Function and form among 'what' signs in ASL
ASL has at least four different manual signs that can be translated in English as 'what'. What are the functions of these signs? With Lynn Hou and Erin Wilkinson, I have been using internet videos to examine this family of signs and how they are used. We have an NSF grant (between UCSB, UNM, and Gallaudet) that supports our work on this topic.
👨💻 Wilkinson, Lepic, and Hou (2022). Investigating the distribution and functions in the family of 'what'-signs in American Sign Language. Poster at LSA-96 in Washington DC.
👨💻 Hou, Lepic, and Wilkinson (2021). What's in a WHAT? Presentation at HDLS-14.
Construction Grammar and New Words
Construction grammarians research how "chunks" of language become associated with specific meanings or discourse functions. Regardless of whether they are words, phrases, or co-speech gestures, these conventional pairings of function and form are all analyzed as constructions.
Construction Grammar
ASL is under-described. My research analyzes ASL constructions from a usage-based perspective. I am also interested in documenting the variety of morphosyntactic structures that appear in ASL discourse from a functional-typological perspective.
👨💻 Hou and Lepic (2022). "Modeling the family of LOOK-AT signs as a network of associations". Poster at TISLR-14 in Osaka.
👨💻 Lepic (2021). "Verb morphology in ASL". Invited presentation at AIMM-5. Link to virtual presentation.
👨💻 Lepic (2020). "Sign schemas". Invited presentation at HDLS-14. Link to virtual presentation.
🔖 Lepic (2019). A usage-based alternative to "lexicalization" in sign language linguistics. (presented at ICCG-10 in Paris)
🔖 Lepic and Occhino (2018). A Construction Morphology approach to sign language analysis. (presented at UKCLC-6 in Bangor and LSA-91 in Austin)
👨💻 Hou and Lepic (2018). "When looks count: the function and distribution of LOOK-AT in American Sign Language". Presented at LSA-92 in Salt Lake City.
👨💻 Lepic (2017). "A usage-based analysis of the THEME construction in ASL". Poster at LSA-91 in Austin.
👨💻 Lepic (2016). "Motivating the THEME construction in ASL". Presented at HDLS-12 in Albuquerque.
Lexical Blends and Language Contact
We very rarely make new words completely from scratch. My research examines our tendency to re-use parts of words we know in order to create or understand new constructions.
🔖 Lepic (2021). From letters to families: Initialized signs in American Sign Language. (presented at TISLR-11 in London and ICCG-10 in Paris)
👨💻 Lepic (2020). "English compound translations in American Sign Language". Poster at LSA-94 in New Orleans.
👨💻 Lepic (2018). "Show or Tell?: English compounds in American Sign Language". Presented at HDLS-13 in Albuquerque.
🔖 Lepic (2016). Lexical blends and lexical patterns in English and in American Sign Language. (presented at MMM-10 in Haifa and LSA-87 in Boston)
👨💻 Lepic (2013). "Will it blend? A role for phonology in determining constituent order". Presented at AIMM-2 in San Diego.
Other Projects
Linguistic Methodologies
Linguistic myths and misconceptions can only be dispelled through primary research. I'm interested in the kinds of data that can address the question of how constructions work.
🔖 Hochgesang et al. (accepted). W(h)ither the ASL corpus?: Considering trends in signed corpus development. (preprint)
👨💻 Hou et al. (2022). Where do we go from here? Faculty placement of deaf linguists in US PhD programs. Poster at LSA-96 in Washington DC.
🔖 Hou et al. (2020). Working with ASL internet data. (see also Hou et al. 2022; presented at LSA-96 in Washington DC)
🔖 Lepic (2016). The great ASL compound hoax. (presented at HDLS-11 in Albuquerque)
🔖 Namboodiripad et al. (2016). Measuring conventionalization in the manual modality. (presented at EvoLang-11 in New Orleans)
🔖 Lepic (2015). English particle verbs: Evidence from acceptability judgments.
Motivated Use of the Body, in Sign and Gesture
Signers of different languages use their two hands to show relationships between entities and the plurality inherent to certain concepts. Related signs also make systematic, motivated use of vertical signing space, across sign languages. By comparing the productions of signers and gesturers on similar tasks, we can understand how linguistic structures change with use. Conversely, sign language linguistics can also inform the kinds of questions we ask about about gesture.
🔖 Pleyer et al. (2022). Compositionality in different modalities: A view from usage-based linguistics.
🔖 Börstell and Lepic (2020). Spatial metaphors in antonym pairs across sign languages.
👨💻 Lepic et al. (2018). "Timing matters: Gestures preceding or occurring with speech facilitate math learning". Presented at ISGS-8 in Cape Town.
👨💻 Verhoef et al. (2018). "Non-signers are sensitive to verb and noun encoding in sign languages". Presented at ISGS-8 in Cape Town and EvoLang-13* in Brussels.
🔖 Meir et al. (2017). The effect of being human and the basis of grammatical word order: Insights from novel communication systems and young sign languages.
👨💻 Lepic et al. (2016). "Repetition and reduction in silent gesture: Evidence from body tracking". Presented at ISGS-7 in Paris.
🔖 Börstell et al. (2016). Articulatory plurality is a property of lexical plurals in sign language. (presented at TISLR-12 in Melbourne)
🔖 Lepic et al. (2016). Taking meaning in hand: Iconic motivations in two-handed signs. (presented at TISLR-11 in London)
Patterned Iconicity
Signing and gesturing populations use iconic "handling" and "instrument" forms when referring to handheld tools, and ASL signers use handling and instrument forms to distinguish verbs from nouns. Signers and gestures also use embodied iconic strategies when referring to items in other semantic categories.
🔖 Hwang et al. (2017). Of the hands and of the body: Patterned iconicity for semantic categories. (presented at CSDL-12 in Santa Barbara and ISGS-6 in San Diego)
🔖 Padden et al. (2015). Tools for language: Patterned iconicity in sign language nouns and verbs. (presented at LSA-88 in Minneapolis)
🔖 Padden et al. (2013). Patterned iconicity in sign language lexicons.