Modelos cognitivos no processo de categorização de VIOLÊNCIA: estruturas e processos evidenciados no discurso da mulher

Abstract

Violence is defined by the World Health Organization as “the intentional use of force or power as a threat or, against yourself, another person or group or community, which causes or is very likely to cause injury, death, psychic damage, developmental changes or deprivations” (KRUG, 2002, p.5). Regarding the violence against women in Brazil, the alarming statistical data on the victims (BRASIL, 2020) and the studies of conceptual structures related to the category violence seem to be strongly associated with socio-cognitive and cultural factors. This research aims to investigate the conceptualization of the category VIOLENCE present in the conceptual metaphors that emerge in a corpus of 112 experience reports led by women who are victims of gender violence. The data were generated in virtual groups of the social network Facebook. To understand how the VIOLENCE category is conceptually structured by these women, the data are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, in the light of the interpretive paradigm, in the light of the multilevel view of Conceptual Metaphor (Kövecses, 2017), which includes the concepts of image schemas, domains, frames, and mental spaces. To assemble the category, the research grounds its analysis on the concepts of categorization and prototypicality. In addition, the study applies procedures from Corpus Linguistics, such as the use of Antconc 3.2.4 software for the generation and organization of data. Results indicate that the conceptualization of violence which emerges from the reports seems to point to the existence of a cultural aspect that is present in the structure of this category. It suggests that there is structural sexism - present in the Brazilian society and the patriarchal family model – giving form to the conceptualization of violence. A violent male behavior emerges from the speeches analyzed. In them, women are conceptualized as objects, animals, prisoners, passive in relation to power and control over their bodies