Protactile Research Network
Diane Brentari Curriculum Vitae
BUSINESS ADDRESS
Department of Linguistics, 1115 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 E-MAIL: dbrentari@uchicago.edu
HOME ADDRESSES
5720 South Kenwood Avenue, #3
Chicago, IL 60637
via Romana, 12
50125 Firenze, Italia
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
2011- Mary K. Werkman Professor of Linguistics and the College, University of Chicago Co-Director: Center for Gesture, Sign and Language
Director: Sign Language Linguistics Laboratory
RESEARCH AREAS: Sign Languages, Phonology, Morphology, Prosody TEACHING AREAS: Sign Language Linguistics, General Linguistics
1996-2011 Associate/Full Professor, Linguistics Program, Department of Speech Language and Hearing Sciences, Neurosciences Program. Director, ASL Program, Purdue University
1990-1996 Assistant/Associate Professor, Linguistics Program, University of California-Davis. 1983-1985; Instructor, English Department, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC.
1988-1989 Whiting Dissertation Fellowship Award
Visiting Positions
May, 2013 Visiting Scholar, Dipartimento di linguistica generale. Università di Venezia-Ca’Foscari.
April, 2009 Visiting Professor, Dipartimento di linguistica generale. Università di Pisa.
June, 2006 Visiting Professor, Department of Human Communication. University College London.
Fall 1999 Visiting Fellow, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT.
June-July 1994 Visiting Professor, Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, University of New Mexico
1991-1992 Visiting Scientist, Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University.
ACADEMIC DEGREES
1990 Ph. D., The University of Chicago; Linguistics Dissertation: Theoretical Foundations in American Sign Language Phonology
1981 M.A., The George Washington University; Speech/Language Pathology &Audiology
1978 B.S., B.A., cum laude; The Pennsylvania State University; Speech Pathology and Audiology; Art History
AWARDS
2020-2021 Guggenheim Fellowship. Observing the Creation of Language.
2019 Language (flagship journal of the Linguistic Society of America). Best paper of the year award. Abner, N., M. Flaherty, K. Stangl, M. Coppola, D. Brentari, and S. Goldin-Meadow. The Noun-Verb Distinction in Established and Emergent Sign Systems. Language, 95 (2): 230-267.
2001-2006 University Faculty Scholar Award
1989-1990 Whiting Dissertation Fellowship Award
GRANTS
2019-2024 National Science Foundation (Principal Investigator: Diane Brentari; Co-PIs: Marie Coppola; Susan Goldin-Meadow).Two-verb predicates in sign languages: Typological variation and emergence (BCS-1918545). $533,000
2018-2021 Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society. Haun Saussy, Anastasia Giannakidou, Diane Brentari (Co-Principal Investigators) Motion and meaning: Sign and body gesture in dance narratives across cultures. $117,618
2017-2022 National Science Foundation. Terra Edwards & Diane Brentari (Co-Principal Investigators).
What you see is what you feel: Sign Language phonology in a ProTactile world. (BCS- 1651100).
$580,500
2012-2019 National Science Foundation Research Grant. Diane Brentari, Principal Investigator. A typological analysis of handshape: Gesture, homesign, and sign language.(BCS-1227908.)
$550,000
2014-2019 National Science Foundation Research Grant. Diane Brentari, Karen Livescu (PIs)
Jason Riggle, Greg Shakhnarovich (Co-PIs) Models of Handshape Articulatory Phonology for Recognition and Analysis of American Sign Language. (IIS-1409886). $275,000
2016-2019 National Science Foundation. Diane Brentari & L. Horton, (Co-PIs). Conventionalization of Homesign Systems in Guatemala: Lexical & Morpho-phonological Dimensions. (BCS- 1627520).(Dissertation Improvement grant)
2013-2017 The Neubauer Family Collegium for Culture and Society. Diane Brentari, Anastasia Giannakidou, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Sian Beilock (Co-PIs) The Body’s Role in Thinking, Performing, and Referencing $260,000
2013-2016 National Science Foundation. Diane Brentari & J. Keane, (Co-PIs). Coarticulation and the phonetics of fingerspelling. (BCS-1251807). (Dissertation Improvement grant)
2006-2012 National Science Foundation Research Grant. D. Brentari, Principal Investigator.
“Grammatical Regularities in Sign Language and Homesign. (BCS 0547554) $625,000
2001-2005 National Science Foundation Research Grant. D. Brentari, Principal Investigator.
“A Cross-linguistic Study of Sign Language Classifiers. (BCS 0112391) $361,000
1999-2002 National Science Foundation Research Grant. D. Brentari, Co-Investigator.
“An Integrated Linguistic-Computational Approach to Automatic Recognition of American Sign Language.” $508,000
2009-2011 National Science Foundation Conference Grant. D. Brentari Co-Principal Investigator.“Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Linguistics 10.” (BCS 0926532). $20,000
1995-1996 National Science Foundation Workshop Grant. D. Brentari, Principal Investigator.
“Workshop on Cross-linguistic Issues in Sign Languages: Phonology and Morphology.”
$18,900
2005-2007 Teaching and Learning Technologies Grant (Purdue University). D. Brentari, Principal Investigator, “Enhancing American Sign Language Learning Using Web-based Video Technology.” $40,000
CERTIFICATIONS
1999 American Sign Language Interpreter/Transliterator Certification—Illinois
1983 National Certification of Clinical Competence (Speech); American Speech, Hearing and Language Association.
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1992-1995 Consultant, Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University.
1983-1985 Instructor, English Department, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC
1988-1989 Instructor, English Department, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC
1985-1986 Research Assistant, The Gorilla Foundation, Woodside, CA
1978-1983 Speech-Language Pathologist:
1982-1983 Gallaudet University, Washington, DC
1981-1982 National Child Research Center, Washington, DC
1980-1981 Washington Hearing and Speech Society, Washington, DC
1978-1980 Pennsylvania Intermediate Unit #13, Lancaster/Lebanon, PA
LANGUAGES
Sign languages:
American Sign Language (ASL)—near-native competence
Italian Sign Language (LIS)—intermediate level competence
Spoken languages:
Italian—fluent competence in reading, speaking, oral comprehension, and writing French—good competence in reading and oral comprehension
German—good competence in reading
PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS
2019 Brentari, D. Sign Language Phonology. Key Topics in Phonology Series. Cambridge University Press.
2018 Brentari, D., and J. Lee (Eds.). Shaping Phonology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
2010 Brentari, D. (Ed.) Sign Languages: A Cambridge Language Survey. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2001 Brentari, D. (Ed.) Foreign Vocabulary in Sign Languages: A Cross-linguistic Investigation of Word Formation. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
1998 Brentari, D. A Prosodic Model of Sign Language Phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
1998 Lapointe, S., D. Brentari, and P. M. Farrell (Eds). Morphology and its Relation to Syntax and
Phonology. Stanford University, CSLI Publications.
1992 Brentari, D., L. MacLeod, and G. Larson (Eds.) The Joy of Grammar: A Festschrift in Honor of James D. McCawley. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
PUBLICATIONS: JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS
In press Rissman, L., L. Horton, M. Flaherty, A. Senghas, M. Coppola, D. Brentari and S. Goldin-
Meadow. The communicative importance of agent-backgrounding: evidence from homesign and
Nicaraguan Sign Language. Cognition.
In press Iris Berent, I. O. Bat-El, D. Brentari, Q. Andan and V. Vaknin-Nusbaum. Amodal phonology.
Journal of Linguistics.
In press. Edwards, T., and D. Brentari. Feeling Phonology: The conventionalization of phonology in
protactile communities in the United States. Language.
In press Berent, I. O. Bat-El, D. Brentari, and M. Platt. Knowledge of language transfers from speech
to sign: Evidence from doubling. Cognitive Science
In press Fenlon, J., and D. Brentari. Sign language prosody. In J. Quer, R. Pfau, and A. Herrmann (eds.)
Routledge Handbook of Theoretical and Experimental Sign Language Research.
2019 Fenlon, J., K. Cooperrider, J. Keane, D. Brentari, and S. Goldin-Meadow. Comparing sign
language and gesture: Insights from pointing. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 4(1), 2.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.499
2019 Abner, N., M. Flaherty, K. Stangl, M. Coppola, D. Brentari, and S. Goldin-Meadow. The Noun-Verb Distinction in Established and Emergent Sign Systems. Language, 95 (2): 230- 267. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2019.0030
2018 Brentari, D. Modality and contextual salience in co-sign vs. co-speech gesture. Theoretical linguistics 44 (3-4):215-226.
2018 Andan, Q., O. Bat-El, D. Brentari, and I. Berent. 2018. ANCHORING is amodal: Evidence from a signed language. Cognition 180: 279-83.
2018 Brentari, D., J Hill, and B. Amador. Variation in Phrasal Rhythm in Sign Languages: Introducing “Rhythm Ratio”. Sign Language & Linguistics, 21(1), 41-76.
2018 Brentari, D. The Importance of Autosegmental Representations for Sign Language Phonology. In D. Brentari and J. Lee. Shaping Phonology (pp. 119-145). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2018 Brentari, D., J. Falk, A. Giannakiou, A. Herrmann, E. Volk, and M. Steinbach.. Production and Comprehension of Prosodic Markers in Sign Language Imperatives. Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences (Special Issue on Visual Language) doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00770
2017 Kim, T. J. Keane, W. Wang, H. Tang, J. Riggle, G. Shakhnarovich, D. Brentari, and K. Livescu. Lexicon-Free Fingerspelling Recognition from Video: Data, Models, and Signer Adaptation. Computer Speech & Language.
2017 Keane, J. Z. Sevcikova, K. Emmorey, and D. Brentari. A Theory-Driven Model of Handshape Similarity. Phonology 34(2): 221-241.
2017 Fenlon, J., K. Cormier, and D. Brentari. The phonology of sign languages. In S.J. Hannahs and A. Bosch (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory. NY: Routledge.
2017 Brentari, D., and S. Goldin-Meadow. Language emergence. Annual Review of Linguistics
3:363–388.
2017 Goldin-Meadow, S., and D. Brentari. [Target article] Gesture, sign and language: The coming of age of sign language and gesture studies. Brain and Behavioral Sciences 40. doi:10.1017/S0140525X15001247, e0
2017 Goldin-Meadow, S., and D. Brentari. [Authors’ Response] Gesture and language: Distinct subsystem of an integrated whole. Brain and Behavioral Sciences 40 doi:10.1017/S0140525X15001247, e0
2017 Brentari, D., M. Coppola, P.W. Cho, and A. Senghas. Handshape complexity as a pre-cursor to phonology: Variation, emergence, and acquisition. Language Acquisition 24(4): 283- 306. doi:10.1080/10489223.2016.1187614
2016 Berent, I., O. Bat-El, D. Brentari, A. Dupuis, V. Vaknin-Nusbaum. The double identity of doubling: one language faculty, two channels. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(48): 13702–13707.
2016 Keane, J., and D. Brentari. Fingerspelling: Beyond Handshape Sequences. In M. Marschark and P. Siple, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies in Language: Research, Policy, and Practice, 146-160. NY/Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2016 Brentari, D. and M. Coppola. Nicaraguan Sign Language. Serious Science. http://serious- science.org/nicaraguan-sign-language-6876
2016 Horton, L., S. Goldin-Meadow, M. Coppola, A. Senghas, D. Brentari. Forging a morphological system out of two dimensions: Agentivity and number. Open Linguistics 1, 596–613.
2015 Brentari, D., J. Falk, and G.Wolford. The acquisition of American Sign Language Prosody.
Language, 91(3): e144-e168.
2015 Goldin-Meadow, S., D. Brentari, M. Coppola, L. Horton, and A. Senghas. Watching language grow in the manual modality: Nominals, predicates, and handshapes. Cognition. 136: 381-395. doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.11.029
2015 Brentari, D., A. Di Renzo, J. Keane, and V. Volterra.Cognitive, Cultural, and Linguistic Sources of a Handshape Distinction Expressing Agentivity. TopiCS 7, 95- 123. doi:10.1111/tops.12123
2015 Saletta, M., L. Goffman, and D. Brentari. Orthographic Factors Influence Speech Production.
Applied Psycholinguistics 1(2), 1-24. doi:10.1017/S0142716415000053
2015 Keane, J., D.Brentari, and J.Riggle. Segmentation and pinky extension in in ASL fingerspelling. In E. Raimy and C. Cairns, eds., The Segment in Phonology and Phonetics, 103-128. Wiley- Blackwell.
2014 Coppola, M., and D. Brentari. From iconic handshapes to grammatical contrasts: Longitudinal evidence from a child homesigner. Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00830
2014 Berent, I., A. Dupuis, and D. Brentari. Phonological reduplication in sign language: Rules rule. Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00560
2013 Brentari, D., G. Marotta, I. Margherita, and A. Ott. The interaction of pitch accent and gesture production in Italian and English. Studi e Saggi Linguistici, 51(1), 81-102.
2013 Berent, I., A. Dupuis, and D. Brentari. Amodal aspects of linguistic design: Evidence from sign language. PLOS ONE, 8(4), 1-17.
2013 Brentari, D., M. Coppola, A. Jung, and S. Goldin-Meadow. Acquiring word class distinctions in American Sign Language: Evidence from handshape. Language Learning and Development, 9(2), 130- 150.
2013 Brentari, D. and M. Coppola. What Sign Language Creation Teaches Us About Language.
Wiley's Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs): Cognitive Science, 4, 201–211. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1212
2012 Brentari, D. Sign language phonology: The word and sub-lexical structure.. In R. Pfau, M. Steinbach, & B. Woll, eds., Handbook of Sign Language Linguistics, 21-54. Berlin: Mouton.
2012 Brentari, D., M. Nadolske, and G. Wolford. Can experience with gesture influence the prosody of a Sign Language?: ASL prosodic cues in bimodal bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition,15(2), 402-412.
2012 Brentari, D., M. Coppola, L. Mazzoni, and S. Goldin-Meadow. When does a system become phonological? Handshape production in gesturers, signers, and homesigners. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 30(1), 1-31. DOI 10.1007/s11049-011-9145-1
2011 Brentari, D and P. Eccarius. When does a system become phonological: Possible sources for phonological contrast in handshape. In H. van der Hulst and R. Channon (eds.) Formational Units in the Analysis of Signs, 125-150. Nijmegan: Ishara Press.
2011 Brentari, D. Sign Language Phonology. In J. Goldsmith, J. Riggle, & A. Yu, eds., Handbook of Phonological Theory, 691-721. New York/Oxford: Blackwells.
2011 Brentari, D. Handshape in sign language phonology. In M. van Oostendorp C. Ewen, E. Hume, and K.Rice (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, 195 - 222. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
2011 Brentari, D., C. González, A. Seidl, and R. Wilbur. Sensitivity to visual prosodic cues in signers and nonsigners. Language and Speech, 54(1), 49-72.
2010 Eccarius, P. and D. Brentari. A Formal Analysis of Phonological Contrast and Iconicity in Sign Language Handshapes. Sign Language and Linguistics,13(2), 156-181.
2010 Brentari, D. Introduction. In D. Brentari, ed., Sign Languages, 1-16. Cambridge University Press.
2010 Brentari, D. and P. Eccarius. Handshape contrast in sign languages. In D. Brentari, ed., Sign Languages, 284-311. Cambridge University Press.
2010 Tang, G., D. Brentari, C. González, and F. Sze. Crosslinguistic variation in the use of prosodic cues: the case of blinks. In D. Brentari, ed., Sign Languages, 519-542. Cambridge University Press.
2008 Eccarius, P. and D. Brentari. Handshape Coding Made Easier: A theoretically based notation for phonological transcription. Sign Language and Linguistics 11(1), 69-101.
2008 Balog, H. and D. Brentari. The relationship between early gestures and intonation. First Language, 28, 141-163.
2007 Brentari, D. Sign language phonology: Issues of iconicity and universality. In E. Pizzuto and
R. Simone, eds., Verbal and Signed Languages, 59-80. Berlin:Mouton de Gruyter.
2007 Eccarius, P., and D. Brentari. Symmetry and Dominance: A cross-linguistic study of signs and classifier constructions. Lingua, 117, 1169-1201.
2006 Brentari, D. Effects of language modality on word segmentation: An experimental study of phonological factors in a sign language. In L. Goldstein, D. Whalen, and C. Best, eds.
Papers in Laboratory Phonology VIII, 155-164. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
2005 Brentari, D. The use of morphological templates to specify handshapes in sign languages.
Linguistische Berichte, 13, 145-177.
2004 Benedicto, E., and D. Brentari. Where did all the arguments go?: Argument-changing properties of Classifiers in ASL. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 22(4), 743-810.
2003 Brentari, D. Preface to the 2nd edition of R. Battison’s Lexical Borrowing in American Sign Language, ix-xx. Linstok Press/Sign Media. Burtonsville, MD.
2003 Emmorey, K., S. McCullough, and D. Brentari. Categorical perception in American Sign Language. Language and Cognitive Processes, 18 (1), 21-45.
2002 Brentari, D. and L. Crossley. Prosody on the Hands and Face: Evidence from American Sign Language. Sign Language and Linguistics, 5(2), 105-130.
2002 Brentari, D. Modality differences in sign language phonology and morphophonemics. In R. Meier, D. Quinto, K Cormier, eds., Modality in Language and Linguistic Theory, 35-64.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2001 Brentari, D. Borrowed Elements in Sign Languages: A window on word formation [introduction]. In D. Brentari, ed., Foreign Vocabulary in Sign Language: A Cross-linguistic Investigation of Word Formation, ix-xx. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2001 Brentari, D. and C. Padden. A language with multiple origins: Native and foreign vocabulary in American Sign Language. In D. Brentari, ed., Foreign Vocabulary in Sign Language: A Cross- linguistic Investigation of Word Formation, 87-119. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2000 Poizner, H., D. Brentari, J. Kegl, and M. Tyrone. The structure of language as motor behavior: Evidence from signers with Parkinson’s Disease. In K. Emmorey and H. Lane, eds., The Signs of Language Revisited: An Anthology to Honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima, 509-532. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
1998 Lapointe, S., D. Brentari, and P. M. Farrell. Introduction. In S. Lapointe, D. Brentari and P.
M. Farrell, eds., Morphology and Its Relation to Syntax and Phonology, 1-11. Stanford: CSLI.
1998 Brentari, D. Echo avoidance and the Obligatory Contour Principle: Comment on Moira Yip’s paper. In S. Lapointe, D. Brentari , and P. M. Farrell, eds., Morphology and Its Relation to Syntax and Phonology. Stanford: CSLI.
1998 Baynes, K., J. Kegl, D. Brentari, C. Kussmaul, and H. Poizner. Chronic language impairment following Landau-Kleffner Syndrome: A 23-Year Outcome Study. Brain and Language 63, 381-425.
1996 Brentari, D. Eine prosodische Beschreibung zweihändiger Gebärden in ASL. Das Zeichen
37, 272-386.
1996 Brentari, D. Trilled Movement: Phonetic realization and formal representation. Lingua 98, 43-71.
1995 Brentari, D., H. Poizner and J. Kegl. Aphasic and Parkinsonian signing: Differences in phonological disruptions. Brain and Language, 48, 69-105.
1995 Brentari, D. Sign Language Phonology: ASL. In J. Goldsmith, ed., A Handbook of Phonological Theory, 615-639. NY: Basil Blackwell.
1994 Brentari, D. Prosodic constraints in American Sign Language. In H. Bos and T. Schermer, eds., Sign Language Research 1994, 39-51. Hamburg: SIGNUM Press.
1994 Brentari, D. and H. Poizner. A phonological analysis of a deaf Parkinsonian signer.
Language and Cognitive Processes 9(1), 69-100.
1993 Brentari, D. Establishing a sonority hierarchy in American Sign Language: The use of simultaneous structure in phonology. Phonology, 10(2), 281-306.
1993 Brentari, D. Phonological constituents in signed languages. In M. Heusser, ed., Word and Image Interactions, 237-242. Basel: Weise Verlag.
1993 Brentari, D. and J. Goldsmith. Secondary licensing and the non-dominant hand in ASL Phonology. In Geoff Coulter, eds., Phonetics and Phonology, volume 3, 17-41. NY: Academic Press.
1992 Brentari, D. Phonological representation in American Sign Language. Language 68, 359- 374.
1991 Brentari, D. L’accord verbal et la structure conceptuelle en LSQ et en ASL. Revue québécoise de linguistique théoretique et appliqueé 10: 57-70.
1990 Brentari, D. Licensing in ASL handshape change. In C. Lucas, ed., Sign Language Research: Theoretical issues, 57-68 Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
1987 Patterson, F.G., C. H. Patterson, and D. Brentari. Language in child, chimp, and gorilla. American Psychologist 43, 270-271.
1986 Brentari, D. and S. Wolk. The relative effects of three expressive modalities on adult deaf speakers. Journal of Communication Disorders 19, 209-218.
PUBLICATIONS: (volume editor) PROCEEDINGS
2012 Brentari, D., and R. Wilbur (guest editors). Special issue of Sign Language and Linguistics. New Methodologies in Sign Language Phonology: Papers from TISLR 10, 15(1).
1988 Brentari, D., L. MacLeod, and G. Larson, eds., Proceedings from Chicago Linguistic Society 24, Vol.1, General Session.
1988 MacLeod, L., G. Larson, and D. Brentari, eds., Proceedings from the Chicago Linguistic Society 24,Vol. 2, Parasession on Agreement in Grammatical Theory.
PUBLICATIONS: (contributions) PROCEEDINGS
2019 Bowen Shi, B. A., Martinez Del Rio, J. Keane, D.Brentari, G. Shakhnarovich and K. Livescu. Fingerspelling recognition in the wild with iterative visual attention. International Conference on Computer Vision. October 27-November 2, 2019, Seoul, Korea.
2019 Montemurro, K., M. Flaherty, M. Coppola, S. Goldin-Meadow, and D. Brentari.
Grammaticalization of the Body and Space in Nicaraguan Sign Language. In M. Brown and
B. Dailey. Proceedings of the 43st annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD), 415-426. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
2018 Montemurro, K. & D. Brentari. Emphatic fingerspelling as code-mixing in American Sign Language. In the Proceedings from the 2018 annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. DOI 10.3765/plsa.v3i1.4357
2017 Horton, L., L. Rissman, D. Brentari and S. Goldin-Meadow. The Emergence of Agent- Marking Strategies in Child Homesign Systems. In K. Montemurro, et al., Proceedings from the 51st annual meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
2017 Ergin, R., and D. Brentari. Handshape Preferences for Objects and Predicates in Central Taurus Sign Language. In M. LaMendola and J. Scott (eds.) Proceedings of the 41st annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD), 222-235. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
2016 Falk, J., and D. Brentari. Unsupervised Learning of Prosodic Boundaries in ASL.
Proceedings of the 40th Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium.
2015 Brentari, D., C. Branchini, J. Fenlon, L. Horton, and G. Tang. Typology in sign languages: Can it be predictive? In K. Ershova, J. Falk, and J. Geiger (eds.) Proceedings from the 51st annual meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, 47-65. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
2013 Keane, J. D. Brentari, and J. Riggle. Coarticulation in Fingerspelling. In Stefan Keine and Sjayne Sloggett (eds.), Proceedings from the North East Conference Linguistic Society (NELS), 42, vol. 1, 261-272.
2012 Brentari, D., and R. Wilbur. 2012. Guest editors' preface. Special issue of Sign Language and Linguistics. New Methodologies in Sign Language Phonology: Papers from TISLR 10, 15(1): 1–10
2010 Brentari, D. Sign language prosodic cues in first and second language acquisition. In Conference Proceedings of the Speech Prosody 2010, Chicago, IL
2008 Brentari, D, and R. Wilbur. A cross-linguistic study of word segmentation in three sign languages. In R. Müller de Quadros (ed.) Sign Languages: spinning and unraveling the past, present and future. Florianopolis, Brazil: Arara Azul.
2008 Eccarius, P. and D. Brentari. Contrast differences across lexical substrata: Evidence from the ASL handshape. In N. Adams, A. Cooper, F. Parrill, & T. Weir (eds.) Proceedings from the 4 44th Annual meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, vol. 2, 187-201. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
2002 Benedicto, E., and D. Brentari. Los clasificadores en Lengua de Señas (Norte) Americana, ASL: Propiedades Argumentales. Proceedings of VI Encuentro Internacional de Lingüística en el Noroeste. Hermosillo - Sonora, Mexico.
1999 Brentari, D. and E. Benedicto. Verbal classifiers as heads of functional projections: Evidence from ASL. In. S. F. Bird, A. Carnie, J. D. Haugen, and P. Norquest, eds., Proceedings from the 18th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 69-81. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
1994 Brentari, D. Prosodic constraints in American Sign Language. Proceedings from the 20th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society, 103-112.
1990 Brentari, D. and A. Bosch. Mora: Autosegment or syllable constituent? Proceedings from the 26th Annual meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, Vol. 2: Parasession on the Syllable, 1-15.
1990 Brentari, D. Underspecification in American Sign Language phonology. Proceedings from the 16th Annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 46-56.
1988 Brentari, D. Backwards verbs in ASL: Agreement re-opened. Proceedings from the Chicago Linguistic Society 24, Vol. 2, Parasession on Agreement in Grammatical Theory, 16-27.
ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES, SCIENTIFIC ABSTRACTS, and REVIEWS
2018 Brentari, D, J. Fenlon, and K. Cormier. Sign language Phonology. In M. Aronoff ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.11 [Encyclopedia entry]
2016 Brentari, D. Sign language Phonology. In G. Gertz and P. Boudreault, eds., The SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia. Washington, DC: Sage Publishers. [Encyclopedia entry]
2008 Brentari, D. Inside Deaf Culture. Carol Padden and Tom Humphries. 2006. Language, 84(3), 655- 658 [Review]
2006 Brentari, D. Sign Language phonology. In Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.
Elsevier. [Encyclopedia entry]
1998 Brentari, D. Commentary on Newkirk’s papers from the sign linguistics underground. Sign Language and Linguistics 1: 93-96. [Review]
1996 Brentari, D. Language, Gesture, and Space. Karen Emmorey and Judy Reilly (Eds.), 1995. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 1995. Language 72(4): 83-838. [Review]
1995 Baynes, K., D. Brentari, and J. Kegl. Chronic language impairment following Landau Kleffner’s Syndrome: A case study. Journal of the International Neurological Society, 1(2),
152. [Abstract]
1994 Brentari, D. Universal Grammar and American Sign Language. Diane Lillo-Martin.1991. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 9(1), 208–214. [Review]
1990 Brentari, D. Monastic Sign Languages. 1987. Jean Umiker-Sebeok and Thomas Sebeok (Eds.) The Hague: Mouton. Language, 66(3), 655-656. [Review]
1990 Brentari, D. Language Learning and Deafness. Michael Strong (Ed.). International Journal of American Linguistics 56, 172-175. [Review]
1988 Brentari, D. What the Hands Reveal About the Brain. Howard Poizner, Edward S. Klima and Ursula Bellugi. Language 64(4), 805-809. [Review]
1988 Brentari, D. American Sign Language: Linguistic and Applied Dimensions. Ronnie Wilbur.
Language 64(2), 437-438. [Review]
COURSES & SEMINARS TAUGHT
General linguistics
Phonology I (Fall 2015, 2016, 2019)
Phonology II (Winter, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019)
Research Methods in Phonology (graduate seminar, Fall 2010)
Phonology Seminar on various topics, (1992, 1993, 1996, 2004, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017): Prosodic Structure, Optimality Theory, Sign Language Phonology, etc.
Fonologia Generativa (Generative Phonology), Università di Pisa (graduate course, April 2009) Phonological Analysis (graduate course, every Fall semesters)
Phonological Theory (graduate course, every Spring semester) Introduction to Phonetics (undergraduate course, every Spring, 1990-1996)
Introduction to Linguistics (undergraduate course, every Winter, 1990-1996) Language and the Human (fall, each fall since 2011)
The linguistics of sign languages: graduate seminars and mixed courses
LSA Institute 2015: Sign Language Linguistics (2 weeks)
LSA Institute 1994: Crosslinguistic Issues in Sign Language Phonology and Morphology (6 weeks) Sign Language Phonology (graduate seminar, 2006, 2014, 2018)
Structure of American Sign Language (mixed graduate undergraduate course, Fall, 2013)
Research Methods in Sign Language and Gesture (mixed graduate undergraduate course, Winter, 2012, Fall, 2017)
Gesture, Sign, and Language (graduate course, Franke Center for the Humanities, Cross Disciplinary Initiative, fall 2012)
Sign Language Linguistics (mixed graduate/undergraduate course, Fall 2011, Winter, 2014) The Linguistic Structure of Sign Languages (graduate course, 1999; Fall 2001)
The linguistics of sign languages: undergraduate courses
The American Deaf Community: Language, Culture and Society (Signature course 2018-2020) Contrasting English and American Sign Language Grammar (undergraduate course, Fall, 1997) American Sign Language (undergraduate course, every semester, 1997-2000)
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Number of Current PhD students at the University of Chicago: 9
Number PhD students for whom I have been an External Committee member: 12
CONFERENCE PLANNING and SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZATION
2020 Toward a More Tactile Future: Learning from Protactile DeafBlind Communities.
Symposium, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Seattle, Washington. February 12-15, 2020.
2019 NSF funded Workshop: Automatic Sign Recognition (1-day conference) May 15, 2019.
University of Chicago.
2017 Expanding the Dimensions of Linguistic Inquiry: The Contributions of John Goldsmith, Franke Institute for the Humanities (1-day conference) November 10, 2017. University of Chicago (1- day conference
2017 The Body’s Role in Performance, Reference, and Action. Conference sponsored by the Center for Gesture Sign and Language, and the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society Oct. 19-20, 2017. University of Chicago (2-day conference)
2017 The Phonology of Sign Language Fingerspelling: Beyond Handshape Sequences.
Symposium, Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Austin, TX.
2013 Conference Inaugurating the Center on Gesture, Sign and Language. March, 8-9, 2013 (2-day conference). University of Chicago
2010 Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research 10 (TISLR 10). September 30-October 2, 2010 (3- day conference). Purdue University.
2004 NSF-funded Workshop on Sign Language Classifiers. September 29, 2004. In conjunction with the Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research 8 Conference (TISLR 8), Barcelona, Spain. (1-day Symposium)
2001 American Association for the Advancement of Science: Signs and Sounds: Modality and the Architecture of Language. February 14-19, 2001. (Symposium Organizer)
1995 Einstein Forum. Complexity in Language: Biological and Psychological Aspects. May 18- 20, 1995. (2-day Conference). Potsdam, Germany.
1995 UC-Davis Morphology Workshop. May 5-7, 1995. University of California-Davis. (2-day Conference)
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
National Associations
Linguistic Society of America. Program Committee (2001-2004, chair 2004; 2018-2021)
Editorial Board
Language, Associate Editor, 2020 --
Sign Language and Linguistics Associate Editor 2000--
Grant Review
NSF Panel Member, 2019 - 2022
Ad hoc review for National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, European Science Foundation
Article and Book Review and Abstract Review for a wide range of linguistics and sign language linguistics conferences. Chicago Linguistic Society, Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research, Linguistic Society of America, Generative Linguistics Old World, Formal and Experimental Approaches to Sign Theory
2011- Mary K. Werkman Professor of Linguistics and the College, University of Chicago Co-Director: Center for Gesture, Sign and Language
Director: Sign Language Linguistics Laboratory
RESEARCH AREAS: Sign Languages, Phonology, Morphology, Prosody TEACHING AREAS: Sign Language Linguistics, General Linguistics
1996-2011 Associate/Full Professor, Linguistics Program, Department of Speech Language and Hearing Sciences, Neurosciences Program. Director, ASL Program, Purdue University
1990-1996 Assistant/Associate Professor, Linguistics Program, University of California-Davis. 1983-1985; Instructor, English Department, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC.
1988-1989 Whiting Dissertation Fellowship Award
Visiting Positions
May, 2013 Visiting Scholar, Dipartimento di linguistica generale. Università di Venezia-Ca’Foscari.
April, 2009 Visiting Professor, Dipartimento di linguistica generale. Università di Pisa.
June, 2006 Visiting Professor, Department of Human Communication. University College London.
Fall 1999 Visiting Fellow, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT.
June-July 1994 Visiting Professor, Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, University of New Mexico
1991-1992 Visiting Scientist, Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University.
ACADEMIC DEGREES
1990 Ph. D., The University of Chicago; Linguistics Dissertation: Theoretical Foundations in American Sign Language Phonology
1981 M.A., The George Washington University; Speech/Language Pathology &Audiology
1978 B.S., B.A., cum laude; The Pennsylvania State University; Speech Pathology and Audiology; Art History
AWARDS
2020-2021 Guggenheim Fellowship. Observing the Creation of Language.
2019 Language (flagship journal of the Linguistic Society of America). Best paper of the year award. Abner, N., M. Flaherty, K. Stangl, M. Coppola, D. Brentari, and S. Goldin-Meadow. The Noun-Verb Distinction in Established and Emergent Sign Systems. Language, 95 (2): 230-267.
2001-2006 University Faculty Scholar Award
1989-1990 Whiting Dissertation Fellowship Award
GRANTS
2019-2024 National Science Foundation (Principal Investigator: Diane Brentari; Co-PIs: Marie Coppola; Susan Goldin-Meadow).Two-verb predicates in sign languages: Typological variation and emergence (BCS-1918545). $533,000
2018-2021 Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society. Haun Saussy, Anastasia Giannakidou, Diane Brentari (Co-Principal Investigators) Motion and meaning: Sign and body gesture in dance narratives across cultures. $117,618
2017-2022 National Science Foundation. Terra Edwards & Diane Brentari (Co-Principal Investigators).
What you see is what you feel: Sign Language phonology in a ProTactile world. (BCS- 1651100).
$580,500
2012-2019 National Science Foundation Research Grant. Diane Brentari, Principal Investigator. A typological analysis of handshape: Gesture, homesign, and sign language.(BCS-1227908.)
$550,000
2014-2019 National Science Foundation Research Grant. Diane Brentari, Karen Livescu (PIs)
Jason Riggle, Greg Shakhnarovich (Co-PIs) Models of Handshape Articulatory Phonology for Recognition and Analysis of American Sign Language. (IIS-1409886). $275,000
2016-2019 National Science Foundation. Diane Brentari & L. Horton, (Co-PIs). Conventionalization of Homesign Systems in Guatemala: Lexical & Morpho-phonological Dimensions. (BCS- 1627520).(Dissertation Improvement grant)
2013-2017 The Neubauer Family Collegium for Culture and Society. Diane Brentari, Anastasia Giannakidou, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Sian Beilock (Co-PIs) The Body’s Role in Thinking, Performing, and Referencing $260,000
2013-2016 National Science Foundation. Diane Brentari & J. Keane, (Co-PIs). Coarticulation and the phonetics of fingerspelling. (BCS-1251807). (Dissertation Improvement grant)
2006-2012 National Science Foundation Research Grant. D. Brentari, Principal Investigator.
“Grammatical Regularities in Sign Language and Homesign. (BCS 0547554) $625,000
2001-2005 National Science Foundation Research Grant. D. Brentari, Principal Investigator.
“A Cross-linguistic Study of Sign Language Classifiers. (BCS 0112391) $361,000
1999-2002 National Science Foundation Research Grant. D. Brentari, Co-Investigator.
“An Integrated Linguistic-Computational Approach to Automatic Recognition of American Sign Language.” $508,000
2009-2011 National Science Foundation Conference Grant. D. Brentari Co-Principal Investigator.“Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Linguistics 10.” (BCS 0926532). $20,000
1995-1996 National Science Foundation Workshop Grant. D. Brentari, Principal Investigator.
“Workshop on Cross-linguistic Issues in Sign Languages: Phonology and Morphology.”
$18,900
2005-2007 Teaching and Learning Technologies Grant (Purdue University). D. Brentari, Principal Investigator, “Enhancing American Sign Language Learning Using Web-based Video Technology.” $40,000
CERTIFICATIONS
1999 American Sign Language Interpreter/Transliterator Certification—Illinois
1983 National Certification of Clinical Competence (Speech); American Speech, Hearing and Language Association.
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1992-1995 Consultant, Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University.
1983-1985 Instructor, English Department, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC
1988-1989 Instructor, English Department, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC
1985-1986 Research Assistant, The Gorilla Foundation, Woodside, CA
1978-1983 Speech-Language Pathologist:
1982-1983 Gallaudet University, Washington, DC
1981-1982 National Child Research Center, Washington, DC
1980-1981 Washington Hearing and Speech Society, Washington, DC
1978-1980 Pennsylvania Intermediate Unit #13, Lancaster/Lebanon, PA
LANGUAGES
Sign languages:
American Sign Language (ASL)—near-native competence
Italian Sign Language (LIS)—intermediate level competence
Spoken languages:
Italian—fluent competence in reading, speaking, oral comprehension, and writing French—good competence in reading and oral comprehension
German—good competence in reading
PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS
2019 Brentari, D. Sign Language Phonology. Key Topics in Phonology Series. Cambridge University Press.
2018 Brentari, D., and J. Lee (Eds.). Shaping Phonology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
2010 Brentari, D. (Ed.) Sign Languages: A Cambridge Language Survey. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2001 Brentari, D. (Ed.) Foreign Vocabulary in Sign Languages: A Cross-linguistic Investigation of Word Formation. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
1998 Brentari, D. A Prosodic Model of Sign Language Phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
1998 Lapointe, S., D. Brentari, and P. M. Farrell (Eds). Morphology and its Relation to Syntax and
Phonology. Stanford University, CSLI Publications.
1992 Brentari, D., L. MacLeod, and G. Larson (Eds.) The Joy of Grammar: A Festschrift in Honor of James D. McCawley. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
PUBLICATIONS: JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS
In press Rissman, L., L. Horton, M. Flaherty, A. Senghas, M. Coppola, D. Brentari and S. Goldin-
Meadow. The communicative importance of agent-backgrounding: evidence from homesign and
Nicaraguan Sign Language. Cognition.
In press Iris Berent, I. O. Bat-El, D. Brentari, Q. Andan and V. Vaknin-Nusbaum. Amodal phonology.
Journal of Linguistics.
In press. Edwards, T., and D. Brentari. Feeling Phonology: The conventionalization of phonology in
protactile communities in the United States. Language.
In press Berent, I. O. Bat-El, D. Brentari, and M. Platt. Knowledge of language transfers from speech
to sign: Evidence from doubling. Cognitive Science
In press Fenlon, J., and D. Brentari. Sign language prosody. In J. Quer, R. Pfau, and A. Herrmann (eds.)
Routledge Handbook of Theoretical and Experimental Sign Language Research.
2019 Fenlon, J., K. Cooperrider, J. Keane, D. Brentari, and S. Goldin-Meadow. Comparing sign
language and gesture: Insights from pointing. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 4(1), 2.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.499
2019 Abner, N., M. Flaherty, K. Stangl, M. Coppola, D. Brentari, and S. Goldin-Meadow. The Noun-Verb Distinction in Established and Emergent Sign Systems. Language, 95 (2): 230- 267. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2019.0030
2018 Brentari, D. Modality and contextual salience in co-sign vs. co-speech gesture. Theoretical linguistics 44 (3-4):215-226.
2018 Andan, Q., O. Bat-El, D. Brentari, and I. Berent. 2018. ANCHORING is amodal: Evidence from a signed language. Cognition 180: 279-83.
2018 Brentari, D., J Hill, and B. Amador. Variation in Phrasal Rhythm in Sign Languages: Introducing “Rhythm Ratio”. Sign Language & Linguistics, 21(1), 41-76.
2018 Brentari, D. The Importance of Autosegmental Representations for Sign Language Phonology. In D. Brentari and J. Lee. Shaping Phonology (pp. 119-145). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2018 Brentari, D., J. Falk, A. Giannakiou, A. Herrmann, E. Volk, and M. Steinbach.. Production and Comprehension of Prosodic Markers in Sign Language Imperatives. Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences (Special Issue on Visual Language) doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00770
2017 Kim, T. J. Keane, W. Wang, H. Tang, J. Riggle, G. Shakhnarovich, D. Brentari, and K. Livescu. Lexicon-Free Fingerspelling Recognition from Video: Data, Models, and Signer Adaptation. Computer Speech & Language.
2017 Keane, J. Z. Sevcikova, K. Emmorey, and D. Brentari. A Theory-Driven Model of Handshape Similarity. Phonology 34(2): 221-241.
2017 Fenlon, J., K. Cormier, and D. Brentari. The phonology of sign languages. In S.J. Hannahs and A. Bosch (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory. NY: Routledge.
2017 Brentari, D., and S. Goldin-Meadow. Language emergence. Annual Review of Linguistics
3:363–388.
2017 Goldin-Meadow, S., and D. Brentari. [Target article] Gesture, sign and language: The coming of age of sign language and gesture studies. Brain and Behavioral Sciences 40. doi:10.1017/S0140525X15001247, e0
2017 Goldin-Meadow, S., and D. Brentari. [Authors’ Response] Gesture and language: Distinct subsystem of an integrated whole. Brain and Behavioral Sciences 40 doi:10.1017/S0140525X15001247, e0
2017 Brentari, D., M. Coppola, P.W. Cho, and A. Senghas. Handshape complexity as a pre-cursor to phonology: Variation, emergence, and acquisition. Language Acquisition 24(4): 283- 306. doi:10.1080/10489223.2016.1187614
2016 Berent, I., O. Bat-El, D. Brentari, A. Dupuis, V. Vaknin-Nusbaum. The double identity of doubling: one language faculty, two channels. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(48): 13702–13707.
2016 Keane, J., and D. Brentari. Fingerspelling: Beyond Handshape Sequences. In M. Marschark and P. Siple, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies in Language: Research, Policy, and Practice, 146-160. NY/Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2016 Brentari, D. and M. Coppola. Nicaraguan Sign Language. Serious Science. http://serious- science.org/nicaraguan-sign-language-6876
2016 Horton, L., S. Goldin-Meadow, M. Coppola, A. Senghas, D. Brentari. Forging a morphological system out of two dimensions: Agentivity and number. Open Linguistics 1, 596–613.
2015 Brentari, D., J. Falk, and G.Wolford. The acquisition of American Sign Language Prosody.
Language, 91(3): e144-e168.
2015 Goldin-Meadow, S., D. Brentari, M. Coppola, L. Horton, and A. Senghas. Watching language grow in the manual modality: Nominals, predicates, and handshapes. Cognition. 136: 381-395. doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.11.029
2015 Brentari, D., A. Di Renzo, J. Keane, and V. Volterra.Cognitive, Cultural, and Linguistic Sources of a Handshape Distinction Expressing Agentivity. TopiCS 7, 95- 123. doi:10.1111/tops.12123
2015 Saletta, M., L. Goffman, and D. Brentari. Orthographic Factors Influence Speech Production.
Applied Psycholinguistics 1(2), 1-24. doi:10.1017/S0142716415000053
2015 Keane, J., D.Brentari, and J.Riggle. Segmentation and pinky extension in in ASL fingerspelling. In E. Raimy and C. Cairns, eds., The Segment in Phonology and Phonetics, 103-128. Wiley- Blackwell.
2014 Coppola, M., and D. Brentari. From iconic handshapes to grammatical contrasts: Longitudinal evidence from a child homesigner. Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00830
2014 Berent, I., A. Dupuis, and D. Brentari. Phonological reduplication in sign language: Rules rule. Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00560
2013 Brentari, D., G. Marotta, I. Margherita, and A. Ott. The interaction of pitch accent and gesture production in Italian and English. Studi e Saggi Linguistici, 51(1), 81-102.
2013 Berent, I., A. Dupuis, and D. Brentari. Amodal aspects of linguistic design: Evidence from sign language. PLOS ONE, 8(4), 1-17.
2013 Brentari, D., M. Coppola, A. Jung, and S. Goldin-Meadow. Acquiring word class distinctions in American Sign Language: Evidence from handshape. Language Learning and Development, 9(2), 130- 150.
2013 Brentari, D. and M. Coppola. What Sign Language Creation Teaches Us About Language.
Wiley's Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs): Cognitive Science, 4, 201–211. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1212
2012 Brentari, D. Sign language phonology: The word and sub-lexical structure.. In R. Pfau, M. Steinbach, & B. Woll, eds., Handbook of Sign Language Linguistics, 21-54. Berlin: Mouton.
2012 Brentari, D., M. Nadolske, and G. Wolford. Can experience with gesture influence the prosody of a Sign Language?: ASL prosodic cues in bimodal bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition,15(2), 402-412.
2012 Brentari, D., M. Coppola, L. Mazzoni, and S. Goldin-Meadow. When does a system become phonological? Handshape production in gesturers, signers, and homesigners. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 30(1), 1-31. DOI 10.1007/s11049-011-9145-1
2011 Brentari, D and P. Eccarius. When does a system become phonological: Possible sources for phonological contrast in handshape. In H. van der Hulst and R. Channon (eds.) Formational Units in the Analysis of Signs, 125-150. Nijmegan: Ishara Press.
2011 Brentari, D. Sign Language Phonology. In J. Goldsmith, J. Riggle, & A. Yu, eds., Handbook of Phonological Theory, 691-721. New York/Oxford: Blackwells.
2011 Brentari, D. Handshape in sign language phonology. In M. van Oostendorp C. Ewen, E. Hume, and K.Rice (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, 195 - 222. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
2011 Brentari, D., C. González, A. Seidl, and R. Wilbur. Sensitivity to visual prosodic cues in signers and nonsigners. Language and Speech, 54(1), 49-72.
2010 Eccarius, P. and D. Brentari. A Formal Analysis of Phonological Contrast and Iconicity in Sign Language Handshapes. Sign Language and Linguistics,13(2), 156-181.
2010 Brentari, D. Introduction. In D. Brentari, ed., Sign Languages, 1-16. Cambridge University Press.
2010 Brentari, D. and P. Eccarius. Handshape contrast in sign languages. In D. Brentari, ed., Sign Languages, 284-311. Cambridge University Press.
2010 Tang, G., D. Brentari, C. González, and F. Sze. Crosslinguistic variation in the use of prosodic cues: the case of blinks. In D. Brentari, ed., Sign Languages, 519-542. Cambridge University Press.
2008 Eccarius, P. and D. Brentari. Handshape Coding Made Easier: A theoretically based notation for phonological transcription. Sign Language and Linguistics 11(1), 69-101.
2008 Balog, H. and D. Brentari. The relationship between early gestures and intonation. First Language, 28, 141-163.
2007 Brentari, D. Sign language phonology: Issues of iconicity and universality. In E. Pizzuto and
R. Simone, eds., Verbal and Signed Languages, 59-80. Berlin:Mouton de Gruyter.
2007 Eccarius, P., and D. Brentari. Symmetry and Dominance: A cross-linguistic study of signs and classifier constructions. Lingua, 117, 1169-1201.
2006 Brentari, D. Effects of language modality on word segmentation: An experimental study of phonological factors in a sign language. In L. Goldstein, D. Whalen, and C. Best, eds.
Papers in Laboratory Phonology VIII, 155-164. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
2005 Brentari, D. The use of morphological templates to specify handshapes in sign languages.
Linguistische Berichte, 13, 145-177.
2004 Benedicto, E., and D. Brentari. Where did all the arguments go?: Argument-changing properties of Classifiers in ASL. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 22(4), 743-810.
2003 Brentari, D. Preface to the 2nd edition of R. Battison’s Lexical Borrowing in American Sign Language, ix-xx. Linstok Press/Sign Media. Burtonsville, MD.
2003 Emmorey, K., S. McCullough, and D. Brentari. Categorical perception in American Sign Language. Language and Cognitive Processes, 18 (1), 21-45.
2002 Brentari, D. and L. Crossley. Prosody on the Hands and Face: Evidence from American Sign Language. Sign Language and Linguistics, 5(2), 105-130.
2002 Brentari, D. Modality differences in sign language phonology and morphophonemics. In R. Meier, D. Quinto, K Cormier, eds., Modality in Language and Linguistic Theory, 35-64.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2001 Brentari, D. Borrowed Elements in Sign Languages: A window on word formation [introduction]. In D. Brentari, ed., Foreign Vocabulary in Sign Language: A Cross-linguistic Investigation of Word Formation, ix-xx. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2001 Brentari, D. and C. Padden. A language with multiple origins: Native and foreign vocabulary in American Sign Language. In D. Brentari, ed., Foreign Vocabulary in Sign Language: A Cross- linguistic Investigation of Word Formation, 87-119. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2000 Poizner, H., D. Brentari, J. Kegl, and M. Tyrone. The structure of language as motor behavior: Evidence from signers with Parkinson’s Disease. In K. Emmorey and H. Lane, eds., The Signs of Language Revisited: An Anthology to Honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima, 509-532. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
1998 Lapointe, S., D. Brentari, and P. M. Farrell. Introduction. In S. Lapointe, D. Brentari and P.
M. Farrell, eds., Morphology and Its Relation to Syntax and Phonology, 1-11. Stanford: CSLI.
1998 Brentari, D. Echo avoidance and the Obligatory Contour Principle: Comment on Moira Yip’s paper. In S. Lapointe, D. Brentari , and P. M. Farrell, eds., Morphology and Its Relation to Syntax and Phonology. Stanford: CSLI.
1998 Baynes, K., J. Kegl, D. Brentari, C. Kussmaul, and H. Poizner. Chronic language impairment following Landau-Kleffner Syndrome: A 23-Year Outcome Study. Brain and Language 63, 381-425.
1996 Brentari, D. Eine prosodische Beschreibung zweihändiger Gebärden in ASL. Das Zeichen
37, 272-386.
1996 Brentari, D. Trilled Movement: Phonetic realization and formal representation. Lingua 98, 43-71.
1995 Brentari, D., H. Poizner and J. Kegl. Aphasic and Parkinsonian signing: Differences in phonological disruptions. Brain and Language, 48, 69-105.
1995 Brentari, D. Sign Language Phonology: ASL. In J. Goldsmith, ed., A Handbook of Phonological Theory, 615-639. NY: Basil Blackwell.
1994 Brentari, D. Prosodic constraints in American Sign Language. In H. Bos and T. Schermer, eds., Sign Language Research 1994, 39-51. Hamburg: SIGNUM Press.
1994 Brentari, D. and H. Poizner. A phonological analysis of a deaf Parkinsonian signer.
Language and Cognitive Processes 9(1), 69-100.
1993 Brentari, D. Establishing a sonority hierarchy in American Sign Language: The use of simultaneous structure in phonology. Phonology, 10(2), 281-306.
1993 Brentari, D. Phonological constituents in signed languages. In M. Heusser, ed., Word and Image Interactions, 237-242. Basel: Weise Verlag.
1993 Brentari, D. and J. Goldsmith. Secondary licensing and the non-dominant hand in ASL Phonology. In Geoff Coulter, eds., Phonetics and Phonology, volume 3, 17-41. NY: Academic Press.
1992 Brentari, D. Phonological representation in American Sign Language. Language 68, 359- 374.
1991 Brentari, D. L’accord verbal et la structure conceptuelle en LSQ et en ASL. Revue québécoise de linguistique théoretique et appliqueé 10: 57-70.
1990 Brentari, D. Licensing in ASL handshape change. In C. Lucas, ed., Sign Language Research: Theoretical issues, 57-68 Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
1987 Patterson, F.G., C. H. Patterson, and D. Brentari. Language in child, chimp, and gorilla. American Psychologist 43, 270-271.
1986 Brentari, D. and S. Wolk. The relative effects of three expressive modalities on adult deaf speakers. Journal of Communication Disorders 19, 209-218.
PUBLICATIONS: (volume editor) PROCEEDINGS
2012 Brentari, D., and R. Wilbur (guest editors). Special issue of Sign Language and Linguistics. New Methodologies in Sign Language Phonology: Papers from TISLR 10, 15(1).
1988 Brentari, D., L. MacLeod, and G. Larson, eds., Proceedings from Chicago Linguistic Society 24, Vol.1, General Session.
1988 MacLeod, L., G. Larson, and D. Brentari, eds., Proceedings from the Chicago Linguistic Society 24,Vol. 2, Parasession on Agreement in Grammatical Theory.
PUBLICATIONS: (contributions) PROCEEDINGS
2019 Bowen Shi, B. A., Martinez Del Rio, J. Keane, D.Brentari, G. Shakhnarovich and K. Livescu. Fingerspelling recognition in the wild with iterative visual attention. International Conference on Computer Vision. October 27-November 2, 2019, Seoul, Korea.
2019 Montemurro, K., M. Flaherty, M. Coppola, S. Goldin-Meadow, and D. Brentari.
Grammaticalization of the Body and Space in Nicaraguan Sign Language. In M. Brown and
B. Dailey. Proceedings of the 43st annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD), 415-426. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
2018 Montemurro, K. & D. Brentari. Emphatic fingerspelling as code-mixing in American Sign Language. In the Proceedings from the 2018 annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. DOI 10.3765/plsa.v3i1.4357
2017 Horton, L., L. Rissman, D. Brentari and S. Goldin-Meadow. The Emergence of Agent- Marking Strategies in Child Homesign Systems. In K. Montemurro, et al., Proceedings from the 51st annual meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
2017 Ergin, R., and D. Brentari. Handshape Preferences for Objects and Predicates in Central Taurus Sign Language. In M. LaMendola and J. Scott (eds.) Proceedings of the 41st annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD), 222-235. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
2016 Falk, J., and D. Brentari. Unsupervised Learning of Prosodic Boundaries in ASL.
Proceedings of the 40th Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium.
2015 Brentari, D., C. Branchini, J. Fenlon, L. Horton, and G. Tang. Typology in sign languages: Can it be predictive? In K. Ershova, J. Falk, and J. Geiger (eds.) Proceedings from the 51st annual meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, 47-65. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
2013 Keane, J. D. Brentari, and J. Riggle. Coarticulation in Fingerspelling. In Stefan Keine and Sjayne Sloggett (eds.), Proceedings from the North East Conference Linguistic Society (NELS), 42, vol. 1, 261-272.
2012 Brentari, D., and R. Wilbur. 2012. Guest editors' preface. Special issue of Sign Language and Linguistics. New Methodologies in Sign Language Phonology: Papers from TISLR 10, 15(1): 1–10
2010 Brentari, D. Sign language prosodic cues in first and second language acquisition. In Conference Proceedings of the Speech Prosody 2010, Chicago, IL
2008 Brentari, D, and R. Wilbur. A cross-linguistic study of word segmentation in three sign languages. In R. Müller de Quadros (ed.) Sign Languages: spinning and unraveling the past, present and future. Florianopolis, Brazil: Arara Azul.
2008 Eccarius, P. and D. Brentari. Contrast differences across lexical substrata: Evidence from the ASL handshape. In N. Adams, A. Cooper, F. Parrill, & T. Weir (eds.) Proceedings from the 4 44th Annual meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, vol. 2, 187-201. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
2002 Benedicto, E., and D. Brentari. Los clasificadores en Lengua de Señas (Norte) Americana, ASL: Propiedades Argumentales. Proceedings of VI Encuentro Internacional de Lingüística en el Noroeste. Hermosillo - Sonora, Mexico.
1999 Brentari, D. and E. Benedicto. Verbal classifiers as heads of functional projections: Evidence from ASL. In. S. F. Bird, A. Carnie, J. D. Haugen, and P. Norquest, eds., Proceedings from the 18th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 69-81. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
1994 Brentari, D. Prosodic constraints in American Sign Language. Proceedings from the 20th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society, 103-112.
1990 Brentari, D. and A. Bosch. Mora: Autosegment or syllable constituent? Proceedings from the 26th Annual meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, Vol. 2: Parasession on the Syllable, 1-15.
1990 Brentari, D. Underspecification in American Sign Language phonology. Proceedings from the 16th Annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 46-56.
1988 Brentari, D. Backwards verbs in ASL: Agreement re-opened. Proceedings from the Chicago Linguistic Society 24, Vol. 2, Parasession on Agreement in Grammatical Theory, 16-27.
ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES, SCIENTIFIC ABSTRACTS, and REVIEWS
2018 Brentari, D, J. Fenlon, and K. Cormier. Sign language Phonology. In M. Aronoff ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.11 [Encyclopedia entry]
2016 Brentari, D. Sign language Phonology. In G. Gertz and P. Boudreault, eds., The SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia. Washington, DC: Sage Publishers. [Encyclopedia entry]
2008 Brentari, D. Inside Deaf Culture. Carol Padden and Tom Humphries. 2006. Language, 84(3), 655- 658 [Review]
2006 Brentari, D. Sign Language phonology. In Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.
Elsevier. [Encyclopedia entry]
1998 Brentari, D. Commentary on Newkirk’s papers from the sign linguistics underground. Sign Language and Linguistics 1: 93-96. [Review]
1996 Brentari, D. Language, Gesture, and Space. Karen Emmorey and Judy Reilly (Eds.), 1995. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 1995. Language 72(4): 83-838. [Review]
1995 Baynes, K., D. Brentari, and J. Kegl. Chronic language impairment following Landau Kleffner’s Syndrome: A case study. Journal of the International Neurological Society, 1(2),
152. [Abstract]
1994 Brentari, D. Universal Grammar and American Sign Language. Diane Lillo-Martin.1991. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 9(1), 208–214. [Review]
1990 Brentari, D. Monastic Sign Languages. 1987. Jean Umiker-Sebeok and Thomas Sebeok (Eds.) The Hague: Mouton. Language, 66(3), 655-656. [Review]
1990 Brentari, D. Language Learning and Deafness. Michael Strong (Ed.). International Journal of American Linguistics 56, 172-175. [Review]
1988 Brentari, D. What the Hands Reveal About the Brain. Howard Poizner, Edward S. Klima and Ursula Bellugi. Language 64(4), 805-809. [Review]
1988 Brentari, D. American Sign Language: Linguistic and Applied Dimensions. Ronnie Wilbur.
Language 64(2), 437-438. [Review]
COURSES & SEMINARS TAUGHT
General linguistics
Phonology I (Fall 2015, 2016, 2019)
Phonology II (Winter, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019)
Research Methods in Phonology (graduate seminar, Fall 2010)
Phonology Seminar on various topics, (1992, 1993, 1996, 2004, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017): Prosodic Structure, Optimality Theory, Sign Language Phonology, etc.
Fonologia Generativa (Generative Phonology), Università di Pisa (graduate course, April 2009) Phonological Analysis (graduate course, every Fall semesters)
Phonological Theory (graduate course, every Spring semester) Introduction to Phonetics (undergraduate course, every Spring, 1990-1996)
Introduction to Linguistics (undergraduate course, every Winter, 1990-1996) Language and the Human (fall, each fall since 2011)
The linguistics of sign languages: graduate seminars and mixed courses
LSA Institute 2015: Sign Language Linguistics (2 weeks)
LSA Institute 1994: Crosslinguistic Issues in Sign Language Phonology and Morphology (6 weeks) Sign Language Phonology (graduate seminar, 2006, 2014, 2018)
Structure of American Sign Language (mixed graduate undergraduate course, Fall, 2013)
Research Methods in Sign Language and Gesture (mixed graduate undergraduate course, Winter, 2012, Fall, 2017)
Gesture, Sign, and Language (graduate course, Franke Center for the Humanities, Cross Disciplinary Initiative, fall 2012)
Sign Language Linguistics (mixed graduate/undergraduate course, Fall 2011, Winter, 2014) The Linguistic Structure of Sign Languages (graduate course, 1999; Fall 2001)
The linguistics of sign languages: undergraduate courses
The American Deaf Community: Language, Culture and Society (Signature course 2018-2020) Contrasting English and American Sign Language Grammar (undergraduate course, Fall, 1997) American Sign Language (undergraduate course, every semester, 1997-2000)
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Number of Current PhD students at the University of Chicago: 9
Number PhD students for whom I have been an External Committee member: 12
CONFERENCE PLANNING and SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZATION
2020 Toward a More Tactile Future: Learning from Protactile DeafBlind Communities.
Symposium, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Seattle, Washington. February 12-15, 2020.
2019 NSF funded Workshop: Automatic Sign Recognition (1-day conference) May 15, 2019.
University of Chicago.
2017 Expanding the Dimensions of Linguistic Inquiry: The Contributions of John Goldsmith, Franke Institute for the Humanities (1-day conference) November 10, 2017. University of Chicago (1- day conference
2017 The Body’s Role in Performance, Reference, and Action. Conference sponsored by the Center for Gesture Sign and Language, and the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society Oct. 19-20, 2017. University of Chicago (2-day conference)
2017 The Phonology of Sign Language Fingerspelling: Beyond Handshape Sequences.
Symposium, Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Austin, TX.
2013 Conference Inaugurating the Center on Gesture, Sign and Language. March, 8-9, 2013 (2-day conference). University of Chicago
2010 Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research 10 (TISLR 10). September 30-October 2, 2010 (3- day conference). Purdue University.
2004 NSF-funded Workshop on Sign Language Classifiers. September 29, 2004. In conjunction with the Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research 8 Conference (TISLR 8), Barcelona, Spain. (1-day Symposium)
2001 American Association for the Advancement of Science: Signs and Sounds: Modality and the Architecture of Language. February 14-19, 2001. (Symposium Organizer)
1995 Einstein Forum. Complexity in Language: Biological and Psychological Aspects. May 18- 20, 1995. (2-day Conference). Potsdam, Germany.
1995 UC-Davis Morphology Workshop. May 5-7, 1995. University of California-Davis. (2-day Conference)
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
National Associations
Linguistic Society of America. Program Committee (2001-2004, chair 2004; 2018-2021)
Editorial Board
Language, Associate Editor, 2020 --
Sign Language and Linguistics Associate Editor 2000--
Grant Review
NSF Panel Member, 2019 - 2022
Ad hoc review for National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, European Science Foundation
Article and Book Review and Abstract Review for a wide range of linguistics and sign language linguistics conferences. Chicago Linguistic Society, Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research, Linguistic Society of America, Generative Linguistics Old World, Formal and Experimental Approaches to Sign Theory
Proudly powered by Weebly