Research

Research interests

Theoretical linguistics

Experimental linguistics

Syntax, semantics and pragmatics

Interface between semantics and pragmatics

Text structure

Sign languages

Deaf studies

Gesture and language

Visual communication

Linguistics and literature

Grammaticalization

Language Documentation

Linguistics at school

Research projects

• TypMod: Typology Across Modalities, International Research Network, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Further Development of the E-learning Module for the Courses DGS II and DGS III (Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur)
• Parts of Speech and Iconicity in German Sign Language (DGS) (DFG, ViCom) [with Thomas Finkbeiner, Nina-Kristin Pendzich and Emiliano Zaccarella] >> more information
• ViCom: Visual Meaning - Theoretical, Empirical and Applied Perspectives (DFG, Priority Program) [with Cornelia Ebert] >> more information
• Form-meaning Mismatches (DFG, RTG 2636) >> more information
• IDEALISM - Interactions between Dynamic Effects and Alternative-Based Inferences in the Study of Meaning (DFG-AHRC) >> more information
• Development and Implementation of an E-learning Module for the German Sign Language (DGS) Courses (Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur)
• (A)symmetries and Movement in Spoken and Sign Languages (DFG) [with Hedde Zeijlstra]  >> more information
• Bilateral cooperation: Satztyp, Satzmodus, Illokution (DFG) [with Hans-Martin Gärtner]
• Lehmann-Haupt International Doctoral Program at Ilia State University (VW-Stiftung und Rustaveli Stiftung)
• The Interpretation and Processing of Quantifiers in Structurally Ambiguous Sentences - Insights from Child Language (DFG) [with Nivedita Mani, Hedde Zeijlstra and Danielle Panizza]
• (In)visible Life Stories - Documentation of the Live, Culture and Language of Elderly Deaf People (PRO*Niedersachsen, Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur) [with Annika Herrmann] >> more information
• The Sign Hub: Preserving, Researching and Fostering the Linguistic, Historical, and Cultural Heritage of European Deaf Signing Communities with an Integral Resource (Horizon 2020) >> more information
• Understanding Social Relationships (DFG, RTG 2070) >> more information
• Discourse Referents in Space (DFG, XPrag.de) >> more information
• Non-manual Signals and the Grammar of two (Related) Sign Languages (GIF) >> more information
• Bilateral cooperation: Priming across Modalities (DFG) >> more information
• CLARIN-D (Arbeitsgruppe 6) >> more information
• Behavior and Cognition >> more information
• Unraveling the Grammars of European Sign Languages (COST Action) >> further information
• Courant Research Center "Text Structures" >> more information
• Bilateral cooperation: Nonmanuals in Israeli Sign Language (ISL) and German Sign Language (DGS) (DFG) >> more  information
• Processing of Spatial Relations in German Sign Language (DGS) (Universität Mainz) >> more information
• Quotation and Meaning (Universität Mainz) >> more information
• Sign Language - An International Handbook (Mouton de Gruyter) >> more information
• Die SprachChecker (Socrates Lingua)  >> more information

Ad hoc Reviewer

Foundations (selection): Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF), Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA), MacArthur Foundation, Niederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfond (FWF), Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (SNF).

Journals (selection): The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics, The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Lingua, Linguistic Inquiry, Linguistic Typology, Linguistics and Philosophy, Linguistische Berichte, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Semantics and Pragmatics, Sign Language & Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft.

Conferences (selection): Amsterdam Colloquium, Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory (FEAST), Generative Linguistics in the Old World (GLOW), Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft (DGfS) 2012 (Vorsitzender des Programmausschusses), Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT), Sinn und Bedeutung (SuB), The Israel Association of Theoretical Linguistics (IATL), Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR), Workshop on Comparative Germanic Syntax (CGSW).