Blackwell Reference Online

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The study of sign language-spoken language (SL-SpL) bilingualism addresses the same kinds of linguistic, psychological, social, political, and educational issues that the broader field of bilingualism does. Indeed, a solid understanding of SL-SpL bilingualism requires familiarity with the relevant issues in each of these domains of SL-SpL bilingual studies. However, this chapter focuses on a largely unexplored area of SL-SpL bilingualism that relates to the unique variable – modality - that distinguishes sign languages from spoken languages. Whereas spoken languages are communicated through the auditory-vocal (AV) modality, sign languages are communicated through the visual-spatial (VS) modality. When a sign language and a spoken language are in contact, the two distinct modalities allow extraordinary options for language mixing. Specifically, SL-SpL contact allows the combining of elements from the two languages not only sequentially , as in SpL-SpL mixing, but both sequentially and simultaneously . Studies of SL-SpL mixing have generally been descriptive studies that attempt to characterize the features and diversity of the communication that emerges from SL-SpL contact (e.g. Lucas and Valli, 1992 ). In the broader field of spoken language bilingualism, there has been an attempt not only to describe but to explain language mixing phenomena observed among spoken language ... log in or subscribe to read full text