This thesis offers a new approach to mind modelling in modernist narratives. Taking Nietzsche’s work as exemplary of modernist ideas about cognition’s relational basis, I argue that conceptual blending theory, a particularly cogent model of a fundamental cognitive process, has roots in modernism. I read inscriptions of relational cognition in modernist narratives as “conceptual blends” that invite cognitive mobility as a central facet of reader response. These blends, which integrate conceptual domains, invite similarity-seeing and difference-seeing, exposing the reader to new conceptual content and new cognitive styles; she is thus better able to negotiate the reading-related complexities of modernist narrative’s formal innovations and the real-world complexities of modernity’s local and global upheavals. Chapter One considers blending’s interrelated rhetorical motivations and cognitive effects in Chiang Yee’s Silent Traveller narratives: bringing together English and Chinese domains, Chiang’s blends defamiliarize his readers’ culturally entrenched assumptions, invite collaborative reading strategies, and thus equip his readers for relating flexibly to a newly globalized world. Moving away from blends in a text’s narration, Chapter Two focuses on blends as textual structuring principles. I read Virginia Woolf’s The Waves as a thinking mind with fundamentally relational cognitive processes; I consider the mobile cognitive operations we perform reading about a text’s mind thinking and thinking along with it. Chapters Three and Four cross the nebulous text-peritext border to examine blends in modernist prefaces. Chapter Three focuses on blends in Joseph Conrad’s and Henry James’s prefaces, relating them, through the reading strategies they invite, to the narratives they accompany. Chapter Four considers allographic prefaces to Arthur Morrison’s Tales of Mean Streets and two of Chiang’s narratives: blends in these prefaces invite the cognitive mobility necessary for reconceptualizing both allographic preface-text and East-West relations. All four chapters treat the modernist narrative text as a textual system whose blends, often interacting and borderless, signal reciprocal, mutually permeable relations among its textual levels. Dialogic relations also underwrite the interaction between these blends and blends the reader performs when engaging with them. Modernist narratives model (bear inscriptions of) cognition’s relational processes in order to model (shape) the reader’s mind.

This thesis offers a new approach to mind modelling in modernist narratives. Taking Nietzsche’s work as exemplary of modernist ideas about cognition’s relational basis, I argue that conceptual blending theory, a particularly cogent model of a fundamental cognitive process, has roots in modernism. I read inscriptions of relational cognition in modernist narratives as “conceptual blends” that invite cognitive mobility as a central facet of reader response. These blends, which integrate conceptual domains, invite similarity-seeing and difference-seeing, exposing the reader to new conceptual content and new cognitive styles; she is thus better able to negotiate the reading-related complexities of modernist narrative’s formal innovations and the real-world complexities of modernity’s local and global upheavals. Chapter One considers blending’s interrelated rhetorical motivations and cognitive effects in Chiang Yee’s Silent Traveller narratives: bringing together English and Chinese domains, Chiang’s blends defamiliarize his readers’ culturally entrenched assumptions, invite collaborative reading strategies, and thus equip his readers for relating flexibly to a newly globalized world. Moving away from blends in a text’s narration, Chapter Two focuses on blends as textual structuring principles. I read Virginia Woolf’s The Waves as a thinking mind with fundamentally relational cognitive processes; I consider the mobile cognitive operations we perform reading about a text’s mind thinking and thinking along with it. Chapters Three and Four cross the nebulous text-peritext border to examine blends in modernist prefaces. Chapter Three focuses on blends in Joseph Conrad’s and Henry James’s prefaces, relating them, through the reading strategies they invite, to the narratives they accompany. Chapter Four considers allographic prefaces to Arthur Morrison’s Tales of Mean Streets and two of Chiang’s narratives: blends in these prefaces invite the cognitive mobility necessary for reconceptualizing both allographic preface-text and East-West relations. All four chapters treat the modernist narrative text as a textual system whose blends, often interacting and borderless, signal reciprocal, mutually permeable relations among its textual levels. Dialogic relations also underwrite the interaction between these blends and blends the reader performs when engaging with them. Modernist narratives model (bear inscriptions of) cognition’s relational processes in order to model (shape) the reader’s mind.

In the dissertation, the theoretical assumptions proposed by the cognitive model of conceptual blending have been applied to the practical study of irony in Lithuanian and American news website headlines, proving that the theory of blending is able to account for the mechanism of irony processing, and does not conflict with the majority of the other theories of irony processing. The dissertation aims at determining cross-cultural similarities and differences in the structure, processing and functioning of irony in American and Lithuanian news headlines by exploring the integration mechanisms and their constituent parts within the framework of conceptual blending. Based on data collected from Lithuanian and American news websites, the thesis explores empirically the types of integration models, frames, inner and outer vital relations, compressions, means of expression, functions and conventionalization that create irony. In accordance with the main aim the changes in the perception of the phenomenon of irony are identified, the ideas related to the definition of irony are consolidated, a list of possible indicators of irony is composed and the role of context in irony comprehension discussed. The dissertation does not only examine empirically the practical viability of the application of the conceptual blending framework to the analysis of irony, but also, while performing a contrastive analysis, makes an attempt at characterizing common and specific features of Lithuanian and... [to full text] / Disertacijoje teorinės konceptualiojo blendingo prielaidos taikomos praktiniam ironijos tyrimui naujienų antraštėse lietuviškame ir amerikietiškame žiniatinkliuose siekiant įrodyti, kad blendingo teorija yra pajėgi paaiškinti ironijos veikimo mechanizmą neprieštaraujant daugumai kitų ironijos suvokimo teorijų. Remiantis konceptualiojo blendingo teorija disertacijoje keliamas tikslas nustatyti ironijos sukūrimo ir išraiškos struktūros, perteikimo ir funkcionavimo, integracinius mechanizmų bei jų sudedamųjų dalių panašumus ir skirtumus tiriant Amerikos ir Lietuvos žiniatinklių antraštes. Tikslui pasiekti disertacijoje apžvelgiamas ironijos sampratos kitimas, konsoliduojamos ironijos apibrėžimo idėjos, pateikiama ironijos mechanizmo teorijų apžvalga bei kritika, sudaromas galimų ironijos žymiklių sąrašas, bei aptariama konteksto įtaka ironijos suvokimui. Disertacijoje ne tik empiriškai išnagrinėjamas bei pagrindžiamas praktinis konceptualiojo blendingo taikymas ironijai analizuoti, bet taip pat atliekamas lyginamasis tyrimas išskirtiniams Lietuvos ir Amerikos ironiškų naujienų antraščių bruožams nustatyti.

Disertacijoje teorinės konceptualiojo blendingo prielaidos taikomos praktiniam ironijos tyrimui naujienų antraštėse lietuviškame ir amerikietiškame žiniatinkliuose siekiant įrodyti, kad blendingo teorija yra pajėgi paaiškinti ironijos veikimo mechanizmą neprieštaraujant daugumai kitų ironijos suvokimo teorijų. Remiantis konceptualiojo blendingo teorija disertacijoje keliamas tikslas nustatyti ironijos sukūrimo ir išraiškos struktūros, perteikimo ir funkcionavimo, integracinius mechanizmų bei jų sudedamųjų dalių panašumus ir skirtumus tiriant Amerikos ir Lietuvos žiniatinklių antraštes. Tikslui pasiekti disertacijoje apžvelgiamas ironijos sampratos kitimas, konsoliduojamos ironijos apibrėžimo idėjos, pateikiama ironijos mechanizmo teorijų apžvalga bei kritika, sudaromas galimų ironijos žymiklių sąrašas, bei aptariama konteksto įtaka ironijos suvokimui. Disertacijoje ne tik empiriškai išnagrinėjamas bei pagrindžiamas praktinis konceptualiojo blendingo taikymas ironijai analizuoti, bet taip pat atliekamas lyginamasis tyrimas išskirtiniams Lietuvos ir Amerikos ironiškų naujienų antraščių bruožams nustatyti. / In the dissertation, the theoretical assumptions proposed by the cognitive model of conceptual blending have been applied to the practical study of irony in Lithuanian and American news website headlines, proving that the theory of blending is able to account for the mechanism of irony processing, and does not conflict with the majority of the other theories of irony processing. The dissertation aims at determining cross-cultural similarities and differences in the structure, processing and functioning of irony in American and Lithuanian news headlines by exploring the integration mechanisms and their constituent parts within the framework of conceptual blending. Based on data collected from Lithuanian and American news websites, the thesis explores empirically the types of integration models, frames, inner and outer vital relations, compressions, means of expression, functions and conventionalization that create irony. In accordance with the main aim the changes in the perception of the phenomenon of irony are identified, the ideas related to the definition of irony are consolidated, a list of possible indicators of irony is composed and the role of context in irony comprehension discussed. The dissertation does not only examine empirically the practical viability of the application of the conceptual blending framework to the analysis of irony, but also, while performing a contrastive analysis, makes an attempt at characterizing common and specific features of Lithuanian and... [to full text]

Esta tese apresenta elucidações técnicas e interpretações póscomposicionais de quatro peças compostas durante o doutorado: “Io” e “Calisto”, para piano solo, “Ganimedes” e “Europa”, para dois pianos. A composição musical é abordada em três etapas: a) descrição dos aspectos musicais e extramusicais dos primeiros estágios da composição; b) investigação das características sonoras das peças; c) construção de interpretações ficcionais pós-composicionais, imaginando as luas de Júpiter como ímpeto composicional e interpretativo. O terceiro estágio é realizado na perspectiva da teoria contemporânea das metáforas, tal qual proposta por George Lakoff e Mark Johnson e, posteriormente, por Mark Turner e Gilles Falconnier. Através da apresentação das categorias de metáforas, cruzamentos de mapeamento de domínios, esquemas de imagens, princípio de invariância, espaços conceptuais e mesclagem conceptual, se estabelecem, neste trabalho, conexões entre os conceitos metafóricos e a conceptualização metafórica da música. Isso contribui para a aproximação entre as características marcantes das peças e as cenas/ações propostas como primeira etapa das interpretações pós-composicionais, construídas pelo compositor. O trabalho propõe-se a pensar sobre a atribuição de significados da composição musical em uma perspectiva global, em que elementos extramusicais podem expandir a assimilação do fenômeno musical, bem como contribuir para a pedagogia da composição musical e para a produção de trabalhos colaborativos. / This thesis presents technical elucidations and post-compositional interpretations of four pieces composed during my doctorate degree: "Io" and "Calisto", for solo piano, "Ganimedes" and "Europa" for two pianos. The music composition is approached in three steps: a) description of the musical and extra musical aspects of the first stages of the composition; b) investigation of the sonorous characteristics of the pieces; c) construction of fictional postcompositional interpretations, imagining Jupiter's moons as compositional and interpretative impetus. The third stage is achieved under the perspective of the contemporary theory of metaphor proposed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, and posteriorly developed by Mark Turner and Gilles Falconnier. Through the introduction of metaphor categories, the cross-domain mapping, the image schema, the invariance principle, the mental spaces and the conceptual blending, some connections are established between the metaphoric concepts and the metaphoric conceptualization of music. This contributes to the approximation between the main characteristics of the pieces and the scenes/actions proposed in the first step of the post-compositional interpretations. This work proposes a reflection about the attribution of meanings on the musical composition in a global perspective, where extra musical elements can expand the assimilation of the musical phenomenon, as well as to contribute to the pedagogy of musical composition and the production of collaborative works.

Esta tese apresenta elucidações técnicas e interpretações póscomposicionais de quatro peças compostas durante o doutorado: “Io” e “Calisto”, para piano solo, “Ganimedes” e “Europa”, para dois pianos. A composição musical é abordada em três etapas: a) descrição dos aspectos musicais e extramusicais dos primeiros estágios da composição; b) investigação das características sonoras das peças; c) construção de interpretações ficcionais pós-composicionais, imaginando as luas de Júpiter como ímpeto composicional e interpretativo. O terceiro estágio é realizado na perspectiva da teoria contemporânea das metáforas, tal qual proposta por George Lakoff e Mark Johnson e, posteriormente, por Mark Turner e Gilles Falconnier. Através da apresentação das categorias de metáforas, cruzamentos de mapeamento de domínios, esquemas de imagens, princípio de invariância, espaços conceptuais e mesclagem conceptual, se estabelecem, neste trabalho, conexões entre os conceitos metafóricos e a conceptualização metafórica da música. Isso contribui para a aproximação entre as características marcantes das peças e as cenas/ações propostas como primeira etapa das interpretações pós-composicionais, construídas pelo compositor. O trabalho propõe-se a pensar sobre a atribuição de significados da composição musical em uma perspectiva global, em que elementos extramusicais podem expandir a assimilação do fenômeno musical, bem como contribuir para a pedagogia da composição musical e para a produção de trabalhos colaborativos. / This thesis presents technical elucidations and post-compositional interpretations of four pieces composed during my doctorate degree: "Io" and "Calisto", for solo piano, "Ganimedes" and "Europa" for two pianos. The music composition is approached in three steps: a) description of the musical and extra musical aspects of the first stages of the composition; b) investigation of the sonorous characteristics of the pieces; c) construction of fictional postcompositional interpretations, imagining Jupiter's moons as compositional and interpretative impetus. The third stage is achieved under the perspective of the contemporary theory of metaphor proposed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, and posteriorly developed by Mark Turner and Gilles Falconnier. Through the introduction of metaphor categories, the cross-domain mapping, the image schema, the invariance principle, the mental spaces and the conceptual blending, some connections are established between the metaphoric concepts and the metaphoric conceptualization of music. This contributes to the approximation between the main characteristics of the pieces and the scenes/actions proposed in the first step of the post-compositional interpretations. This work proposes a reflection about the attribution of meanings on the musical composition in a global perspective, where extra musical elements can expand the assimilation of the musical phenomenon, as well as to contribute to the pedagogy of musical composition and the production of collaborative works.

This study examines the centrality of the body in the apostle Paul's resurrection ideals. It is argued that Paul holds to a non-propositional understanding of resurrection that is grounded in recurrent patterns of human embodiment. Such an assertion stands in stark contrast to the pervading scholarly consensus, which is exceedingly cognicentric in its outlook and premised on an untenable opposition of body and mind. In contrast to this consensus, which disembodies resurrection, the present study demonstrates the extent to which Paul's resurrection ideals are somatically grounded. Working within a theoretical matrix that integrates the study of cognition and culture, this study utilises methodologies drawn from cognitive linguistics. Three theoretical concepts are particularly elaborated in relation to Paul: (1) Mark Johnson's understanding of image schemata, (2) George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's understanding of conceptual metaphor, and (3) Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner's understanding of conceptual blending. These three theoretical concepts are utilised in concert with one another and thus constitute this study's methodological apparatus. After demonstrating the inherent cognicentrism of standard scholarly approaches (ch. 1), this study examines four aspects in which resurrection can be seen as an embodied concept. Chapter 2 establishes a conceptual framework in which resurrection texts can be both identified and interpreted. It is argued that the concept of RESURRECTION is necessarily abstract and metaphorical in nature, though fundamentally grounded in recurrent patterns of human embodiment. In ch. 3 attention is directed to Paul's transformation metaphors and notions of both dualism and monism in the apostle's thought. It is argued that Paul works within a dualistic framework characterised not by opposition (e.g., body vs. soul) but rather by tensive integration (e.g., the embodied soul). Building on this assertion, in ch. 4 we examine the extent to which Paul understands resurrection as a present (and not merely future) experience. Critically assessing the apostle's eschatological outlook, this chapter argues that the somatic interior functions as the location of present resurrection. In ch. 5 this experience of present resurrection is further elaborated in light of Paul's broader participationist ideals. It is demonstrated that Paul's eschatology fosters a specific kind of resurrection experience in the present, one that is mapped onto the human body itself and elaborated via an in-out transformative interplay. Finally, ch. 6 offers a synthesis of the argument, scholarly contribution, and suggested avenues for further research.

Esta tese apresenta elucidações técnicas e interpretações póscomposicionais de quatro peças compostas durante o doutorado: “Io” e “Calisto”, para piano solo, “Ganimedes” e “Europa”, para dois pianos. A composição musical é abordada em três etapas: a) descrição dos aspectos musicais e extramusicais dos primeiros estágios da composição; b) investigação das características sonoras das peças; c) construção de interpretações ficcionais pós-composicionais, imaginando as luas de Júpiter como ímpeto composicional e interpretativo. O terceiro estágio é realizado na perspectiva da teoria contemporânea das metáforas, tal qual proposta por George Lakoff e Mark Johnson e, posteriormente, por Mark Turner e Gilles Falconnier. Através da apresentação das categorias de metáforas, cruzamentos de mapeamento de domínios, esquemas de imagens, princípio de invariância, espaços conceptuais e mesclagem conceptual, se estabelecem, neste trabalho, conexões entre os conceitos metafóricos e a conceptualização metafórica da música. Isso contribui para a aproximação entre as características marcantes das peças e as cenas/ações propostas como primeira etapa das interpretações pós-composicionais, construídas pelo compositor. O trabalho propõe-se a pensar sobre a atribuição de significados da composição musical em uma perspectiva global, em que elementos extramusicais podem expandir a assimilação do fenômeno musical, bem como contribuir para a pedagogia da composição musical e para a produção de trabalhos colaborativos. / This thesis presents technical elucidations and post-compositional interpretations of four pieces composed during my doctorate degree: "Io" and "Calisto", for solo piano, "Ganimedes" and "Europa" for two pianos. The music composition is approached in three steps: a) description of the musical and extra musical aspects of the first stages of the composition; b) investigation of the sonorous characteristics of the pieces; c) construction of fictional postcompositional interpretations, imagining Jupiter's moons as compositional and interpretative impetus. The third stage is achieved under the perspective of the contemporary theory of metaphor proposed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, and posteriorly developed by Mark Turner and Gilles Falconnier. Through the introduction of metaphor categories, the cross-domain mapping, the image schema, the invariance principle, the mental spaces and the conceptual blending, some connections are established between the metaphoric concepts and the metaphoric conceptualization of music. This contributes to the approximation between the main characteristics of the pieces and the scenes/actions proposed in the first step of the post-compositional interpretations. This work proposes a reflection about the attribution of meanings on the musical composition in a global perspective, where extra musical elements can expand the assimilation of the musical phenomenon, as well as to contribute to the pedagogy of musical composition and the production of collaborative works.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O objetivo principal deste trabalho é estudar estratégias de indeterminação de sentido em um corpus de conversas telefônicas interceptadas, considerando que a produção de sentido é um processo cognitivo dependente do contexto. Delimitamos a linguística cognitiva como a área na qual essa pesquisa se encontra inserida, para melhor compreender os fundamentos e os pressupostos norteadores da Teoria dos Modelos Cognitivos Idealizados (TMCI) e da Teoria da Mesclagem Conceptual (blending), tendo como base, principalmente, os estudos de Lakoff (1987), Fauconnier (1997) e Fauconnier e Turner (2002). No decorrer do trabalho propomo-nos responder às seguintes questões de pesquisa: a) que estratégias de indeterminação de sentido são mais frequentemente usadas nestas conversas? b) que elementos do contexto e do cotexto permitem a delimitação do sentido do item lexical em determinada conversa? c) como funcionam, no corpus, as estratégias de indeterminação de sentido e de que forma elas contribuem para sustentar determinado tipo de relação interpessoal? Para responder a estas questões de pesquisa, das 22 gravações de conversas telefônicas de atores sociais envolvidos com tráfico de armas e drogas, sequestro e extorsão, fornecidas pela Coordenadoria de Segurança e Inteligência do Ministério Público do Rio de Janeiro, selecionamos 10 conversas, em função da sua qualidade sonora, para serem transcritas e para proceder à análise qualitativa do uso da polissemia e da vagueza lexical. A partir das discussões teóricas e das análises desenvolvidas, concluímos que a polissemia representa a estratégia de indeterminação de sentido mais frequente no corpus desta pesquisa e que a mesma pode ser entendida como um processo de mesclagem conceptual, que sofre influências sociais e culturais: é a dinamicidade do pensamento e da linguagem que geram a polissemia. Concluímos também que a vagueza lexical é utilizada, no corpus, como um recurso linguístico para referência a assuntos ilícitos. Os itens lexicais analisados instanciam esquemas mentais abstratos que têm seus sentidos realizados a partir de pistas linguísticas e extralinguísticas que apontam para um processo interacional que pode ser entendido como um enquadre de transações comerciais (tráfico de drogas) / The main objective of this research is to study strategies of indeterminacy of meaning in a corpus of intercepted telephone conversations by social actors involved with the trafficking of drugs and weapons, with kidnapping and extortion. We elected Cognitive Linguistics as the area in which this research should be developed, as we understand the process of meaning production as a cognitive process, dependent on the context. Within Cognitive Linguistics, we adopted the principles and assumptions guiding the Theory of Idealized Cognitive Models (TMCI) and Conceptual Blending Theory, based principally on studies by Lakoff (1987), Fauconnier (1997) and Fauconnier and Turner (2002). Throughout the paper our purpose is to answer the following research questions: a) what strategies for the indeterminacy of meaning are most often used in these conversations? b) what elements of context and co-text (the immediate grammatical context ) trigger the instantiation of the meaning of a lexical item in a particular conversation? c) how do the strategies of indetermination of meaning operate , in the corpus, and how do they contribute to the creation of a particular kind of interpersonal relationship? In order to answer these questions, from the 22 recordings provided by the Coordinator of Intelligence and Security of the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro, we selected 10 conversations, on the basis of their sound quality. We further transcribed them and submitted them to qualitative analysis, investigating the use of lexical polysemy and vagueness. From the theoretical discussions and analyzes undertaken, we conclude that polysemy represents the strategy of indeterminacy of meaning that is most often used in the corpus and that it can be understood as a process of conceptual blending, under the influence of social and cultural factors: it is the association between the use of language and the real dynamics of thought and language that generate polysemy. We also conclude that lexical vagueness is used as a language resource to refer to illicit affairs. The lexical items studied instantiate abstract mental schemas whose meanings are triggered by the use of particular linguistic and extralinguistic cues, within the domain, or frame, of a commercial transaction (drug trafficking)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O objetivo principal deste trabalho é estudar estratégias de indeterminação de sentido em um corpus de conversas telefônicas interceptadas, considerando que a produção de sentido é um processo cognitivo dependente do contexto. Delimitamos a linguística cognitiva como a área na qual essa pesquisa se encontra inserida, para melhor compreender os fundamentos e os pressupostos norteadores da Teoria dos Modelos Cognitivos Idealizados (TMCI) e da Teoria da Mesclagem Conceptual (blending), tendo como base, principalmente, os estudos de Lakoff (1987), Fauconnier (1997) e Fauconnier e Turner (2002). No decorrer do trabalho propomo-nos responder às seguintes questões de pesquisa: a) que estratégias de indeterminação de sentido são mais frequentemente usadas nestas conversas? b) que elementos do contexto e do cotexto permitem a delimitação do sentido do item lexical em determinada conversa? c) como funcionam, no corpus, as estratégias de indeterminação de sentido e de que forma elas contribuem para sustentar determinado tipo de relação interpessoal? Para responder a estas questões de pesquisa, das 22 gravações de conversas telefônicas de atores sociais envolvidos com tráfico de armas e drogas, sequestro e extorsão, fornecidas pela Coordenadoria de Segurança e Inteligência do Ministério Público do Rio de Janeiro, selecionamos 10 conversas, em função da sua qualidade sonora, para serem transcritas e para proceder à análise qualitativa do uso da polissemia e da vagueza lexical. A partir das discussões teóricas e das análises desenvolvidas, concluímos que a polissemia representa a estratégia de indeterminação de sentido mais frequente no corpus desta pesquisa e que a mesma pode ser entendida como um processo de mesclagem conceptual, que sofre influências sociais e culturais: é a dinamicidade do pensamento e da linguagem que geram a polissemia. Concluímos também que a vagueza lexical é utilizada, no corpus, como um recurso linguístico para referência a assuntos ilícitos. Os itens lexicais analisados instanciam esquemas mentais abstratos que têm seus sentidos realizados a partir de pistas linguísticas e extralinguísticas que apontam para um processo interacional que pode ser entendido como um enquadre de transações comerciais (tráfico de drogas) / The main objective of this research is to study strategies of indeterminacy of meaning in a corpus of intercepted telephone conversations by social actors involved with the trafficking of drugs and weapons, with kidnapping and extortion. We elected Cognitive Linguistics as the area in which this research should be developed, as we understand the process of meaning production as a cognitive process, dependent on the context. Within Cognitive Linguistics, we adopted the principles and assumptions guiding the Theory of Idealized Cognitive Models (TMCI) and Conceptual Blending Theory, based principally on studies by Lakoff (1987), Fauconnier (1997) and Fauconnier and Turner (2002). Throughout the paper our purpose is to answer the following research questions: a) what strategies for the indeterminacy of meaning are most often used in these conversations? b) what elements of context and co-text (the immediate grammatical context ) trigger the instantiation of the meaning of a lexical item in a particular conversation? c) how do the strategies of indetermination of meaning operate , in the corpus, and how do they contribute to the creation of a particular kind of interpersonal relationship? In order to answer these questions, from the 22 recordings provided by the Coordinator of Intelligence and Security of the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro, we selected 10 conversations, on the basis of their sound quality. We further transcribed them and submitted them to qualitative analysis, investigating the use of lexical polysemy and vagueness. From the theoretical discussions and analyzes undertaken, we conclude that polysemy represents the strategy of indeterminacy of meaning that is most often used in the corpus and that it can be understood as a process of conceptual blending, under the influence of social and cultural factors: it is the association between the use of language and the real dynamics of thought and language that generate polysemy. We also conclude that lexical vagueness is used as a language resource to refer to illicit affairs. The lexical items studied instantiate abstract mental schemas whose meanings are triggered by the use of particular linguistic and extralinguistic cues, within the domain, or frame, of a commercial transaction (drug trafficking)