Formas de referenciação de primeira e segunda pessoa em libras com foco em duas surdas sinalizantes do interior de Pernambuco

Abstract

This research aimed at investigating referential for the first and the second grammatical persons in LIBRAS – Brazilian Sign Language (Língua Brasileira de Sinais) through the analysis of video recorded data generated in LIBRAS by two deaf subjects. The description and the analysis of referential processes in LIBRAS, based on the use of nouns and pronouns, was necessary in the conduction of the investigation. Then, the research sought to identify the strategies employed to distinguish discursive subjects and to locate them in time and space. It was observed that referential strategies employed by the informants used either pronouns and proper nouns in LIBRAS. The latter appear as one sign, that is, each person presented to the deaf community hás their own sign that signifies their names; however, in reference to a subject who is present or absent in the discourse, the use of subject pronouns is preferred to proper nouns. This investigation described the use of subject pronouns in LIBRAS focusing on gender, singular/plural and location. The data was transcribed using the software ELAN which allows the adequate register of linguistic data for visual/gesture information. The analysis and discussion of data relied on the theoretical perspective of Generative Grammar, specifically on the study by Collins and Postal (2012) on impostors and its application to Brazilian Portuguese by Carvalho (2017).