The Animals in the Portuguese Language

Reissue of the bachelor's thesis in Romance Philology by Delmira Maçãs, benefactor of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, dissertation on animals in the Portuguese language, originally published in 1951. This publication is the result of an in-depth study on the representation of animals in the lexicon, in this second edition, revised and expanded by the author, through the inclusion of numerous annotations that Delmira Maçãs collected and added to the original text after its publication. In the introductory text signed by João Nuno P. Corrêa-Cardoso, a professor at the Center for General and Applied Linguistics Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra, he mentions how the reader is about to embark on a “true journey into the world of Portuguese culture,” where they will find “a researcher with the perfect awareness that the linguist will always obtain an unfinished image of their object of reflection” and with a “passion for interdisciplinary dialogue.” João Nuno P. Corrêa-Cardoso praises the scientific qualities of Delmira Maçãs's dissertation, clearly reflected in the “rigor of the adopted methodology, the constant concern for explaining the observed phenomenon, the clarification of sources, and the frank intellectual honesty expressed in a clear writing.” In the preface to the first edition, Delmira Maçãs reveals the primary objective of her dissertation: “to gather and organize much dispersed material, according to a plan that would show the extent to which animals contributed to the enrichment of the language.” The author concludes the study with a revealing final inscription: “I am a creature. An harmless creature, like the thousands I have in this book in uppercase letters.”

Author: Delmira Maçãs

Year of publication: 2010
ISBN: 9789728761790