Gestures/signs relationship in the Brazilian Sign Language: an analysis based on Cornelia Müller's continuum

Abstract

In the early days of studies with sign languages, researchers limited themselves to arguing about their structure, without considering the issue of gestures. However, currently gestures have gained strength in the studies of sign languages, through different theoretical perspectives. This study is part of that context and aims to critically reflect on Müller’s (2019) theoretical proposal on the relationship between gestures and signs in the context of sign language studies, both from a theoretical and an empirical point of view in the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). Müller (2019) proposes a continuum composed of singular gestures, recurrent gestures, emblems and signs, and this proposal will be discussed through descriptive and interpretive analysis based on Libras data related to “the pear story”, created by Wallace Chafe (1980). The results point to the possibility of classifying manual actions that meet the criteria of conventionality, compositionality and form-meaning correspondence defined by the author, but also demonstrate the theoretical non-adherence to the realization of buoys and incorporation in Libras. Conclusively, we highlight the insufficiency of a lexicalist approach to explain linguistic phenomena that occur in the discursive field of sign languages and Libras, which this analysis is based on.

Full-text of the article is available for this locale: Português (Brasil).