Compreensão de expressões idiomáticas do PB por falantes de línguas orais e de sinais como L1: um estudo experimental

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the comprehension of verb + complement idioms in BP (e.g. abrir o coração, chutar o balde – to open the heart, to kick the bucket), by speakers of BP as L1 and as L2. For non native speakers, L1 can be an oral or sign language (in this case, Brazilian sign language – Libras). Previous studies point to a supposed difficulty of deaf users of Libras in the understanding of non-literal expressions in oral languages. The nature of such difficulties has not, however, been clearly characterized (FARIA, 2003). As for idiomatic expressions in sign languages, Coutinho (2012) argues that the expressions of Libras are not necessarily phrases or words like in Portuguese. Although some expressions are possible loans / translations, others appear to be sign language exclusive (ALBRES, 2006). As regards other non-literal uses of language, such as metaphors and metonymy, differences are pointed out according to the specific language modality (WILCOX, WILCOX & JARQUE, 2003). In order to investigate the performance of L1 BP speakers, L2 BP speakers (L1 oral) and BP L2 speakers (L1 Libras) in the comprehension of idioms, an experimental study was developed. The role of the speaker's degree of familiarity with the expressions – previously classified as more or less common / familiar in BP based on the results of two off-line questionnaires – was delimited as an independent variable in both experiments conducted. In experiment 1, an elicited production task from idiomatic images combined with the use of the eye tracking was used to investigate the ocular movement of the participants during the inspection of the images. Experiment 2 was conducted through a self-paced reading task of sentences associated with images (literally related / metaphorically related / unrelated to previous sentences). The results of experiment 1 are compatible with the classification of the expressions as more / less familiar and images associated with more familiar expressions had a greater number of target responses and a smaller number of fixations in the defined interest areas. In all the groups evaluated, the area associated to the complement of the expression was fixed more often and the fixation duration was shorter for deaf participants when compared to the oral language speakers. The results of experiment 2 reveal that for all groups tested: (i) sentences containing familiar expressions registered shorter reading time, were judged more quickly and had more positive judgments associated with the metaphorical meaning; and (ii) the decision time in the judgment of the images was similar for metaphorical and for unrelated images. Although the present research is quite exploratory, the possible differences observed among the evaluated groups do not seem to be related to the L1 specific modality of the participants. In this sense, the time and type of exposure to L2 seem to be more relevant in the characterization of the differences found.