Order of constituents in brazilian sign language: a study of the signaling of deaf children in stages of acquisition, hearing children of deaf parents (FOPAS) and deaf adults

Abstract

The spatial syntax of Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) allows grammatical relationships to be established in the sign space in different ways. In this sense, we find linear sentences, in which the constituents are organized sequentially; and simultaneous constructions, in which the constituents are organized at the same time. The studies by Felipe (1989), Ferreira-Brito (1995), Quadros (1999), Quadros and Karnopp (2004), Pizzio (2006), Quadros (2019), Royer (2019), and others, assume that SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) is the basic constituent order in Libras sentences. Lira (2014) found that, in verbs with and without agreement, this order is the most frequent in Libras. The SVO order has a certain flexibility and can be altered by grammatical elements and/or mechanisms present in the sentence, such as verb type, agreement and non-manual marks, topicalization, and focus, among others. This cross-sectional study, with a qualitative and quantitative approach, sought to investigate the phenomenon of constituent order in Libras sentences, from the description of both the adult system and acquisition, based on Chomsky's (1995) generative theory and innatist hypothesis. In addition, it sought to expand the database and advance discussions by introducing an experimental procedure with control of certain variables - period and stage of acquisition, organization, and the profile of the informants' parents - to see if they could determine differences in constituent orders and the frequency with which the orders occur. Thus, based on previously established and verified studies, we assumed the following hypotheses: (I) The orders of constituents in Libras sentences, as well as the frequency with which they occur, tend to be diverse, depending on specific variables and factors such as the period and stage of acquisition, realization and the profile of the parents (deaf or hearing); and grammatical elements and/or mechanisms such as syntactic contexts involving verb types, agreement, the presence or absence of topicalization and focus, among others; (II) In certain constructions in Libras, such as those involving simultaneity with or without the presence of symmetry and synchronism in the manual articulators, it is possible to have a syntactic structuring mechanism that goes beyond order. Using a naturalistic and experimental methodology, samples were collected from a corpus made up of speech in Libras, recorded on video, and using the Zoom virtual platform recording feature. The research subjects were deaf children in stages of acquisition, hearing children of deaf parents, and deaf adults. The data was initially processed and annotated using ELAN (EUDICO Linguistic Annotator) and then manually. We used the Libras writing system (Sel), developed by Lessa-de-Oliveira (2012, 2023), to transcribe the data. Considering the possibilities for combining constituents indicated by Greenberg (1963), the results show that the order of constituents in Libras sentences is flexible, with SVO being the basic order and the most frequent in our data. SOV, OSV, VSO, and VOS orders were also identified, as well as orders with null arguments, among others. We found that the variables 'period of acquisition' and 'parental profile' of the informants seemed to influence the ordering of constituents and the frequency with which orders occurred. On the other hand, when we analyzed the 'stage of acquisition' and 'realization', we noticed a distinction in the frequency with which orders occurred. Our data also seems to indicate that there are syntactic elements and mechanisms such as verb types, agreement, topic, and focus constructions, among others, which can lead to flexibility or not in the order of constituents in Libras sentences. About certain constructions, such as those involving linearity and simultaneity co-occurring in the signaling space, those in which there is or is not symmetry and synchronism in the manual articulators, among others; our data points to the existence of different syntactic structuring mechanisms, as we will discuss later, including order. We would like to point out that, due to the complexity and breadth of our objectives, further research is needed to delve deeper into the issues discussed.