Attribute in Brazilian Sign Language

Morpho-Syntactic Processes in Adjective Production in the Deaf Student's Speech

Abstract

This study aims to describe and analyze the processes of realization of attributes and possible variation in the speech of some deaf people enrolled in Higher Education in Brazil. Data were collected from records of personal experience narratives of users of Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) enrolled in the institution. The results showed that noun and even verb intensifiers are used to attribute characteristics or quality to the subject, such as in the sentence ‘I much scare’, indicating that the participant was scared. There was a low rate of realization of adjectives in the participants’ speech, yet the attributes in Libras are realized differently in the sentence, as they are more contextual and less marked. There was no significant variation in the use of these attributes in the participants’ speech, and the rare evidence of different uses in the performance of adjectives was not sufficient to indicate a variation process.