Plenary Speakers
Hongming Zhang
Director of Educational Development Centre at Macau University of Science and Technology
Professor Emeritus of University of Wisconsin–Madison
Hongming Zhang is currently Chair professor, Dean of University International College, and Director of Educational Development Centre at Macau University of Science and Technology. He is also emeritus Professor of UW-Madison. His main research areas include Chinese linguistics, interface between phonology and syntax, historical linguistics, comparative poetics, and second language acquisition. He has authored, translated, or edited 12 books, published more than 60 papers, and was invited to give keynote speeches, guest talks, or public speeches at various occasions. He also serves as a member of editorial board or academic committee of more than a dozen domestic/international journals, book series, and publishers. In 2009, he was appointed as a Chang Jiang Scholar Chair Professor by Ministry of Education of China. In 2014, he became Executive Editor of International Journal of Chinese Linguistics (Netherlands). In 2016, he became the series editor of Routledge Studies in Chinese Linguistics (UK) and the editor of the volume of Traditional Phonology & Phonological Theories of Encyclopedia of China (3rd edition). In 2019, he was elected president of International Association of Chinese Linguistics, and in the same year, he became vice president of International Society for Chinese Language Teaching. He also serves as an honorary/adjunct/guest/visiting professor at Fudan, Tongji, Shanghai Normal, Xinjiang Normal, Zhejiang University, Beijing Language University, Tsinghua, and PKU.
Regulated Chinese Verse in the Chinese-character Civilization Circle of Asia
This study delves into the role of regulated Chinese verse in the Chinese-character civilization circle of East Asia. The historical significance of regulated verse, as a pivotal literary genre in Chinese history, extends to its impact on social, political, and cultural aspects of ancient East Asian regions. By examining the successful propagation of regulated Chinese verse in the Imperial Examination systems of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, the study reveals the pivotal role that Chinese language, scripts, and literature have played in forming the East Asian Confucian cultural sphere. A broader discussion on how heterogeneous cultures interact, understand, accept, and amalgamate when confronted with each other is also explored in this context.
Guowei Shen
Research Fellow at the Institute of Oriental and Occidental Studies at Kansai University in Japan
Distinguished Professor at Zhejiang Gongshang University School of Oriental Languages and Philosophy
Guowei Shen is professor emeritus at the Faculty of Foreign Language Studies and a research fellow at the Institute of Oriental and Occidental Studies at Kansai University in Japan. Currently, he is a Distinguished Professor at Zhejiang Gongshang University School of Oriental Languages and Philosophy. His research interests include lexicology, comparative studies of Chinese and Japanese lexicons, pedagogy of Chinese vocabulary instruction, and the history of lexical exchange between China and Japan during modern times. His major publications in the past five years include “Research on Two-Character Words in Modern Chinese: Language Contact and the Evolution of Chinese in Modern Times” and “Exchange of New Words: Language Interactions between China and Japan during the Modern Era,” among others.
On the Modernity of Modern Chinese Language: From the Perspective of Vocabulary
The modernization of Chinese language began in the first decade of the 20th century, and began to take shape in the late 1920s with the strong promotion of the May Fourth New Culture Movement. What is the distinguishing mark of modern Chinese? Wang Li believes that among pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, grammar should be regarded as the main basis for distinguishing modern Chinese, focusing on the changes of Chinese itself. Lü Shuxiang emphasized that the realization of the unity of language and writing is the main symbol of Chinese modernization, focusing on the changes of language in social use. This paper holds that the explosive increase of written language users, the qualitative change of language content and discourse behavior, and the diversification of media are important motives for the transformation of Chinese in modern times, and the reconstruction of vocabulary system caused by new words is the most important embodiment of Chinese in modern times. The new words have a common morphological feature: two-character words. Two-character words have two linguistic functions, one is precise description, and the other is speaking and understanding. Only two-character words can cope with the progress of science and the increasingly complex human society, and only two-character words can speak and understand non-daily contents. This kind of discourse behavior, which is called “scientific narrative” in this paper, takes “consistency between words and texts” as the basic condition, which is the essence of language modernization. The main point of this paper is that the consistency of speech and text is an important symbol of Chinese modernization, and the consistency of speech and text needs the foundation of vocabulary. The addition of Chinese words can be completed in a short period of time, which is the result of language contact and vocabulary exchange in East Asia. It is necessary to study Chinese from the perspective of modern reconstruction of vocabulary system, because the modernity of language is determined by the modernity of vocabulary.
Yu-Fang Wang
Professor in the Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language at National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan
Yu-Fang Wang is a professor in the Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language at National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan. Her research interests include discourse analysis, pragmatics, and corpus linguistics, with specific focus on discourse markers. She has published articles in Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale, Journal of Chinese Linguistics, Text, Concentric: Studies in Linguistics, Taiwan Journal of Linguistics, Language Sciences, Discourse Studies, Journal of Pragmatics, Language & Communication, Chinese Language and Discourse, Taiwan Journal of Chinese as a Second Language, Language and Linguistics, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language, and Teaching Journal of Chinese Language Teaching.
Acquiring the adverb YE (‘also’) in Chinese by English-speaking, Japanese-speaking, and Korean-speaking CSL learners
In Classical Chinese, yě often served as a mood particle, typically appearing sentence-finally to express the speaker’s comments or exclamation. However, in Modern Chinese, it functions as an adverb, meaning ‘also’ or ‘and’. Its counterparts in Japanese and Korean are ‘また (mata), も（mo)’ and ‘도 (do), 또 (tto)’. Additionally, its near-synonyms include yòu, hái, and dōu. Despite its apparent simplicity in form, meaning, and usage, yě poses challenges for English-speaking, Japanese-speaking, and Korean-speaking learners of Chinese. Analyzing errors related to yě in the TOCFL Learner Corpus, this study identifies overinclusion as the most common error type among English-speaking, Japanese-speaking, and Korean-speaking learners, particularly Japanese-speaking learners. Due to the simplicity of yě in meaning, learners tend to overuse it. Additionally, misselection is the second most common error type, followed by omission, especially when yě must collocate with specific phrases, such as ‘budan …, (érqiě) … yě’ (‘not only…, (but) also …’). This study conducts a contrastive analysis between yě and its counterparts in English, Japanese, and Korean to investigate the negative transfer of learners’ native language.
Xueshan Li
Distinguished Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at Henan Normal University
Xueshan Li, a distinguished professor and doctoral supervisor at Henan Normal University, serves as an expert of the Discipline Planning Review Group for Chinese National Fund of Philosophy and Social Sciences, and chief expert of the National Social Science Fund Major Project. He also holds the position of Vice President within the Chinese Society of Yin-Shang Civilization. Additionally, he assumes the role of Deputy Director in the Expert Committee of Henan Province Ancient Scripts and Chinese Civilization Inheritance and Development Project. With a dedicated focus on the long-term exploration of oracle bone inscriptions, he has authored five significant works, including Research on the Enfeoffment System of the Shang Dynasty and Evolution and Reconstruction: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Divination Process and System of Oracle Bones in the Shang Dynasty.
Chul Heo
Special researcher at Pusan National University
Associate Professor Emeritus at Dankook University’s Han-character Education Research Center and Kyungsung University’s Institute of Korean Hanja Studies
Chul Heo has a B.A. and M.A. in Sino-Korean Education from Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea. PhD in Chinese Language and Literature from Beijing Normal University, China. Former associate professor at Dankook University’s Han-character education research center and Kyungsung University’s Institute of Korean Hanja Studies. Currently, a special researcher at Pusan National University.
A Study on ChoiSeijin Hunmongjahui
This study analyzed the invocation of the HunMongJaHoe (訓蒙字會) to understand the background and perception of Choi Se-jin’s writing of the HunMongJaHoe (訓蒙字會), and examined the characters in the HunMongJaHoe (訓蒙字會) according to Choi Se-jin’s intention. In addition, to understand the characteristics of the Han-characters(漢字) in this book, we compared them to the characters in the Chunjamun(千字文) and Yuhap(類合), which were mainly used at the time, and examined their actual use in classical Chinese and Korean Sinoworks to determine the usefulness of the Han-characters(漢字) in the book. The results of the review showed that in selecting Han-characters(漢字), the HunMongJaHoe (訓蒙字會) excluded commercial Han-characters(漢字) used in general works and language life that were already included in other basic learning books, and mainly included characters necessary for language life and classics reading at the time to meet the purpose of compilation, and provided various information by placing annotations under the characters rather than having various learning devices to master the characters. Overall, it should be seen that HunMongJaHoe (訓蒙字會) has the purpose and effect of being used as a supplementary and expanded textbook to acquire more Han-characters(漢字) for reading scriptures and general life, rather than as a substitute textbook for the Chunjamun or the Yuhua, and for this reason, it can be said that the main learners of this book is not the initial learners of Han-characters(漢字), but the learners who have already acquired many characters(漢字).
Wai-ip Lam
Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong
Prof. Wai-ip Lam is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong, where she teaches postgraduate courses in pedagogy for teaching Chinese, reading, discourse analysis, and critical discussion. She has taught Chinese language at secondary level in Hong Kong. Her primary research interests focus on network analysis of Chinese language structure, reading, culturally and linguistically diverse students in Chinese language education in Hong Kong, and argumentation in discussion. She is the author of more than 80 scholarly articles, chapters, monographs, and books on Chinese language education. She is the co- investigator of “C-for-Chinese@JC” (2016-21), a cross-institutional collaborative project on supporting Ethnic Minority Students in Local Kindergartens for Effective Learning of Chinese; the Principal Investigator of “Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021 in Hong Kong”. She had been invited to provide professional input and expertise to education-related committees and organizations, including a member of the Committee on Chinese Language Education, Curriculum Development Council; Reviewer of the Chinese Language and Chinese Literature Textbook and e-Textbook Review Panel; Editorial Board Member of Hong Kong Teachers’ Centre Journal; Consultant of Curriculum-based Resources database for learning of teaching Primary/Secondary Chinese Language Subject, Education Bureau, etc. Here are some of her co-authored publications in the past decade:《閱覽 英華——文言經典語言和篇章的學與教》, 《有文有道 回歸學會學習、從文本 到能力，從能力到文化的閱讀學與教設計》,《評估促進學習：以專科語體教學 提高學生通識教育科的書寫能力》,《「閱我深意：文言作品師生互動閱讀教學 」：課程設計與實踐》,《從無助到互助——教授非華語小學生教師手冊》;《面 向中文學習者的中文教學——理論與實踐》(Ed.) etc.
Is there Core Chinese Word List? – Exploratory Network Analysis of Modern Standard Chinese vocabulary
Identifying a limited number of frequently used words as basic or core words in language studies is common. Native and non-native-speaking students learn basic words to expand their vocabulary size and develop their language proficiency. A usual methodology to build such a basic word list is measuring word frequency from a corpus of texts. However, the result list would be sensitive to the size of the corpus and the type of texts chosen.
The current study explores an alternative method to build a basic or core Chinese word list by network analysis of Modern Standard Chinese word formation with double-syllable and multi- syllable words instead of relying on a corpus of texts. Network Analysis is a method of examining data of relation. The technique helps identify basic or core Chinese words.
The study retrieves all double-syllable and multi-syllable words, with the exclusion of reduplicated words, from “The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (现代汉语词典)”. Two networks of Modern Standard Chinese word formation are modeled. A directed network, G1 = (V, E1) where V = { characters/ morphemes of words } and E2 = { adjacency of word-formation of V }, models the adjacent relations of morphemes of double and multi-syllable words. Another undirected network, G2 = (V, E2), where V = { characters/ morphemes of words } remains the same but E2 = { word- formation of V }, models the word-formation of all double-syllable and multi-syllable words.
The two networks are analyzed by network analysis software (mainly UCINET and igraph package for R) to calculate the metrics of the networks, including density, various types of centrality (degree, closeness, betweenness), and various types of cohesion such as k-core and community to gain new light on features of Chinese word formation system.
The study found that double and multi-syllable words of Modern Standard Chinese follow power law distribution, which means that a tiny number of characters/ morphemes (less than 500) forms almost half of all words (more than 30000). These characters/ morphemes can be taken as the Core Chinese Word Modern Standard Chinese.
The study echoes the character-based and word-based perspectives of the Chinese language.