Manually Coded English - Deaf Sign Languages and Manually Coded English

Deaf Sign Languages and Manually Coded English

MCE can be used with Simultaneous Communication — speaking and signing at the same time. This is not possible with, for example, American Sign Language, because it has a very different grammar (including word order) than English. Deaf sign languages make use of spatial relationships, facial expression, and body positioning, while MCE tends to be a linear and purely manual communication system, not to be confused with a language.

Comprehensibility of such simultaneously produced MCE has, however, been shown to be compromised in practice. While experience can improve the degree to which the information coded in English (morphologically as well as syntactically) is successfully communicated manually, there appear to be limits, and attempting to code everything (as required by the more "rigorous" manual coded like SEE) for more than very brief messages is extremely taxing on the person communciating simutaneously.

In English-speaking countries, it is common for users of Deaf sign languages to code-switch into a form of MCE when conversing with someone whose dominant language is English, or when quoting something from English. MCE is also sometimes favored by hearing people, for whom a manual version of their own language is much easier to learn than a deaf sign language.

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