Formulaic Expressions and Collocations in English: a proposal of description by means of image schemas
Keywords:
Collocation, Image Schema, Cognitive Linguistic, Embodied LanguageAbstract
Traditionally, a foreign language learner tries to understand a text meaning of word-by-word in order to interpret. This kind of behavior makes the development of the learning process more difficult as all languages have collocations. Even though these collocations settle in the native speaker’s mind in a natural way, they hinder the fluency in English of people who are learning it as a foreign language. Therefore, this research study aims to describe some English collocations through the Image Schema Theory. We also intend to demonstrate, through the analyses of collocations that the concept of embodied language (LAKOFF; JOHNSON, 1980) effectively contribute to the learning of English. The collocations analyzed are taken from newspaper texts, advertisements, and examples of English usage. Moreover, this research study aims to contribute to the view of collocation learning as an important aspect of the English teaching process to Portuguese speakers.
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