Switching language structure during mode-switches

-The case study of the bilingual hearing child K -

Abstract

This thesis is a case study of hearing child K with hearing parents and a deaf brother. K 's parents use Japanese and Japanese Sign Language as a language of the home. And, her parents are bringing up the deaf child by Japanese Sign Language. K grows up in a bilingual environment of Japanese and Japanese Sign Language. The focus in the present study is the process of mode-switching from a simultaneous mode of using voice and sign expressions together (simcom mode) to the mode of only using sign expressions (sign mode). Concretely, it analyzes whether the linguistic structure of sign expressions switches during mode-switching. It found that the linguistic structure of the sign expressions tended to switch from Japanese to Japanese Sign Language when mode-switching from sim-com mode to sign mode. This suggests that K switches linguistic structure (i.e., code switches) during mode-switching.