Laura Horton
Biographic Data
| ID | 198601 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Laura Horton |
| GIVEN NAMES | Laura |
| FAMILY NAME | Horton |
| SIGNATURE | HORTON L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1173-1832 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Irregularity and sound change in signed and spoken languages
We explore the role of irregularity in sound change in signed and spoken languages. While all historical phonologists accept some kinds of irregularity in spoken language sound change, a full, rigorous accounting of where and why we find it has been harder to come by. We draw on the foundations of signed language sound change laid by Law, Power, and Quinto-Pozos to address this with a focus on irregularity. We begin to develop concrete parallels …
The organization of verb meaning in Lengua de Señas Nicaragüense (LSN)
One structural dimension that varies across languages is the simultaneous or sequential expression of meaning. Complex predicates can layer meanings together simultaneously in a single-verb predicate (SVP) or distribute them sequentially in a multiple-verb predicate (MVP). We ask whether typological variability in this dimension might be a consequence of systematic patterns of diachronic change. We examine the distribution of markers of agency an…
The Pragmatics of Gaze Patterns in a Local Family Sign Language from Guatemala
In this study, we document the coordination of eye gaze and manual signing in a local sign language from Nebaj, Guatemala. We analyze gaze patterns in two conversations in which signers described the book Frog Where Are You to an interlocutor. The signers include a deaf child who narrated the book to a hearing interlocutor and her grandfather, who is also deaf, as he described the same book to his hearing grandson during a separate conversation. …
Sign language socialization and participant frameworks in three indigenous Mesoamerican communities
This article provides a cross-cultural study of language socialization through sign language in three indigenous Mesoamerican communities. We explore whether child signers are socialized to use visual communicative practices as participants or observers. We present four conversations that illustrate how child signers are socialized into these practices. Child signers in our study acquire appropriate visual practices, even when they are primarily …
Homesign
The term homesign has been used to describe the signing of deaf individuals who have not had sustained access to the linguistic resources of a named language. Early studies of child homesigners focused on documenting their manual communication systems through the lens of developmental psycholinguistics and generative linguistics, but a recent wave of linguistic ethnographic investigations is challenging many of the established theoretical presupp…
Lexical overlap in young sign languages from Guatemala
In communities without older standardized sign languages, deaf people develop their own sign languages and strategies for communicating. These languages vary across several dimensions, including their age, their distribution within the wider spoken linguistic community, and the size of the signing community. Each of these characteristics interacts with the formal and distributional properties of the sign languages that emerge. This study concerns…
Crosslinguistic similarity and variation in the simultaneous morphology of sign languages
Two differences between signed and spoken languages that have been widely discussed in the literature are: the degree to which morphology is expressed simultaneously (rather than sequentially), and the degree to which iconicity is used, particularly in predicates of motion and location, often referred to as classifier predicates. In this paper we analyze a set of properties marking agency and number in four sign languages for their crosslinguisti…
The communicative importance of agent-backgrounding
Forging a morphological system out of two dimensions
Languages have diverse strategies for marking agentivity and number. These strategies are negotiated to create combinatorial systems. We consider the emergence of these strategies by studying features of movement in a young sign language in Nicaragua (NSL). We compare two age cohorts of Nicaraguan signers (NSL1 and NSL2), adult homesigners in Nicaragua (deaf individuals creating a gestural system without linguistic input), signers of American and…
Homesign
The term homesign has been used to describe the signing of deaf individuals who have not had sustained access to the linguistic resources of a named language. Early studies of child homesigners focused on documenting their manual communication systems through the lens of developmental psycholinguistics and generative linguistics, but a recent wave of linguistic ethnographic investigations is challenging many of the established theoretical presupp…
Forging a morphological system out of two dimensions
Languages have diverse strategies for marking agentivity and number. These strategies are negotiated to create combinatorial systems. We consider the emergence of these strategies by studying features of movement in a young sign language in Nicaragua (NSL). We compare two age cohorts of Nicaraguan signers (NSL1 and NSL2), adult homesigners in Nicaragua (deaf individuals creating a gestural system without linguistic input), signers of American and…
The communicative importance of agent-backgrounding
Crosslinguistic similarity and variation in the simultaneous morphology of sign languages
Two differences between signed and spoken languages that have been widely discussed in the literature are: the degree to which morphology is expressed simultaneously (rather than sequentially), and the degree to which iconicity is used, particularly in predicates of motion and location, often referred to as classifier predicates. In this paper we analyze a set of properties marking agency and number in four sign languages for their crosslinguisti…
Lexical overlap in young sign languages from Guatemala
In communities without older standardized sign languages, deaf people develop their own sign languages and strategies for communicating. These languages vary across several dimensions, including their age, their distribution within the wider spoken linguistic community, and the size of the signing community. Each of these characteristics interacts with the formal and distributional properties of the sign languages that emerge. This study concerns…
Sign language socialization and participant frameworks in three indigenous Mesoamerican communities
This article provides a cross-cultural study of language socialization through sign language in three indigenous Mesoamerican communities. We explore whether child signers are socialized to use visual communicative practices as participants or observers. We present four conversations that illustrate how child signers are socialized into these practices. Child signers in our study acquire appropriate visual practices, even when they are primarily …
Homesign
The term homesign has been used to describe the signing of deaf individuals who have not had sustained access to the linguistic resources of a named language. Early studies of child homesigners focused on documenting their manual communication systems through the lens of developmental psycholinguistics and generative linguistics, but a recent wave of linguistic ethnographic investigations is challenging many of the established theoretical presupp…
The organization of verb meaning in Lengua de Señas Nicaragüense (LSN)
One structural dimension that varies across languages is the simultaneous or sequential expression of meaning. Complex predicates can layer meanings together simultaneously in a single-verb predicate (SVP) or distribute them sequentially in a multiple-verb predicate (MVP). We ask whether typological variability in this dimension might be a consequence of systematic patterns of diachronic change. We examine the distribution of markers of agency an…
The Pragmatics of Gaze Patterns in a Local Family Sign Language from Guatemala
In this study, we document the coordination of eye gaze and manual signing in a local sign language from Nebaj, Guatemala. We analyze gaze patterns in two conversations in which signers described the book Frog Where Are You to an interlocutor. The signers include a deaf child who narrated the book to a hearing interlocutor and her grandfather, who is also deaf, as he described the same book to his hearing grandson during a separate conversation. …
Irregularity and sound change in signed and spoken languages
We explore the role of irregularity in sound change in signed and spoken languages. While all historical phonologists accept some kinds of irregularity in spoken language sound change, a full, rigorous accounting of where and why we find it has been harder to come by. We draw on the foundations of signed language sound change laid by Law, Power, and Quinto-Pozos to address this with a focus on irregularity. We begin to develop concrete parallels …
Hearing Impairment and Communication (8 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (8 works) · Linguistics (8 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Sign language (6 works) · Mathematics (5 works) · Artificial Intelligence (4 works) · American Sign Language (3 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (3 works)