https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/5502 2026-08-22T19:15:09Z 2026-08-22T19:15:09Z https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/49665 2026-08-20T06:25:34Z 2025-10-29T00:00:00Z

Title: Usando sinais para negociar significados em um mundo ouvinte: “Autoetnonarrativa” de um surdo até chegar ao magistério superior sob a perspectiva teórica da linguística sistêmico-funcional e do constructo sociológico de expertise Abstract: This doctoral thesis aims to tap into how a Deaf individual constructs and negotiates meanings in a predominantly hearing world by drawing on both Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and the sociological construct of expertise. Using autoethnonarrative as a research method, the author – a Deaf individual – reflectively and critically reconstructs his trajectory, from childhood to his current professional experience as a professor, in order to analyze the linguistic and social challenges faced by Deaf people in academia. The study demonstrates that Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) constitutes a complete semiotic system through which the Deaf community constructs and expresses their worldview, but in a semiogenetic temporality that is distinct from that of Portuguese, especially in specialized/academic contexts. The analysis highlights that knowledge is not detached from language, and that every linguistic choice is socially situate, i.e., language is, above all, a social practice of meaning-making. From a theoretical perspective, the research expands the scope of SFL by applying it to a visuospatial language, in which an additional spatial axis complements the paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes already established in SFL for audiovocal languages. On a methodological level, it demonstrates that a personal narrative can generate rigorous and socially relevant knowledge if grounded on a consistent theoretical framework. On a social level, the study reaffirms the importance of bilingual education (Libras–Portuguese) for both Deaf and hearing individuals, as well as the epistemic inclusion of Deaf people in higher education and research. It also advocates for the recognition of Libras as a legitimate language of academic and scientific production. In challenging the knowledge asymmetry between research outputs in Libras and in Portuguese within academia, this thesis is written in academic Portuguese while simultaneously attempting to resist the hegemony of that language. To this end, it provides pioneering reflections on the development of speech – whether in an audiovocal or a visuospatial language – as a ubiquitous form of expertise, inherent to individuals socialized in different semiotic and cultural systems, and essential to the development of specialized forms of expertise, such as those found in academic environments. Ultimately, this thesis reaffirms that assuring a legitimate space for the Deaf community and its language means both broadening the horizons of knowledge itself and promoting the semiogenic development of Brazilian Sign Language.

2025-10-29T00:00:00Z https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/49192 2026-07-31T06:23:00Z 2026-02-26T00:00:00Z

Title: Investigação do léxico, das estruturas fraseo morfológicas na escrita de pessoas surdas por diferentes gêneros textuais: uma análise a partir da Linguística de Corpus Abstract: This thesis presents a study on the writing of deaf individuals from the perspective of Corpus Linguistics (CL). Its general objective is to analyze texts produced during a Brazilian Portuguese (BP) course offered as an additional language, in order to identify recurring lexical, grammatical, and morphosyntactic patterns, as well as to characterize the levels of Interlanguage (IL) and the encapsulation processes present in these productions. As specific objectives, the study includes the development of a specialized corpus composed of written productions in BP created by deaf individuals, with the aim of supporting linguistic analyses grounded in CL. It also involves the systematic identification and description of predominant (a)typical lexico-grammatical features in these productions, considering the frequency and distribution of grammatical classes such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives, in order to map patterns of lexical choice and possible lexical restrictions. Additionally, the study investigates the use of infinitive verb forms, syntactic inversions in sentence order, and nominal derivation processes through affixation, seeking to understand how these aspects may reveal patterns characteristic of the participants’ writing, possibly influenced by Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). The defended thesis argues that the writing of deaf individuals in BP should be recognized as a legitimate form of expression in an additional language, respecting its particularities. In analyzing linguistic patterns, the study seeks to understand these productions as manifestations of IL, valuing the visual and gestural experiences of Libras, while also considering encapsulation as a process inherent to deaf textual constructions rather than as a deviation from the norm. The theoretical framework encompasses the historical trajectory of deaf education and the development of written BP as an additional language. It addresses the linguistic systems of BP and Libras, considering phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic levels. The study incorporates theories from Chomskyan linguistics as well as contributions from Vygotsky, Bakhtin, Quadros, and Pizzio, which support the understanding of linguistic learning processes among deaf individuals. The concept of IL is discussed based on Schlatter, Garcez, Leffa, Irala, and Furlanetto. The approach to textual genres is grounded in Bakhtin, Cristóvão, and Dolz. Online teaching-learning contexts and the foundations of CL are also addressed, with emphasis on phraseology and lexicology. The methodology follows the principles of CL, employing the WordSmith Tools software to conduct quantitative analyses through the WordList and Concord tools, which enable the identification of the frequency of the linguistic phenomena under analysis. Results revealed a high frequency of infinitive verbs, which function as morphosyntactic strategies for simplification and verbal organization in IL. In addition, syntactic inversions were identified as reflecting transfer from Libras, particularly from the topic–comment pattern. It was also found that nominalizations through derivation signal morphological development in BP and indicate progression in IL levels. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that such elements configure a distinctive bilingual grammar marked both by the influence of Libras and by the advancement of written BP. In this sense, these phenomena should not be interpreted as deviations but rather as legitimate linguistic strategies of IL, constituting complex, autonomous, and systematic forms of written BP produced by deaf participants who use it as an additional language.

2026-02-26T00:00:00Z https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/48883 2026-07-16T06:28:21Z 2026-02-23T00:00:00Z

Title: Memória discursiva computacional: entre a consignação e o silenciamento do feminismo nas textualidades e visualidades algorítmicas em modelos de linguagem de larga escala Abstract: This thesis aims to propose, develop, and demonstrate the concept of computational discursive memory through an analysis of the linguistic and discursive functioning of large language models (LLMs), with particular attention to ChatGPT and Gemini. In a context in which these models have become central actors in the production of textual and imagistic utterances, it is urgent to investigate how they operate, non-neutrally, upon discursive archives, and to what extent they reproduce, silence, or divert meanings. The study begins from the hypothesis that the language generated by artificial intelligence systems, although grounded in mathematical–statistical techniques, configures a form of discursive memory that is analogous, though not identical, to that defined within the tradition of materialist Discourse Analysis (Pêcheux, 1995, 1997, 2006). This memory, rather than merely storing data, functions as a condition of possibility for saying, enabling the emergence of articulated effects among historically inscribed utterances. By examining whether it is possible to speak of a machine memory that operates discursively, the thesis offers an innovative approach at the intersection of linguistics, computer science, and critical technology studies. The increasing adoption of artificial intelligence systems across diverse social domains has naturalized the idea that machines “understand” and “respond” linguistically. Yet this operation is grounded in massive volumes of linguistic data that bear historically constituted discursive formations and function as archives. In this sense, artificial intelligence does not “create” in a vacuum but draws upon what has already been said. The research problem, then, lies in investigating and analyzing: can memory in LLMs be conceptualized as discursive? If so, how this concept contributes to understanding artificial language as a symbolic and ideological process. The justification is grounded in the recognition that these models operate on pre-existing, socially situated utterances, systematically recombining sequences of words that reactivate historically sedimented meanings and discursive positions. By challenging the traditional conception of memory in computer science, restricted to technical storage and retrieval, the thesis proposes a critical, political, and epistemic expansion of the concept. Furthermore, as a researcher, woman, situated within a research group dedicated to body, language, and technologies, the choice of feminism as a thematic and analytical axis for testing the textual and imagistic meaning effects generated by these LLMs is justified both epistemologically and through personal and political implication. From this enunciative position, the study seeks to show how the erasure of certain forms of existence and resistance in artificial intelligence generated outputs exposes the limits, and dangers, of computational discursive memory. The research adopts a qualitative, critical, and interpretivist approach, articulating discourse analysis with experimentation in natural language and image generation. The study draws on LLMs available on public platforms, using prompts designed to challenge their ability to generate ideologically marked meanings. The corpus comprises texts and images generated from these prompts, whose analyzed data reveal consistent patterns of reproducing hegemonic discourses, erasing antagonisms, and producing symbolic sanitization. This suggests that generative artificial intelligence relies on utterances aligned with dominant discourses present in training data, thereby avoiding dissent. In the domain of image generation, the models consistently produced white, young, slim, Westernized bodies. The confrontation between these outputs and the theory of discursive memory reveals that the architecture of LLMs favors the repetition of historically dominant meanings: by operating on statistical patterns, the models produce ideological stabilization effects, reinforcing naturalized discourses without intention or interpretation. The notion of computational discursive memory therefore does not operate as a metaphor, but as an analytical concept that makes it possible to critically examine how statistical regularities resulting from the model architectures generate effects that can be reinscribed within the discursive field. When such patterns are put into circulation in dialogue with human subjects, they acquire symbolic density, for they are appropriated, challenged, displaced, and reinscribed in discursive practices that produce meaning effects, including those of subjectivation, erasure, or resistance. The theoretical contribution of the thesis lies in updating the concept of discursive memory for a new empirical domain, namely, algorithmic language technologies. Its political contribution lies in exposing the erasures and neutralizations these technologies enact, often under the guise of technical neutrality. Its methodological contribution lies in integrating discourse analysis, technology studies, and critical experimentation with artificial intelligence systems.

2026-02-23T00:00:00Z https://repositorio.ufu.br/handle/123456789/48876 2026-07-16T06:28:09Z 2026-02-27T00:00:00Z

Title: Mediação no processo de ensino e aprendizagem de língua portuguesa para surdos: a produção de texto dissertativo-argumentativo para o Enem Abstract: Since 2017, there has been a version of the National High School Exam (ENEM) adapted for deaf candidates who use Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) as their first language (L1). Despite this, there is still a low presence of deaf students at the Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM). This research, developed from an extension course offered by UFTM entitled “Text Production for Deaf Students,” aims to understand the teaching and learning process of deaf participants in the production of argumentative texts, according to the model required by ENEM, in Portuguese, through a proposal developed on the Moodle platform. The specific objectives were to identify relevant aspects of the structure of an argumentative text present in the written productions of deaf participants in the course; to discuss the learning process of argumentative writing in light of the challenges presented by the deaf participants; and to analyze the participants’ perceptions regarding the learning of argumentative text production. Adopting a qualitative and interpretivist approach, this study employed the following data collection instruments: an initial interview conducted before the course, written production activities, a diary, and a final interview conducted after the end of the course. The participants were deaf students who had completed or were currently attending high school and who fully completed the proposed activities. The data revealed that most participants had late contact with Libras, limited mediation by interpreters, and reduced reading and writing practices throughout their schooling. These factors affected their learning of Portuguese as a second language and generated insecurity in textual production. Analyses of the written productions indicated recurring challenges in the structural organization of the text, in the formulation of the thesis statement, in the articulation of arguments, and in the inclusion of evidence, as well as interlanguage features resulting from the influence of Libras. These results indicate that the development of writing skills requires extended time for practice, linguistic mediation in Libras, continuous feedback, and opportunities for rewriting. On the other hand, interaction between participants and teachers in Libras, the use of multimodal resources, visual materials, and synchronous and asynchronous moments in the virtual environment promoted greater participation, improved comprehension of the content, and gradual progress in textual production. Such progress was observed through the expansion of information, the inclusion of titles, the use of concrete data, and better textual organization. The results reinforce the importance of bilingual pedagogical practices, continuous teacher education, and the central role of Libras as a language of instruction, communication, and knowledge mediation. This study contributes to the field of Applied Linguistics by offering reflections on the teaching of Portuguese to deaf students, considering accessibility through Libras and the use of virtual learning platforms, the mediating role of the teacher, and the relevance of the educational trajectory of deaf students.

2026-02-27T00:00:00Z