Research
My current research agenda
family sign languages, signing communities, and their language ecologies with a focus on deaf and hearing children
child language acquisition of signed languages in parallel with language socialization & language ideologies
documentary and descriptive linguistics of signed languages
usage-based and cognitive-functional linguistics, especially construction grammar, with a focus on morpho-syntax and morphology
research methodologies
the use of Internet for primary sign language data based on usage events to investigate
linguistic ethnography for investigating sign languages and signing communities
inclusion in sign language linguistics and social justice (epistemic justice specifically)
New publications
See the announcement on the homepage.
Past selected publications
Kusters, Annelies & Lynn Hou, (eds). (2020). Introduction: Linguistic Ethnography and Sign Language Studies. Special issue for Sign Language Studies, 20(4): 561-571. DOI: https://doi.org/doi:10.1353/sls.2020.0018
Hou, Lynn. (2020). Who signs? Language ideologies about deaf and hearing child signers in one family in Mexico. Special issue for Sign Language Studies, 20(4): 664-690. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/sls.2020.0023
Hou, Lynn, Ryan Lepic, & Erin Wilkinson. (2020). Working with Internet Data. Sign Language Studies, 21(1): 32-67.
Hou, Lynn & Octavian Robinson. (2020). Sign Languages as Disaster Entertainment. Anthropology News website, June 19, 2020. DOI: 10.1111/AN.1444
Hou, Lynn & Jill Morford. (2020). Using signed language collocations to investigate acquisition. A commentary on Ambridge (2020). First Language. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723720908075
Hou, Lynn & Annelies Kusters. (2020). Linguistic Ethnography of Signed Languages. In Karin Tusting (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Ethnography, pp. 340-355
Mesh, Kate & Lynn Hou. (2018). Negation in San Juan Quiahije Chatino Sign Language: The Integration and Adaptation of Negative Emblems. Gesture 17(3): 330-373
Hou, Lynn & Richard P. Meier. (2018). The morphology of first-person object forms of directional verbs in ASL. Glossa 3(1): 114.
Hou, Lynn (2018). Iconic patterns in San Juan Quiahije Chatino Sign Language. Sign Language Studies 18(4): 570-611
Hou, Lynn Y-S. (2017). Negotiating language practices and language ideologies in fieldwork : A reflexive meta-documentation. In Annelies Kusters, Maartje de Meulder, & Dai O'Brien (Eds.), Innovations in deaf studies: The role of deaf scholars, pp. 339-359. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Digital products
Mesh, Kate. & Lynn Hou. (2018). “Gesture, Speech and Sign in Chatino Communities.” The Endangered Languages Archive. Access: Public. Handle: 2196/00-0000-0000-0010-119F-A
Hou, Lynn & Kate Mesh. (2018). “Investigating an Undocumented Sign Language in a Chatino Speech/Sign Community.” The Endangered Languages Archive. Access: Public. Handle: 2196/00-0000-0000-000F-BF38-2