Bimodal code-mixing: Dutch spoken language elements in NGT discourse

Richard Bank,Onno Crasborn,Roeland Van Hout

doi:10.1017/s1366728916000936

Richard Bank, Onno Crasborn + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728916000936

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Abstract

Mouthings, the spoken language elements in sign language discourse, are typically analysed as having a redundant, one-on-one relationship with manual signs, both semantically and temporally. We explore exceptions to this presupposed semantic and temporal congruency in a corpus of spontaneous signed conversation by deaf users of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). We identify specifying mouthings (words with a different meaning than the co-occurring sign), solo mouthings (uttered while the hands are inactive) and added mouthings (words added to a signing stream without their corresponding sign), and make a sentence-level analysis of their occurrences. These non-redundant mouthings occurred in 12% of all utterances, and were made by almost all signers. We argue for the presence of a code-blending continuum for NGT, where NGT is the matrix language and spoken Dutch is blended in, in various degrees. We suggest expansion of existing code-mixing models, to allow for description of bimodal mixing.

Highlights

When speakers use multiple spoken languages within utterances in ordinary conversation – so-called intrasentential code-mixing – they may mix those languages effortlessly
We will first show examples of redundant mouthings and solo mouthings used in backchanneling (3.2), followed by multiple solo mouthings used in short strings (3.3), mouthings specifying semantic information in content words (3.4), the use of Dutch function words in added mouthings (3.5), and Dutch word order and Dutch idiomatic expressions (3.6)
Our study confirms earlier findings by Schermer (1990) and Van den Bogaerde and Baker (2005; Baker & Van den Bogaerde, 2008). These nonredundant mouthings occur in 12% of all utterances, and were made by almost all signers

Summary

Introduction

When speakers use multiple spoken languages within utterances in ordinary conversation – so-called intrasentential code-mixing – they may mix those languages effortlessly. The lack of a need to inhibit words from the spoken language results in the occurrence of those spoken language elements while signing These are called ‘mouthings’ (see the contributions to Boyes Braem & Sutton-Spence, 2001). A typical mouthing is roughly timealigned with the manual sign, and carries approximately the same meaning as the manual sign As a consequence, it conveys mainly redundant information (e.g., Bank, Crasborn & Van Hout, 2011, for NGT). The manual signs comprise the primary information stream including the order pattern, with mouthings following the sign order and accompanying the signs as a secondary information stream: a bimodal form of code-mixing, or ‘code-blending’ (Emmorey, Borinstein & Thompson, 2005; Emmorey, Borinstein, Thompson & Gollan, 2008)

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