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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 the underlying logical system 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;
  • polarity items and free choice items;
  • multi-functional words in East Asian languages.
• CV (updated to Sep 13, 2019)

Upcoming

• Teaching
  • Courses in Fall 2019: Semantics I (graduate), Semantics (undergrad)
• Presentations
  • “A variable-free approach to composing questions with functional dependency.”
    Invited talk. Workshop “Multiple wh- constructions and their kin”. University of Nantes. November 25-26, 2019
  • Title TBD.
    Invited colloquium. MIT. April 10, 2020.

Recent & Ongoing

• Papers 
  • Xiang, Y. In Prep. A variable-free approach to composing questions with functional dependency. [Please send me an email if you are interested in seeing the draft!]
  • Xiang, Y. 2019. Higher-order readings of wh-questions. Manuscript. [Comments and questions are very much appreciated. Suggestions about citations are especially welcome!]
  • Xiang, Y. 2019. Getting quantifying-into questions uniformly: Functionality, domain exhaustivity, and quantificational variability. Proceedings of SALT 29. [Earlier: Poster at SALT 29. UCLA. May 17-19, 2019.]
  • Xiang, Y. 2019. A hybrid categorial approach to question composition. Resubmitted. [Updated in July 2019]
  • Xiang, Y. To appear. Function alternations of the Mandarin particle dou: Distributor, free choice licensor, and ‘even’. Journal of Semantics. [Accepted and updated in May 2019. Old title: “Alternations of logical functions: Mandarin particle dou as a pre-exhaustification exhaustifier”]
• Presentations
  • “Higher-order readings of WH-questions.” (Slides)
    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,
• Teaching
  • Course in Spring 2019. Semantics of Questions (graduate seminar)