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College of Arts and Humanities

Jidong Chen

Professor

Linguistics | 559.278.8402 | Office: PB 421

jchen@csufresno.edu

Education

Ph.D. in Linguistics, 2008
         Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
         Nijmegen, the Netherlands & 
         Free University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
MA in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, 2000
          Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
          Guangzhou, China
BA in English Language and Literature, 1997
          Central China Normal University
          Wuhan, China

Courses Taught

Ling 265 Graduate Seminar in Language Acquisition
Ling 165 Language Acquisition
Ling 153 Psycholinguistics
Ling 147 Bilingualism
Ling 30   Language through Lifespan
Ling 11   Linguistics for Teachers
Ling 10   Introduction to Language
Chin 1A  Elementary Chinese
Chin 1B  Elementary Chinese
Chin 2A  Intermediate Chinese 
Chin 2B  Intermediate Chinese 
2018 – present            Professor, Department of Linguistics, California State University, Fresno
2013 – 2018                Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, California State University, Fresno
2006 – 2013                Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, California State University, Fresno
2002 – 2006                Ph.D. fellowship, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, the Netherlands
2000 – 2002                Lecturer, Foreign Language Department, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China

Please see more at my website: https://jidongchenchen.weebly.com
First and second language acquisition, cognitive linguistics, Chinese linguistics, child and adult language processing, information structure, typical and atypical child language development

My research examines how children learn languages, and how language and cognition interact. In particular, I am interested in children’s semantic and syntactic development, focusing on the acquisition of temporal marking (e.g., aspect), relative clauses, verb argument structure, as well as the influence of language on cognition in typically developing children and adults from a cross-linguistic perspective. I am also working on collaborative projects that investigate speech and co-speech gestures in relation to event construal and event representation cross-linguistically and information status and word order in speakers of typologically different languages such as Arabic, English, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish (more details can be found here: sites.google.com/a/colorado.edu/ldclab/current-projects). I am also interested in lexical and morphosyntactic development in bilingual or multilingual children, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. and adult second language learners.
JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
  1. ​Chen, J., & Qian, Z. (2022). Learning the Lexical Semantics of Mandarin Monomorphemic State-Change Verbs by English-Speaking Learners of Mandarin Chinese. Languages 7(3), 215; doi: 10.3390/languages7030215.
  2. Speed, L., Chen, J., Huettig, F., & Majid, A. (2021). Classifier categories reflect, but do not affect conceptual organization. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 47(4): 625-640. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000967.
  3. Chen, J., & Wang, X. (2020). A longitudinal study of the acquisition of the polysemous verb 打dǎ in Mandarin Chinese. Languages, 5, 23. doi: 10.3390/languages5020023.
  4. Wang, X., & Chen, J. (2020). The acquisition of Mandarin consonants by English learners: The relationship between perception and production. Languages, 5, 20. doi: 10.3390/languages5020020.
  5. Chen, J., Narasimhan, B., Chan, A., Yang, W., & Yang, S. (2020). Information structure and word order preference in child and adult speech of Mandarin Chinese. Languages, 5, 14. doi:  10.3390/languages5020014.
  6. Chen, J. (2018). “He killed the chicken, but it didn’t die”: An empirical study of the lexicalization of state change in Mandarin monomorphemic verbs. Journal of Chinese Language and Discourse, 9(2): 136-161. doi: 10.1075/cld.17007.che.
  7. Chen, J. (2017). When transparency doesn’t mean ease: Learning the meaning of resultative verb compounds in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Child Language 44(3), 695-718. doi: 10.1017/S0305000916000192. (download)
  8. Chen, J. & Shirai, Y. (2014). The acquisition of relative clauses in spontaneous child speech in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Child Language, 42, 394-422. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000914000051  (download)
  9. Brown A. & Chen, J. (2013). A crosslinguistic study of gesture and speech about motion events in English, Japanese, and Chinese. Cognitive Linguistics, 24(4): 605-631. doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2013-0021. (download)
  10. Chen, J. & Shirai, Y. (2010). The development of aspectual marking in child Mandarin. Applied Psycholinguistics, 31, 1-28. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716409990257.(download)
  11. Heuttig, F., Chen, J, Bowerman, M., & Majid, A. (2010). Do language-specific categories shape conceptual processing? Mandarin classifier distinctions influence eye gaze behavior, but only during linguistic processing. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 10, 39-58. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/156853710X497167. (download)
  12. Chen, J. (2007). "He cut-break the rope": Encoding and categorizing "cutting and breaking" events in Mandarin. Cognitive Linguistics, 18, 273-285. doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/COG.2007.015. (download)
  13. Chen, J. (2001). A tentative study of the learnability problem in the learning of the English tough constructions by CEFL learners. Modern Foreign Languages, 24, 159-169.
BOOK CHAPTERS
  1. Chen, J. (2016). The emergence of verb argument structure in Mandarin Chinese. In Hongyin Tao (ed.), Integrating Chinese Linguistic research and language learning and teaching (pp. 1-11). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (download)
  2. Chen, J. (2012). “She from bookshelf take-descend-come the box”: Encoding and categorizing placement events in Mandarin. In B. Narasimhan, A. Kopecka & B. Narasimhan (eds.), Events of “putting” and “taking”: A crosslinguistic perspective (Typological Studies in Language) (pp. 37-54). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (download)
  3. Chen, J. & R. Ai. (2012). Learning to encode motion and state change by American learners of Mandarin Chinese. In Y. Xiao, L. Tao & H. L. Soh (eds.), Current Issues in Chinese Linguistics (pp. 579-603). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. (download)
  4. Chen, J. (2006). The acquisition of verb compounding in Mandarin. In E. Clark & B. F. Kelly (eds.), Constructions in acquisition (pp. 111-136). Stanford, CA: CSLI. (download)
  5. Chen, J. (2002). The life of Rong Huan. In D. Liang (ed.), The biography of the historical celebrities of Zhuhai (pp. 86-90). Guangzhou, P.R. China: Jinan University Press.
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS PAPERS
  1. Chen, J., Fu, G., Yang, S., & Narasimhan, B. (2021). Processing Factors and Syntactic Choice in Mandarin Child and Caregiver Speech. In D. Dionne & L.-A. V. Covas (Eds.), The Proceedings of the 45th Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 146-156). Boston, MA: Cascadilla Press.
  2. Wang, X. & Chen, J. (2019). English speakers’ perception of Mandarin Consonants: The effect of phonetic distances and L2 experience. In Sasha Calhoun, Paola Escudero, Marija Tabain & Paul Warren (Eds.), The Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 250-254), Canberra, Australia: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.
  3. Semsem, M., & Chen, J. (2019). The use of word order to mark information status in adult and child Saudi Arabic. In T. Driscoll (Ed.), The Proceedings of the 24th Western Conference on Linguistics (pp. 173-178). California State University, Fresno.
  4. De Ruiter, L., Narasimhan, B., Chen, J., & Lack, J. (2018). Children’s use of prosody and word order to indicate information status in English phrasal conjuncts. In P. Farrell (Ed.), The Proceedings of the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Society of America (pp. 41-49). Salt Lake City, Utah. doi: https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v3i1.4331
  5. Chen, J. & Narasimhan (2018). Information structure and ordering preferences in child and adult speech in English. In A. B. Bertolini & M. J. Kaplan (Eds.). The Proceedings of the 42nd Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 131-139). Boston, MA: Cascadilla Press.
  6. Chen, J. (2018). “He killed the chicken, but it didn’t die”: An empirical study of the lexicalization of state change in Mandarin monomorphemic verbs. In A. Wallington, A. Foltz, & J. Ryan. (Eds.), Selected Papers from the 6th UK Cognitive Linguistics Conference (pp. 36-47). (download)
  7. Speed, L., Chen, J., Huettig, F., & Majid, A. (2016). Do classifier categories affect or reflect object concepts? In Papafragou, A., Grodner, D., Mirman, D., & Trueswell, J. C. (Eds.), The Proceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science, Philadelphia. (download)
  8. Chen, J. (2015). The emergence of verb argument structure in child Mandarin. In H. Tao, Y. H. Lee, D. Su, K. Tsurumi, W. Wang, & Y. Yang (Eds.), The Proceedings of the 27th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics, (Vol. 1, pp. 105-114). UCLA, CA. Distributed by The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio: NACCL Proceedings Online.
  9. Chen, J. (2010). Putting and taking events in Mandarin Chinese. In The Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. Berkeley, CA. (download)
  10. Chen, J. & Ai, R. (2010). Encoding motion and state change in L2 Mandarin. In Y. Xiao (ed.), The Proceedings of the 21st North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (pp. 149-164). Bryant University, Smithfield, RI. Distributed by The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio: NACCL Proceedings Online.
  11. Ai, R. & Chen, J. (2008). A puzzle in Chinese dative shift. In M. K. M. Chan & H. Kang (eds.), The Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (pp. 527-538). Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. Distributed by The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio: NACCL Proceedings Online.
  12. Chen, J. (2006), ‘Sister cry-run brother’, who cries and who runs?: Learning the argument structure of Mandarin resultative verb compounds. In G. Chatzidamianos, G. Chi, L. Frey, K. Hargreaves, T. Kras, N. Novakovic & E. V. Beltran (eds.). Cambridge Linguistics 2004 Proceedings (pp. 81-89), Cambridge, UK.
  13. Chen, J. (2005). Interpreting state change: Learning the meaning of verbs and verb compounds in Mandarin. In A. Brugos, M. R. Clark-Cotton, & S. Ha (eds.), A supplement to the proceedings of the 29th Boston University Conference on Language Development. (download)
Please see more on my website.