Last updated 17 July 2019

1. Cheng-Yu Edwin Tsai (蔡承佑)
Department of Linguistics and Translation
City University of Hong Kong
83, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon
Hong Kong SAR
Phone: (852) 3442 9771
Email: cytsai@cityu.edu.hk
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/cyedwintsai
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8277-3968
Appointments
2016-present Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics and Translation, City University of Hong Kong
2015-16 College Fellow, Department of Linguistics, Harvard University
2009-10 Research Assistant, Writing Center, National Tsing Hua University
Education
2010-15 PhD in Linguistics, Harvard University
Dissertation: Toward a theory of Mandarin quantification
Chair: C.-T. James Huang
2006-09 MA in Linguistics, National Tsing Hua University
Thesis: Wh-dependency in Vietnamese and the syntax of wh-in-situ
Advisor: Wei-Tien Dylan Tsai
2002-06 BS in Electrical Engineering, National Chung Cheng University
Grants
2018 PI, CityU Strategic Research Grant (Project title: Scope ambiguity in Chinese: Experimental explo-
rations), HK$100,000
2017 PI, CityU Strategic Research Grant (Project title: Alternative semantics and the syntax-semantics
interface of non-interrogative wh-phrases in Mandarin), HK$100,000
2017 PI, CityU Start-up Grant for New Faculty (Project title: The syntax and semantics of dou and related
particles in Mandarin), HK$200,000
Fellowships and Honors
2014-15 Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Harvard University
2014 Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University
2013, 2014 Fairbank Center Graduate Student Conference Travel Grant, Harvard University
2010-12 Graduate Fellowship, Harvard University
2009 台灣語言學學會 2009 年度最佳碩士論文獎佳作獎 (Honorable Mention, Linguistic Society of
Taiwan Best MA Thesis Award)
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2. Publications
Journal articles
Accepted Tsai, Cheng-Yu Edwin. Exhaustivity and bare numeral phrases in Mandarin. Language and Lin-
guistics. (Scheduled publication date: January 2021)
2018 Tsai, Cheng-Yu Edwin. 2018. The syntax and semantics of descriptive V-de constructions: A pri-
mary predication analysis. International Journal of Chinese Linguistics 5(1), 59–93.
2017 Scontras, Gregory, Maria Polinsky, C.-Y. Edwin Tsai and Kenneth Mai. 2017. Cross-linguistic scope
ambiguity: When two systems meet. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 2(1), 36.
2015 Tsai, Cheng-Yu Edwin. 2015. A note on Fukui’s note. Studies in Chinese Linguistics 36(2), 69–80.
Book chapters
To appear Tsai, Cheng-Yu Edwin and Kim Ngọc Quang. Scalar implicatures and the semantics of wh-indefinites
in Vietnamese. In N. Duffield, T. Phan & T. Trinh (Eds.), Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Vietnamese
Linguistics. Studies in Language Companion Series 211, John Benjamins.
Conference proceedings
2017 Tsai, Cheng-Yu Edwin. 2017. Preverbal number phrases in Mandarin and the scalar reasoning of
jiu. Proceedings of the 34th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 34), ed. Aaron
Kaplan et al., 554–561.
2015 Tsai, Cheng-Yu Edwin. 2015. On a proper treatment of interrogative scope in Chinese wh-in-situ. In
Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS 49), 363–377. Chicago:
Chicago University Press.
2015 Tsai, Cheng-Yu Edwin. 2015. Unifying Mandarin dou-constructions. In Proceedings of the 45th
Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 45), ed Thuy Bui and Deniz Özyɪldɪz,
165–174.
2014 Tsai, Cheng-Yu Edwin, Gregory Scontras, Kenneth Mai and Maria Polinsky. 2014. Prohibiting in-
verse scope: An experimental study of Chinese vs. English. In Empirical Issues in Syntax and
Semantics 10 (EISS 10), ed. Christopher Piñón, 305–322.
2014 Scontras, Gregory, Cheng-Yu Edwin Tsai, Kenneth Mai and Maria Polinsky. 2014. Chinese scope:
An experimental investigation. In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 18 (SuB 18), ed. U. Etxeberria,
A. Fălăuş, A. Irurtzun, and B. Leferman, 396–414.
2012 Tsai, Cheng-Yu Edwin. 2012. Descriptive complement constructions as concealed pseudoclefts in
Chinese. In Proceedings of the 29th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 29), ed Jae-
hoon Choi et al., 259–267. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
2009 Tsai, Cheng-Yu Edwin. 2009. Wh-constructions in Saisiyat. In Current issues in unity and diversity
of languages: Collection of the papers selected from the 18th International Congress of Linguistics
(CIL 18), 2334–2348. Seoul: The Linguistic Society of Korea.
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3. Working Papers
2008 Tsai, Cheng-Yu Edwin. 2008. Wh-interrogatives in Saisiyat and Lexical Merger Parameter. UST
Working Papers in Linguistics 4, ed. by Xin-xian Rex Yu and Chia-yin Hu, 117–131. Hsinchu: Na-
tional Tsing Hua University.
Presentations
Invited colloquium presentations
2019 Quantifier scope ambiguity: Theoretical and methodological issues. Department of Linguistics
and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 08/01. [C.-Y. E. Tsai and T. Gan]
2018 Epistemic wh-indefinites. Center for Linguistics & Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies, 12/07.
2017 普通話疑問詞非疑問用法的幾個疑問. Department of Chinese Language Studies, The Education
University of Hong Kong, 09/02.
2016 On “quantity” number phrases in Mandarin. Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, 28/11.
Invited workshop presentations
2019 Quantifier scope in Mandarin: Some recent issues. “漢語形式語義研究” 國際研討會 (Interna-
tional Symposium on Formal Approaches to Meaning in Chinese). Beijing Language and Culture
University, 22/06. [C.-Y. E. Tsai and T. Gan]
2019 Topicality, conditionality and sentence-final particles. 漢語句末助詞小型研討會, Guangdong
University of Foreign Studies, 25/05.
Refereed conference presentations
2019 Quantifier scope ambiguity in Mandarin dative constructions. The 12th International Workshop on
Theoretical East Asian Linguistics (TEAL 12), University of Macau, 09/07. [T. Gan and C.-Y. E. Tsai]
2019 Mandarin verb doubling clefts as contrastive topic constructions. The 12th International Work-
shop on Theoretical East Asian Linguistics (TEAL 12), University of Macau, 09/07.
2019 The semantics-pragmatics interface of quantifier scope in Mandarin. The 16th International Prag-
matics Conference, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 12/06. [T. Gan and C.-Y. E. Tsai]
2019 Quantifier scope ambiguity in Mandarin: Experimental investigations. The 27th Annual Confer-
ence of International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL 27), Kobe City University of Foreign
Studies, 12/05. [T. Gan and C.-Y. E. Tsai]
2019 Contrastive topics, anti-exhaustivity, and the semantics of Mandarin dou. The 27th Annual Con-
ference of International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL 27), Kobe City University of
Foreign Studies, 12/05.
2018 Quantifier scope ambiguity in Mandarin revisited. Annual Research Forum (ARF) of the Linguistic
Society of Hong Kong (LSHK), City University of Hong Kong, 01/12. [T. Gan and C.-Y. E. Tsai]
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4. 2018 Scalar implicatures and the meaning of quantity wh-phrases under negation. The 8th International
Conference on Formal Linguistics (ICFL 8), Zhejiang University, 24/11.
2018 The uncertainty condition of existential polarity wh-phrases. The 26th Annual Conference of In-
ternational Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL 26) and the 20th International Conference on
Chinese Language and Culture (ICCLC 20), University of Wisconsin-Madison, 06/05.
2017 Ignorance and non-interrogative wh-phrases in Mandarin. The 62nd Annual Conference of the
International Linguistic Association (ILA 62), City University of Hong Kong, 27/05.
2016 Preverbal number phrases in Mandarin and the scalar reasoning of jiu. Poster presented at the
34th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 34), University of Utah, 29/04.
2014 Unifying Mandarin dou-constructions. Poster presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the North
East Linguistic Society (NELS 45), MIT, 31/10.
2014 Decomposing Mandarin dou-quantification. The 9th International Workshop on Theoretical East
Asian Linguistics (TEAL 9), University of Nantes, 25/09.
2013 Prohibiting inverse scope: An experimental study of Chinese vs. English. Colloque de Syntaxe et
Sémantique à Paris (CSSP), Université Paris 7 - Paris Diderot, 26/09. [G. Scontras, C.-Y. E. Tsai,
K. Mai and M. Polinsky]
2013 Chinese scope: An experimental investigation. Sinn und Bedeutung 18 (SuB 18), University of the
Basque Country, 12/09. [G. Scontras, C.-Y. E. Tsai, K. Mai and M. Polinsky]
2013 On a proper treatment of interrogative scope in Chinese wh-in-situ. The 49th Annual Meeting of
the Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS 49), 19/04.
2013 Generic dou in Chinese: A cleft analysis. The 87th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of
America (LSA 87), Boston, 04/01.
2011 Descriptive complement constructions as concealed pseudoclefts in Chinese. The 29th West Coast
Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 29), University of Arizona, 23/04.
2010 The syntax of modal tet in Hakka and some dialectal correlates. The 18th Annual Conference of
the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL 18) and the 22nd North American Con-
ference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL 22), Harvard University, 21/05. [J. Chung and C.-Y. E. Tsai]
2009 Lower light verbs as subevent predicates. The 17th Annual Conference of the International Asso-
ciation of Chinese Linguistics (IACL 17), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 02-04/07.
2009 Causality and comitativity in Vietnamese: A view from wh-adverbials and selfhood. Poster pre-
sented at the 19th Annual Meeting of Southeast Asian Linguistic Society (SEAL 19), Ho Chi Minh
City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, 28-29/05. [K. N. Quang and C.-Y. E. Tsai]
2009 On Chinese PPs and their internal structure. Poster presented at the Student Poster Session of the
6th Workshop on Formal Syntax & Semantics (FOSS 6), National Taiwan Normal University, 10/01.
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5. 2008 談台灣閩南語兩種疑問副詞的句法–語意介面. The 7th International Symposium on Taiwanese
Languages and Teaching, National Taiwan Normal University, 06-07/09.
2008 Wh-constructions in Saisiyat. Workshop on Language Diversity: From the Perspective of Descrip-
tive Linguistics (in conjunction with the 18th International Congress of Linguists (CIL 18)), Korea
University, 21/07.
2008 Before the operator met the variable: Zi and ji in Archaic Chinese. The Past Meets the Present: A
Dialogue Between Historical Linguistics and Theoretical Linguistics, Academia Sinica, 14/07.
2008 A grammaticalization account for zi in Archaic Chinese. Student Workshop on East Asian Lin-
guistics (SWEAL), National Tsing Hua University, 01/07.
2008 Lexical Merger Parameter and Saisiyat wh-constructions. Poster presented at the 11th Interna-
tional Symposium on Chinese Languages and Linguistics (IsCLL 11), National Chiao Tung Univer-
sity, 23-25/05.
2008 How-why alternations in Taiwan Southern Min. National Conference on Linguistics (NCL), Na-
tional Chiayi University, 02/05.
Workshop presentations
2013 Some thoughts on indefinites in (complex) conditionals. The 3rd Harvard Graduate Student Work-
shop in Linguistics, 23/11.
2013 Quantifier scope in Chinese: An experimental study. Information Structure and Word Order: Fo-
cusing on Asian Languages, Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard University, 06/04. [C.-Y. E. Tsai,
G. Scontras, K. Mai, N. Radkevich and M. Polinsky]
2012 A cleft explanation for scope rigidity in Mandarin. The 2nd Harvard Graduate Student Workshop
in Linguistics, 17/11.
2012 Quantification, correlativization and agreement. East Coast 5 Syntax Workshop (ECO5), Univer-
sity of Massachusetts, Amherst, 07/04.
2011 In search of D: Does Mandarin have D? The 1st Harvard Graduate Student Workshop in Linguis-
tics, 19/11.
2011 Descriptive complement constructions as concealed pseudoclefts in Chinese. East Coast 5 Syntax
Workshop (ECO5), MIT, 02/04.
2008 On the category P in Mandarin Chinese. Ling-Talk, National Tsing Hua University, 31/10.
2008 Anti-causality and anti-comitativity in Old Chinese: The case of zi. Ling-Talk, National Tsing Hua
University, 19/08.
2007 Some observations on the wh-constructions in Saisiyat. Poster presented at the International Sym-
posium of the Cambridge-Connecticut-Hyderabad-Nanzan-Siena-Tsing Hua Consortium for Lin-
guistics, National Tsing Hua University, 15/12.
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6. Guest lectures
2017 Academic writing. Guest lecture for students in Linguistics and Translation undertaking research
projects. City University of Hong Kong, 06/02.
2010 Chinese Languages: The Southeast Dialects. Guest lecture for Languages of the World (HSS 430400).
National Tsing Hua University, 22/04.
Teaching
City University of Hong Kong
LT1202 Discovering How Language Works in a University Setting (BA; Sem A 2018, Sem B 2018)
LT3211 Semantics (BA; Sem B 2017, Sem B 2018, Sem B 2019)
LT4216 Advanced Topics in Linguistics (BA; Sem B 2018 w/ Paul Law)
LT4241 Topics in Syntax (BA; Sem B 2017)
LT4380 Theory of Translation (BA; Sem A 2016)
LT5461 Cognition and Language Differences (MA; Sem A 2017, Sem B 2019)
LT5601 Stylistics and Translation (MA; Sem A 2016, Sem A 2017, Sem A 2018)
Harvard University (as College Fellow)
LING 102 Sentence Structure (undergraduate, Fall 2015)
LING 105 Sounds of Language (undergraduate, Fall 2015)
LING 204r Topics in Syntax (graduate, Spring 2016)
Harvard University (as Teaching Fellow)
LING 83 Language, Structure, and Cognition (Instructor: Maria Polinsky; Fall 2013)
LING 97r Group Tutorial (Topic: The syntax and semantics of clefts; Spring 2013)
LING 98a Group Tutorial (Topic: Quantification at the syntax-semantics interface; Fall 2012)
LING 98a Group Tutorial (Topic: The syntax of wh-indefinites; Fall 2012)
LING 99a Senior Thesis Writing Tutorial (Instructor: Maria Polinsky; Spring 2014)
LING 102 Sentence Structure (Instructor: James Huang; Spring 2013)
LING 241r Practicum in Linguistics (Instructor: Kevin Ryan; Spring 2014)
National Tsing Hua University
HSS 430400 Languages of the World (Instructor: Paula Radetzky; Spring 2008)
Advising
PhD Advisor
Tian Gan (in progress)
Qualifying Panel Member
Bing Li (2017-), Tian Gan (2017-), Yingying Ye (2017-), Qi Zhang (2017-), Yueming Sun (2018-)
Master’s Project Supervisor
Lu Sun (CityU, 2017)
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7. Final-Year Project Supervisor
Choi Yi Charlene Yeung (CityU, 2018), Tsz Chung Chan (CityU, 2019), Sherry Songjun He (CityU,
2019)
AB Honors Thesis Supervisor
Carl Rogers (Harvard, 2016)
Service to the Department
Department of Linguistics and Translation, City University of Hong Kong
2016-present Coordinator of the Discovery Enriched Curriculum
2016-present Coordinator of the Student Mentoring Scheme
2016-present Member of the Student Activities Committee
2017-present LLT/LLA 2nd-year Tutor
Department of Linguistics, Harvard University
2013-14 Assistant Head Tutor
2012-13 President of the Harvard Graduate Students in Linguistics group
2011-12 Co-organizer of the Harvard Linguistics Circle colloquium series
2011 Organizer of the first Harvard Graduate Student Workshop in Linguistics
Institute of Linguistics, National Tsing Hua University
2007 Student organizing member of the International Symposium of the Cambridge-Connecticut-Hyderabad-
Nanzan-Siena-Tsing Hua Consortium for Linguistics
Service to the Profession
Journal reviewing
Concentric: Studies in Linguistics, Current Research in Chinese Linguistics, Glossa: a journal of general
linguistics, International Journal of Chinese Linguistics, Journal of Semantics, Language and Linguis-
tics, Lingua (before 2016), Linguistics, Linguistics in the Netherlands, Natural Language & Linguistic
Theory, Studies in Chinese Linguistics, The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal, WORD, 《語
言學研究》
Book chapter reviewing
Oxford University Press, John Benjamins
Book manuscript reviewing
Routledge
Conference reviewing
International Workshop on Theoretical East Asian Linguistics (TEAL)
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8. Thesis award reviewing
The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong
Languages
Native Taiwanese Mandarin, Taiwanese Southern Min
Fluent English
Structural Saisiyat, Vietnamese
Last updated: July 17, 2019
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