Staff Profile

Biography

Professor Peppina Lee joined the Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) as a Professor at the School of Education and Languages in January 2023. Before joining HKMU, she was an Associate Professor and concurrently served as Associate Dean (Undergraduate Education and Quality Assurance) of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, and prior to that, an Associate Professor at the Macao Polytechnic Institute (Macao Polytechnic University from 2022). Professor Lee specializes in theoretical linguistics, semantics, syntax-semantics interface, Chinese and Cantonese linguistics. She has completed more than ten external and internal research projects as Principal Investigator, and has published or co-edited three books. Her publications also include a number of research papers in refereed journals, such as Journal of Linguistics, Lingua, Linguistics, Journal of Pragmatics, Language and Linguistics, Linguistics and the Human Sciences, ZhongguoYuwen (Studies of the Chinese Language), Dangdai Yuyanxue (Contemporary Linguistics), Chinese Teaching in the World (Shijie Hanyu Jiaoxue).

Teaching Areas & Research Interests

• Theoretical syntax and semantics
• Chinese and Cantonese linguistics
• Dialectal grammar
• Pedagogical grammar
• Contrastive studies of Chinese and English grammar

Academic & Professional Experience

• Principal Investigator (with Bit-chee KWOK as Co-Investigator). A study of modals and modal negatives in the Shantou Southern Min dialect. (Jan 2024 -- ), Research Grants Council, Faculty Development Scheme (FDS, HKSAR).
• Principal Investigator (with bin LI as Co-Investigator). Lingustic investigation of alchohol language: from simulated events to authentic contexts. (Oct 2023 ---), Research and Development Fund, HKMU (R&D Fund, HKMU).
• Principal Investigator (until Dec 2022), Co-Investigator (since Jan 2023) (with Bit-chee KWOK). A study of classifiers and related noun phrases in the Shantou Southern Min dialect. (Jan 2022- June 2025) Research Grants Council, General Research Fund (GRF, HKSAR).

• Principal Investigator (with Paul LAW as Co-Investigator). The Landscape of Chinese Quantifiers --- with Special Reference to Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese. (2014 - 2016) Research Grants Council, General Research Fund (GRF, HKSAR).

• Principal Investigator. Universal Quantification in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese. (2012 – 2016) Research Grants Council, General Research Fund (GRF, HKSAR).

• Principal Investigator.  A Semantic Investigation of Post-verbal Particles and Information Packaging in Cantonese. (2010 – 2013) Research Grants Council, General Research Fund (GRF, HKSAR).

Selected Publications

Books

• (2019) Focus Manifestation in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese: A Comparative Perspective. Oxford: Routledge (UK). (single-authored research monograph)
• (2012) Cantonese Particles and Affixal Quantification. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. (single-authored research monograph)
• (2009) Multi-disciplinary Approaches to Cantonese Studies: Papers from the 13th International Conference on Cantonese and Yue Dialects. Language Information Sciences Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. (co-edited with Chin, Chin-on Andy, Kwok Bit-chee and Tsou, Benjamin)

Journal Articles

• (2023) Proximity, polarity and scalarity: A semantic study of approximative sentence-final particles in Cantonese. Lingua 294.
• (2023) The Referential Interpretation of Chinese Reflexive ziji: From the Perspective of Theory with Empirical Evidences. Chinese Teaching in the World (Shijie Hanyu Jiaoxue), 37(1): 71-84. (with Yueming SUN)
• (2020) “On the semantics of classifier reduplication in Cantonese.” Journal of Linguistics 56 (2020): 701–743.
• (2019) “Contrastivity or Exhaustivity: A comparative study of the semantics of Mandarin shi sentences and English it-clefts.” Foreign Language Teaching and Research (Waiyujiaoxue yu Yanjiu), 51(5): 678-689. (with Ying LIU)
• (2018) “On the semantics of Cantonese pre-predicate jau5 'have'– an existential quantifier of assertive type.” Lingua 210-21: 95-121.
• (2018) “The semantics of Chinese adverb cai in complex sentences and its licensing relation in relevant constructions.” Chinese Teaching in the World (Shijie Hanyu Jiaoxue), 32(1): 39-51. (with Lei ZHANG)
• (2017) “Chinese aspect marker -le and its acquisition by American English speakers.” International Journal of Chinese Linguistics 4.1(2017): 1-21. (with Bin LI and Hongli FAN)
• (2016) “Non-uniformity of Chinese Negators mei(you) and bu towards Focus.” Journal of Contemporary Linguistics (Dangdai Yuyanxue) 18(3): 368-386.
• (2013) “Are Approximate Adverbs Alike? --- An interaction of approximate adverbs with negators and scale.” Studies of the Chinese Language (Zhongguo Yuwen) 2013(5): 406-420.
• (2013) Chinese Adverbial Quan as a Dual-function Operator: a domain restrictor and a universal quantifier. Linguistics and the Human Sciences 8(2): 169-204. (with Haihua PAN & Lei Zhang)
• (2012) “Are all A-quantifiers sensitive to focus?” Journal of Contemporary Linguistics (Dangdai Yuyanxue), 14(2): 111-128.
• (2010) The Landscape of Additive Particles - with special reference to the Cantonese sentence final particle 'tim'. Lingua. 120(2010): 1777-1804. (with Haihua PAN)
• (2009) Distributive operator ge and Some Related Issues. Language and Linguistics. 10(2): 293-314. (with Lei, ZHANG and Haihua PAN)
• (2004) The Role of Pragmatics in Interpreting Chinese Perfective Markers -guo and –le. Journal of Pragmatics. 36 (3): 441-466. (with Haihua PAN)
• (2001) The Chinese Negation Marker bu and Its Association with Focus. Linguistics 39 (4): 703-731. (with Haihua PAN)

Selected Professional & Community Services

• (2019 – Present) Editorial Board member, Journal of Linguistics, published by Cambridge University Press.
• (2022 – Present) Editorial Board member, Book series “Trends in Contemporary Linguistics”, published by Shanghai Educational Publishing House.
• (2022 – Present) Executive Secretary, International Association of Chinese Linguistics.
• (2020 – 2021) President, Linguistic Society of Hong Kong .

Further Information

Link to Google Scholar page

Modified Date: 16 Sep, 2023
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