Browsing by Author "Arries, Levern Althea"

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    A case study of the use of code-blending by a bimodal bi-/multilingual deaf family
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03) Arries, Levern Althea; Huddlestone, Kate; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: When children, either deaf or hearing, are exposed to a spoken language and a signed language, they often become bimodal bilinguals. Bimodal bilinguals are able to produce both speech and sign at the same time, as the two modalities allow for the simultaneous production of two languages. This is known as code-blending. This study examines the language practices of a bimodal bi-/multilingual family, focusing on the phenomena of code-blending and code-switching. The current thesis examines the dinnertime conversations of a deaf family from Worcester, which includes deaf parents and two hearing twin girls (aged 9). All participants are bimodal multilinguals. The study involves the analysis of the family’s code choices (code-blending and code-switching patterns) during approximately one hour of recorded dinnertime interaction. Utterances which showed evidence of code-blending and code-switching were analysed. Coding was done according the turns each participant produced. There has been very limited studies on either bimodal bi-/multilingualism, or code-blending in bimodal bi-/multilingual families, especially in the South African context. The present study aims to provide a description on the linguistic choices of the hearing children of deaf adults (CODAs). Examining the bimodal bi-/multilingual family interactions during dinnertime has shown that the children and parents prefer to communicate in their dominant mode, Afrikaans and SASL respectively. When communicating with their parents, the children rather code-blend than code-switch fully into SASL This result is similar to previous research, as it shows the same preference, in which the children code-blend more than code-switch. Albeit with a small number of participants, the results have given some insight into the patterns of code-blending and code-switching in bimodal bi-/multilingual families.