We conduct research on various aspects of human cognition related to language processing. In particular, our lab is interested in the interrelation between grammar and processing. We have been running experiments on processing at various linguistic levels (e.g., speech, words, sentences and discourse) and the relation between language and general cognitive processes. Our current research projects include relative-clause processing in East Asian languages and English, processing issues in linguistic theories, processing possessive relations, processing linguistic ambiguity, on-line composition of event structures, the conceptualization of nouns in terms of mass/count distinction and nominal classification, and the perception of tones and vowels in Mandarin. If you are interested in becoming an intern, a research assistant, a research affiliate or conducting independent study with Prof. Lin, you are welcome to send an email to Professor Charles Lin.
- Issue of how the phonological systems of the first language affects the processing of as second language(e.g., how the phonotactics of Korean affects their perception of English non-words)
- Processing of parasitic gaps in Mandarin Chinese
- Cross-linguistic corpus analysis of translated Chinese text
- Processing of head-final relative clauses (e.g., Chinese, Korean)
- Relative clause processing within context
- Processing restrictive and non-restrictive relatives in Chinese
- Processing tones and tone sandhi
- Issue of phonological awareness and literacy (e.g., the role of Pin-Yin and Zhu-Yin in Mandarin syllable perception)
- Processing arguments and adjuncts in sentences
- Mass/Count cognition at the syntax-semantics interface
- Perception of vowels and tones in Mandarin Chinese
- Resolution of lexical ambiguity in sentences
- Processing quantificational scopes at LF
