My research looks at the interface between grammar, cognitive processes, and society. I study how language is made possible by the human brain, and how language has been used as signifiers of identity in society. The core of my research is the nature of grammar and how grammar works in the multilingual mind as it interacts with other minds in the society. Grammar serves as an important tool that organizes linguistic units into complex thought and make changes to existing units. These processes not only show the complex mental opearations but also allow us to understand the human society and its pitfalls better. Recent development of Large Language Models (LLMs) further provides an interesting platform for understanding how LLM and human linguistic behaviors converge and diverge. I have been particularly interested in psycholinguistically informed questions about what LLMs can and cannot do. My research group is working on the following topics using experimental as well as computational methods: 

--how language variations in Mandarin such as the use of neutral/full tones and r-suffixes are connected to political ideologies and one's sociopolitical identity and regional belonging 

--linguistic and cognitive indices of typical and atypical aging 

--the relation between syntactic typology and language processing

--the linearization of head and modifier positions in sentence processing

--the processing and acquisition of relative clauses: comprehension, production, and acquisition

--the processing of phonological alternations (such as Mandarin tone sandhi) in relation to morphosyntactic processing

--processing and acquisition of Mandarin tone sandhi and neutral tones by L2 learners

--processing issues in syntactic theorization: factors contributing to judgments about grammaticality & acceptability

--processing issues in (Chinese-English) translational syntax and genre effects: corpus & treebank analysis

--classifiers and numerical cognition

--the representation and adaptation of lexical and syntactic ambiguity

--the processing of time (tense) and event (aspect)

--the functions of discourse particles, logical connectives (e.g., if, although, unless, and because in relation to causals, conditionals, counterfactuals)

--processing of negation and counterfactuality

--the effect of phonetic orthography on the perception of Mandarin syllables: the effect of pinyin and zhuyin

--application of psycholinguistic methods in assessing the proficiency of learners of Chinese