Blow to abundance: semantic changes in designatives expressions of act to beat

Abstract

Based on elements of Diachronic Semantic and Cognitive Semantics, this article aims to analyze linguistic and cognitive factors involved in occurring semantic changes in designative expressions of the act of to beat, such as a uma paulada, uma porrada, uma cacetada, uma porretada, uma pancada e uma bordoada, followed by the preposition de, creating expressions that indicate quantity and intensity. From a semasiological perspective (SILVA, 2005), the phenomenon in question was investigated in events identified in the corpus of ascertained expressions and identified in electronic portal, so that the procedures and techniques used have predominantly qualitative characteristics, with quantification only as regards the absolute frequency and according to classification of the expressions, i.e., the relative frequency. Our analyzes indicate that the predication by transfer - especially -ADA suffix, while syntactic-semantic processing, and figurativity - notably the intensity of this trait in nouns that form the expressions - as semantic-cognitive process are identified factors responsible for changes meaning in expressions in focus.