THE DEAF'S SIGNS: AN ANALYSIS THROUGH CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the establishment of own signs and how it is the process to give a sign for Deaf people, considering phonological and cultural approach as relevant issues in speech community studied. We conducted an ethnographic research with Deaf people, in a city at Zona da Mata Mineira, to map signs and verify the main phonological characteristics. We used notes, diary and camera to collect data and develop the analysis. The ethnography enabled to understand the cultural paths immersed in this process, given the perspective of the Deaf considered leaders who draw up own signs for Deaf people. As results of the research, we realized that the phonological aspects are linked to the reference of cultural elements which bring understanding for iconicity and arbitrariness of each signal. We have been identified and mapped to a set of signs from some of the parameters of phonological aspects in Libras. These refer to the following conclusions: 1) standardization that can be considered as categorization of gender; 2) linguistic loan from Portuguese to Libras, which happened through the fingerspelling alphabet, because, many times, the Hand Configuration (HC) of signs are related to people's own names; and 3) iconicity and arbitrariness of the signs in the nomination process.

Keywords:
Libras; own signs; grammatical parameters; Deaf cultural context.