A preliminary description of time deixis in Brazilian Sign Language
Language: English
The aim of this research is to describe the time deixis in a narrative told in Brazilian Sign Language
(henceforth Libras) within the Theory of Enunciation (Benveniste, 1976 and Fiorin, 2002) and French
Semiotic Theory frameworks. In sign language, time deixis is substantially expressed by lexical
markers, since it does not present grammatical marks in the verb. There are narratives, however, whose
time markers are not expressed by lexical sign. In these cases, it is necessary to investigate the other
means employed to mark the time deixis. This work is a pilot study and its aim is to investigate the
nature of time markers used in Libras (linguistic or non-linguistic) of time markers used in Libras.
More precisely, to analyze the spatial, gestural and verbal means that establish, in the discourse, the
time relation of concomitance and non-concomitance between the action of the narrative and the
enunciation moment.
In order to describe the different time markers in Libras, I collected data from Libras by filming a deaf
collaborator signing a no speech bubbles comics story. The narrative was transcribed with ELAN
(EUDICO Language Annotator), following the transcription system proposed by McCleary, Viotti &
Leite (2009) and McCleary &Leite (2011).
The analysis of this first narrative allowed us to see (i) some devices used in Libras to construe,
represent and characterize the characters and the actions of the story; (ii) some time marks in three
different moments of the story; (iii) some of their formal aspects and pragmatic characteristics, and (iv)
the use of eyegaze and body movement, not only related to the personal deixis, but also to the
expression of time relations in the narrative.
Keywords: time deixis; Libras; narratives; gestures.
References
BENVENISTE, E. Problemas de linguística geral. 4. ed. Tradução em português: Maria da Glória
Novak e Maria Luisa Néri. Campinas: Pontes, v. 1, [1976], 2005.
FIORIN, J. L. As astúcias da enunciação: As categorias de pessoa, espaço e tempo. 2. ed. São
Paulo: Editora Ática, 2002.
MCCLEARY, L.; VIOTTI, E.; LEITE, T. Descrição das línguas sinalizadas: A questão da
transcrição dos dados. Ms. USP/UFSC, 2009.
MCCLEARY, L., & LEITE, T. DE A. Turn-taking in Brazilian Sign Language: Evidence from
overlap. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 3(2), 2012.