Expressões idiomáticas na Libras: um estudo descritivo

Abstract

Idiomatic Expressions (IE) are part of all natural languages, emerging from communication as a strong cultural mark and it is no different when we think about the deaf community. Different IEs are signed in Libras by deaf people from Alagoas, but little is known about the structuring process of IEs in the Libras lexicon and how they are inserted in the social context of the deaf community. With that in mind, this research aims to describe and analyze how the Idiomatic Expressions of Libras signaled by deaf people from Alagoas are structured. To present the main concepts related to the grammar of Libras, we brought Quadros & Karnopp (2004) and FerreiraBrito (1997), Johnston & Schembri (2007) and Santos (2018). Finally, to highlight the main characteristics of IEs in general, we brought a contribution from Xatara (2001), Camara Jr (2002), Tagnin (2005) and Dubois et al (2007). Methodologically, we chose 10 expressions in Libras with characteristics pointed out by the authors as being common to EIs and we conducted an interview with 5 deaf and 5 hearing people from the deaf community in Alagoas. All of them had lived in Alagoas for at least 10 years and the listeners had already been part of the deaf community for at least 8 years. We asked the participants if they knew the expressions and asked them to explain the meaning of the expressions. The quantitative analysis showed that the deaf responded to 96% (N=48) of the expressions with a meaning equal to that predicted by the researcher, while the hearing people responded only 34% (N=17) according to the meaning predicted by the researcher. The linguistic analysis showed that the expressions were created from derivations and compositions, presenting phonological and semantic changes. Phonological changes include change and/or crystallization of movement, handshape, or point of articulation. The semantic changes presented a restriction of meaning, moving from a broader context of the sign to a more restricted context in IE. We conclude that IEs are more used among the deaf within the deaf community than with hearing people, and that this points to a strong cultural mark of the deaf in communication.