Non-manual Markers in Sign Languages

an Interview with Roland Pfau

Abstract

In this interview for the special issue of RevIncluso, Roland Pfau exposes his reflections on non-manual markers in sign language present in its application in technology, placing it in deaf communities and academic, linguistic, and analytical contexts. Considering studies on negation traits, the scholar highlights differences in the emphasis given to the concept in Dutch sign language and others he studied. According to Pfau, the relationship between sign language and linguistic corpora strengthens the analysis of relationships between non-manual and grammatical contexts, dialogue and actions, linguistic structures, and cultural evolution. For the author, we must consider the dialectic of representations and groups of research interactions as a way of building a world of relationships where we find ourselves, thus breaking with the idea that the items of a given study of sign languages act on the world as something unique or that acts according to social and cultural imperatives without the possibility of transforming other studies into another sign language.