A concepção de evento em construções representativas na língua de sinais brasileira

• Autor(a) principal: Carneiro, Bruno Gonçalves
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFG
• dARK ID: ark:/38995/0013000002g62
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handle/tede/10314
• topic: Concepção; Experiência corporal; Espaços mentais; Representação; Língua de sinais; Sign language; Conceptualization; Bodily experience; Mental spaces; Representation; LINGUISTICA, LETRAS E ARTES::LINGUISTICA

This thesis is a study on the construction of meaning in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). The scope of the work is mainly descriptive, based on the selection and analysis of linguistic data taken from the context of language in use. The focus of the analysis is on language constructions in which the body of the signaler (as a whole) expresses a given event, thus creating iconic structures capable of transmitting a wealth of simultaneous information. This phenomenon, called here representation or representation construction, is an instance in which the signaler acts as one of the participants of the event encoded by the utterance, as in a staged representation of that given state of affairs. The goal of the study is to observe the ways in which the signaler’s body and his/her use of the signing space project the different entities present in the narrative. This study is based on the precepts of Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar (1991, 2002, 2008), the Mental Space Theory (Fauconnier 1994 [1985]; 2006 [1997]); Fauconnier and Turner (1996; 1998) and on the description of the Token and Surrogate spaces in signed languages brought forth by Liddell (1996; 2000; 2003a) and Liddell and Metzger (1998). Other theoretical notion also taken into consideration is the iconic coding potential noted for sign languages by Taub (2001). The present analysis takes into account the discourse basis of syntactic manifestations and observes the body of the signaler from a broader perspective, linked to general cognitive principles and the everyday bodily experience as a way of conceiving the impressions we have of the world (JOHNSON, 1992). The analyzed data include three narratives produced by adult deaf individuals, all fluent in Libras. The results suggest that the signaler maps onto his/her own body the various discourse entities, usually more than one, giving them simultaneous visibility in the coding of the event. The narrator’s speech may be articulated by the signaler even during the representation of an action. Also, participants that are not visible may be mapped onto the signing space. The body may alternate its representation tasks, staging the agent, the patient, or other participant, each on its turn, and each of which defined according to the disposition of the signaler’s body or face. The representation provides pragmatic information about the event and may encode details about the participants.