Da fraseologia à metáfora em corpus de jornalismo especializado: o caso da alimentação em O Joio e o Trigo

Abstract

This doctoral thesis aims to analyze and interpret the discursive functioning of phraseological and metaphorical units related to the field of food in the independent digital-native news outlet O Joio e o Trigo, investigating how these units contribute to the construction of critical frames concerning the contemporary food system. With this objective in mind, the analysis is theoretically and methodologically grounded in the articulation between Corpus Linguistics, Phraseology, and Metaphor Theory, conceiving language as social practice and metaphor as a central resource in meaning-making processes and symbolic disputes within journalistic discourse. From a phraseological perspective, we adopt the typology proposed by Corpas Pastor (1996); with regard to metaphor, we primarily draw on the cognitive approach developed by Lakoff and Johnson (2002), as well as Pamies Bertrán’s (2002) contributions to the analysis of iconic models and archimetaphors, in dialogue with discursive and corpus-based approaches to metaphor. The research is classified as documentary and qualitative-interpretive in nature, combining quantitative and qualitative procedures typical of Corpus Linguistics. The study corpus, named CorJT, consists of journalistic texts published on the O Joio e o Trigo website, totaling over 1.3 million words. The analysis was carried out through the extraction and observation of recurring lexical and phraseological patterns, using tools available in Sketch Engine, followed by contextual interpretation of the units in their cotexts and discursive contexts of use. In order to understand the functioning of specialized food journalism and its role in struggles over meaning in the public sphere, we engage with studies on independent journalism, framing, and discursive hegemony, considering the explicit editorial positioning of the analyzed outlet. The findings reveal that phraseological units related to the field of food constitute a relatively stable repertoire in the discourse of O Joio e o Trigo, playing a central role in the construction of evaluations, hierarchizations, and explanations of the food system. We observe that such units are often linked to processes of metaphorization, especially through the iconic models of [CONFLICT], [FOOD], [LANDSCAPE], and [OBJECT], which are distributed across various archimetaphors. These, in turn, attribute agency to specific social actors and naturalize critical diagnoses on issues such as public health, state regulation, and food injustice. The analysis further shows that, even when they do not display an explicit metaphorical character, phraseological units contribute to the stabilization of interpretive frames and to the legitimation of particular readings of contemporary food practices. Thus, metaphor does not function as an isolated or ornamental resource, but rather in articulation with a specialized lexicon that lends technical, scientific, and political density to journalistic discourse. Considering that texts produce social and causal effects (Fairclough, 2003), the results of this research indicate that the discourse of O Joio e o Trigo, by mobilizing specific phraseological combinations and recurring metaphors, actively participates in symbolic struggles around food, challenging hegemonic discourses and contributing to the construction of critical frames concerning the Brazilian food system.