Estratégias de expressão de posse em libras

Abstract

This research is a descriptive study on the possession system in the Brazilian Sign Language – Libras. Possession is a complex domain which is present in all languages of the world and can be defined as a bio-cultural domain derived from the relationship between a human being and his relatives, parts of his body, his material belongings, his cultural and intellectual artefacts. From a syntactic point of view, possession can be expressed in two ways: predicative possession and attributive possession (BALDI; NUTI, 2010; HERSLUND; BARON, 2001; SEILER, 2001). In this dissertation, we focus only on attributive possession. In that sense, the research aims at: (i) describing the strategies available in Libras, (ii) identifying pronominal signs and lexical signs that indicate possession and (iii) describe some articulatory and syntactic patterns related to possession. Data were collected through: (i) field observation and notes, (ii) videos received from the WhatsApp application, and (iii) corpus about deaf jokes. Data analysis included ELAN and Excel. According to data analysis, possession in Libras occurs through (i) possessive pronoun, (ii) sign OWN and (iii) juxtaposition. There are possessive pronouns with the handshape B, P, and IX, which have a distinct distribution regarding the speech person. Possessive pronouns have a directional behavior, in order to indicate the possessing referent and present a monomanual and mostly postponed articulation pattern. Most pronouns with the handshape B and P are repeated, while pronouns with the handshape IX were articulated without repetition. The sign OWN proved to be a lexical item regarding possession in Libras and does not replace the possessor. The construction of possession by juxtaposition, in Libras, follows the construction nucleus + modifier, in which the referent possessor is articulated after the possessed. Finally, we identified the use of the possessive pronoun with P handshape, linked to a verbal phrase, whose semantic effect is the erasure of the cause, so that the event occurs spontaneously, as if caused by itself.