PULSe Home > Faculty Members A-C > Diane Brentari

Associate Professor Audiology & Speech Sciences Ph.D, University of Chicago, 1990 Contact Info: brentari@purdue.edu 765-494-9883 Training Group(s): Integrative Neuroscience

Current Research Interests:

The development of a phonological representation that can account for morphological and phonological alternations in the surface forms of American Sign Language (ASL) has been central to my research. I have also worked on the architecture of the lexicon of ASL; that is, I hope to understand how the innovation of new words in sign languages takes place. To this end, I am collaborating with researchers working on the sign languages of Europe and Asia to address how elements of the dominant spoken language of a geographic area become a part of the relevant sign language in systematic ways. Currently, I am also performing event related potential experiments (ERPs) to investigate the differences in linguistic and visual processing between signing-Deaf and non-signing-hearing individuals.

Selected Publications:

Brentari, D. (2005). The Use Of Morphological Templates to Specify Handshapes in Sign Languages. Linguistische Berichte,13, 145-177.

Benedicto, E., and Brentari, D. (2004). Where did all the arguments go?: Argument-changing properties of Classifiers in ASL. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 22(4), 743-810

Emmorey, K., S. McCullough, and D. Brentari. (2003). Categorical Perception in American Sign Language. Language and Cognitive Processes, 18 (1), 21-45.

Brentari, D. and Crossley, L. (2002). Prosody on the Hands and Face: Evidence from American Sign Language. Sign Language and Linguistics, 5(2), 105-130.

Brentari, D. (2002). 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 University Press.

Brentari, D. (2001). Foreign Vocabulary in Sign Language: A Cross-Linguistic Investigation of Word Formation. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Brentari, D. (2001). Borrowed Elements in Sign Languages: A Window on Word Formation. In D. Brentari (Ed.) Foreign Vocabulary in Sign Language: A Cross-linguistic Investigation of Word Formation, ix-xx. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Brentari, D. and C. Padden. (2001). 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.

Brentari, D. (1998). A Prosodic Model of Sign Language Phonology. MIT Press.