Multimodal Interrogative Constructions in Libras

The Role of Mouthings and Mouth Gestures

Abstract

Human communication has been widely described, in recent decades, as essentially multimodal, since it involves the coordinated integration of multiple semiotic resources in the construction of meaning (Kenneally, 2007; Zima, 2025). However, according to Schembri, Cormier and Fenlon (2018), Lepic and Occhino (2018), and Pêgo (2023), although this perspective has been extensively applied to spoken languages, its incorporation into sign language studies still presents important theoretical challenges, given that multimodality in these languages is often reduced to the visual-spatial dimension, as if the channel of materialization alone exhausted the discussion. Starting from this gap, and adopting a theoretical approach, this article seeks to discuss the following question: if human communication is essentially multimodal, how can we analyze multimodality in deaf signers’ communication beyond its visual-spatial characterization? More specifically, we investigate the relevance of the mouth in signing, whether through mouth articulations (arising from language contact) or mouth gestures (language-specific), and the implications this brings to usage-based grammatical and analytical models. Based on an initial analysis of the role of the mouth in interrogative pronouns extracted from spontaneous signing, our objective is to propose theoretical elements for a multimodal approach to sign languages that considers the integration between different layers of signing, thus paving the way for future analyses to be carried out within this line of research.