Course Description
Sign languages hold important lessons for linguistics, and modern linguists are expected to know some basic information about how sign languages are structured and used. This course provides an introduction to the linguistic structure of American Sign Language and to deaf communities that use ASL. In doing so, we review linguistic research on American Sign Language, comparing ASL with spoken languages, with other sign languages, and with non-sign gestures. Students will practice reading academic articles and will write a short paper describing a possible research project that is aligned with their interests in linguistics.
Area Tags: Sign Languages, Typology, Variation, Morphology, Language Contact, Linguistic Frameworks
(Sessions 1 & 2) Tuesday/Friday 10:30am – 11:50am
Location: ILC S405
Instructor: Ryan Lepic
Ryan Lepic is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., where he teaches courses on Cognitive Linguistics and Syntax. His PhD is from the University of California, San Diego, and the first LSA annual meeting he attended was in Boston in 2013. Ryan is interested in cross-linguistic grammatical description and comparison, and his research explores the morphology and syntax of American Sign Language using the theoretical framework of Construction Grammar.
