Emotional Expressiveness in Russian Sign Language: Psycholinguistic Analysis

The issue of emotional expressiveness in Russian Sign Language (RSL) can be considered through psycholinguistic analysis, which helps to understand how deaf people use non-verbal means to express their emotions more accurately and perceive the emotions of their communication partner. For this purpose, a brief overview of the theoretical foundations of the emotional expressiveness study in sign languages is given, the main means of expressing emotions in RSL are defined, an analysis of the collected data on gestures expressing emotions is performed, and a comparison of them with similar manifestations in a spoken language is given. The study presents the results of experiments conducted by foreign scientists who studied the perception of emotional signals by deaf people through gestures and visual images. These studies confirmed that sign language speakers perceive emotional signals through visual channels and use them to reproduce emotional connections in interpersonal communication. One of the central aspects of the study concerns the adaptation of communication strategies by deaf people depending on the emotional context. It was proven that deaf people have increased sensitivity to non-verbal signals, which allows them to compensate for the lack of auditory information. In addition, the issue of differences in the perception of emotional signals by deaf and hearing people is considered. It has been found that deaf people have increased sensitivity to nonverbal emotional signals, such as facial expressions and gestures, which helps them effectively compensate for the lack of sound. The results of the study have important implications for sign language theory, teaching and translation practice, and the development of technologies aimed at improving communication and availability of information for the deaf. The study of emotional expressiveness is one of the important problems of RSL, requiring a systematic approach, since emotionally charged communication contributes to the cognitive development of deaf people and their better acquisition of sign and verbal language.