Staff

Jill Morford

Initiative Co-Director, Written Language and Reading
University of New Mexico

B.A., 1985, Brown University
Ph.D., 1993, University of Chicago

Faculty member at the Department of Linguistics, University of New Mexico
since 1996.

The central focus of my current research is to inform our understanding of language acquisition by studying communication in the visual modality. Using the visual modality for one's primary mode of communication is rare among humans. Thus, it is an ideal place to gain insight about the human capacity for language. Specifically, the goal of my research program is to test (1) theories about the role of maturation in the development of language and (2) theories about the role of modality upon the structure and processing of language. My current research projects investigate the acquisition and processing of American Sign Language (ASL), the generation of gesture-based communication systems by deaf individuals who were not exposed to signed languages in childhood (homesign), and the application of linguistic knowledge to visual-graphic augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems.

The is material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number SBE-0541953. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.