"Caiu no Olimpo...": uma análise sociocognitiva da masculinidade a partir de tweets sobre Zeus

Abstract

The present study is dedicated to examining the conceptualization of Zeus focused on four main attributes: masculinity, paternity, authority, and sexuality. The method adopted in this research belongs to two Linguistics fields, namely Digital Humanities, which studies social and individual behavior and discourse in the virtual environment, and Cognitive Semantics, which investigates the processes of conceptualization based on concepts from Cognitive Linguistics. Digital Humanities provides guidance for the composition of the corpus, which consists of 179 tweets in Brazilian Portuguese containing the lexemes “Zeus” and “Olympus”. The methodology involved semantic exploration of the corpus with the generation of a word cloud, separation of relevant excerpts into clusters for the four domains of interest to the research, and identification of the roles activated in each frame (Fillmore, 2006). Following the description of the frames, derived from the excerpts in the cluster, an Idealized Cognitive Model (ICM) was proposed regarding the conceptualization of Zeus in the sample formed by the corpus presented in this work. To perform a diachronic contrast, the study adopts recurrent commentary on the Theogony, composed by the Greek Hesiod approximately seven centuries before the Common Era. The hypothesis of this work, that of a partial correspondence within the defined domains, is verified as true within the corpus, with minor reservations expressed in the form of criticism of the deity's behaviors. There are also indicatives of masculinity being conceptualized as in terms of power and domination, including over the female gender, possibly reinforcing some gender conflicts. We therefore believe that this research contributes to the diachronic debate on gender roles in Western society