Pinkie first

Digital list constructions in Brazilian Portuguese

Bibliographic Data

ID12824729
AuthorsAndré Nogueira Xavier (corresponding author), Arnaldo Xavier (0000-0002-8464-1977, corresponding author), Wilcox (0000-0003-2192-6075)
Year2026
Publication date2026-04-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGesture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1568-1475 • E-ISSN: 1569-9773
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/gest.25018.xav
OpenAlexW7146988075
LanguageEN
References cited25

Spoken language lists can be accompanied by digital lists: manual actions by means of which the fingers of the non-dominant hand are associated with the spoken listed items. In this paper we offer an overview of the formal aspects of digital list constructions and their contextual motivations in Brazilian Portuguese. We also describe their discourse functions. To achieve these goals, we analyzed 125 digital list constructions collected from 77 online videos, using the work of Wilcox et al. (2023) as a framework. Our results show that digital list constructions in Brazilian Portuguese typically begin at the pinkie finger. Discursively, they show that such constructions are used to introduce and refer back to referents, as well as to organize discourse. We conclude that digital list constructions in Brazilian Portuguese share many similarities with list constructions in signed languages, especially in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), but also exhibit striking differences

Brazilian Portuguese · Portuguese · Sign (mathematics · Sign language · Work (physics · Hand Gesture Recognition Systems · Hearing Impairment and Communication · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies