L. R. "Nik" Nikolai

Hello & Welcome!

My name is L. R. "Nik" Nikolai, and I'm a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. I received my BA in Linguistics (with minors in Classical Studies, Political Science, Spanish, & Russian) from Purdue University in May 2019.

I work in theoretical and experimental semantics, guided by the idea that analyzing sign languages and other understudied languages helps linguists to make more powerful theoretical claims about language as a whole. My research has focused on three broad topics: how gradability is expressed in American Sign Language (ASL) both by means of manual markers (viz. the hands) and non-manual markers (viz. grammaticalized facial and body expressions) on a variety of expressions, the iconic properties of event structure in sign languages, and how modal force and flavor are expressed, modified, and strengthened in sign languages.