Ronnie Wilbur

B.A., Linguistics, University of Rochester

Ph.D., Linguistics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Professor Wilbur is a theoretical and experimental linguist whose work concentrates on sign languages and their vital implications for our adequate understanding of human language structures, language acquisition, language processing by native users, general cognition, and the linguistic representations necessary for all languages.

Grants from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation have furthered Wilbur's research into visual syllable structure, grammatical use of facial expression and word order, and how to use those sign language components in digital innovations for educating young deaf children in English and math.

Her rigorous empirical research has dismissed decades of misconceptions about sign languages as mere gesture-based approximations of the surrounding spoken language or as something short of full-fledged human languages. Differences that do exist between speech and signing derive from differences in the physical modality that separate hearing/sound from vision/light. It also now allows us to begin developing more efficient methodologies for teaching not only language but other academic skills to deaf children whose path to academic achievement comparable to their hearing peers is demonstrably tied to their sign language proficiency.

Wilbur’s ongoing research has contributed heavily to developing the science of language in the following areas:

• The first empirical documentation that — contrary to decades of prevailing opinion — knowledge of a sign language does not interfere with acquisition of English reading and writing skills. In contrast, her research shows that the more proficient the sign language skill, the greater the likelihood that deaf children will perform at or above grade-level compared to their hearing peers.
• Demonstrating that sign language syllables not only exist but serve functions similar to those in speech, yet have different internal structures due to their visual perception and manual production. Signed syllables form the basis for linguistic stress, rhythm and intonation; and explain how newly-formed compounds eventually become single signs over time, in much the same way that English “breakfast” is not pronounced as a sequence of two words “break” and “fast.”
• The use of head, body and face positions are key components of the grammar of American Sign Language and are distinct from their appearance with speech. They must be precisely timed with respect to the hands in both onset and offset. Some of these non-manual features have functions that require advanced formal semantic techniques to describe.
• Kinematic studies of fluent sign production of ASL, using motion capture equipment, provide the equivalent of phonetics for speech. Details include that the duration of signs is a key element for marking phrase endings; that peak speed of signing marks linguistic stress; and that rapid deceleration (coming to a stop) provides an easy to see marker of a particular semantic function for certain verbs and adjectives.
• Wilbur’s most recent work has focused on the complex syntax and semantics of sign languages.