IULC Publications

Diglossia in British Sign Language

By Margaret Deuchar

The nature and functioning of British Sign Language as used in the British deaf community are explored in this thesis. Two hypotheses are investigated: (1) that the notion of diglossia applies to the British deaf signing community, realized as a 'High' and a 'Low' variety, differing in their grammars, and fulfilling formal and informal functions respectively; and (2) that the 'Low' variety exploits the visual medium in its grammar to a greater extent than the 'High' variety. The implications are that the grammar of the 'High' variety tends to share more characteristics of the grammars of the spoken languages.

151 pages
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