AQUA-motion domain and metaphorization patterns in European Portuguese: AQUA-motion metaphor in AERO-motion and abstract domains

Résumé

The AQUA-motion verbs – as studied by Majsak & Rahilina 2003 and 2007, Lander, Majsak & Rahilina [2005] 2008, 2012 and 2013, and Divjak & Lemmens 2007, and in European Portuguese (EP) by Batoréo, 2007, 2008, 2009; Batoréo et al., 2007; Casadinho, 2007 – allow typically metaphorical uses, which we postulate can be organized in patterns. Our study shows that in European Portuguese there are two metaphorization patterns to be observed: (i) AQUA-motion metaphor in AERO-motion domain and (ii) AQUA-motion metaphor in abstract domain (e.g. abundance, arts, politics, etc.). In the first case, where the target domain of the metaphorization is the air, in EP we navigate through a crowd or we float in a waltz, whereas in the second, where it is abstract, we swim in money or in blood, and politicians navigate at sea or face floating currency in finances. In the present paper we survey the EP verbs of AQUA-motion metaphors in non-elicited data from electronically available language corpora (cf. Linguateca). In some cases comparisons are made with typologically diferent languages (as, e.g. Polish, cf. Prokofjeva’s 2007, Batoréo 2009).