Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
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Faculty
Ronnie B. Wilbur, Ph.D.
B.A., 1969, University of Rochester
Ph.D., 1973, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Office: 41B
wilbur@purdue.edu
(765)494-3822
American Sign Language Linguistics Laboratory
Ronnie Wilbur investigates the structure of sign languages and what that tells us about the nature of language and cognition. Specific ongoing projects include:
nonmanuals (facial expressions) and their interface role in syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and prosody (intonation);
an integrated linguistic-computational approach to automatic sign recognition (Co-PI A. Kak, Electrical and Computational Engineering); funded by NSF; and a comparision of American Sign Language, Austrian Sign Language (öGS), and Croatia Sign Language (HZJ) syntax and nonmanuals.
Dr. Wilbur is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Sign Language & Linguistics.
Her teaching responsibilities include general linguistics, syntax, formal semantics, universals and typology, language and deafness, and bilangualism.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS Full CV
Wilbur, R.B. (in press). What studies of sign language tell us about language. In M. Marschark & P. Spencer (eds.), The handbook of deaf studies, language, and education. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wilbur R.B. (2000). Phonological and prosodic layering of nonmanuals in American Sign Language. In Lane, H. & K. Emmorey (eds.), The signs of language revisited: Festschrift for Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima, (pp. 213-241) Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Wilbur R.B. (2000). The use of ASL to support the development of English and literacy. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 5: 81-104
Wilbur R.B. (1999). Stress in ASL :Empirical evidence and linguistic issues. Language & Speech 42:229-250..
Wilbur R.B. & Patschke, C. (1999). Syntactic correlates of brow raise in ASL. Sign Language & Linguistics 2: 3-40.
Wilbur R.B. & Pertersen, L. (1998). Modality interactions of speech and signing in sumultaneous communication. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research 41:200-212.
Wilbur R.B. & Patschke, C. (1998) Body Leans and marking contrast in ASL. J. Pragmatics 30: 275-303.
Wilbur R.B. (1997). A prosodic/pragmatic explanation for word order variation in ASL with typological inplications. In K. Lee, E.Sweetster, & M. Verspoor (eds.), Lexical and synactic constructions and the construction of meaning (Vol. 1) (pp.89-104). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Wilbur, R., & Petersen, L. (in press). Backwards signing and ASL syllable structure. Language and Speech 40: 63-90.