Chapter 7. Subúrbio and suburbanos
-
Ana Paulla Braga Mattos
Abstract
This chapter studies the Brazilian Portuguese keywords subúrbio ‘suburb’ and suburbanos ‘suburb dwellers’. Despite formal similarities, the English cityscape word suburb conveys a very different concept than subúrbio. In dictionaries, the cultural semantics of the words subúrbio ‘suburb’ and suburbanos ‘suburb dwellers’ is largely missing. This is unfortunate since the semantic richness of these words shed light on Brazilian discourses of urbanism and on a culturally-specific way of categorising people in the urban space. Using evidence from a range of different Brazilian discourses and speakers’ reflections on the two words, I propose a semantic explication for each, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) to adequately account for the complex and cultural meaning of the words – seen from an insider’s perspective.
Abstract
This chapter studies the Brazilian Portuguese keywords subúrbio ‘suburb’ and suburbanos ‘suburb dwellers’. Despite formal similarities, the English cityscape word suburb conveys a very different concept than subúrbio. In dictionaries, the cultural semantics of the words subúrbio ‘suburb’ and suburbanos ‘suburb dwellers’ is largely missing. This is unfortunate since the semantic richness of these words shed light on Brazilian discourses of urbanism and on a culturally-specific way of categorising people in the urban space. Using evidence from a range of different Brazilian discourses and speakers’ reflections on the two words, I propose a semantic explication for each, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) to adequately account for the complex and cultural meaning of the words – seen from an insider’s perspective.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Typographical conventions and symbols ix
- Chapter 1. How words do things with people 1
- Chapter 2. Nice as a cultural keyword 25
- Chapter 3. Bogan as a keyword of contemporary Australia 55
- Chapter 4. Social keywords in postcolonial Melanesian discourse 83
- Chapter 5. Talking about Livet ‘life’ in Golden Age Danish 107
- Chapter 6. Visuality, identity and emotion 131
- Chapter 7. Subúrbio and suburbanos 157
- Chapter 8. Cantonese ‘ mong4 ’ 183
- Chapter 9. Kawaii discourse 211
- Chapter 10. An invitation to keyword studies 235
- Index 243
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Typographical conventions and symbols ix
- Chapter 1. How words do things with people 1
- Chapter 2. Nice as a cultural keyword 25
- Chapter 3. Bogan as a keyword of contemporary Australia 55
- Chapter 4. Social keywords in postcolonial Melanesian discourse 83
- Chapter 5. Talking about Livet ‘life’ in Golden Age Danish 107
- Chapter 6. Visuality, identity and emotion 131
- Chapter 7. Subúrbio and suburbanos 157
- Chapter 8. Cantonese ‘ mong4 ’ 183
- Chapter 9. Kawaii discourse 211
- Chapter 10. An invitation to keyword studies 235
- Index 243
