電子耳與「聽」的展演：社會語言學的取徑

Cochlear Implants and Performing Hearingness: A Sociolinguistics Approach

在臺灣，治癒耳聾的醫療腳本佔據了談論人工電子耳此一科技物的主流意識形態，除了聽損孩童依個人條件會植入電子耳進行早期療育外，不少成人聽損者也追求人工電子耳植入術，以期待能變得更像聽力健全者。本文從社會語言學的學科傳統出發，透過討論一位成人電子耳植入者的案例，描繪華語的語音系統被其挪用作為展演電子耳有效性的身體風格元素，指出使用電子耳後的「口語改善」應被理解為電子耳植入者體現其勵志障礙者人設的身體實踐，而非單純生理物理上的科技物輔助結果。

In Taiwan, a medical script of “ curing” deafness has dominated the discussion of cochlear implants. Many deaf adults pursue cochlear implantation, expecting themselves to become more like hearing people. This article adopts a sociolinguistics approach to explore how Mandarin phonetic variation (the high-falling tone) is appropriated to perform hearingness in the presence of the hearing researcher. This article argues that “ improvement” in cochlear implant users’ spoken language performance should be understood as the embodiment of social personae constructed by cochlear implant users, rather than simply a product of technological assistance.