Dissertation Research: Talking Brazilian: The Deaf Perspective

摘要 本论文研究项目是一个跨语言和 跨模型研究比较自然手势视觉语言 聋人和他们的口头语言 语言是为了调查问题而发现的 关于语言的普遍性和人类的认知， 以及语言接触现象，特别是关于 修辞实践和交际惯例。 研究 专注于美国手语（ASL）和美国英语， 巴西城市手语（BCSL），城市语言 巴西聋人，巴西葡萄牙语，和卡普拉布-卡普拉符号 语言（UKSL）和Kaapor，后两种语言是 一个美洲印第安人群体，原产于亚马孙地区， 巴西 这种比较工作可以提供关键的 用于区分 沟通媒介，包括声音-听觉和手势-视觉， 从语言共性。 学者们倾向于接近 分析的经验语言数据，如果有一个二进制 普遍性和相对性之间的划分，而不考虑 考虑到交际情态的影响。 列入 手语数据不仅对普遍性和 相对论的争论，也对人类的理解 这种理解依赖于 语言证据。

ABSTRACT This dissertation research project is a cross-linguistic and cross-model study comparing the natural gestural-visual languages of the deaf and the oral languages within which these sign languages are found for the purpose of investigating questions about linguistic universals and human cognition in general, as well as language contact phenomena, particularly with respect to rhetorical practices and communicative conventions. The research focuses on American Sign Language (ASL) and American English, Brazilian Cities Sign Language (BCSL), a language of the urban Brazilian deaf, and Brazilian Portuguese, and Urubu-Kaapor Sign Language (UKSL) and Kaapor, these latter two being languages of an American Indian group native to the Amazonian region of Brazil. Comparative work of this kind can provide crucial evidence for distinguishing constraints imposed by the communication medium, both vocal-auditory and gestural-visual, from linguistic universals. Scholars have tended to approach the analysis of empirical linguistic data as if there were a binary division between universality and relativity, without taking into account the impact of communicative modality. The inclusion of sign language data is crucial not only to the universality versus relativity debate but also to the understanding of human cognition to the extent that such understanding relies on linguistic evidence.