Analisando a língua brasileira de sinais como uma língua sem-tense

Abstract

Different aspects of the grammar of Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) has been investigated within descriptive and/or theoretical approaches. These investigations have contributed to a better understanding of its grammatical operations, especially the morphological and syntactic ones. In this paper, we concentrate on the syntax-semantics interface, and discuss the notion of time in Libras, assuming a formal approach and the terminology from the Generative Syntax. Thus, we propose that Libras is as a tenseless language. In other words, we claim that notions of time in Libras are not codified in terms of the grammatical category tense, but by means of different grammatical strategies. Assuming Lin (2012), we demonstrate that Libras exhibit similar morphosyntactic properties to those found in tenseless languages, such as Chinese, to wit: i) verbs are not marked for tense and temporal expressions or time adverbs are optional; ii) past is not grammatically encoded in the verb; iii) future is marked by an auxiliary; iv) existence of bare noun predicates; v) lack of expletive subjects; vi) no morphological distinction between finite and non-finite forms; vii) movement is not Case-motivated; viii) temporal interpretation can be aspect-based.