Lula em capas da revista Veja: um estudo semântico-cognitivo em perspectiva ecológica

Abstract

In the present study, having as object of study the conceptualisation of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, we aim to investigate how such conceptualisation was displayed in the front pages of Veja magazine since 1979 until 2020, in the light of Cognitive Semantics and Complexity Theory. Conceptualisation, according to Almeida (2016), is a cognitive process conducted by us, human beings, in order to comprehend the reality that surrounds us, relating it to the human understanding of constructed experiences, temporally and spatially, in a culture, and externalised by the language or other means of communication.So as to comprehend the conceptualisation process, we made use of Cognitive Semantics’ concepts about domain, frame, metaphor, metonymy, and image schemas, postulated by Lakoff and Johnson (1980; 1999), Grady (1997), Kövecses (2009), and Forceville (2016). Moreover, from a holistic and interdisciplinary perspective of conceptualisation, inasmuch as the fragmentation hinders the comprehension of the complexity of a whole, we consider that the Complexity Theory provides the understanding about the way different signification processes interact with each other, and with the social, the linguistic, the cultural, etc., thus, we have brought in, to the proposed discussion, authors such as Capra (2005; 2006), Morin (2009; 2011) e Paiva (2011). In this manner, considering the corpus’ multimodal nature and the theoretical-methodological fundaments of Cognitive Semantics and Complexity Theory, we respond the following questions: a) how is the Brazilian politician Lula conceptualised via the front pages of Veja magazine; b) how does the Veja magazine put Lula into perspective, as regards the positive and the negative results of his policies; c) how does the interaction between the verbal and the image phenomena take place to manifest the human conceptualisation; d) how do cognitive mechanisms (domain, frame, metaphor, metonymy, and image schemas) get interconnected within this conceptualisation; e) how do languages, cognition, socio-history, and conceptualisation interrelate; f) how do pattern (organisation), process and structure (matter) act upon the conceptualisation; and, at last, g) how does the non-balance operate as a source of order in the magazine’s agenda phenomenon. Furthermore, this work’s methodology is based on a qualitative approach of bibliographic, documental, exploratory, descriptive, explanatory, and hermeneutical nature, relating language, cognition, conceptualisation, history, and society, from a systemic viewpoint. Finally, as for results, through the identified conceptualisations, we noticed how languages, cognition, and conceptualisation interact to keep the stable balance, because at first we conceptualised/categorised Lula; the multimodality of various front pages made other interpretations possible (object, criminal, enemy, grenade, leader, prisoner, etc.). This meaning displacement operates as a disorder, which, later, gives rise to a new arrangement that might become a piece of knowledge within a certain context. In addition to that, the conceptualisations presented herein indicated an arrangement pattern of the front-page-language genre, and of the construction of a frame of Lula through traditional media alike.