wall) and buraco da parede (*hole of the wall) evoke approximate meanings. The flexibility of human cognition is also described by Tyler and Evans (2003:183-4). One such case is our capacity to understand non-canonical containers as able to include or contain objects, so that we use prepositions that indicate containment with these landmarks. This way, it is possible to construe as containers landmarks such as countries, cities, regions, seas, etc. whose boundaries are barely definable to the ordinary speaker as in (21). (21) Vários confrontos armados foram registrados no Vale do Bekaa e em Beirute. (Estado de Minas Aug ) (Several armed conflicts were registered in the Valley of Beqaa and in Beirut.) Again, it should be said that the preposition em by itself does not mark the distinction between pure location and inclusion. The complex preposition dentro de (inside; in) is the one to convey inclusion in Brazilian Portuguese. 5.2 Non-specific Location Evidence of this more abstract sense comes from the large number (33.88%) of spatial uses of em in the corpus that do not evoke a more specific notion than location. In these cases, the landmarks cannot be clearly construed as tri-dimensional objects or this aspect is not relevant. As argued by Vandeloise (1991: 5-6), in face of an utterance such as Le curé est à la plage (the priest is at the beach), it would be very unlikely for any speaker to consider this scene in terms of geometric principles. Instead, he proposes that the beach would be

12 Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings 30 construed as an undetermined mass and the priest would not be construed as a point. The French à could be said then to convey localization, a functional concept. We would say the same is valid for em and propose that these cases derive from inclusive contexts, in which location is more relevant. This way, although a building is a tri-dimensional object, in (22 )one cannot immediately conclude that Jeferson was inside it. He could be at the entrance, in the patio, in the garden, in the parking lot etc. The relevant aspect is his being there and not in some other part of town. (22) Segundo o promotor, Jeferson estava no prédio na noite do crime. (JB Jun ) (According to the district attorney, Jeferson was in/at the building on the night of the crime ) Neither does the fact that the oil platforms are only partially in the sea seem relevant for construing the scene in (23). As argued by Vandeloise (1991: 161 and 246, n.3), this is a typical case in which the conceptualizer is at a reasonable distance from the scene and the North Sea becomes its search domain for locating the trajector. (23) Cerca de 70 plataformas no Mar do Norte foram obrigadas a fechar ou reduzir a produção. (Estadão May ) (Nearly 70 platforms in the North Sea had to close or reduce their production.) Besides the instances described so far, the basic concept of location takes part in other categories shown in the sequence of the analysis. 5.3 Contact The topological relation of contact emerges from uses such as the ones below, where the preposition sobre (on) could substitute for em. (24) Três modelos levitavam (deitadas em pranchas estreitas)... (JB Jun ) (Three models levitated (lying on narrow boards)...) (25) Menores ficam deitados em mesas de escritório, idosos em colchões no chão. (Estado de Minas Apr ) (Under-age youths lie on office desks, the elderly on mattresses on the floor.) The trajectors (models, youths/the elderly) are obviously not included in the landmark. It seems, indeed, that em merely introduces their location. The idea of support comes from the kinds of objects standing in a specific spatial relation and the way gravity acts upon them. Context also contributes to the meaning of (25), for instance, because one would not expect to see people on desks. But the fact that the children are lying on office desks activates (in Langacker s terms) the flat surface the current active zone of those pieces of furniture Proximity Trajector or landmark geometry does not account for the two uses below,

13 31 de Araújo Oliveira either. Both evoke the topological notion of proximity. In (26), highlighting the flat surface of the table would cause inadequacy, with the person being construed as sitting on the table. (26)... quem vocês estão vendo, naquela mesa bebendo, é meu querido amor. (JB Aug ) (...the one you see drinking at that table is my darling love.) Likewise, in (27), the trajector hospital is not located on the surface of the street, neither in the street itself, but in an area that starts beyond the pavement. The building is located in the proximity or adjacency of the street. It could be said then that both the table and the street are construed as having some kind of zone of interaction. Evidence for that is the fact that em would sound awkward were the person just near the table, but not actually using it or if the building had its entrance facing a different street. (27) O evento será às 13h, no próprio hospital, na Rua Rodolfo Rocco, 255. (JB Jun ) (The event will be held at 1 pm, at the very hospital building, at 225 Rodolfo Rocco Street.) 5.5 The Target v of a Movement Brazilian-Portuguese em does not evoke the concept of movement. However, in dynamic contexts, it locates the trajector at the final end of a PATH, where the landmark is. Examples (28) and (29) evoke a complex image schema of caused motion in which the end of this path is in focus, no matter if it is a container or a surface or any unbounded substance. (28) Depoimentos de moradores, fotografias, vídeos e a análise da água mostram que esgoto sem tratamento está sendo despejado na lagoa. (Estado de Minas Aug ) (Residents reports, photos, videos, and the analysis of the water show that untreated sewage has been dumped into the pond.) (29) Além de uma faixa com os dizeres Queremos um time de verdade, bonecas, pipocas e bananas foram jogadas no gramado. (Estadão Jun ) (Besides a banner which read We want a real team, puppets, popcorn and bananas were thrown at the field.) 5.6 From Inclusion to Contact One could ask then why em expresses both inclusion and contact. There are at least two possible explanations to start with, one based on construal (Langacker, 2001) and another, on pragmatics (Vandeloise, 1991). Construal involves our capacity to view a scene, focusing on one of its facets and leaving the other ones in the background. The same process occurs in the scene described in (30), used earlier to explain partial inclusion. (30) Quartiero seguiu na carroceria de uma caminhonete. (JB May ) (Quartiero went on in the back of a pick-up truck.) The trajector Quartiero is understood to be standing against the internal boundary of the landmark (the back of the pick-up truck). This landmark has

14 Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings 32 geometric properties of an open container. Quartiero is also in contact with one of its internal boundary, the facet selected in the construal. Reoccurrence and pragmatic strengthening would account then for the shape of the container being no longer relevant so that em may be used in situations of contact. An alternate explanation would be the countless occasions we come in contact with a CONTAINER image schema, when the landmark s geometry is considered. Em codifies inclusion in all kinds of possible containers totally closed containers such as a balloon, open containers ranging from glasses to objects minimally concave such as some salad bowls. When it comes to these bordering cases, one cannot easily establish the exact point where a trajector is no longer inside a landmark and is then located on it. 5.7 Location in Time Lakoff and Johnson (1999: ) among others have discussed the conceptual dependence between time and space in western thought. They describe this relationship in terms of conceptual metaphor, highlighting the connection between time and movement. According to them, while in Physics time is a notion that precedes movement, in cognition it is the other way around: the concept of movement emerges from sensory-motor experience and is consequently a basic image schema. This allows for other concepts such as the passing of time to derive their structure therefrom. According to what Lakoff and Johnson (1999: ) call the moving time metaphor, time lapses are considered objects and the passing of time is associated with a PATH. As a result, the construal of time frequently involves mappings from this image schema. This way, an initial point is mapped onto the first instant of a period of time; a final point on the PATH onto the last instant of this same period; and a sequence of points between the two ends of the path are mapped onto the time interval itself, not taking into account its first and last moments (Smith, 1994). While the complex preposition através de (across; through) in Portuguese evokes the whole extension of a path and even its external boundaries, em highlights the whole interior of this region or some part of it. The utterance below represents a case in which the entire interior is in focus. The process evolves during the whole period of time eleven years, a phenomenon comparable to the topological notion of inclusion. Just as in the space domain, this region can be construed as an open or a closed CONTAINER, or still, some undefined mass. (31) Queremos o nosso bonde restaurado com as características técnicas que sempre funcionaram em seus 11 anos de existência. (JB Jun ) (We want our tram restored with the technical features that have always worked in its 11 years of existence.) The same schema could be used to describe the scene in (32), in which the trajector is a certain amount of nitrogen that fills the entire sealed receptacle.

15 33 de Araújo Oliveira (32)... ele foi mantido em nitrogênio em um ambiente isolado pelas duas ou três últimas décadas. (Estado de Minas Aug ) (It was kept in nitrogen in an isolated environment for the last two or three decades.) We could also distinguish the punctual nature of an action or fact having no internal duration, as classified by Vendler (1967), taking place inside a time region. So, in the examples below, the bank s insolvency and the occurrence of a typhoon are events that do not fill the whole period of time. (33) Trata-se do quinto banco a falir neste ano no país. vi (Estadão Jul ) (It is the fifth bank to go bankrupt in the country [in] this year.) (34) A espetacular obra de engenharia se encontra em uma região propícia ao surgimento deste fenômeno no verão. (Estadão May ) (The spectacular work of engineering is located in an area prone to the occurrence of this phenomenon in summer.) These events are construed as individual objects similarly to the spatial scene described below. (35) Havia cinco frascos de lança-perfume no carro dirigido por Lombardi. (Estadão Jun ) (There were five bottles of illegal drug in the car Lombardi was driving.) Temporal Location in a Punctual Landmark Differently from the situations described above, certain processes may be construed as punctual and coincide with a point in time. The meaning of these temporal constructions share an image schema with spatial scenes construed as punctual location in space, with a landmark with no linear extension. Just as found in spatial contexts, the utterances below are instances of the phenomenon Talmy (1977) calls the rubber-sheet cognition : the time lapses are strikingly different in their sizes, still the preposition used is the same. (36) O helicóptero foi entregue ao Governo do Estado no dia 1º de outubro do ano passado. (Estadão Jun ) (The helicopter was delivered to the State Government last year, on October first.) (37) Resolvi começar do começo regravando Farinha do Desprezo, faixa que abriu meu primeiro LP, em (Estadão Jun ) ( I decided to start from the beginning, recording Farinha do Desprezo again, the opening song of my first LP, in ) 5.8 Location in Other Domains Besides space and time, em takes part in utterances about scenes in other domains, still evoking the concept of location. Some involve activities or events as trajectors and occur in both concrete and abstract domains. Other scenes have clearly abstract landmarks, such as emotional states and situations. Some scenes are static and others are dynamic. In the latter case, it is assumed that the location described by em is the goal or ending point of a PATH schema.

16 Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings 34 These types of location are possible and so pervasive because of the human capacity (described by Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) to use schemas abstracted from basic concrete entities to construe more complex ones. Once physical objects make good reference points, the same property can be attributed to non-concrete entities Location in Groups Image schemas may undergo certain transformations during construal. Lakoff (1987: 428) describes multiplex-mass transformations as the two distinct ways a collective object can be construed. When a conceptualizer views a group in close-up the individual objects which form that group appear as distinct entities (multiplex). However, as she goes farther from this collective entity, its components become less and less distinct and the group may be construed as a mass. As reasoned by Tyler and Evans (2003: 185), after being construed as a mass, these entities may function as bounded landmarks. This allows for both dynamic and static interactions in which the landmark includes the trajector. In (38), a collective landmark (a political party) is construed as a mass that can be split in half. (38) Está formalizado o racha no PSDB. (JB Jun ) (The rupture in PSDB has become official.) Activities and Events Tyler and Evans (2003: 189) call our attention to the strong cognitive relation holding between an activity and the place it occurs. Evidence for this association can be found in the usual relation between someone s occupation and their work place. (39) Houve um outro erro logo no início de seus anos na Casa Branca. (There was another mistake in her early years in the White House.) The construal of White House includes not only the building, but also the activities and policies developed inside it. A metonymical process is involved, once the building is a secondary concept evoked by the linguistic expression. As a result of reoccurrence, this association between the activity and a place becomes stronger and em comes to collocate with the name of the activity itself. Thus, em may be found in utterances in which the landmark is an activity that does not necessarily take place in a specific location. The construal of activities and events as things (Langacker, 1987) is an ordinary cognitive fact that allows us to understand them as bounded objects. We then assume that activities and events provide the same motivation for the use of em. The command of the Mexican team in (40) and the fertilization in (41) represent activities with certain duration, while the Olympic Games (40) and the final game (41) are events very limited in time. All of them are landmarks in which the trajectors take part somehow.

17 35 de Araújo Oliveira (40) Com um dos maiores atacantes de sua história no comando, os mexicanos não conseguiram vaga nos Jogos Olímpicos de Pequim e ainda foram derrotados pelos Estados Unidos na decisão da Copa Ouro. (Estadão Jun ) (Having one of the best strikers in their history in command, Mexicans did not qualify for the Olympic Games in Beijing and were defeated by the United States in the final game of the Golden Cup.) (41) Dejetos usados na fertilização degradam microbacias. (Waste used in fertilization degrades micro-basins.) States and Situations States are construed as CONTAINERS or bounded regions in space (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999: 176, ). This motivation can be found in static uses of em in which the meaning contained in a bounded region is evoked by abstract landmarks construed with properties inherited from the space domain, as represented below. (42) A gente fica nessa angústia, porque ele passou de uma vida para outra e queremos apenas enterrá-lo. (Estado de Minas Aug ) ( We are in this anguish, because he passed away and we just want to bury him. ) (43)... a rejeição é experimentada, muitas vezes, em solidão. (Estado de Minas Aug ) (... rejection is often times experienced in solitude.) Changes of State or Condition Psychological states as well as situations are usually construed as bounded entities similarly to concrete landmarks. This way, it is possible for someone or something to be em, to enter, and to leave a state, a condition or a situation. In this conceptual relation between changes of state and movement (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999: 179, 183), the initial and the final states are construed as objects (CONTAINERS). Thus, changes of state are movements in or out of these regions. And once movement in space implies the existence of a PATH, changes and transformations represent departing from an initial state (object 1) and leading to a final one (object 2). The landmark is the target of the movement. In the examples below, a change takes place from an initial state (some material, a tradition, and market condition) to a final state (fiber, disuse, and the ruined market). (44) A mistura se transforma em fibra. (Estadão May ) (The mixture turns into fiber.) (45) A tradição de dar notas e conceitos aos alunos caiu em desuso. (Estado de Minas Aug ) (The tradition of grading students has fallen into disuse.) (46) Grandes executivos deixaram o barco assim que o mercado de títulos entrou em colapso. (Estadão Jun ) (Major executives abandoned the ship as soon as the bond market collapsed (entered into collapse). In these contexts, em does not evoke the entire path, but highlights the location at the ending point of the transformation. The use of this preposition

18 Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings 36 in the construction acabar em (to end up) in (47) provides evidence for that: without the preposition, acabar (to finish) expresses a transformation from existence to non-existence. The landmark introduced by em creates the possibility of another state other than non-existence. (47) Namoros na Internet podem acabar em crimes virtuais. (Estado de Minas Aug ) (Dating on the Internet may end up in virtual crimes.) The same image schema of a PATH is found in (48) which conveys a dynamic spatial scene having a landmark (uma cisterna=a well) construed as a container. (48) Os bombeiros resgataram uma vaca que caiu em uma cisterna. (Estado de Minas Apr.2008) (The firemen rescued a cow which had fallen in a well.) Since physical and abstract actions may share a same schematic structure, changes of state may eventually coincide with the way a process develops. Their structure usually involves a prior stage of promptness, an initial stage, the main process, and a final stage besides other possibilities in between. (49) De terça até sexta-feira, Belo Horizonte sedia a 7ª Ecolatina, dedicada ao tema Mudanças climáticas: tempo de entrar em ação. (Estado de Minas 2007) (From Tuesday through Friday, the 7th Ecolatina will be held in Belo Horizonte, dedicated to the theme Climate changes: time to get into action.) (50) A plataforma FPSO Cidade de Rio das Ostras entrou em operação no dia 31 de março. (JB May ) (The platform FPSO Cidade de Rio das Ostras came on stream (entered in operation) on March 31.) The preceding examples represent cases of abstract motion expressed by the verb entrar (to enter). This verb describes spatial scenes with a landmark usually characterized as a CONTAINER as in (51). Once again, we have a complex schema of a PATH towards a CONTAINER. (51) Anderson entra em casa para contar a novidade à mãe. (Estadão Jun ) (Anderson enters his home to tell his mother the news.) vii Purpose The purpose of a non-physical action is comparable to that of a physical one (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980). In (52), the action of holding a luncheon is the trajector of a movement and its target is to honor someone. (52)...no almoço oferecido em sua homenagem, ele não segurou a bronca. (JB Aug ) (... at the luncheon held in his honor, he did not hold the reprimand.) The Target of a Cognitive Activity While interpreting certain scenes, the conceptualizer may construe a kind of

19 37 de Araújo Oliveira fictive motion (Talmy, 2000: ), with a trajectory understood as a line of vision that goes from the viewer s eyes to the object. As both viewer and viewed are static, this phenomenon is a virtual movement and explains the linguistic expression of scenes in the domain of perception such as (9) repeated below. (53) (9) Ele mantém o olhar no copo. (He keeps his eyes on the glass.) In this example, the glass is the target of a perceptual activity, and thus, it sounds natural that the relation between the trajector and the landmark be expressed by the locative preposition em. But Talmy (2000) also deals with perception and cognition as two adjacent domains the boundaries of which overlap. They form a single domain called ception. As a result, cognitive processes and sensorial activities are equally construed as fictive motion, and the preposition em locates the trajector at the final end of a virtual PATH. Evidence comes from the examples below. In (54), o outro jogo (the other game) is the landmark and the target of pensando (thinking). Theoretically, the speaker construes a line of vision toward the landmark. The verb acreditar (to believe) is among those verbs that convey sensorial or cognitive activities and also fit this type of construal in which the landmark is the target of the movement. (54) Não posso comandar meu time pensando no outro jogo. (Estado de Minas Aug ). (I can t command my team thinking about the other game.) (55) Eu ouvi esses rumores, mas asseguro que não há maneira de acreditar nisso. (JB Jun ). (I ve heard these rumors, but I assure that there is no way to believe [in] this.) 5.9 The Control Effect and Metaphor As stated before, Vandeloise (1994, 1991) argues that semantic investigation of prepositions should be based on encyclopedic knowledge about the kind of relations actually holding between entities in space instead of focusing exclusively on geometric notions or selection restrictions. One such relation is called the Container/contained Relation (Vandeloise, 1991:215-6; 1994:172) and would suffice to explain the deviation from the canonical asymmetry between the trajector and the landmark summarized in the Introduction. As a consequence of the Container/contained relation, the container controls the trajector in its interior and this control allows for the occurrence of the preposition em as in the example (56). Although bigger than the landmark (o vaso=the vase), the trajector (pinheiro natural=natural pine tree) is the contained entity and has its position determined by and dependent on the landmark. (56)... a época é ótima para adquirir um pinheiro natural, uma vez que ele não secará ao ficar apenas um mês no vaso. (This time is great to buy a natural pine tree since it will not wither from staying in a vase for just a month.)

20 Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings 38 Two further examples exploring the control effect in the Container/contained Relation are shown below. Both scenes invoke a same geometric configuration. However, only the first example in each pair is acceptable because, despite being smaller, the socket controls the position of the light bulb, and the bottle, although mobile, determines the position of the lid. (57)... foram colocar uma lâmpada no bocal, mas Régis escorregou, caiu... (... they set to place a light bulb in the socket, but Régis slipped, fell down ) (58)??... foram colocar o bocal numa lâmpada, mas Régis escorregou, caiu... (??... they set to place a socket on a light bulb, ) (59) Coloque a tampa na garrafa, depois vire a garrafa de ponta cabeça na pia. (Place the lid on the bottle then turn the bottle upside down in the sink.) (60)?? Coloque a garrafa na tampa, depois vire a garrafa de ponta cabeça na pia. (?? Place the bottle in the lid then turn the bottle upside down in the sink.) Metaphorical mappings are assumed to take place as a result of the control effect arising from the CONTAINER schema. A first and more transparent situation can be found in the example (61) below, where the phrase nas suas mãos (in your hands) stands precisely for under your control. (61) O futuro desta campanha está em suas mãos. (Estadão May ) (The future of this campaign is in your hands). Furthermore, it is still argued here that this consequence of the CONTAINER schema motivates some non-locative uses of em Specification Meaning extension due to the control effect can be accounted for by means of experiential correlation (Grady, 1997). The analysis of the scene described below reveals an image schema derived from a situation holding in some place equated with a container twice (quitinete=kitchenette and caixa=box). An expected cognitive response emerging from such an experience is a sensation of being contained in some bounded space which allows little movement. (62) Paula mora em uma quitinete que mais parece uma caixa de fósforos. (Paula lives in a kitchenette that is more like a box of matches.) However, this sensation is not necessarily present every time the preposition em takes this landmark. A partially distinct context, such as Paula mora em uma quitinete que mais parece uma galeria de arte (Paula lives in a kitchenette that is more like an art gallery) does not yield the same cognitive response. Our knowing that Paula lives in a kitchenette and the sensations that emerge therefrom stand in an experiential correlation. As a result of pragmatic strengthening (Traugott, 1988) these sensations would be gradually detached from the physical experience and become a part of the semantics of em. As situations as (62) are far more common than the alternate context, it is the control effect that lives up to allow for the use of em in non-locative contexts.