Investigando o tempo além das mãos: um estudo sobre expressões não manuais em advérbios de tempo na Libras

Abstract

This study investigates the use of non-manual expressions (NMEs) as a possible tense marker in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), focusing on its occurrence on adverbs of time. NMEs constitute a relevant object of investigation, as they can act at different linguistic levels in sign languages. In Libras, for example, at the prosodic level, head tilt is proposed as a characteristic of interrogative sentences (SOUZA, 2020), while, at the morphological level, lateral head movement has a negation value (ARROTEIA, 2005) and, at the syntactic level, the use of head and eyebrow movements has been proposed as a marker of topic and focus constructions (PIZZIO, QUADROS E REZENDE, 2008). Specifically, considering that in Libras there are no temporal markers associated to the verb, we aim to investigate whether there are systematic relationships between NMEs and adverbs of time to which they are associated. The empirical investigation was carried out using a corpus constituted of 7 videos of interviews with signers whose first language is Libras, selected from the Corpus Libras database at UFSC. The data were analyzed using the Elan software, with the creation of tracks for the analysis of NMEs following the classification of Ferreira Brito (1995). Based on the number of occurrences, six adverbs of time were selected, four of which were adverbs related to past tense (74 occurrences) and two adverbs were related to future expression (24 occurrences). The analysis of NMEs were conducted following the criteria proposed by Xavier (2019), which consist of three factors: the articulators involved in the expression of the NMEs, the concurrency between the ENMs used in the same signal and the dynamicity of NMEs. The results of our analysis showed that there is no systematicity in NMEs that cooccurred with the signs analyzed. As evidence of this, we have the non-obligatory use of NMEs in adverbs of time, and the lack of patterns in the association between NMEs and adverbs of time, when the criteria proposed by Xavier (2019) are considered. These results, although limited, suggest that, in the presence of adverbs of time, NMEs do not seem to have a grammatical role in tense marking of Libras.