MODALITY INTERACTIONS OF SPEECH AND SIGNING IN SIMULTANEOUS COMMUNICATION

This study addresses speech and signing interaction during simultaneou s communication (SC). Productions of sentence stimuli by ASL-English b ilinguals (CODAs) and signed English (SE) users who know no ASL (SIMCO Ms) were compared in two conditions (speech-alone or signing-alone, sp eech and signing combined). Speech took longer combined than alone, wh ereas SE took longer alone than combined. The increased duration of sp eech-combined resulted from increased syllable duration, number of gap s, and gap duration. Rate of signing had a significant effect on speec h duration. The decreased duration of signed sentences combined result ed from decreased sign duration, decreased gap duration, and increased sign omissions. Knowledge of ASL was reflected in qualitative differe nces between the two groups. Sign omissions were analyzed by grammatic al category; these are discussed in terms of context-supported permiss ible deletions and the compensatory use of ASL nonmanual marking devic es.