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.