Yimei Xiang ∙ 向伊梅

About Me

• My name is Yimei Xiang (向伊梅), pronounced as [i: mɛɪ, ɕiɑŋ].
• I’m an Assistant Professor at Rutgers Linguistics, specialized in formal semantics, syntax-semantics interface, and Chinese & East Asian linguistics. I study how meanings are drawn from complex structures, and how logic is represented in human languages. I completed Ph.D. in Linguistics at Harvard Univ. in 2016 and B.A. in Chinese at Peking Univ. in 2010.
• My current research program focuses on the following topics:
  • questions with complex structures and questions in embeddings;
  • higher-order readings of questions;
  • mention-some readings of questions;
  • polarity items and free choice items;
  • multi-functional words in East Asian languages.
• CV (updated to July 2020)

Upcoming

• “Higher-order readings of wh-questions and the disjunction–conjunction asymmetry.” (Related paper)
  • Invited talk (virtual). UIUC Linguistics Seminar Series. September 21, 2020.
  • Invited talk (virtual). MIT Linguistics Colloquium. September 25, 2020.

Recent & Ongoing

• Papers in print/ accepted (since 2019)
  • Xiang, Y. Forthcoming. Higher-order readings of wh-questions. Natural Language Semantics.
  • Xiang, Y. 2020. A hybrid categorial approach to question composition. Linguistics and Philosophy. Advance articles. DOI: 10.1007/s10988-020-09294-8 (Free view-only link; Lingbuzz link)
  • Xiang, Y. 2020. Function alternations of the Mandarin particle dou: Distributor, free choice licensor, and ‘even’. Journal of Semantics 37(2): 171-217. DOI: 10.1093/jos/ffz018 (Link for free-access, Lingbuzz link)
  • Xiang, Y. 2019. Two types of higher-order readings of wh-questions. Proceedings of the 22nd Amsterdam Colloquium. 417-426.
  • Xiang, Y. 2019. Getting quantifying-into questions uniformly: Functionality, domain exhaustivity, and quantificational variability. Proceedings of SALT 29: 160-179.

• Papers submitted/ in prep 
  • Xiang, Y. Submitted. Quantifying-into wh-dependencies: Questions with quantifiers and multi-wh questions. March 2020.
  • Xiang, Y. Submitted. Relativized Exhaustivity: Mention-Some and Uniqueness. July 2020. [Comments welcome!]
  • Xiang, Y. In Prep. A variable-free approach to WH-dependency. (Slides)
  • Xiang, Y. In Prep. Completeness and false-answer sensitivity in question-embeddings. (Slides)

• Presentations
  • • “Two types of higher-order readings of questions.” (Video) (Slides)
      Talk. Amsterdam Colloquium. Dec 18-20, 2019.
    • “A variable-free approach to WH-dependency.” (Slides)
      Invited talk. Workshop on Complex multiple wh– constructions. Univ. of Nantes. Nov 25-26, 2019
    • “Higher-order readings of WH-questions”.
      Invited talk. Linguae Seminar. Ecole Normale Supérieure, Pairs. Nov 28, 2019.
    • “Attitudes held of questions: Completeness and sensitivity to false answers.”
      Invited talk. Workshop on Looks, Attitudes, and Syntactic Embedding. NYU. Nov 1, 2019.
    • “Higher-order readings of WH-questions.”
      Invited talk. Oberseminar Colloquium. Göttingen Univ., June 11, 2019.
    • “Not Exhaustivity: Completeness and false answer sensitivity in questions.” (Slides)
      Invited talk. Workshop “Exhaustivity in questions and answers – Experimental and theoretical approaches”,  Tübingen Univ., June 13-14, 2019.