A new study shows that American Sign Language (ASL) is more linguistically complex than previously understood. In particular, research appearing in the June 2022 issue of the journal Language, authored by Tory Sampson (UC San Diego) and Rachel Mayberry (UC San Diego), documents the emergence of the copula—a word meaning to be (e.g. is, was, are, were)—in ASL, something that has been overlooked in previous linguistic analyses.A new study shows that American Sign Language (ASL) is more linguistically complex than previously understood. In particular, research appearing in the June 2022 issue of the journal Language, authored by Tory Sampson (UC San Diego) and Rachel Mayberry (UC San Diego), documents the emergence of the copula—a word meaning to be (e.g. is, was, are, were)—in ASL, something that has been overlooked in previous linguistic analyses.Read More