Flying over sobre-x formations in Brazilian Portuguese

formal and semantic-pragmatic aspects

Abstract

This article investigates lexical formations prefixed with sobre- in Brazilian Portuguese, aiming to describe how the relationship between form and meaning articulates with recurrent semantic-pragmatic effects in contemporary language use. It is hypothesized that the semantics specific to this prefix is not random, but rather systematically organized by constructional schemas and by cognitive operations anchored in discursive experience. The study adopts Construction Morphology, as proposed by Booij (2010), as its theoretical framework, articulated with assumptions from Cognitive Semantics, especially Conceptual Metaphor Theory by Lakoff and Johnson (1987), and with Grady’s (1997) refinements concerning primary metaphors. Methodologically, the analysis is based on empirical data extracted from the News on the Web (NOW) corpus, composed of contemporary journalistic texts and developed by Davies (2016). Only morphologically transparent formations were considered, so as to allow for the direct observation of the semantic contribution of the prefix at the current state of the language. The final corpus gathers occurrences in which sobre- attaches to nominal, adjectival, and verbal bases, with nominal formations proving to be the most productive ones. The results indicate that the prefix sobre- shows a strong tendency to express excess, understood as the transgression of functional, normative, or socially expected limits. This semantic value is manifested predominantly through the activation of the orientational metaphor “QUANTITY IS VERTICAL,” reinterpreted in the evaluative domain as “UP IS EXCESS.” It is argued that, unlike its learned counterpart super-, the prefix sobre- blocks the positive reading associated with the metaphor “UP IS GOOD,” favoring negative or problematizing evaluations, as observed in items such as sobre-endividamento (‘over-indebtedness’), sobrejornada (‘excessive working hours’), sobrequalificação (‘overqualification’), and sobre-exploração (‘overexploitation’). In addition, it is shown that this specific semantic value originates from a broader sense associated with the meaning ‘to pass over’/’to go over’, exemplified primarily by the verb sobrevoar (‘to fly over’), whose discursive selection tends to involve referents that are spatially or symbolically negatively marked. The study concludes that the semantic behavior of sobre- is guided by recurring interpretive schemas that are sensitive to usage and context, which contributes to a more integrated understanding of prefixation in Portuguese by articulating morphology, cognition, and discourse.