Connie de Vos -
My research is focused on the unique questions that the emergence, the processing and the acquisition of sign languages allow us to address about the nature of our human linguistic capabilities in general. I have used fieldwork-based language documentation, corpus analysis as well as experimental methods to address the following specific research areas:
- Turn-taking in sign language interaction
- Social-cognitive development of infants and toddlers acquiring sign language natively.
- Pragmatic and linguistic functions of facial expressions in signed conversations.
- The emergence of signed contact pidgins in cross-sign settings.
- The relationship between the social dynamics of signing communities and the linguistic structures of sign languages.
- The unique contributions village sign languages - being language isolates - make to sign language typology.
I have analysed data from a diverse set of sign languages including Kata Kolok, Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT), as well as cross-signing, a signed contact pidgin used among deaf people who do not know a common sign language.
The face in sign language interaction
Multilingual behaviours in sign language users (collaboration with Prof. Ulrike Zeshan - iSLanDS)
Workshops & symposia
ISGS symposium on The role of facial expressions in signed and spoken conversations, Paris, 18-22 July 2016
IASCL Symposium on Turn-taking and speech act attribution: from preverbal interaction to linguistic practice, Amsterdam, 15 July 2014
EuroBABEL workshop on Rural signing varieties: social dynamics and linguistic structure with Dr. Victoria Nyst (Leiden University), 7 November 2012
Workshop during the Endangered Languages Week on Sign Language Documentation for Field Linguists with Dr. Mandana Seyfeddinipur (SOAS) and Prof. Ulrike Zeshan (iSLanDS), 11 May 2012
EuroBABEL workshop on Kinship and Numeral systems from Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Modal Perspectives with Prof. Ulrike Zeshan, 15-16 September 2011
2nd NGC Spring Workshop The with Prof. Asli Ozyurek, 19 April 2010
Function: Associated Researcher
MPI group: Language and Cognition