As denominações de cachaça: um estudo dialetocológico, etnolinguístico e semântico cognitivo

Abstract

In this dissertation, we find the results of a study undertaken on the names of “cachaça”, based on information collected by researchers of the Brazil Language Atlas Project (ALiB), in the nine Northeast States, where 348 conceptualizer and categorizer informants, were interviewed, who , according to the Project methodology, correspond to eight, in each capital, and four, in each inner city, distributed in two age groups – I (18 to 30 years old) and II (50 to 65 years old); both sexes; and two levels of education: (i) Elementary School, in the capital and in the inner cities, and (ii) university only in the capitals. The study aimed to carry out an exegesis based on the information presented by the Northeastern conceptualizer and categorizer informants, when they answered question 182 of the Lexical Semantic Questionnaire (QSL): AGUARDENTE (COMITÊ NACIONAL DO PROJETO ALiB, 2001, p.36), “What is the name of alcoholic beverage made from sugar cane?" 753 occurrences were considered, which are organized into 71 denominations, classified into simple and complex, in which 44 common names and 27 brand-names are found. The nature of the data obtained led to an interdisciplinary approach, established between Dialectology, Ethnolinguistics and Cognitive Linguistics, unified by the studies of Onomastics and Lexicology. These Linguistic areas consider the relationship between human beings, the language they use in their interactions and the world and culture that surround them to be essential. The interdisciplinary theoretical relationship adopted made it possible to follow a bias of interpretation and taxonomy of the data, in which it was considered that, when presenting their answers, the conceptualizer and categorizer informants resorted to Idealized Cognitive Models (ICM), among which PART-WHOLE, stands out, as if had in denominations like limpa, pura, Ypióca, Pitú. In general, the results indicate to considerations related to the lexical items presented in response to the question 182 from QSL, highlighting, with greater productivity and scope of uses, the name cachaça, considered as prototypical, since it was mentioned by the interviewed of all the locations surveyed and, also, in the most diverse situations of elocution, present during the interviews. Among the brand-names, Pitú stands out, which is produced in Pernambuco and was highly representative in the interviews of participants from Pernambuco, as well as in those from other Northeastern States. The categorizations revealed by the Northeastern conceptualizer informants allowed the elaboration of radial networks, which reveal the sociocultural representation of the 71 names, according to the productivity of occurrence and scope. The prototypical lexical item and those in the radius closest to it are mapped, so that the spatial distribution of these variants can be visualized. The study of the history of the Brazilian Northeast and the history of cachaça were important to better understand this relevant cultural element of the Brazilian people, whose domain of experience proved to be diverse and broad.