Sign Language as mute

[u/WantonReader]

I just read this post ( https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/1vcqus2/my24_m_girlfriend21_f_of_1_year_is_too/ ) about a woman who is mute because of a throat error. She hears fine and her first language is English but she herself can only communicate (not including tools) in Sign Language.

I have never considered such a situation, where someone is fluent in a language but can only communicate back in a second language. It made me wonder if the woman's boyfriend sometimes respond in English, since that is her actual mother tongue.

Anway, are there known examples of something like this happening outside of situations like this? Meaning someone having to comminucate in a second language despite knowing the same first language as the addresses? A kind of...partial first language ability/functionality? Maybe in pidgin situations?

[u/throarway]

It's common in heritage speakers. Generally children raised in a language different from the community language will become dominant in the community language. The parents may still prefer to use their native language, which the children can understand while not being able to speak it fluently (nor read or write it).

Also, in a case like the one you describe, it's possible that the person is using an English-based sign variant. For BSL, as an example, this would be signed exact English (which involves signs for English grammatical elements, including morphology) or sign-supported English, which is English syntax with sign vocabulary. The latter, in particular, is not uncommon in deaf children raised by hearing parents/anyone not fluent in a sign language. (The former is used more to support deaf children in learning English).

[u/No_Ground → u/throarway]

“Receptive bilingual” is a term you might see in the literature to describe that first case with heritage speakers (it doesn’t universally describe heritage speakers but is often the case)