Processos de indeterminação lexical em conversas telefônicas interceptadas

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to study strategies of indeterminacy of meaning in a corpus of intercepted telephone conversations by social actors involved with the trafficking of drugs and weapons, with kidnapping and extortion. We elected Cognitive Linguistics as the area in which this research should be developed, as we understand the process of meaning production as a cognitive process, dependent on the context. Within Cognitive Linguistics, we adopted the principles and assumptions guiding the Theory of Idealized Cognitive Models (TMCI) and Conceptual Blending Theory, based principally on studies by Lakoff (1987), Fauconnier (1997) and Fauconnier and Turner (2002). Throughout the paper our purpose is to answer the following research questions: a) what strategies for the indeterminacy of meaning are most often used in these conversations? b) what elements of context and co-text (the immediate grammatical context ) trigger the instantiation of the meaning of a lexical item in a particular conversation? c) how do the strategies of indetermination of meaning operate , in the corpus, and how do they contribute to the creation of a particular kind of interpersonal relationship? In order to answer these questions, from the 22 recordings provided by the Coordinator of Intelligence and Security of the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro, we selected 10 conversations, on the basis of their sound quality. We further transcribed them and submitted them to qualitative analysis, investigating the use of lexical polysemy and vagueness. From the theoretical discussions and analyzes undertaken, we conclude that polysemy represents the strategy of indeterminacy of meaning that is most often used in the corpus and that it can be understood as a process of conceptual blending, under the influence of social and cultural factors: it is the association between the use of language and the real dynamics of thought and language that generate polysemy. We also conclude that lexical vagueness is used as a language resource to refer to illicit affairs. The lexical items studied instantiate abstract mental schemas whose meanings are triggered by the use of particular linguistic and extralinguistic cues, within the domain, or frame, of a commercial transaction (drug trafficking)