Bimodal bilingualism: code-blending between spoken English and American Sign Language
Temas
Detalles
The vast majority of bilingual studies involve two spoken languages. Such "unimodal" bilingualism automatically entails a severe production constraint because one cannot physically produce two spoken words or phrases at the same time. For unimodal (speech-speech) bilinguals, there is a single output channel, the vocal tract, for both languages. In contrast, for bimodal (speech-sign) bilinguals, there are two output channels: the vocal tract and the hands. In addition, for unimodal bilinguals both languages are perceived by the same sensory system (audition), whereas for bimodal bilinguals one language is perceived auditorily and the other is perceived visually. In this article, we present a preliminary investigation of bimodal bilingual communication among hearing people who are native users of American Sign Language and who are also native English speakers.
En: James Cohen, Kara T. McAlister, Kellie Rolstad & Jeff MacSwan (eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism, pp 663-673.