Ryan Lepic, PhD
I'm a post-doctoral scholar in the Goldin-Meadow Laboratory at the University of Chicago, and my PhD is in Linguistics, from the University of California, San Diego.
I study how new words and constructions are made (morphology/syntax), and how language varieties emerge and change as a result of how they are used (typology/historical linguistics).
I also research the grammatical structure of sign languages. Sign languages are typically quite young, and are often in contact with other languages. These properties (and more!) make sign languages indispensable for understanding language variation and change.
Updates
Upcoming
I'll be attending SignCAFE-2 in Sicily in May and HDLS-14 in Albuquerque in November! There are a lot of great ones to choose from this year, but I'm happy to support smaller conferences that prioritize sign language research from a cognitive and functional perspective!
January 2020
I continue to enjoy working with wonderful collaborators!:
- Tessa Verhoef will be presenting a poster on our joint work at Evolang in April
- My paper with Calle Börstell honoring Irit Meir, "Spatial metaphors in antonym pairs across sign languages", has been accepted for publication in a future issue of Sign Language and Linguistics
- My paper with Lynn Hou and Erin Wilkinson on "Working with ASL Internet Data" has been accepted for a future issue of Sign Language Studies
September 2019
Another busy summer comes to a close! Highlights include presenting at the Form-Meaning Units workshop in Nijmegen, teaching at the Linguistic Institute in Davis, and catching up with the sign linguists at TISLR in Hamburg!
April 2017
I've moved cross-country for a post-doc in the Goldin-Meadow lab at the University of Chicago. I'm contributing to the lab's on-going research on the role of gesture in math learning.