Categorias lexicais na língua brasileira de sinais: nomes e verbos

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze some ‘morphic’ and semantic-syntactic properties that allow us to define Noun and Verb in Brazilian Sign Language (BSL). It is based on a contemporary approach of linguistic analysis named functional-cognitive (Croft e Cruse, 2004; Fauconnier e Turnner, 1998, 2008; Givón, 2001; Langacker, 1987, 1990, 1991, 2008 e Taylor, 2002). In this perspective, a linguistic analysis asserts that the code should be regarded as dynamic and likely to suffer changes that come from the speaking community and the universe, never as an immutable entity. In this way, this research bases itself on the fact that in BSL, the processes of cognitive nature and discursive-pragmatic nature motivate the distribution of such linguistic code in terms of categories. The data analysis is done in two distinct moments. First, we showed analysis observations concerning those signs in BSL that are related to Nouns and Verbs in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), that is, we worked with nominal notions and verbal notions based on the prototypical semantic characteristics proposed by Givón (2001). At this stage, it was possible to link the prototypical semantic characteristics that are correlated to Verbs and Nouns in BP. Afterwards, we analyzed the grammatical criteria that are typical of the language being studied based on bigger constructions. In such analyses, we verified that a first criterion to identifying a contrast between verbal and nominal notions, in BSL, was semantic feature dynamicity, which separates dynamic events/activities from entities/states more stable in time.