Pragmatic features of the deaf- a case of Ghanaian sign language and Adamorobe sign language

Abstract

This study explored the pragmatic features of the Deaf using Ghanaian Sign Language and Adamorobe Sign Language, and how these features are used in communication. Using Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological model of human development as the framework, the study discussed the linguistic choices signers make, whose appropriateness are judged through a cultural lens, in producing some speech acts, indicating prosody, deixis, and address terms. This ethnographic study analyzed data qualitatively, using data gathered mainly through a discourse completion task (DCT) and observation. The findings revealed that the linguistic strategies the Deaf use ultimately involve a direct reference to the illocutionary force of the expression. The use of indirect strategies was equally noticeable. However, the differences in their uses were determined by the power balance between interlocutors and the degree of imposition of the acts, whereas more direct strategies were used in context where the addresser was of a lesser social status the contrast is true for indirect strategies. An array of strategies were combined for mitigation effect under all contexts but more especially when face threat seemed imminent. The functions of these pragmatic features included showing a discourse style or a cultural expectation that is direct and involvement-oriented, and has indirect and independence tendencies. Some of complex and compound strategies intensified the perlocutionary effects. Other use of these pragmatic features included expressing grammatical information, encoding emotional and affective functions, and an indication of appropriate deference and demeanour that is mutually accepted. Exposing the Deaf and the world to various pragmatic features in Sign Language implies that the Deaf can better preserve their cultural identities by utilizing the pragmatic features appropriately in various context, enhancing their control over their communication intentions and outcomes.