As comparações fixas em português – aspetos semânticos e a questão de variabilidade
Portuguese similes – semantic aspects and the question of variability

Summary/Abstract: Similes are a very salient type of idiomatic expression, characterized by a number of specific features. Like all idiomatic expressions in general, similes are also a subject of debate, mostly regarding their idiomaticity and classification within the area of phraseology. This article will provide a concise overview of basic questions such as the essential definition of similes and their structure, which will serve as a basis for a further investigation of their semantic aspects, particularly the phenomena of metaphor and metonymy. These will in turn be defined theoretically, considering the recent research disseminated by various linguists. The role of these two figures of speech in similes will be investigated, based on examples from a large set of frequent similes gathered from the corpus. Subsequently, the phenomenon of variation within the area of fixed phrases will be observed.

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