Principal Investigator, Lab Director

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Dr. Helena Hong Gao

       

Helena Hong Gao, Ph.D. in linguistics | Senior Lecturer |
Director, Bilingual Development Lab http://web.hss.ntu.edu.sg/gaoresearchteam/
Director, Master of Arts in Translation and Interpretation (MTI) Programme | School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty Fellow, University Scholars Programme | College of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences Resident Faculty Member, Complexity Institute http://www.complexity.ntu.edu.sg
Nanyang Technological University | HSS-03-05, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637332
Tel: (65) 6790 6054 | Email: helenagao@ntu.edu.sg | MTI Web: http://www.hss.ntu.edu.sg/Programmes/mti

 

Research Interests

  • Language and cognitive development
  • Language acquisition & language teaching    
  • Chinese linguistics
  • Cognitive linguistics
  • Computational linguistics

 

Biography

Dr. Helena Gao received her Ph.D. in general linguistics from Lund University, Sweden and her post-doc. training in cognitive psychology in the Department of Psychology of the University of Toronto, Canada. She was Research Director of the Cognitive Development Lab/Child Study Centre at the University of Toronto before she joined NTU in 2006. Dr. Gao has extensive experience in interdisciplinary research in lingusitics. Her current research on child language acquisition has been awarded grants by NTU (Tier 1), MCYS (ECRF), and MOE (Tier 2). The Bilingual Development Lab she has established collaborates with colleagues from NTU and other universities. It also hosts visiting scholars and research students who are interested in experimental studies.

 

Representative Publications

Books

Lu, Q., & Gao, H. H. (Eds.). (2015). Chinese Lexical Semantics. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-27193-4.

Gao, H. H., & Dong, M. (Eds.). (2011). Proceedings of PACLIC 25: The 25th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. ISBN 978-4-905166-02-3.

Gao, H. (2001). The Physical Foundation of the Patterning of Physical Action Verbs. Lund, Sweden: Lund University Press. ISSN 0347-2558. ISBN91-974116-3-9.

 

Book Chapters

Gao, H. H. (2015). Chinese children’s production of physical action verbs. In C. F. Sun, W. S-Y Wang & Y. Tsai (Eds.), Oxford handbook of Chinese linguistics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Chapter 48. 641-653.

Gao, H. H., & Holland, J. H. (2013). Language niche. In F. Shi & G. Peng (Eds.), Eastward Flows the Great River – Essays on Contemporary Linguistics and Language Studies (pp. 142-160). Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press.

Gao, H. H. (2011). E-learning design for Chinese classifiers: Reclassification of nouns for a novel approach. In R. Kwan, C. McNaught, P. Tsang, F. L. Wang & K. C. Li (Eds.), Communications in Computer and Information Science (Vol. 177, pp. 186-199). Berlin, Germany: Springer.

Zelazo, D. P., & Gao, H. H. (2009). Development and consciousness. In Bayne, T., Cleeremans, A. & Wilken, P. (Eds.), Oxford companion to consciousness (pp. 227-229). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Gao, H. H., & Zelazo, D. P. (2008). Language and development of consciousness: Degrees of disembodiment. In W. F. Overton, U. Mueller & J. Newman (Eds.), Developmental Perspectives on Embodiment and Consciousness (pp. 225-246). Mahwah, NJ, USA: Erlbaum.

Zelazo, D. P., Gao, H. H., & Todd, R. (2007). Development of consciousness. In P. D. Zelazo, M. Moscovitch & E. Thompson (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness (pp. 405-434). New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.

 

Refereed Journal Papers

Gao, H. H., Wang, H. S., & Nicoladis, E. (2016). The delineation of throw verbs in Chinese: A behavioral and perceptive approach. Journal of Cognitive Science. 17-1: 95-131.

Wang, H., & Gao, H. H. (2016). Cross-linguistic categorization of throwing events: A behavioral approach. Cognitive Linguistic Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2.

Zhang, C., & Gao, H. H. (2015). An Investigation of the Corresponding Chinese Expressions Commonly Used in Singapore: On the Basis of the Lexical Choices by University Students from China and Singapore. Hanxue Luncong. Vol. 4 (2015). Fudan University Press.

Gao, H. H., Zelazo, D. P., Sharpe, D., & Mashari, A. (2014). Beyond early linguistic competence: Development of children's ability to interpret adjectives flexibly. Cognitive Development. 32 (2014) 86–102.

Gao, H. H. (2014).  海外汉语教学的新发展 (New development in Chinese language teaching outside of China).《国际汉语教学研究》International Journal of Research on Chinese Language Teaching. (in Chinese) 2014:3(4), 6-7.

Chin, S.-C., & Gao, H. H. (2014). Malaysian Chinese independent high school students’ cognitive understanding of take “na” action verbs in Chinese: Examples from “V + N” structures. (馬來西亞獨中生認知「拿」 類手部動作動詞的機制—以「V + N」動賓結構爲例)The Taiwan Journal of Chinese as a Second Language (《臺灣華語教學研究》), 8, 19-39. (in Chinese)

Gao, H. H. (2010). A study of Swedish speakers’ learning of Chinese noun classifiers. Nordic Journal of Linguistics, 33(2), 197-229.

Gao, H. H., & Holland, J. H. (2008). Agent-based models of levels of consciousness. Santa Fe Institute Working Papers, 08-12-048, 1-15.

Gao, H. H. (2006). Genetic mutation and atypical language development (基因變異與語言非典型發展). Research in Applied Psychology (应用心理研究), 29, 15-21.(in Chinese)

Sigurd, B., Lastow, B., Gao, H., & Eeg-Olofsson, M. (2005). Machine translation of marine forecasts, quarterly company reports and recipes between Swedish, English, Malay and Chinese. Lund University Department of Linguistics Working Papers, 51, 187-198. ISSN: 0280-526X.

Gao, H., & Cheng, C-C. (2003). Verbs of contact by impact in English and their equivalents in Mandarin Chinese. Language and Linguistics, 4(3), 485-508.

Gao, H. (2002). Language contact – Misunderstanding, confusion and conflicts. Intercultural Communication Studies, 9(3), 107-114.

Gao, H. (2001). When the "learned system" is activated. Lund University Department of Linguistics Working Papers, 48, 41-54. ISSN: 0280-526X.

Gao, H. (2001). Features of Request Strategies in Chinese. Lund University Department of Linguistics Working Papers, 47, 73-86. ISSN: 0280-526X.

Sigurd, B., & Gao, H. (1999). Outline of a computerized Chinese grammar enabling English and Swedish translation. Lund University Department of Linguistics Working Papers, 47, 181-199. ISSN: 0280-526X.

 

Refereed Conference Papers Formally Published in Proceedings

Morgado da Costa, Luís, Bond, Francis, & Gao, H. H. (accepted and to appear in 2016) Mapping and Generating Classifiers using an Open Chinese Ontology. In Proceedings of Global Wordnet Conference 2016.

Gao, H. H. & Guo, C. (2015). Understanding Infants’ Language Development in Relation to Levels of Consciousness: An Approach in Building up an Agent-based Model. Proceedings of the 29th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation (PACLIC 29). (pp. 364-372) Shanghai Jiaotong University.

Gao, H. H. (2015). Chinese Specific Lexical Development in Bilingual Children: Linguistic and Social Factors. In Gabriella Airenti, Bruno G. Bara, & Giulio Sandini (Eds.), Proceedings of the EuroAsianPacific Joint Conference on Cognitive Science. 2015, Torino, Italy. 563-571.

Gao, H. H. (2014). Database design of an online e-learning tool of Chinese classifiers. In Zock, M., Rapp, R., & Huang, C.-R. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Cognitive Aspects of the Lexicon (CogALex) of the 25th International Conference on Computational Linguistics. (pp. 126-137).

Gao, H. H. (2014). Semantic classifications of writing, copying, and painting verbs in Chinese (汉语“描、写、画”类动词的语义特征分类辨析). In Proceedings of the 15th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (第十五届汉语词汇语义学研讨会论文集). (pp. 212 -219). Springer (LNAI). (in Chinese)

Au, S. L., & Gao, H. H. (2012). Measuring the semantic distance of the near-synonyms of touch verbs in Chinese. In Proceedings of the 13th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (第十三届汉语词汇语义学研讨会论文集), Wuhan, China (pp. 128-142). Berlin, Germany: Springer.

Chin, S. C., & Gao, H. H. (2011). The semantic extension of the seeing verb Ding in modern Chinese – A process extended from the seeing domain to the mental domain (现代汉语视觉词“盯”的语义演进—表视觉域到表心智域的发展过程 ). In Proceedings of the 12th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (第十二届汉语词汇语义学研讨会论文集), Taipei, Taiwan (pp. 92-98). Taipei, Taiwan: Crane Publishing. (in Chinese)

Quek, S. L., & Gao, H. H. (2011). An experimental investigation of the cognitive basis of Malaysian Chinese speakers’ association of one noun with multiple classifiers (马来西亚华语“一名多量＂的认知基础之实证研究). In Proceedings of the 12th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (第十二届汉语词汇语义学研讨会论文集), Taipei, Taiwan (pp. 232-243). Taipei, Taiwan: Crane Publishing. (in Chinese)

Gao, H. H. (2010). Computational lexicography: A feature-based approach in designing an e-dictionary of Chinese classifiers. In Proceedings of the 2nd SIGLEX Endorsed Workshop on Cognitive Aspects of the Lexicon (COLING 2010), Beijing, China (pp. 56-65).

Gao, H. H., & Ouyang, S. (2009). A feature-based algorithmic e-learning tool for learning near-synonyms in Chinese. In Proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on Applied Linguistics & Language Teaching, Taipei, Taiwan (pp. 585-596). Taipei, Taiwan: Crane Publishing.

Ni, W., & Gao, H. H. (2009). Application of cognitive strategies to Chinese noun classifier e-learning. In Bunt, H., Petukhova, V., & Wubben, S. (Eds.), Proceedings of The Eighth International Conference on Computational Semantics (IWCS–8), Tilburg, The Netherlands (pp. 305-309).

Ouyang, S., Gao, H. H., & Koh, S. N. (2009). Developing a computer-facilitated tool for acquiring near-synonyms in Chinese and English. In Bunt, H., Petukhova, V., & Wubben, S. (Eds.), Proceedings of The Eighth International Conference on Computational Semantics (IWCS–8), Tilburg, The Netherlands (pp. 316-319).

Gao, H. H. (2008). A cognitive semantic account of the sentence construction of the hand action verb Na in Mandarin Chinese. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of Cognitive Science, Kaliningrad, Russia (pp. 382-385). SIGMA Press.

Gao, H. H. (2007). Cognitive constraints on the combinability of physical action VV compounds in Chinese. In Proceedings of the 7th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (第七届汉语词汇语义学研讨会论文集), Hong Kong (pp. 186-192). Hong Kong: Hong Kong City University Press.

Lin, Y., & Gao, H. H. (2006). The cognitive difference between normal college students and hearing–impaired students in processing the characters, phonetics, and semantics of Chinese lexicons (大學一般生與聽障生在中文字形、音、義上的認知差異性 ). In Proceedings of the 7th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (第七届汉语词汇语义学研讨会论文集), Hong Kong (pp. 180-186). Hong Kong: Hong Kong City University Press. (in Chinese)

Gao, H. (2001). A specification system for measuring relationship among near-synonyms of physical action verbs. In Proceedings of the 2nd Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (第二届汉语词汇语义学研讨会论文集). (pp. 45-51). Beijing, China.

Gao, H. (2001). Notions of motion and contact for physical contact verbs. In Holmer, A., Viberg, Å., & Svantesson, J.-O. (Eds.), Papers from the 18th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics 2, Lund, Sweden (pp. 193-209). Lund, Sweden: Lund University Press.

 

Refereed Conference Papers

Yap, Y. T., Gao, H. H. (2016, May 20-22). Bilingual Children’s use of “Ná” verbs in Singapore Mandarin （新加坡英汉双语儿童“拿”类动词的使用特征研究））. In Proceedings of the 17th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop（CLSW2016）. Singapore.

Sak, H. E., Gao, H. H. (2016, May 20-22). The Polysemy of Chinese Action Verb “Dǎ” and Its Implications in Child Language Acquisition (汉语多义动词“打”及其儿童语言习得之意义). In Proceedings of the 17th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop（CLSW2016）. Singapore.

Gao, H. H. & Guo, C. (2015, 30 Oct. - 1 Nov.) Understanding infants’ language development in relation to levels of consciousness: an approach in building up an agent-based model. The 29th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation (PACLIC 29). Shanghai Jiaotong University.

Gao, H. H. (2015, June 11-14). Defining Levels of Consciousness in Terms of Child Language Development. The 7th International Conference in Evolutionary Linguistics. Fudan University, China.

Mori, Y., Hoang, H., Nicoladis, E., Gao, H. H., & Du, K. (2015, May 26-28). “You don't fling a party”. Bilinguals can learn language-specific concepts: Evidence from an acting-out task. 6ème Conférence de l'Association Française de Linguistique Cognitive (AFLiCo6). Grenoble, France.

Gao, H. H. (2015). Chinese Specific Lexical Development in Bilingual Children: Linguistic and Social Factors. In Proceedings of the Symposium of Constraint Interaction in Language Processing and Acquisition of the EuroAsianPacific Joint Conference on Cognitive Science. 2015, Torino, Italy. 4. Gao, H. H., & Kim, S. Y. (2015, September 25-27). Bilingual Children’s Flexibility in Paired

Gao, H. H., & Kim, S. Y. (2015, September 25-27). Bilingual Children’s Flexibility in Paired Conceptual Knowledge Retrieval. In Proceedings of the Symposium of Constraint Interaction in Language Processing and Acquisition of the EuroAsianPacific Joint Conference on Cognitive Science. 2015, Torino, Italy.

Teo, Y. S., & Gao, H. H. (2015, June 19-21). The Sound Change From [-əŋ] to [-ən] In Chinese As a Socio-linguistic Indicator In Singapore (新加坡华语韵母[-əŋ] 变[-ən] 的发音变化及其社会意义). In Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference of the IACL, IACL-23. Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.

Gao, H. H. (2014, 24-26 October). Directional Verbs in the Specification of Motion Direction in Mandarin Chinese. The 2014 International Conference of Cognitive Linguistics and Pragmatics: Theory and Practice, Nanjing, China.

Fang, J., & Gao, H. H. (2014, July 20-23). A case study of a Singaporean immigrant family’s preschool child’s Chinese language use (新加坡华族移民家庭学前儿童语言使用情况个案分析). The 9th International Conference of China Sociolinguistics (第九届中国社会语言学国际学术研讨会论文集), Xinjiang, China. (in Chinese)

Chin, Y. M., & Gao, H. H. (2014, July 12-13). The commonly used Chinese and English Words by pre-school bilingual children in Singapore (新加坡学前双语儿童中英文词汇使用特征). Tthe First International Symposium on Chinese Intercultural Communication (第一届汉语跨文化传播国际研讨会论文集), Shanghai, China. (in Chinese)

Sun, J., & Gao, H. H. (2014, July 12-13). Chinese–English bilingual children's learning of action verbs in Chinese (汉英双语儿童汉语动作动词习得研究). The First International Symposium on Chinese Intercultural Communication (第一届汉语跨文化传播国际研讨会论文集). Shanghai, China. (in Chinese)

Zhang, C., & Gao, H. H. (2014, May 31 – June 1). An empirical study of the differences in use between the Singaporean Chinese lexical words and their equivalents in Mandarin Chinese (华语与普通话对应词汇使用差异实证研究). The 2014 Annual Conference of the Chinese Rhetoric Society (中国修辞学会2014年学术研讨会论文集), Quanzhou, Fujian, China.（in Chinese）

Au, S. L., & Gao, H. H. (2014, May 2-4). A study of Singaporeans’ habitual code-mixing in their use of touch action verbs in Chinese and English. The 22nd Annual Conference of the IACL & the 26th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics, College Park, MD, USA.

Chin, S. C., & Gao, H. H. (2014, May 2-4). The Chinese Malay high school students’ cognitive understanding of Chinese verb semantics (马来西亚南部华裔中学生的动词语义认知模式). The 22nd Annual Conference of the IACL & the 26th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics, College Park, MD, USA. (in Chinese)

Gao, H. H., & Wang, H. (2013, July 10-13). Bilingual and monolingual children’s mapping of visual perceptions of actions to the semantics of action verbs in Chinese.The 9th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB9), Singapore.

Koh, B. C., & Gao, H. H. (2013, July 10-13). Code-switching and code-mixing patterns of salespersons in Singapore. The 9th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB9), Singapore.

Wang, H., & Gao, H. H. (2013, July 10-13). Lexical semantic boundaries of throwing action verbs in English and Chinese monolingual and bilinguals. The 9th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB9), Singapore.

Wang, H., & Gao, H. H. (2013, June 7-9). The semantic categorization of throwing events in English, Chinese and German. The International Association of Chinese Linguistics 21st Annual Meeting, Taipei, Taiwan.

Gao, H. H (2013, April 25-28). Assessing bilinguals' writing: taking cognitive and cultural factors into account. The Asian Conference on Language Learning 2013. Osaka, Japan.

Gao, H. H., & Wang, H. S. (2012, July 8-12). Age-related development of Mandarin speakers’ cognitive understanding of synonymous throw verbs. The International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development 2012 Biennial Meeting, Edmonton, AB, Canada.

Wang, H. S., & Gao, H. H. (2012, July 8-12). Throw verbs and throw actions: an experimental approach to understanding the acquisition of Chinese and English throw verbs by monolinguals and bilinguals. The International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development 2012 Biennial Meeting. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Wang, H. S., & Gao, H. H. (2012, May 15-16). Monolingual and bilingual children’s action perception of throw verbs in Mandarin Chinese. The International Conference on Bilingualism and Comparative Linguistics, Hong Kong.

Hoon, Y.-T., & Gao, H. H. (2011, October 7-11). Of indirectness in requests: power and language in Singapore English. The 4th Crossing over Symposium 2011. Cleveland, OH,

Koh B. Ch., & Gao, H. H. (2011, July 22-23). A study of code-switching and code-mixing patterns of salespersons in Singapore. The Language Contact-Change-Maintenance and Loss – The 2nd Westminster Linguistics Conference, London, UK.

Gao, H. H. (2011, July 11-13). E-learning design for Chinese classifiers: reclassification of nouns for a novel approach.. The 2011 International Conference on ICT in Teaching and Learning, Hong Kong.

Gao, H. H. (2009, June 10-12). Cognitive barriers to the learning of Chinese noun classifiers by native Swedish speakers. The Second Conference of the Swedish Association for Language and Cognition, Stockholm, Sweden.