A cognitive analysis of the category religion in the writings of Eulálio Motta

Abstract

In this text, the results of the conceptual analysis of RELIGION are shared, through the identification of emerging conceptual elements in the speeches of the Bahian author Eulálio Motta, in documents dated between the period 1949 and 1988, whose textual genres were pamphlets, poems, letters and journalistic texts. The study was primarily anchored in the studies of Cognitive Semantics (Lakoff; Johnson, 1980, 1999; Lakoff, 1987, 1993, 2007; Johnson, 1987, 2007), Sociocognition (Soares da Silva, 1999, 2010), and in studies of metaphorical conceptualization in culture (Gibbs, 2012; Geeraerts, 2003; Feltes, 2007; Kövecses, 2010, 2009). To carry out the study, the theoretical-methodological proposition of Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1987) was followed, which include the stages of reading, introspection and identification of conceptual elements, with a qualitative focus. For demonstration purposes, the results found in two (02) of the documents will be shared. Through the identification of the conceptualizing forms in the selected texts, it was possible to reflect on how the conceptual strategies came about, through mappings between the idealized cognitive models, whose networks of meaning can be identified as characterizing a certain type of writing, considering the structuring of the categories, thus contributing to a broader reading of the interpretation process.