A percepção da iconicidade por sinalizantes da libras: um estudo comparativo de línguas de sinais estáveis e língua de sinais emergente

Abstract

This master thesis examines iconicity comparing stable and emerging sign languages. The former exhibits a wider lexicon, uncountable generations of speakers, they are institutionalized and relatively more conventionalized forms whereas the latter are young languages, generally used in villages, in which one can wit the birth of the system. It is generally assumed that languages realized in the visual modality the lexicon originates with highly iconic forms and phonological reduction and arbitrarization are a matter of time. If these assumptions are on the right track, one could expect that within Emerging Sign Language Lexicons iconicity might be perceived, even by users of other signed languages. In order to test this hypothesis, we created an experiment based on Occhino (2017) in which deaf Libras signers would have to rate (from 0 to 100) Iconicity perception to 20 libras signs, 20 foreigner language signs (Catalan Sign Language) and 20 emerging sign language signs (Cena), an emergent sign language emerged in the backlands of the state of Piauí (Brazil). Our findings support Occhino’s results (2017) in which deaf signers always rate their own sign language as the most iconic and disfavor our hypothesis that an emerging sign language will be always rated more iconic than others, due to their potential highly iconic potential of creation. Libras signers judged iconicity in the following decreasing order Libras>Cena>Catalan Sign Language. However, it is worth noting that Cena is perceived to be more iconic than the foreigner sign language, what may us not to discard our initial hypothesis entirely.