Dr. ZHAN Fangqiong (詹芳琼)

Dr. Zhan received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in Chinese linguistics, and her research interests include diachronic construction grammar, grammaticalization and second language acquisition. Diachronic Construction Grammar is an exciting new area of cognitive-functional linguistics focusing on the historical work of construction grammar. Constructionalization and constructional changes (Traugott and Trousdale 2013) has been one of the most acknowledged approaches within diachronic construction grammar.

Dr. Zhan has been working on the application of the theoretical framework of constructionalization and constructional changes to the Chinese languages. Her research contributes a more detailed understanding of how Chinese languages evolve over time. Her current research focuses on i) ways to identify the similarities and differences between theoretical frameworks of grammaticalization, lexicalization and constructionalization, ii) the Chinese epistemic modality markers, the development of Chinese discourse markers, pragmatic markers and expressives at left and right periphery of the clause. Her publications, being the single or first author, occur in a number of high-level peer-reviewed journals including Lingua, Diachronica, Journal of Historical Pragmatics, Studies in Language, Functions of Language, Language and Linguistics, and Journal of Chinese Linguistics. She is the author of the book The Structure and Function of Chinese Copula Construction: A Constructional Approach, and the translator of the Chinese version of the masterpiece Constructionalization and Constructional Changes.

Dr. Zhan welcomes PhD applications in the areas as identified above.