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The NATURAL FORCE domain in Portuguese phraseology

The paper is based on semantic-conceptual analysis of a corpus of Portuguese phraseological units – idioms and proverbs with figurative meaning – having the NATURAL FORCE domain as primary basis of motivation for idiomatic meaning. Principally, the anthropological stream in phraseology points out that the natural phenomena on conceptual level are often metaphorically associated with events that affect our life, but in principle we have no influence on them ; we consider those as an "external" reality that does not depend on us. The basic generic principle of this metaphoric model assumes that external conditions (on a specific level, mostly water or air) causing certain action or influencing it at the level of the source domain are conceptualized as natural forces causing or influencing the movement. Establishing the relation between the idiomatic and the literal meaning of the expressions, we aim to deduct from the general mappings their implications at lower, specific hierarchy levels, examining, at the same time, an (eventually) specific role of particular natural forces in such conceptualization. Observing the functioning of the NATURAL FORCE concept in phraseology gives us insight into a pertinent characteristic of this conceptualization principle – variations in a "form (degree) of exposure" to the natural force. We also try to ponder over such different relations considering the balance between two forces, and thereby different forms of their interaction that reflect on various types of causation, in the context of the semantic category of force dynamics (Talmy 2000).

Portuguese phraseology ; conceptual metaphor ; NATURAL FORCE domain ; causality ; Force Dynamics

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