Metaphor and metonymy as a mechanism of lexical variation in Apurinã (Aruák)

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study that seeks to describe and analyze the metaphorical and metonymic processes underlying lexical variation in Apurinã, a language of the Arawak language family. The data used in this study were collected in locus between the years 2013 and 2015, with a number of Apurinã communities, and previous research data (FACUNDES 2000 BARRETO 2007 and BRANDÃO 2007). The study is articulated theoretical and methodologically in the frameworks of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (LAKOFF and JOHNSON, 1980) and Variationist Sociolinguistics (LABOV, 2008 [1972]). Cases of lexical variation treated here mainly involve the naming of flora and fauna that make up the phenomenon of "double vocabulary" (extensive use of two or more ways to designate a same referent in a specific field of language lexicon) in this language. The results indicate that the phenomenon of "double vocabulary" existing in the language allows for inferences about the conceptual organization that speakers have of certain elements of fauna and flora. The fact that the "double vocabulary" presents semantic consistency built from metaphorical and metonymic relations that motivate the naming of two referents by the same form suggests the existence of an interconnected semantic network in the Apurinã lexicon.