É possível consumir um filme, um telejornal e desfrutar de um sabonete? Empregos linguístico-discursivos referentes ao ato de consumir

Abstract

The text discusses linguistic-discursive uses of the term ‘consumption’ derived from inflections of the verb ‘to consume’. It starts from the premise that the use of the word consumption has acquired high enunciative visibility in recent academic works published in Brazil. In order to try to explain this occurrence, the article approaches some modalities of consumption of symbolic mediatic goods and non-symbolic goods and their relations to material culture in contemporary society. It tries to relate the conception of the product or good, its social uses, its functionalities with verbal designations existing in the Portuguese language and relating to acts of consumption. It discusses the prevailing character of the following question: what usual forms of the Portuguese language mark or reflect the modes of contact with and use of material and symbolic goods?