Adult second language pragmatic enrichment: The case of ASL

This study explored the first and second language pragmatic abilities of hearing students who had learned American Sign Language (ASL) as an adult. A model of meaning was postulated based on a review of the field of pragmatics that included literal meaning, pragmatic enrichments, and implicatures. This was then tested for its efficacy as a means of characterizing the work of ASL-English interpreters, as well as for its ability to differentiate between novice and expert interpreters. It also served as a framework to explore differences in cross-cultural expectations of hearing bilinguals and Deaf native signers in terms of meaning.;Every participant enriched some of their ASL utterances or included potential implicatures in comparison to the English source, regardless of their status as expert or novice. Differences between the groups were noted at the literal but not enriched or implicature levels. This was considered evidence of Cummins' (2001) Interdependence Theory and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency, as it was theorized that both groups were able to draw on their first language fluency to use their second language in advanced ways.;A cohort of five certified ASL-English interpreters (experts) and seven recent graduates of an interpretation program (novices) participated. Each performed a simultaneous interpretation and consecutive re-interpretation of an English source text into ASL. The target texts in ASL were then compared to the English source, utterance by utterance, to determine if an omission, literal interpretation, pragmatic enrichment or an explicated implicature had been created. Three Deaf raters then determined the fluency of each individual using an ASL Proficiency Interview tool.