Speech acts or sign acts? Languages and cultures in contact
The article investigates the Polish Sign Language polski język migowy, PJM and Deaf Culture from the speech acts perspective. The specific situation of sign languages users is shown and following issues are studied in particular: the coexistence of sign and spoken languages and spoken national languages as foreign/second languages to the Deaf. The emphasis is put on selected speech acts performed by the Deaf in Polish and in PJM. In other words, Austin’s question “how to do things with words” is transformed into “how to do things with signs.”