I am specialized in phonology (of spoken and signed languages). My work thus focuses on the perceptual side of language, i.e., the sound structure of spoken languages, traditionally called phonology, and the visual structure of sign languages, which is now also covered by that same term.

Specific research areas: Segmental structure in terms of features and feature groupings, syllable structure, word accent, tone, sign language, language change, the evolution of language, language acquisition, morphology, language typology, form-meaning relations in different modalities (in spoken language, sign language and in (sequential) drawing).

Additional interests regard the question as to whether humans are born with innate linguistic knowledge, the acquisition (ontogeny) and the evolution of language (phylogeny), and the broader semiotic study of all communication systems, both human and non-human.

I also take a strong interest in the history of my own field, phonology, and of linguistics at large.

In my work on spoken and signed languages, I pay special attention to the nature of these smallest elements, called features or elements, the structure that they enter into to form segments (called ‘phonemes’ in the study of spoken languages) and the organization of such segments into larger structures, like syllables and beyond.

For spoken languages, I have studied supra-segmental properties of words such as vowel harmony, and rules for the location of word accent in the broader context of word prosodic systems, that include, next to stress-accent, pitch-accent and tone.

I’m interested in phonological, often called prosodic structure, at the sentence level and with that, the relationship between morphosyntactic structure and phonological/prosodic structure.

The properties of words and sentences thus discovered are presumed to reflect the knowledge that humans have internalized in their minds of the perceptual side of language.

I pursue the hypothesis that at some level of abstraction phonology is a-modal, i.e., not tied to the specific articulatory or acoustic channel. In fact, I have argued that all semiotic systems have some kind of ‘phonology’ and I have suggested that a general, neutral term for the study of the perceptible side of all semiotic systems could be ‘formology’. The overall goal of my work is thus to analyze the perceptible appearance of all semiotic signs (simplex and complex) into their smallest elements and the larger structures that they enter into before meaning comes into play. This endeavor involves understand and formalizing how iconicity contributes to the perceptible form of signs.

While the perceptual side of words and sentences is understood to be independent of their meaning (which is referred to as the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign and the notion if ‘duality of patterning), my research thus also addresses the occurrence of non-arbitrary relationships between the perceptible form and meaning of words, and larger expressions (which is referred to as iconicity).

I have devoted considerable attention to the place of phonology in the overall (mental) grammar and, along with that, to the debate also whether phonology and syntax are fundamentally ‘different’. It has been my view that there are significant structural analogies between phonology and syntax and that both modules make up the mental grammar, accounting for the formal side of language. I have opposed the idea that syntax is a central component and instead favored the view that syntax accommodates/expresses semantic-conceptual structure (which includes what has been called Logical Form) which is in that sense the most fundamental aspect of human language.

See ‘Central Theoretical proposals in my work’ for the theories and ideas that I have proposed in the domain of features, word accent, sign language phonology, as well as the organization of the mental grammar at large and other, related topics I have worked on.