Anna Puupponen

I'm a linguist working as an Academy Research Fellow at the Sign Language Centre (SLC) in the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. In 2019, I defended my doctoral thesis about the embodied communication of signers of Finnish Sign Language (FinSL), with a special focus on the semiotic features in the signals produced with the signer's face, head and torso. Since then, I've done research on the production, use and processing of sign languages by signers of different ages. In ShowTell project (2021-2025) I studied sign language depiction of adult signers of different ages with methods of corpus linguistics, linguistic ethnography and cognitive neuroscience. My most recent research has focused on the depiction, sign distribution and referencing practices of child and adult signers of FinSL (as part of the DeveLS project, 2023-2027). Currently I am doing research on indexicality in the language use and processing of proficient signers and L2 learners of FinSL in the projet Indexicality in language: Insights from use, learning and processing of Finnish Sign Language (InSIGN, Research Council of Finland 2026-2030).

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An interview of my past research in the Researcher of the Month series of Fin-Clarin's The Language Bank of Finland in English and suomeksi.

Information about the ShowTell project on SLC TV Youtube channel [in FinSL]. 

An interview about the contents of my PhD thesis on SLC TV Youtube channel [in FinSL, incl. Finnish subtitles]. The interview has been published also in Viittomakielinen kirjasto [Finland's Sign Language Library].

An article in JYUnity JYUMagazine about my colleague Juhana Salonen, me, and our paths towards working at the Sign Language Centre in JYU [in Finnish]

IN PROGRESS:

Kanto, L., Kronqvist, A., Puupponen, A. & Salonen, J. (forthcoming). Viittomakielen opetuksen ja moninaisten oppimispolkujen nykytila sekä tulevaisuuden mahdollisuudet Suomessa. [Current state of sign language education and diverse learning pathways, and future opportunities in Finland].

Hernández, D., Puupponen, A., Keränen, J. & Jantunen, T. (under review). L1 Deaf and Hearing Signers Recruit Distinct Neural Oscillations for Processing Increased Constructed Action in Finnish Sign Language

Puupponen, A. & Kanto, L. (in progress). The distribution of sign types in children's and adults' narratives in FinSL – a corpus-based approach.  

Puupponen, A., Kanto, L. & Ferrara, L. (in progress) Who does what to whom? Referencing in the narrative language of children acquiring FinSL.