Traços distintivos para os pontos de articulação em línguas de sinais: uma revisão conceitual

Abstract

This research presents a revision of features proposed by the Prosodic Model (BRENTARI, 1998) for the points of articulation of sign languages and, therefore, aims to review the concept of distinctive feature from classical theories to propose a refinement traces in the model. We used the Generative Phonology (CHOMSKY & HALLE, 1968), the Autosegmental Phonology (GOLDSMITH, 1972), the Parametric Model (STOKOE, 1960) and the Prosodic Model (BRENTARI, 1998) as theoretical support. Methodologically, we performed a bibliographic review of the classic texts, pointing out the main contributions to phonetics and phonology. In the same way, we made a historical journey with the studies of the articulatory basis of sign languages to then refine the features. Then, we propose a minimum amount of features that can account for the points of articulation of sign languages. For this, we chose signs with different points of articulation in Libras and described the signs from the features. Finally, we reached a minimum quantity of 5 features that were able to describe the point of articulation of the signs in Libras. The features are [trunk], [top], [high], [low] and [central]. To test the features, we chose pairs of signs with minimum, double and triple distinction, which were distinguished in the Location at different points of articulation and we observed that the difference between them is not simply in the point of articulation, but in the feature internal to the point. This work allows research in sign languages at this level of analysis to be more in-depth as to the explanation of phenomena such as assimilation, coarticulation and linguistic variation.