SignMorph. The dynamics of sign language grammar: Morphology, language change, iconicity and social structure in signing communities. 

This project is funded by a European Research Council grant reference 885220.

SignMorph will focus on key aspects of sign language morphology in (1) established macro-community sign languages, (2) established micro-community sign languages, and (3) emerging sign languages. SignMorph aims to better understand similarities and differences in the grammar of sign languages, and how these are shaped by language-internal and language-external factors. The factors to be investigated in the study include (1) the role of iconicity in mapping grammatical meanings onto form, (2) the relatively recent emergence of sign languages, and how their short history has impacted on the processes which create grammatical structure, and (3) the sociolinguistic structure of signing communities.

More information 

Project team