Considerações iniciais sobre a articulação de orações adjetivas explicativas na libras

Abstract

This essay aims to study the clauses articulation in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), and it concerns ongoing research at the Federal University of Tocantins. It focuses on how the clause articulation occurs in the case of hypotaxis, more specifically, the explanatory hypotactic adjective clauses from data of the language in use. The articulated clauses concerning hypotaxis may include either adverbial clauses or explanatory adjective clauses, that is, those clauses which are a part of the discourse organization of the speaker, however, they do not work as an argument of the primary clause (Neves, 2001). In the case of the explanatory hypothetical adjectives, the clause works as a paraphrase, as it represents an effort of information and explanation (Cavalcante; Rodrigues; Coan, 2014). Linguistic studies are still sparse with regard to clauses articulation in Libras. the current study is based on the language from a functionalist perspective, and it demonstrates the preliminary data investigated. Natural data from the language in use were investigated by using the software Eudico Linguistic Annotator (Elan), from the data of Libras corpora, as well as from videos available in social networks. Data were processed and analyzed and afterwards, the findings were demonstrated to the persons of the research group in order to validate data collected. We have found that explanatory hypothetical adjective clauses are articulated from a break in the prosodic pattern, which is a part of the main clause. we have also found a distinctive pause when the constituents of the secondary sentence are signaled. We believe that this study may contribute to a great understanding on how Libras works at the hypotactic level of analysis, as well as it will provide a better understanding of the organization of natural languages.