Bilingualism and Identity in Deaf Communities

Tactile Swedish Sign Language:Turn Taking in Signed Conversations of People Who Are Deaf and Blind

187 The author would like to thank Anna-Lena Nilsson for translating the chapter . All illustrations are courtesy of the author. 1. One common cause of deaf-blindness is Usher syndrome, a hereditary disease that affects approximately 5 percent of all profoundly deaf people in Sweden (Nordiska nämnden för handikappfrågor 1993; Kimberling and Möller 1995; Hyvärinen 1995; FSDB 1995). People with Type I are born with a profound hearing loss, retinitis pigmentosa, and balance problems. People with Type II are born with a moderate to severe hearing loss, retinitis pigmentosa, and no balance problems. Tactile Swedish Sign Language: Turn Taking in Signed Conversations of People Who Are Deaf and Blind Johanna Mesch In visual signing the eyebrows are used as articulators (raised or squinted brows signal interrogative sentences), and the eyes function as turn-taking regulators (Bergman 1984; Vogt-Svendsen 1990; Coerts 1992). Although many people who are deaf and blind use sign language, a deaf-blind addressee cannot receive such nonmanual signals. When I started working on my doctoral thesis, with special focus on conversations of people who are deaf and blind, I became interested in the way that deaf-blind people communicate by touching each other’s hands, and particularly in how they regulated turn taking during their conversations (Mesch 1990, 1994, 1998). Some similarities and differences exist between tactile sign language and visual sign language. One reason for the similarity is that tactile Swedish Sign Language is based on Swedish Sign Language (SSL). Many deaf-blind people are born deaf and experience deteriorating vision as they get older.1 These native users of sign language continue to use SSL when their vision deteriorates, but do so using the tactile mode. 188 : j o h a n n a m e s c h table 1. Informants and Their Backgrounds Deaf– Age at Age at Primary Mode Partici- Blind Time of Onset of Blindness Primary of Receiving pant Status Study Deafness Etiology Language Communication 1a deaf 26 birth ——— SSL visual 1b deaf-blind 54 birth USH I SSL tactile 2a deaf 55 3– 4 ——— SSL visual years 2b deaf-blind 59 birth Physical SSL tactile assault at age 56 3a deaf-blind ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— 3b deaf-blind 55 2 years USH I SSL tactile 4a deaf-blind 55 birth USH I SSL visual 4b deaf-blind 59 birth USH I SSL visual and tactile 5a deaf-blind 39 birth USH I SSL visual and tactile 5b deaf-blind 47 gradual USH II Spoken auditory and onset Swedish tactile and SSL 6a deaf-blind 62 birth USH I FSL tactile 6b deaf-blind 71 birth USH I FSL tactile Note: In this chart, informants 3a and 1b are the same person. USH I denotes Usher syndrome Type I, USH II denotes Usher syndrome Type II. 2. These languages are not identical, but the turn-taking rules appear to be basically the same for the two languages. This chapter describes how deaf-blind people regulate turn taking when using tactile sign language. The material for this study consisted of six videotaped dyads recorded between 1989 and 1995. The participants were either born deaf or became deaf at an early age; sign language is their native language. All consider themselves culturally Deaf. Eight of the nine deaf-blind people in the study have Usher syndrome, either Type I or Type II. One of the participants became blind from another disease (see table 1). Five of the dyads used tactile SSL and one dyad used tactile Finnish Sign Language (FSL).2 Two of the dyads included one deaf person and one deaf-blind person; three included two deaf-blind people, and one dyad included two Finnish deaf-blind people. These people were all asked to converse freely in sign language. A total of three hours of videotaped conver- Turn-Taking in Tactile Swedish Sign Language : 189 sations resulted. Parts of this material have been transcribed (168 utterances that function as questions, with their context). Deaf-blind signers use their hands in two different conversation positions . In the monologue position both the signer’s hands are held under the hands of the addressee, whereas in the dialogue position both participants hold their hands in identical ways: the right hand under the other person’s left hand and the left hand on top of the other person’s right hand. The two positions affect the structure of one- and...