Analysis of the role of non manual expressions in intensification processes in Brazilian Sign Language

ABSTRACT Non-manual expressions (NMEs) in Sign Languages (SL) include facial expressions and body movements. NMEs may distinguish lexical items, help syntactic construction and contribute to intensification processes. Therefore, NMEs have a role as crucial as the SL manual parameters of configuration, movement and location. This work aims at analyzing NMEs produced by a deaf person, fluent in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), from utterances of the following modalities: declarative, wh- and yes-no questions. A corpus of 60 utterances was built by combining 10 key-signals x 3 modalities x 2 conditions of intensification (neutral and intensified). By analyzing this corpus, both the role of intensification for the duration of key-signals and the presence of specific NMEs for signaling intensification and modality were examined here. The results contribute for research in SL and are relevant for modeling realistic avatars that signal Libras.