A interpretação para a língua de sinais brasileira: efeitos de modalidade e processos inferenciais

This dissertation is an empirical-experimental study aims at reflecting on some processing features related to the cognitive performance of Sign Language Interpreters. To achieve this goal, we analyzed the performance of two groups of Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) interpreters who rendered an oral text from Portuguese into Libras. Interpreters in Group A were native sign language bilinguals, namely CODAs (Children of Deaf Adults), while interpreters in Group B were non-native sign language bilinguals. The theoretical framework builds on Relevance Theory (Sperber; Wilson, 1986) and on its application to translation studies (Gutt, 1991) and to translation process research (Alves, 1995). Video recordings, interviews and retrospective think-aloud protocols (TAPs) were used as methodological tools for data collection. The annotation tool ELAN (EUDICO Linguistic Annotator) was used for data transcription and annotations. From a relevance-theoretic perspective, the work examines how Sign Language Interpreters process conceptual and procedural encoded information guided by the search for interpretative resemblance. The analysis highlights the importance of the conscious metacognitive monitoring of the sign language interpretation process. As a way of conclusion, our research on interpretation from an oral language, Portuguese, into a visual-gestural language, Brazilian Sign Language, shows that interpreters performance in the language pair Portuguese-Libras is heavily influenced by language modality and that has meaningful implications for the search for interpretative resemblance in an intermodal interpretation process.