| Abstract [eng] |
Over the past two decades, the concept of the deaf community as a linguistic and cultural minority has been increasingly recognized and explored. Increasingly, the identities of members of deaf communities are being explored. Research shows that there are a number of links between the deaf community and hearing members of society. This master's thesis analyzes the identity of members of the deaf community living in Lithuania using language ideology. To date, no research has been conducted in Lithuania on the identity of the deaf, which would be analyzed according to the language used. The aim of this work is to analyze the narratives of deaf people living in Lithuania based on their social, cultural and personal experience, as well as the language they use. This study examines the social, cultural, and personal experiences of 7 informants: 5 deaf and 2 hard of hearing adults, who determined their identity. From the narratives of informants, the identities of hearing, deaf and bicultural individuals are created by linking the available experiences through the language used. Qualitative analysis showed that the participants' essential experiences of identity development were related to their communication with hearing or deaf peers and the language of communication at school and in the family. The study found that the language of communication, such as Lithuanian or Lithuanian sign language or any other language, had a significant impact on the formation of the informants' identity. One deaf informant, who uses only the Lithuanian language, has the identity of the hearing, and the other two informants, who came from the world of the deaf and discovered the deaf community and quickly learned sign language, have the identity of the deaf. The remaining informants have a bicultural identity, ie they use both Lithuanian and Lithuanian sign language. The aforementioned factors of identity formation are inseparable from the medical discourse - the ideology of language, the predominant oral language. The main axis of the factors listed is the language used. Six of the seven informants stated that the use of sign language and belonging to the deaf community was important for their deaf identity. Participants with a bicultural identity value their belonging to both the deaf community and the hearing society. The findings show that identifying the deaf is a difficult and long journey to gain recognition, to discover one's place in the world through the use of the mother tongue in the deaf community. |
