Chia-yin Erica Hu, PhD
Being a linguist by training, an English teacher by profession, and a native speaker of Chinese and Southern Min, I find joy in exploring the typological characteristics relevant to various linguistic forms in different languages, which I believe are fundamentally motivated by their communicative functions and cognitive basis.
During the years of pursuing my passion for studying human language, I have gained an enormous interest in understanding the intertwined relationships among syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and lexicon. My research methods include qualitative analysis of linguistic tokens, and quantitative analysis of surface forms in linguistic corpora.
Besides research, I have also taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the Language Center and the Writing Center of National Tsing Hua University, including Freshmen English and Research Article Writing in English, as well as work as a writing consultant for assisting novice writers to become aware of the problems in presenting their research in a clear, well-structured manner. Moreover, I have assisted professors in several linguistics courses, including Semantics, Linguistics Analysis (for English majors) and Introduction to Linguistics (for Non-English majors). Serving as a teaching assistant, I gradually grasp the gist of bridging the gap for non-linguistic majors and guiding them look into the theoretically significant perspectives underneath every seemingly trivial language facts, or even fun jokes and riddles.
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