Mouth activity forms a key component of all sign languages. This can be divided
intomouthings, which originate from words in the ambient
spoken language, andmouth gestures, which do not. This study
examines the relationship between the distribution of mouthings co-occurring
with verb signs in British Sign Language (BSL) and various linguistic and social
factors, using the BSL Corpus. We find considerable variation between
participants and a lack of homogeneity in mouth actions with particular signs.
This accords with previous theories that mouthings constitute code-blending
between spoken and signed languages—similar to code-switching or code-mixing in
spoken languages—rather than being a phonologically or lexically compulsory part
of the sign. We also find a strong association between production of plain verbs
(which are body-anchored and cannot be modified spatially) and increased
mouthing. In addition, we observe significant effects of region (signers from
the south of the United Kingdom mouth more than those from the north), gender
(women mouth more than men), and age (signers aged 16–35 years produce fewer
mouthings than older participants). We find no significant effect of language
background (deaf vs. hearing family). Based on these findings, we argue that the
multimodal, multilingual, and simultaneous nature of code-blending in sign
languages fits well within the paradigm of translanguaging. We discuss
implications of this for concepts of translanguaging, code-switching,
code-mixing, and related phenomena, highlighting the need to consider not just
modality and linguistic codes but also sequential versus simultaneous
patterning.