SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES
| Researcher : Bodomo AB |
| Project Title: | Complex predicates and serial verbs across languages: issues of syntax, semantics, and information structure |
| Investigator(s): | Bodomo AB |
| Department: | Linguistics |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research |
| Start Date: | 10/2002 |
| Abstract: |
| To account for the morphological and syntactic properties of various types of complex predicates. A major underlying research issue here is to provide an explanation for how two or more spearate predicates can integrate to form a complex predicate, even under various syntactic alternations; to develop a set of descriptive constraints and a mechanism to show how they interact to fully account for the grammaticality of some types of serial verbs in Dagaare, Twi, Cantonese and other languages, and causative complex predicates in French and Norwegian; to look beyond syntactic and other formal issues in the complex predicate construction and consider how grammatical structure interacts with pragmatics and information structure; to produce several outputs that are significant in the field of syntax and its interfaces with other components of the grammar, with particular reference to pragmatic-information level phenomena. |
| Project Title: | Communicating in the age of information technology: new forms of language and their educational implications |
| Investigator(s): | Bodomo AB |
| Department: | Linguistics |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Quality Education Fund |
| Start Date: | 09/2003 |
| Completion Date: | 12/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| To address the issue of "language standards" through analyzing texts produced by the youth in new information communications technologies (ICT texts); to investigate the plausibility of using ICT and its textual products in language education; to develop an online corpus of ICT texts for language teaching. |
| Project Title: | Ideophones in African and Asian languages |
| Investigator(s): | Bodomo AB |
| Department: | Linguistics |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Small Project Funding |
| Start Date: | 11/2003 |
| Completion Date: | 10/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| To investigate the properties of ideophones and issues surrounding this potential word class. |
| Project Title: | Complex predicates and serial verbs from a cross-linguistic perspective: issues of syntax, semantics, and information structure |
| Investigator(s): | Bodomo AB |
| Department: | Linguistics |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Competitive Earmarked Research Grants (CERG) |
| Start Date: | 01/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| To investigate a group of grammatical features that are recurrent in many languages under the collective name of complex predicates; to develope a specific theory explaining the nature of grammatical information structuring in natural languages. |
| Project Title: | Complex predicates and serial verbs from a cross-linguistic perspective: issues of syntax, semantics, and information structure |
| Investigator(s): | Bodomo AB |
| Department: | Linguistics |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Merit Award for RGC CERG Funded Projects |
| Start Date: | 01/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| N/A |
| Project Title: | The Zhuang Language: Linguistic Field Methods Training and Proficiency Courses |
| Investigator(s): | Bodomo AB |
| Department: | School of Humanities |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Run Run Shaw Research and Teaching Endowment Fund - Teaching Grants |
| Start Date: | 02/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| To train about 50 students in basic Zhuang proficiency. To produce a book-length manuscript on Zhuang proficiency based onthe CLC framework. To produce a collection of articles on Zhuang by interested students and staff members of the department and beyond. To prepare (to fund partially) a book-length work on the description of the Zhuang language within the Lexical-Functional Grammar framework, which the PI has already begun. |
| Project Title: | An investigation into the grammatical structure of the Zhuang language |
| Investigator(s): | Bodomo AB |
| Department: | Linguistics |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Louis Cha Fund |
| Start Date: | 03/2005 |
| Completion Date: | 02/2006 |
| Abstract: |
| The aim of this project is to survey specific aspects of the structure and organization of the Zhuang language, the largest "minority" language in the People's Republic of China (PRC) with about 20 million speakers. It is a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the PRC. The PI aims to come up with a comprehensive grammar of the Zhuang language, but this present project will focus on the kinship terms in the language. A study of kinship terms in a language is essential not only to the study of the language itself, but also to the understanding of the organization of the Zhuang people, their families and their society. Eventually, other aspects of the language, including the structure of the nominal and verbal phrases, will also be investigated. The role of grammatical fieldwork analysis becomes significant here, as it is only through systematic and well-planned field methods that one will be able to elicit natural Zhuang data from native speakers of the language as they go about their everyday activities. |
| List of Research Outputs |
| Researcher : Cheung EMK |
| Project Title: | Fruit Chan's films, "independent" filmmaking, and creative industries |
| Investigator(s): | Cheung EMK, Chan S.C.K. |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research |
| Start Date: | 02/2004 |
| Completion Date: | 07/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| To explore how the interaction of political, industrial, institutional, and cultural factors shape the production and circulation of Hong Kong filmmaker Fruit Chan's films; to explore how the thematics, poetics, and aesthetics of Chan's films in turn shape the ways the terrains of "independent" and "mainstream" cinemas are re-defined, casting crucial implications on the role of creative industries in the cultural policy-making of Hong Kong. |
| Project Title: | Fruit Chan's films and independent filmmaking in Hong Kong |
| Investigator(s): | Cheung EMK |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Merit Award for RGC CERG Funded Projects |
| Start Date: | 09/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| N/A |
| Project Title: | Fruit Chan's films and independent filmmaking in Hong Kong |
| Investigator(s): | Cheung EMK |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Competitive Earmarked Research Grants (CERG) |
| Start Date: | 09/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| To seek a culturally-specific definition of independent filmmaking in the context of contemporary global flows. Fruit Chan, one of the most renowned independent filmmakers in Hong Kong, is chosen as the focal point of this analysis so as to examine how the interaction of political industrial, institutional, and cultural factors shape the emergence and circulation of independent films nowadays. This project engages in a comparative study of his works with other Hong Kong filmmakers both from the independent and the mainstream cinemas, to shed light on a better understanding of the larger scenario of contemporary film culture. This research takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Fruit Chan and his relation with the cinema, using a wide range of data obtained from in-depth interviews and studies of institutional histories of both local and overseas. This study will examine the notion of "independence" with regard to artistic and cultural productions, and contend that the independent cinema in Hong Kong cannot be understood as a simple totality and in simple opposition to the mainstream cinema. The thematic concerns and visual styles of Chan's films will be deciphered to understand how they in turn shape the ways the terrains of independent and mainstream cinemas are redefined. It also proposed that Chan's constant interest in Hong Kong's changing circumstances (e.g. the 1997 handover and globalization) and issues about social marginality have inspired other filmmakers and enabled the global art-house circulation of his films, shaping the transnational nature of the cinema. |
| List of Research Outputs |
| Researcher : Ha MOY |
| Project Title: | Reading women in colonial francophone indochinese fiction |
| Investigator(s): | Ha MOY |
| Department: | History |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Small Project Funding |
| Start Date: | 11/2004 |
| Completion Date: | 10/2006 |
| Abstract: |
| To articulate an alternative theoretical and critical apparatus that could take into account the cross-cultural and ideological specificities of colonial writings; to undertake a rereading of these narratives that will re-inscribe the female voice in the texts; to bring out the multiplicity of female colonial experience through a heteroglossic cross-reading of fictional and archival narratives about colonial women. |
| List of Research Outputs |
| Researcher : Roberts PM |
| Project Title: | Frank Altschul: A Political and Intellectual Biography |
| Investigator(s): | Roberts PM |
| Department: | School of Humanities |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Other Funding Scheme |
| Start Date: | 03/2006 |
| Abstract: |
| The research and writing of a biography of the leading twentieth-century New York banker, philanthropist, and Council on Foreign Relations member, Frank Altschul. |
| List of Research Outputs |
| Researcher : Sabine MA |
| Project Title: | Nuns on screen: the changing face of modern women religious in post World War II film |
| Investigator(s): | Sabine MA |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Competitive Earmarked Research Grants (CERG) |
| Start Date: | 01/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| To examine how nuns are respresented in mainstream, and mainly English language, film since the Second World War and what cultural myths of gender and religion shape their cinematic projection; to study the underlying institutional and sexual politics of their filmic representation, and consider how the images and stereotypes projected on screen compare to the diverse and often substantial roles that nuns actually played in the development of modern society, and the changes, in turn, that modern secular society produced in nuns' lives and religious community. |
| Project Title: | Nuns on screen: the changing face of modern women religious in post World War II film |
| Investigator(s): | Sabine MA |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Merit Award for RGC CERG Funded Projects |
| Start Date: | 01/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| N/A |
| List of Research Outputs |
| Researcher : Tan LH |
| Project Title: | Cognitive and brain processing of the Chinese language |
| Investigator(s): | Tan LH, Yang ES, Shen GG, Perry C, Spinks JA, Yip V., Siok WT, Fox PT |
| Department: | Linguistics |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Central Allocation Vote - Group Research Project |
| Start Date: | 02/2003 |
| Abstract: |
| To investigate cognitive processes of Chinese reading and character recognition; to identify functional neuro-anatomical substrates of sub-lexical phonological computation; to determine the brain mechanism underlying Chinese language production. |
| Project Title: | Age of acquisition and language processing: cognitive and brain-mapping studies |
| Investigator(s): | Tan LH, Perry C, Weekes B.S., Li P., Tao S. |
| Department: | Linguistics |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Competitive Earmarked Research Grants (CERG) |
| Start Date: | 09/2003 |
| Completion Date: | 08/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| To use age-of-acquisition effects (AoA effects) to investigate how cognitive and neural systems for Chinese language processing are developed. Two important theories that will be tested are the phonological completeness hypothesis and the arbitrary mapping hypothesis. Specially: By examing reading the picture naming in Chinese and comparing the results from Chinese reading with those reported previously from English reading, we will be able to discover how quality representations of lexical items are shaped with learning and practice. The effect of AoA will be further examined by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In particular, identifying the areas that are activated and comparing them with previous research on semantic processing should allow us to evaluate the contribution of AoA to cortical localization of language processing. |
| Project Title: | Age of acquisition and language processing: cognitive and brain-mapping studies |
| Investigator(s): | Tan LH, Perry C, Weekes B.S., Li P., Tao S. |
| Department: | Linguistics |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Merit Award for RGC CERG Funded Projects |
| Start Date: | 09/2003 |
| Abstract: |
| N/A |
| Project Title: | Learning to read in Chinese: Possible intervention strategies implicated by fMRI studies |
| Investigator(s): | Tan LH, Siok WT |
| Department: | Linguistics |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research |
| Start Date: | 02/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| To address the question - "we suggesting motor programming is one of the most important facilitators of Chinese reading acquisition." by using a battery of behavioral-cognitive tasks. It will advance our understanding of how to improve the teaching and learning of the Chinese language. |
| Project Title: | Chinese character identification: cognitive processes and neural circuitry |
| Investigator(s): | Tan LH |
| Department: | Linguistics |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Incentive Award for RGC CERG Fundable But Not Funded Projects |
| Start Date: | 07/2005 |
| Completion Date: | 06/2006 |
| Abstract: |
| N/A |
| Project Title: | Neuroimaging research on visual and attentional deficits in Chinese dyslexia |
| Investigator(s): | Tan LH |
| Department: | Linguistics |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Matching Fund for National Key Basic Research Development Scheme (973 Projects) |
| Start Date: | 09/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| This proposed research is based on theories of visual perception and uses functional magnetic resonance imaging and advanced imaging analysis techniques to investigate the neurobiological origin of Chinese dyslexia (impaired Chinese reading). The project aims to define the nature of dyslexic reading in Chinese children and to lay scientific foundation for early diagnosis and treatment of Chinese dyslexia. The research will also generate important pathological data to test the prominent topological theory of visual perception that assumes that the perception of wholes of an object precedes the perception of tis constituents. |
| List of Research Outputs |