“A saúde não é uma ilha”: metáfora e avaliatividade em coletivas de imprensa sobre a Covid-19 à luz da Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional

Abstract

Lexical metaphors are still little studied in the light of the theoretical and methodological approach of Systemic-Functional Linguistics, especially regarding their evaluative potential, revealed by investigation from the perspective of the appraisal system. In an attempt to contribute to filling this gap, this work examines the appraisal of lexical metaphors in Brazilian press conferences on the covid-19 pandemic, a phenomenon that can be considered the milestone of the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. The general objective is to analyze the evaluations present in the speech of the former Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, provoked through the lexical metaphors used in his speeches at press conferences. There are four specific objectives: a) to describe the context of situation in which the press conferences on covid-19 were held; b) identify the occurrences of lexical metaphor in six statements by Mandetta; c) verify which attitudinal values the identified metaphors can provoke; d) relate the metaphors and consequent evaluations to the political context of Brazil in times of pandemic. To meet these objectives, the corpus was selected and transcribed, the context of situation was described, the lexical metaphors were identified, the metaphors from the appraisal system (attitude subsystem) were analyzed and the evaluative occurrences were quantified. The results showed that topics related to the new coronavirus, health and the political implications of the pandemic were reported and exposed in a familiar tone, considering Mandetta’s intention to be understood by the listeners as well as recommending them to take care. The total number of occurrences of lexical metaphors was 489, most of them conventional or already known by a considerable part of Brazilians, thus being part of Mandetta's strategy to get closer to the public that watched and listened to him. Evaluative potential was identified in 326 lexical metaphors in the corpus. Among these, the most predominant evaluation was negative impact, and the most rated item was the coronavirus. The frequency of evaluations of positive judgment by citizens and government officials was also highlighted. Taking into account the context of situation, it can be said that Mandetta was committed to building with the listeners the following shared value: the coronavirus is a serious problem, which will bring much sadness, but we are resilient and able to face it. In general, Brazilian context of situation is mirrored in Mandetta's statements through the presence of four fundamental attitudinal values: impact, complexity, capacity and tenacity. It is possible to interpret, through these four values, the negative surprise of the country (and the world) with a disease basically unknown until then and the complexity of the actions necessary to seek to solve the situation at the national level. At the same time, there is an incentive to the population that, together and united – because no one is an island –, everyone would be capable and resilient in facing the virus.