Theonymy in Brazilian Sign Language: the signs of Orishas

Name-giving and organizing the world through concepts and categories are human acts underlying lexicon production in any language. The lexicon of a language includes proper nouns, which particularize people, places, or things. Onomastics is the field of Linguistics devoted to studying proper names....

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Main Authors: Alexandre Melo de Sousa, Gabrielly Oliveira Moreira
Format: Article
Language:Portuguese
Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística 2024-08-01
Series:Working Papers em Linguística
Subjects:
Online Access:https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/workingpapers/article/view/94418
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author Alexandre Melo de Sousa
Gabrielly Oliveira Moreira
author_facet Alexandre Melo de Sousa
Gabrielly Oliveira Moreira
author_sort Alexandre Melo de Sousa
collection DOAJ
description Name-giving and organizing the world through concepts and categories are human acts underlying lexicon production in any language. The lexicon of a language includes proper nouns, which particularize people, places, or things. Onomastics is the field of Linguistics devoted to studying proper names. This article focuses on the proper names of Orishas in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). It analyzes 10 signs that name Orishas in Libras as to their formal and semantic-motivational aspects and taps into the iconicity underlying the relationships between these signs and their referents that might have influenced their creation. This qualitative, applied study is based on descriptive and documentary methods and draws theoretically on Castro (2001), Sousa (2019; 2022a; 2022b; 2023), and Vidigal and Teixeira (2014). Findings indicate that 7 out of the 10 signs are classified as morphologically simple, while the remaining are compound and constituted by Libras-only formants, i.e., without borrowing from the Portuguese language. Iconicity was found in all signs except for NANAN-BURUKU in the semantic-motivational analysis. Findings point to a strong relationship between the naming of Orishas in Libras and the visual experience of the deaf, especially through the iconic relationship between the signs and their referents.
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publishDate 2024-08-01
publisher Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística
record_format Article
series Working Papers em Linguística
spelling doaj-art-d07df40284f64eb08216d25d40df8cf22025-08-20T02:51:45ZporUniversidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Programa de Pós-Graduação em LinguísticaWorking Papers em Linguística1984-84202024-08-0125110.5007/1984-8420.2024.e94418Theonymy in Brazilian Sign Language: the signs of OrishasAlexandre Melo de Sousa0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2510-1786Gabrielly Oliveira Moreira1https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0483-4814Federal University of AlagoasFederal University of Acre Name-giving and organizing the world through concepts and categories are human acts underlying lexicon production in any language. The lexicon of a language includes proper nouns, which particularize people, places, or things. Onomastics is the field of Linguistics devoted to studying proper names. This article focuses on the proper names of Orishas in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). It analyzes 10 signs that name Orishas in Libras as to their formal and semantic-motivational aspects and taps into the iconicity underlying the relationships between these signs and their referents that might have influenced their creation. This qualitative, applied study is based on descriptive and documentary methods and draws theoretically on Castro (2001), Sousa (2019; 2022a; 2022b; 2023), and Vidigal and Teixeira (2014). Findings indicate that 7 out of the 10 signs are classified as morphologically simple, while the remaining are compound and constituted by Libras-only formants, i.e., without borrowing from the Portuguese language. Iconicity was found in all signs except for NANAN-BURUKU in the semantic-motivational analysis. Findings point to a strong relationship between the naming of Orishas in Libras and the visual experience of the deaf, especially through the iconic relationship between the signs and their referents. https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/workingpapers/article/view/94418Brazilian Sign LanguageOnomasticsTheonymyCandombléAcceptability
spellingShingle Alexandre Melo de Sousa
Gabrielly Oliveira Moreira
Theonymy in Brazilian Sign Language: the signs of Orishas
Working Papers em Linguística
Brazilian Sign Language
Onomastics
Theonymy
Candomblé
Acceptability
title Theonymy in Brazilian Sign Language: the signs of Orishas
title_full Theonymy in Brazilian Sign Language: the signs of Orishas
title_fullStr Theonymy in Brazilian Sign Language: the signs of Orishas
title_full_unstemmed Theonymy in Brazilian Sign Language: the signs of Orishas
title_short Theonymy in Brazilian Sign Language: the signs of Orishas
title_sort theonymy in brazilian sign language the signs of orishas
topic Brazilian Sign Language
Onomastics
Theonymy
Candomblé
Acceptability
url https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/workingpapers/article/view/94418
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