About Me
- 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 the underlying logical system is represented in human languages. My current research program focuses on the following topics:
- questions with complex structures and questions in embeddings;
- polarity items and free choice items;
- multi-functional words in East Asian languages.
- I started as a Chinese major at Peking University. While my undergrad program didn’t offer training in semantics, I accidentally found its beauty and decisively crossed the Pacific Ocean to pursue a career as a semanticist. I received Ph.D. from Harvard Linguistics in 2016 and joined Rutgers Linguistics in 2018.
- CV (updated to November 2018)
Upcoming & Ongoing
- Courses in Fall 2018: Semantics I (graduate), Pragmatics (undergraduate).
- Alternations of logical functions: Mandarin particle dou as a pre-exhaustification exhaustifier.
- Invited talk. Workshop “Theoretical and Experimental Linguistics”, Tsinghua University, Beijing. Dec 16, 2018,
- Invited talk. Central China Normal University, Wuhan. Dec 24, 2018.
- Composing question: revising the categorial approach. Invited talk. Wuhan University, Wuhan. Dec 26, 2018.
- Interpreting mention-some questions. Invited talk. Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan. Dec 27, 2018.
- TBD. Invited talk. Workshop “Exhaustivity in questions and answers – Experimental and theoretical approaches”, June 13-14, 2019, Tübingen University.
Recent papers
- Xiang, Y. 2018. A hybrid categorial approach of question composition. Submitted.
- Xiang, Y. 2018. Alternations of logical functions: Mandarin particle dou as a pre-exhaustification exhaustifier. Accepted (with minor revisions) by Journal of Semantics.
- Xiang, Y. 2017. ONLY: An NPI-licenser and NPI-unlicenser. Journal of Semantics 34 (3): 447-481.
- Xiang, Y. and A. Cremers. 2017. Mention-some readings of plural-marked questions: Experimental evidence. Proceedings of North East Linguistics Society 47 (vol 3): 261-274.
- Xiang, Y. 2016. Interpreting questions with non-exhaustive answers. Ph.D. Dissertation. Harvard University. Cambridge, MA.
Selected recent talks with downloadable handouts/slides
- Quantifying into questions. Tutorial. The Workshop of multiple wh– constructions and their kin. University of Nantes. Sep 2018. (Handout)
- A hybrid categorial approach of question composition. (Handout, related paper)
- NYU Semantics Group. Sep 2018.
- The Workshop of multiple wh– constructions and their kin. University of Nantes. Sep 2018
- Rutgers University. Feb 2018.
- Complete and true: Attitudes held of questions. Invited colloquium. Rutgers University. Feb 2018. (Slides)
- Alternations of logical functions: Mandarin particle dou as a pre-exhaustification exhaustifier. SJTU and BLCU. July 2017. (Handout)
- Semantics bootcamp: Questions. Peking University. July 2017. (Part I) (Part II)
- Wh-items quantify over polymorphic sets. CLS 53. May 2017. (Slides)
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