Lexical productivity and lexicographic production in a signed language

Abstract

This article presents a review of the lexicographic and terminographic productions of the Brazilian Sign Language - Libras, emerging in the brazilian academic context, and the main morphological processes involved in the lexical expansion of a signalized language. Such processes and products reflect the occurrence of neologisms collected in university spaces that resulted in the registration of these new signaled units. This work is based on studies that contemplate the phenomenon of lexical productivity with emphasis on verifiable neological processes in sign languages. We present the lexical aspects involved in sign formation in languages other than oral, under the bias of Distributed Morphology (HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993) and the lexicographic and terminographic products produced in Libras in the last decade, and their importance in the university context (FARIA-NASCIMENTO, 2009; CASTRO JÚNIOR, 2014; COSTA, 2012; OLIVEIRA, 2015). The products and processes observed attest that these languages are full and lively, expand naturally in order to meet the new communicative and expressive needs of their signaling, like any other language.
The purpose of this work was to provide support for the understanding of the structure and functioning of sign languages and, from a broader perspective, of natural languages.