L. R. "Nik" Nikolai
Hello & Welcome!
My name is Lauren Rose "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.
Research Interests
Sign Language | Semantics | Syntax-Semantics Interface | Iconicity | Gradability & Degree Modification | Intensification | Modals | Event StructureNews
- I have a pair of upcoming guest lectures on sign language linguistics on April 8 & 10 for Yourdanis Sedarous's introductory linguistics course at the University of Michigan
- My qualifying paper detailing the semantics of the intensifying non-manual marker "flat chin" in ASL was accepted in August 2023, and I advanced to candidacy
- My paper The Chin as a Domain Widener in American Sign Language (ASL), coauthored with Ezra Keshet, has been published in Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory 32