Ph.D. in Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley
M.A. in Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley
B.Eng. in Information Technology (first honour), City University of Hong Kong
2023.6 - 2023.7. Visiting Instructor, Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, Amherst, MA
2022-now. Associate Dean, Faculty of Humanities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
2017-now. Associate Professor, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
2011-2017. Assistant Professor, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
RGC grants (as PI)
2014-2016. RGC Early Career Scheme, "Exploring word order variation in Chinese: A case study of the use of BA construction", 24 months, HKD308,000.
2023-2025. General Research Funds, "Transfer of sociophonetic variation across languages: How do bilingual speakers perceive indexical meanings of L1 and L2 sounds?", 36 months, HKD863,000.
Other external funding (as PI)
2019-2021. Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, "Building a telephone and multimedia speech corpus", HKD1,176,150. 24 months.
2013. Brain and Language Research Lab, CNRS & Aix-Marseille University (France), "Vowel variation in conversational speech in French and English: Effects phonological and grammatical properties of lexicon", EUR8,500.
Articles in English
Yao, Y., Connell, K., & Politzer-Ahles, S. (2023). Hearing emotion in two languages: A pupillometry study of Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals’ perception of affective cognates in L1 and L2. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, First View, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728922000931
Cheng, L.S.P., Babel, M., & Yao, Y. (2022). Production and perception across three Hong Kong Cantonese consonant mergers: Community- and individual-level perspectives. Laboratory Phonology, 13(1), Article14, 1–54. https://doi.org/10.16995/labphon.6461
Lin, Y., Yao, Y., & Luo, J. (2021). Phonetic accommodation of tone: A tone merger-in-progress reversed via imitation. Journal of Phonetics, 87, 101060, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2021.101060
Yao, Y., Chan, A., Fung, R., Wu, W. L., Leung, N., Lee, S., & Luo, J. (2020) Cantonese tone production in pre-school Urdu-Cantonese bilingual minority children. International Journal of Bilingualism, 24(4), 767–782. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006919884659
Wang, S., Huang, C.-R., Yao Y., & Chan, A. (2019). The effect of morphological structure on semantic transparency ratings. Language and Linguistics, 20(2), 225–255. https://doi.org/10.75/lali.00035.wan
Yao, Y. (2018) NP weight effects in word order variation in Mandarin Chinese. Lingua Sinica, 4, Article 5, 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40655-018-0037-8
Chang, Y.-h. S., Yao, Y., & Huang, B. H. (2017). Effects of linguistic experience on the perception of high-variability non-native tones. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 141(2), EL120–EL126. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4976037
Lin, J., & Yao, Y. (2016). Encoding emotion in Chinese: a database of Chinese emotion words with information of emotion type, intensity, and valence. Lingua Sinica, 2, Article 6, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40655-016-0015-y
Chang, C. B., & Yao, Y. (2016). Toward an understanding of heritage prosody: Acoustic and perceptual properties of tone produced by heritage, native, and second language speakers of Mandarin. Heritage Language Journal, 13(2), 134–160. https://doi.org/10.46538/hlj.13.2.4
Yao, Y., & Chang, C. B. (2016). On the cognitive basis of contact-induced sound change: Vowel merger reversal in Shanghainese. Language, 92(2), 433–467. https://10.1353/lan.2016.0027
Gahl, S., Yao, Y. and Johnson, K. (2012). Why reduce? Phonological neighborhood density and phonetic reduction in spontaneous speech. Journal of Memory and Language, 66(4), 789–806. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2011.11.006
Chang, C. B., Yao, Y., Haynes, E. F. and Rhodes, R. (2011). Production of phonetic and phonological contrast by heritage speakers of Mandarin. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 129(6), 3964–3980. https://doi.org/10.5070/P75p6693q0
Yao, Y., Tilsen, S., Sprouse, R. L., and Johnson, K. (2010). Automated measurement of vowel formants in the Buckeye Corpus. Gengo Kenkyu (Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan), 138, 99–113. https://doi.org/10.5070/P72pm9c9sq
Ke, J., and Yao, Y. (2008) Analysing language development from a network approach. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 15 (1), 70–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/09296170701794286
Articles in Chinese
Shi, D., Zhou, M., & Yao, Y. (2017). Evaluating adverbs and background proposition: The syntax and semantics of pianpian [评价副词与背景命题 ——“偏偏”的语义与句法特性]，Foreign Language Teaching and Research [外语教学与研究], 49(6), 914–926.
Yao, Y., & Shi, D. (2015). Background proposition and its trigger: The case of genben in affirmative sentences [背景命题及其触发机制 —— 从“根本”说起]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research [外语教学与研究], 47(5), 709–720.
Yao, Y., Xie, Z.-G., Lin, C.-J. C., & Huang, C.-R. (in press). Acceptability or grammaticality: Judging Chinese sentences for linguistic studies. In C.-R. Huang, Y.-H. Lin, and I.-H. Chen (Eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Linguistics. Cambridge University Press.
Chang, C. B, & Yao, Y. (in press). An individual-differences perspective on variation in heritage Mandarin speakers. In R. Rao (Ed.) Studies on the Phonetics and Phonology of Heritage Languages. Cambridge University Press.
Yu, A. C. L., To, K. S., & Yao, Y. (in press). Child-directed speech as a potential source of phonetic precursor enhancement in sound change: Evidence from Cantonese. In D. Kavitskaya and A. C. L. Yu (Eds.) Life Cycle of Language: Past, Present, and Future. Oxford University Press.
Yao, Y., & Su, Q. (2019). Chinese, food and menu. In C.-R. Huang, Z. Jing-Schmidt, and B. Meisterernst (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Applied Chinese Linguistics, 1st edition, pp. 81–91. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315625157
Routledge.
Ng, C. L., Lin, J., & Yao, Y. (2016). Polarity of Chinese emotion words: The construction of a polarity database based on Singapore Chinese speakers. M. Dong, J. Lin and X. Tang (Eds.) Chinese Lexical Semantics (Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2016). Heidelberg: Springer.
Huang, C.-R., Yao, Y. (2015). Corpus Linguistics. In James D. Wright (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Vol 4, pp. 949–953. Oxford: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.52004-2
Lin, J., & Yao, Y. (2014). Categorization and Intensity of Chinese Emotion. In X. Su and T. He (Eds.), Chinese Lexical Semantics (Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2014), pp. 181-190. Heidelberg: Springer.
Chen, X.Y., Liesenfeld, A.M., Li, S.Y., & Yao, Y. (2022). Does disfluency in robot speech facilitate human listeners’ memory of information? A preliminary investigation of disfluency effects on memory recall in human-robot interaction. Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI International 2022). June 26 – Jul 1, 2022.
Chen, X.Y., Liesenfeld, A.M., Li, S.Y., & Yao, Y. (2021). Effects of disfluent machine speech on memory recall in human-machine interaction. Proceedings of the Frias Junior Research Conference on Human Perspectives on Spoken Human-Machine Interaction. Nov 15-17, 2021.
Lin, Y., Yao, Y., & Luo, J. (2019). Effect of exposure on production and perception of ongoing level tone mergers in Hong Kong Cantonese. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, pp353-357. August 4-10, 2019. Melbourne, Australia.
Chang, C.B., & Yao, Y. (2019). Production of neutral tone in Mandarin by heritage, native, and second language speakers. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, pp 2291-2295. August 4-10, 2019. Melbourne, Australia.
Chen, Z. Q., Yao, Y., & Yu, A. C. L. (2018). Changing against tone merging trends in community? The case of C. Y. Leung. Proceedings of the 32nd Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computing (PACLIC32). December 1 -3, 2018. Hong Kong.
Zhou, M., & Yao, Y. (2017). Multi-dimensional meanings of subjective adverbs: Case study of Mandarin Chinese adverb pianpian. Proceedings of the 31st Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computing (PACLIC31). November 16 -18, 2017. Cebu, Philippines.
Yao, Y., & Sharma, B. (2017). What is in the neighborhood of a tonal syllable? Evidence from auditory lexical decision in Mandarin Chinese. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Vol 2, Austin, TX, Jan 5-8, 2017.
Huang, C-R., Wang, S., Yao, Y., & Chan, A. (2016). Crowdsourcing, word segmentation, and semantic transparency: A new empirical approach to Chinese linguistics. Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Chinese Languages and Linguistics (IsCLL-15), Taiwan, May 27-29, 2016.
Ng, C. L., Lin, J., & Yao, Y. (2016). 汉语情感词的极性：基于新加坡华语使用者的情感词极性词库. Proceedings of the 17th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (CLSW2016), Singapore, May 20-22, 2016 (May 2016)
Yao, Y. (2015). A review of corpus-based statistical models of language variation. Proceedings of the 29th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computing (PACLIC29), Shanghai, China, Oct 30 - Nov 1, 2015.
Wang, S., Huang, C-R., Yao, Y., & Chan, A. (2015). Mechanical Turk-based experiment vs laboratory-based experiment: A case study on the comparison of semantic transparency rating data. Proceedings of the 29th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computing (PACLIC29), Shanghai, China, Oct 30 - Nov 1, 2015.
Sharma, B., Liu, C., and Yao, Y. (2015). Perceptual confusability of Mandarin sounds, tones and syllables. Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Science (ICPhS). Aug 10-14, 2015. Glasgow, UK.
Lin, J., and Yao, Y. (2015). Encoding emotion in Chinese: Category and intensity of Chinese emotion words. Proceedings of the 16th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (CLSW2015). May 9-10, 2015. Beijing, China.
Yao, Y. (2014). Predicting the use of BA construction in Mandarin Chinese discourse: A modeling study with two verbs. Proceedings of the 28th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computing (PACLIC28). December 12-14, 2014. Phuket, Thailand.
Wang S., Huang, C.-R., Yao, Y. and Chan, A. (2014). Exploring mental lexicon in an efficient and economic Way: Crowdsourcing for linguistic experiments. Proceedings from the workshop on Cognitive Aspects of the Lexicon (CogALex) at the 25th International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING25). Aug 23-29, 2014. Dublin, Ireland.
Wang S., Huang, C.-R., Yao, Y. and Chan, A. (2014). Building a semantic transparency dataset of Chinese nominal compounds: A practice of crowdsourcing methodology. Proceedings from the workshop on Lexical and Grammatical Resources for Language processing (LG-LP) at the 25th International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING25). Aug 23-29, 2014. Dublin, Ireland .
Lin, J. and Yao, Y. (2014). Categorization and intensity of Chinese emotion words. Selected papers from the 15th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (CLSW 15), Lecture Notes in Computer Science/Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer.
Yao, Y., Lin, J., and Huang, C.-R. (2013). Lexicalized emotion? - Tonal patterns of emotion words in Chinese. Proceedings of the 25th annual conference of North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-25), Ann Arbor, MI, June 21-23, 2013.
Selected courses I have taught
CBS1900 Introduction to Language
CBS1901 Freshman Seminar in Linguistics and Translation
CBS1902 Introduction to Linguistics
CBS3943 Sounds of Language
CBS3947 Programming and Data Analysis for Language Studies
CBS3949 Sounds and Sound Systems of Language
CBS505 Research Methods in Language Studies
CBS506 Introduction to Educational Linguistics
CBS6442 Advanced Topics in Research Methodology for Language Sciences
CBS6842 Advanced Theories in Psycholinguistics
FH6051 Computational Linguistics
COMP6402 Natural Language Processing Techniques
Ph.D. graduates
Jiaming Sun
Mi Zhou
Bhamini Sharma
Shichang Wang (co-supervised with Prof. Chu-Ren Huang)
Ongoing Ph.D. students
Xingyi Chen
Siying Chen
Journal Editorship
Associate Editor of Laboratory Phonology (since Jan, 2022)
Area Editor of Linguistics Vanguard (since Jan, 2022)
Ad-hoc reviewer
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology | Applied Psycholinguistics | Cognition | Frontiers of Psychology | Journal of the Acoustical Society of America | Journal of Communication Disorders | Journal of the International Phonetic Association | Journal of Phonetics | Journal of Psycholinguistic Research | Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research | Laboratory Phonology | Language | Language and Speech | Language Learning | Language Learning and Development | Languages | Lingua | Linguistics Vanguard | Language and Linguistics | Lingua Sinica | Language Variation and Change | Memory & Cognition | Phonology | Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics | Second Language Research | Speech Communication | Taiwan Journal of Linguistics | Transactions on Affective Computing
Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America | China National Conference on Computational Linguistics | Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop | Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics (CMCL) workshop | Conference on Laboratory Phonology | the International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING) | Tonal Aspects of Languages