Richard Pfau

Biographic Data

ID1468357
NAMERichard Pfau
GIVEN NAMESRichard
FAMILY NAMEPfau
SIGNATUREPFAU R
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Amsterdam
ORCID0000-0003-2432-4790
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS20
TOTAL CITATIONS19
AUTHOR COUNT20
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1977
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX3

  • Content interrogatives in a young sign language

    Open AccessSeyyed Hatam Tamimi Sa'd, Richard Pfau et al.ARTICLEProceedings of the Linguistic…2026

    We examined content interrogatives, i.e., wh-questions, in a young family sign language, Sadat Tawaher Sign Language (STSL), which began to emerge sixty years ago in a single household in southwestern Iran following a man’s sudden, complete hearing loss. We show that the wh-sign in STSL remains in situ and that it is sometimes doubled. Furthermore, we offer a formal account of content interrogative formation and wh-doubling in STSL. Our analysis …

  • Nominal plurals in Sign Language of the Netherlands

    Open AccessCindy Van Boven, Silke Hamann et al.ARTICLEGlossa a journal of general…2023

    In both signed and spoken languages, reduplication is a common process in the formation of morphologically complex structures, expressing, e.g., plurality and certain aspectual meanings. A framework in which spoken language reduplication has been formalized frequently is Optimality Theory (OT). While an important attribute of OT-constraints is their universality, to date, the question to what extent such constraints are modality-independent, and …

  • Emergence or Grammaticalization? The Case of Negation in Kata Kolok

    Open AccessHannah Lutzenberger, Richard Pfau et al.ARTICLELanguages2022Cited by: 3References: 62

    Typological comparisons have revealed that signers can use manual elements and/or a non-manual marker to express standard negation, but little is known about how such systematic marking emerges from its gestural counterparts as a new sign language arises. We analyzed 1.73 h of spontaneous language data, featuring six deaf native signers from generations III-V of the sign language isolate Kata Kolok (Bali). These data show that Kata Kolok cannot b…

  • Asymmetry and Contrast

    Open AccessKatharina Hartmann, Richard Pfau et al.ARTICLEGlossa a journal of general…2021

    This paper investigates coordination in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). We offer an account for a typologically unusual coordination pattern found in this language. We show that the conjuncts of a coordinated structure in NGT may violate a constraint governing coordinated structures in spoken languages, which we refer to as the ‘Parallel Structure Constraint’. The violation consists in asymmetric fronting in the second conjunct of a coord…

  • Space Oddities

    Open AccessEveline Boers‐visker, Richard PfauARTICLEModern Language Journal2020

    This article reports the results of the first longitudinal study that systematically investigates the acquisition of verb agreement by hearing learners of a sign language. During a 2‐year period, 14 novel learners of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT) with a spoken language background performed an elicitation task 15 times. Seven deaf native signers and NGT teachers performed the same task to serve as a benchmark group. The results obtained s…

  • Argument structure of classifier predicates in Russian Sign Language

    Open AccessVadim Kimmelman, Richard Pfau et al.ARTICLENatural Language and Linguistic…2020References: 27

    We analyze classifier predicates in Russian Sign Language (RSL) using a combination of naturalistic corpus and elicited data in order to determine their argument structure, and to test the generalization, based on research on other sign languages, that there is a clear relation between argument structure and classifier type (Benedicto and Brentari 2004). We propose that whole-entity classifier predicates are intransitive unaccusative, and that bo…

  • Argument Structure of Classifier Predicates

    Open AccessVadim Kimmelman, Vanja De Lint et al.ARTICLEOpen Linguistics2019

    We analyze argument structure of whole-entity and handling classifier predicates in four sign languages (Russian Sign Language, Sign Language of the Netherlands, German Sign Language, and Kata Kolok) using parallel datasets (retellings of the Canary Row cartoons). We find that all four languages display a systematic, or canonical, mapping between classifier type and argument structure, as previously established for several sign languages: whole-e…

  • Switching, blending … and slipping

    Richard Pfau, Roland PfauARTICLELinguistic Approaches to…2016

    Preview this article: Switching, blending ... and slipping, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/lab.6.6.11pfa-1.gif

  • Modality and meaning

    Open AccessRichard Pfau, Roland Pfau et al.ARTICLELingua2016Cited by: 1References: 18

  • Sign Language Typology

    Connie De Vos, Richard PfauARTICLEAnnual Review of Linguistics2014Cited by: 12References: 14

    Since the 1990s, the field of sign language typology has shown that sign languages exhibit typological variation at all relevant levels of linguistic description. These initial typological comparisons were heavily skewed toward the urban sign languages of developed countries, mostly in the Western world. This review reports on the recent contributions made by rural signing varieties, that is, sign languages that have evolved in village communitie…

  • Sign Language

    Richard Pfau, Marilyn Steinbach et al.BOOKSign Language2012

    Sign Language; Language Typology; Grammar; Psycholinguistics; Neurolinguistics; Sociolinguistics

  • Parts of Speech

    Umberto Ansaldo, Jan Don et al.ARTICLEStudies in Language2008

    Preview this article: Parts of Speech: Particulars, universals and theoretical constructs, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/sl.32.3.02ans-1.gif

  • Eine Klasse für sich

    Open AccessSusanne Glück, Richard Pfau et al.ARTICLEZeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft1997

    En partant du principe selon lequel la classification des verbes ne s'effectue pas seulement en fonction des proprietes semantiques du sujet ou de l'objet, mais aussi et surtout en fonction de leurs proprietes morphosyntaxiques, les As. examinent ici les divers procedes pour la classification des verbes dans la langue des signes allemande. Apres avoir etabli que les verbes classificatoires ne sont pas caracterises par un processus de mouvement (i…

  • The Eagle and the Lion

    Richard Pfau, James A BillARTICLEJournal of American History1989

    Journal Article The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations. By James A. Bill. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. xiii + 520 pp. $25.00.) Get access Richard Pfau Richard Pfau Emory & Henry College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 75, Issue 4, March 1989, Page 1369, https://doi.org/10.2307/1908745 Published: 01 March 1989

  • The Origins of the Iranian-American Alliance, 1941-1953

    Richard Pfau, Mark Hamilton LytleARTICLEJournal of American History1988

    Journal Article The Origins of the Iranian-American Alliance, 1941–1933. By Mark Hamilton Lytle. (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1987. xxiii + 239 pp. $49.50.) Get access Richard Pfau Richard Pfau Emory & Henry College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 75, Issue 3, December 1988, Pages 1025–1026, https://doi.org/10.2307/1901720 Published: 01 December 1988

  • Controlling the Atom

    Richard Pfau, George T Mazuzan et al.ARTICLEJournal of American History1986Cited by: 3

    Journal Article Controlling the Atom: The Beginnings of Nuclear Regulation, 1946–1962. By George T. Mazuzan and J. Samuel Walker. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. x + 530 pp. Illustrations, appendixes, notes, select bibliographic essay, and index. $28.95.) Get access Richard Pfau Richard Pfau Emory & Henry College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 72, Issue…

  • No Sacrifice Too Great

    Paul Boyer, Richard PfauARTICLETechnology and Culture1986

  • No Sacrifice Too Great

    Philip L Cantelon, Richard PfauARTICLEJournal of American History1985

    Journal Article No Sacrifice Too Great: The Life of Lewis L. Strauss. By Richard Pfau. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1984. xi + 314 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. $17.95.) Get access Philip L. Cantelon Philip L. Cantelon History Associates Incorporated Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 72, Issue 3, December 1985, Pages 742–743, https:/…

  • Paved with Good Intentions

    Richard Pfau, Barry RubinARTICLEJournal of American History1981

    Journal Article Paved with Good Intentions: The American Experience and Iran. By Barry Rubin. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. xiii + 426 pp. Illustrations, appendixes, notes, bibliography, and index. $17.50.) Get access Richard Pfau Richard Pfau University of Miami Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 68, Issue 2, September 1981, Pages 442–443, https://doi.org/10.23…

  • Containment in Iran, 1946

    Richard PfauARTICLEDiplomatic History1977

    Containment, as Alexander George and Richard Smoke point out in their masterful study of recent American diplomacy, was not a policy but a goal toward which specific policies-statements of ends and means-could contribute. The original justification for selecting policies to prevent the expansion of the Soviet Union was George F. Kennan's cabled warning of 22 February 1946; seven months later, as Richard Powers shows, Presidential Counsel Clark M.…