A construction analisys of the: (de)lexical formations with the names of the chairman of the executive

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze a set of about 150 lexical formations from the name of the current president of Brazil, such as “bolsonero”, “boçalnaro”, “bozonazi” and “bolsolão”. Our main goal is to map the processes involved in these expressive coinages and to verify if a new morphological type, called a splinter, a non-morphemic portion frequently used in a series of new words, is also spreading on anthroponimic bases. We intend to show the evaluative meanings of these constructions, as well as to analyze the various cases of vocabulary deconstructions involving both the first name “Jair” (> “já ir”, “already to go”) and the last name “Bolsonaro” (“Bolso cheio”, “full pocket”), denominated, in this order, sublexical decomposition and false lexical blend (Henriques, 2007). In order to corroborate Fauconnier e Turner (2002), we conclude that the production of meanings through lexical manipulation is directly related to the three Is of the mind: Identity, Imagination and Integration. In order to describe and to represent the morphological processes, we adopt the Construction Grammar, more precisely Goldberg (2005) and Booij (2010).