Cultural linguistic metaphors in the petroleum terminology: the case of Angola, Brazil, and Portugal

Abstract

Metaphor, seen as a cognitive resource of language, is a fundamental mechanism for comprehending diverse human experiences and is present in daily life. As such, metaphor, serving as a productive naming strategy, is also relevant for analyzing the object of descriptive terminological studies based on linguistics. Given this reality, the current text aims to analyze and describe cultural linguistic metaphors within the petroleum universe, in the context of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP), with a special focus on Angola, Brazil, and Portugal. The theoretical foundation for this study is based on Lakoff and Johnson's (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), as well as Kövecses' work on cultural metaphors (2000, 2005, 2007, and 2010). Regarding the methodological aspects, the only terminological work in Portuguese about petroleum was considered as the data source, covering the three varieties of Portuguese spoken in the aforementioned countries. The dictionary under consideration, which is referred to as a lexicographic corpus, is a monolingual work with English equivalents. Due to the fact that the work was in print format, it had to be scanned and processed computationally in order to facilitate the manipulation of such a large quantity of data. As for the analyses, this study presented six sets of data that contrast the three varieties of Portuguese investigated. Through analysis, it was observed that naming a particular entity highlights conceptual traits, which often differ across different varieties of Portuguese. This is because, although it is the same language, there is always diversity in the conceptualization of reality.