Ph.D. Project

Acquiring Negative Polarity Items

Promotors

prof. dr. F. P. (Fred) Weerman (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

prof. dr. H. H. (Hedde) Zeijlstra (Universität Göttingen)

Visiting activities: spring 2014 

In March 2014 I visited Harvard University.

In April 2014 I visited The University of Chicago.

Research Interests

Syntax and semantics of negation 

Syntax, semantics and pragmatics of polarity phenomena
Acquisition of (Negative) Polarity Items
Word formation, morphological roots and affixes
Acquisition of (Dutch) morphology

Grants & Scholarships

September 2009 - August 2011   

Huygens Scholarship programme 2009, Scholarship awarded by Nuffic for the Research Master in Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam, 57,120 euro.

October 2007

Travel grants awarded by the NLPVF for workshop on Chinese-Dutch translation, Amsterdam, 1,000 euro.

June 2006

Travel grants awarded by the NLPVF for workshop on Chinese-Dutch translation, Amsterdam, 1,000 euro.

References

• prof. dr. F.P. (Fred) Weerman (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

• prof. dr. H.H. (Hedde) Zeijlstra (Universität Göttingen)

• dr. J. (Jan) Don (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

Dandong from the Yalu River

I was born and raised in a small city called Dandong in Northeastern China adjacent to the Yalu River which separates China from North Korea. My father is Mandarin and my mother is Korean. Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to learn Korean as a child. Me and many people in my surroundings considered this a big regret. After the completion of my linguistics education I do even more so, as I now know how important it is to acquire a second language within the critical period. However, I made up for this unfortunate course of events during my later studies in Beijing.
After 19 years in my small home town I went to Beijing in 2002 to attend the Communication University of China. Without the faintest idea of what Dutch sounds like or knowing anything about the people and culture I enrolled in the bachelor program Dutch Language and Culture. In 2006, I completed it and found a job at a Dutch company in Beijing which mostly entailed communicating with and making arrangements for its Dutch clients. The job could however not keep me interested.
With my background in Dutch and special interest in linguistics (which I may owe to my mother being Korean, the only one who spoke a different language) and a desire to continue my academic education I came to the Netherlands. In 2008 I applied for the master's program Dutch Language and Culture at the University of Amsterdam. Within the next three years I completed a requisite pre-master program (equivalent to a BA in Dutch Language and Culture) and obtained two master's degrees with distinction (' cum laude '): Dutch Language and Culture (MA) and Linguistics (RMA). This time at the university further sparked my enthusiasm for the field of Linguistics and especially my interest in Dutch Linguistics ( Neerlandistiek ).
In September 2011 I start my PhD project Acquiring Negative Polarity Items at Department of Dutch Linguistics of the University of Amsterdam. In the coming four years, I will be exploring the first language acquisition of Negative Polarity Items in Dutch, English and Mandarin by means of both corpus study and experiments. Please feel free to download my complete curriculum vitae below.

• CV Jing Lin

Presentation at IGG39 (Me, Hedde (one of the co-authors) and Petra (the chair of the session)), on 22 February, 2013 (Reggio Emilia, Italy)

2015

Lin, J. (2015) "Acquiring the non-wh meaning of wh-indeterminates in Mandarin Chinese", paper to be presented at 48th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Leiden University Center for Linguistics (LUCL), September 2-5, 2015. 

Weerman, F., J. Lin & H. Zeijlstra (2015) "On the licensee question of NPIs from the perspective of language acquisition", paper to be presented at 48th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Leiden University Center for Linguistics (LUCL), September 2-5, 2015.  

Lin, J. (2015) "On the distribution and the acquisition of Germanic NEEDs: German between Dutch and English", presented at A Germanic Sandwich 2015, University of Norttingham, April 24-25, 2015.

Schaeffer, J. & J. Lin (2015) "On the mass-count distinction in child and adult Mandarin Chinese", presented at Leiden Utrecht Semantics Happenings (LUSH), Leiden University, the Netherlands, April 15, 2015.  

Schaeffer, J. & J. Lin (2015) "On the mass-count distinction in child and adult Mandarin Chinese", presented at TiN-dag 2015, Utrecht University, the Netherlands, February 7, 2015.   

Lin, J. & H. Zeijlstra (2015) "Two types of existential NPIs: evidence from first language acquisition", presented at TiN-dag 2015, Utrecht University, the Netherlands, February 7, 2015.    

Lin, J. & J. Schaeffer (2015) "Distinguishing mass and count without grammatical cues: Evidence from child and adult Mandarin Chinese", poster presented at GALANA 6, University of Maryland, February 19-21, 2015.

2014

Lin, J. & Y. van Baal (2014) "Onderzoeksmethodes rondom hoeven", lecture for BA-course Taalontwikkeling, the Netherlands, December 8, 2014.

Lin, J., F. Weerman & H. Zeijlstra (2014) "Mandarin shenme as a superweak NPI: distribution and acquisition", presented at ISCLD3, University of London, London, June 11-13, 2014. 

Lin, J., F. Weerman & H. Zeijlstra (2014) "Emerging NPIs: the acquisition of Dutch modal verb hoeven 'need' ", presented at Seminar on Semantics, University of Chicago, Chicago, April 23, 2014.  

Lin, J., F. Weerman & H. Zeijlstra (2014) "Acquiring shenme as a superweak NPI in Mandarin Chinese", presented at Seminar on Semantics, University of Chicago, Chicago, April 9, 2014.  

Lin, J., F. Weerman & H. Zeijlstra (2014) "Chinese shenme as a superweak NPI in corpus and experiments", presented at Grammar & Cognition Meeting, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, February 28, 2014. 

Lin, J., F. Weerman & H. Zeijlstra (2014) "From lexical to abstract: Dutch children's acquisition of NPI hoeven ('need') in corpus and experiments", presented for (r)MA course Current Issues I, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, March 3, 2014.  

Lin, J. (2014) "Appels? Appel? Appelsap? Appeltaart? Learning mass-count distinction in Mandarin Chinese", guest lecture for BA-course Theoretische Taalkunde, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, February 21, 2014.  

Lin, J., F. Weerman & H. Zeijlstra (2014) "From lexical to abstract: [HOEVEN NIET] and [HOEVEN NEG] in experiments", presented at TIN-dag 2014 Utrecht University, the Netherlands, February 1, 2014.  

2013

Lin, J., F. Weerman & H. Zeijlstra (2013) "Emerging NPIs: from lexical frames to abstract analyses", paper presented at Grammar & Cognition Meeting, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, December 11, 2013.  

Lin, J., F. Weerman & H. Zeijlstra (2013) "Emerging NPIs", paper presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Israel Association of Theoretical Linguistics (IATL 29), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, October 6-7, 2013. 

Lin, J. & H. Zeijlstra (2013) "On the emergence of NPIs: why frequency is not enough", paper presented at GALA 2013, University of Oldenburg, Germany, September 5-7, 2013. 

Lin, J., F. Weerman & H. Zeijlstra (2013) "Emerging NPIs", paper presented at the 6th Semantics and Philosophy in Europe Colloquium (SPE 6), St. Petersburg State University, Russia, June 10-14, 2013. 

Lin, J., F. Weerman & H. Zeijlstra (2013) "Same strategy, distinct pathways: explaining the learnability of NPIs and their strengths", presentation on the 39th Incontro di Grammatica Generativa, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy, February 21-23, 2013.

Lin, J. (2013) "Dutch children's acqusition of NPI hoeven ('need') in the absence of negative evidence: solving a learnability problem", presentation on the TIN-dag 2013, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, February 9, 2013.

2012

Lin, J. (2012) "Acquiring Negative Polarity Items", poster presentation on the AUV-dag 2012, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, November 3, 2012.

Lin, J. (2012) "The acquisition of Dutch NPI hoeven ('need'): solving a learnability problem", the NAP-dag 2012, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, October 12, 2012.

Lin, J. & H. Zeijlstra (2012) "L1 acquisition of shenme: evidence for shenme as a super weak Negative Polarity Item", poster presented at the NET-symposium, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, March 9, 2012.

Lin, J (2012) "Acquiring Negative Polarity Items", presented at the Grammar & Cognition meeting, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, March 2, 2012.

Don, J. & J. Lin (2012) "A syntagmatic analysis of 'paradigmatic' morphology", presented at the 15th International Meeting on Morphology, Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna), Vienna, February 9-12, 2012.

Lin, J & H. Zeijlstra (2012) "Mandarin shenme as a Negative Polarity Indefinite: evidence from first language acquisition', poster presented at the International Conference of Linguistic Evidence, University of Tübingen, Germany, February 9-11, 2012. 

2011

Don, J. & J. Lin (2011) "A syntagmatic analysis of 'paradigmatic' morphology", presented at Morfologiedagen 2011, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, December 21-22, 2011.

Don, J. & J. Lin (2011) "Waarom is een Chinees anders dan een Nederlander: een syntagmatische verklaring voor Nederlandse toponymische derivaties", presented at ACLC Juniorenoverleg , University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, December 12, 2011.

Lin, J. (2011) "Mandarin shenme as a Negative Polarity Indefinite: a semantic approach", Workshop the Semantics in the Netherlands Day (the SiN day) IX, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, November 11, 2011.

Don, J. & J. Lin (2011) "A syntagmatic analysis of Dutch toponyms", presented at Workshop Roots and Affixes, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, September 1, 2011. 

Lin, J. (2011) "Waarom is een Chinees anders dan een Nederlander? Een verklaring voor toponymische derivaties vanuit Distributed Morphology", presented at Colloquium Nederlandse Taal en Cultuur, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 17, 2011.

Lin, J. (2011) "BA as patient-marker in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence from L1 acquisition", presented at Workshop Windows on Acquisition and Learnability, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, January 24, 2011.

2010

Lin, J. (2010) "The syntactic vs. the lexical solution in Dutch andEnglish directional phrases: A comparison from the perspective of typological research on spatial expressions", poster presented at Conference A Germanic Sandwich 2010: Dutch between English and German , University of Oldenburg, Germany, September 17-18, 2010.

Lin, J. (2010) "The Rule-based learning model of AL2's in theacquisition of Dutch adjectival inflection: Evidence from Chinese AL2's of Dutch ", presented at Colloquium Gender, University of Amsterdam , the Netherlands, January 25, 2010.

Teaching

Taalontwikkeling (2014-2015)

Taalontwikkeling (2013-2014) 

Taalontwikkeling (2012-2013)  

Taalontwikkeling (2010-2011)   

• Taalontwikkeling - UvA Studiegids

• No ancillary activities