My research interests lie within general, comparative linguistics with a main focus on sign language linguistics. In my research, I use quantitative methods to explore and compare language structure from a cognitive–functional perspective, often with corpus or experimental data.

I am the chair of the sign language research group TEIKN: https://www.uib.no/lle/169904/forskergruppen-teikn

Academic book chapter

• Carl Börstell (2022). Introducing the signglossR Package. (external link)
• Carl Börstell (2026). Iconic plurality across modalities. (external link)
• Carl Börstell (2024). Evaluating the Alignment of Utterances in the Swedish Sign Language Corpus. (external link)
• Carl Anders Börstell (2023). Extracting Sign Language Articulation from Videos with MediaPipe. (external link)
• Carl Börstell (2024). How to Approach Lexical Variation in Sign Language Corpora. (external link)
• Carl Börstell (2023). Ableist Language Teching over Sign Language Research. (external link)
• Carl Börstell (2022). Searching and utilizing corpora. (external link)

Academic article

• Carl Börstell; Ryan Lepic (2025). Non-signers favor two-handed gestures when expressing inherently plural meanings. (external link)
• Pia Simper-Allen; Carl Börstell (2025). Depicting handshapes for animate referents in Swedish Sign Language. (external link)
• Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm; Matti Miestamo; Carl Börstell (2024). A cross-linguistic study of lexical and derived antonymy. (external link)
• Carl Anders Börstell (2024). Finding continuers in Swedish Sign Language. (external link)
• Carl Börstell (2024). Better letter: Iconicity in the manual alphabets of American Sign Language and Swedish Sign Language. (external link)
• Carl Börstell; Pia Simper-Allen; Eira Balkstam et al. (2025). Approaching lexical variation in Swedish Sign Language. (external link)
• Carl Anders Börstell; Adam Schembri; Onno Crasborn (2024). Sign duration and signing rate in British Sign Language, Dutch Sign Language and Swedish Sign Language. (external link)
• Carl Anders Börstell (2023). Lexical comprehension within and across sign languages of Belgium, China and the Netherlands. (external link)

Non-fiction book chapter

• Vadim Kimmelman; Carl Börstell (2023). Word classes in sign languages. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.