Discurso na mente e na comunidade. Para a sinergia entre linguística cognitiva e análise (crítica) do discurso

Cognitive theories attempt to explain language by appealing to cognitive mechanisms; functional theories, on the other hand, emphasize discourse interactions and pressures. While it is undeniable that both of these aspects play an important role, many aspects of discourse and language are best understood by appealing both cognitive mechanisms and sociocultural aspects, and the complex interaction between them. In fact, languages live in the mind, but belong to communities. There are, therefore, strong reasons to explore the interaction between discourse, cognition and society and to promote the relationship between Cognitive Linguistics and (Critical) Discourse Analysis, being both usagebased models. The paper indicates how Cognitive Linguistics can contribute to (Critical) Discourse Analysis, especially how key concepts such as embodiment, situatedness, conceptual metaphor and metonymy, image schemas, conceptual integration, prototypes, conceptual perspectivization and intersubjetification can explain the ways in which individual minds and cognitive processes are shaped by their discourse interaction with sociocultural structures and practices. Inversely, the paper shows how discourse is able to enhance Cognitive Linguistics as a maximally contextualizing approach to language, how discourse topics, such as ideology can be integrated in the cognitive agenda, and how the bigger commitment with discourse has been giving rise in the last decade to both a social and an empirical turn within Cognitive Linguistics. The result is the socio-cognitive approach to discourse and language, which is in line with the view of cognition as social cognition and of language as a dynamic, complex and interactive process.