Gli enunciati misti bimodali: un "esperimento naturale"

The article focuses on the code-mixing production of 6 Italian-Italian Sign Language bimodal bilinguals aged 8-10 years and on the grammatical judgements of adult bimodals. Our data confirm that the most common pattern of language mixing in bimodals is simultaneous blending: the simultaneous production of two language strings. We describe 5 different blending typologies connected with the autonomy of the two strings activated. The data show that different phenomena are at play during code-blending: either the full activation of only one grammar and the selection of the lexicon of the non activated grammar (as claimed in the Matrix Language Frame), or the simultaneous activation of two independent grammars (as in the Lexicalist Model), thus providing exceptional data to the hypothesis of the online contemporary use of two autonomous grammars.