Difference in the production of Non-Manual Expressions for fluent signers in Brazilian Sign Language as first or second language

Abstract

Non-Manual Expressions (NMEs), with other parameters such as configuration, location, movement and orientation of the hand, are responsible for lexical formation in sign languages. These NMEs are body movements and facial expression (BAKER-SHENK; COKELY, 1980) that have functions such as lexical differentiation, participation in syntactic construction and contribution to intensification processes (PAIVA et al., 2018). This work aims to compare the use of these ENMs between a deaf person fluent in Brazilian Sign Language (BSL) as a first language (L1) and a listener fluent in BSL as a second language (L2), from affirmative and negative assertions, partial interrogations and imperative statements, including sentences with expression of intensity and topicalization movement. Using the ELAN program, it was possible to transcribe these statements considering movements of the eyebrow, eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth, head and torso. The initial hypothesis is that the L2 BSL signer would intensify more often and with wider movements their production of NMEs than the L1 BSL signer, considering the identity with an L2 and the intensification of NMEs for didactic reasons. The quantitative analysis evaluated average durations and amplitudes of manual signals and NMEs and qualitative analysis investigated the presence and marking of each ENM in relation to each type of sentence. Both analyzes indicate that the L1 BSL signer produced the NMEs responsible for marking different types of statements more systematically and expanded the NMEs production more than the L2 BSL signer.