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Alvin Cheng-Hsien Chen

Associate Professor

National Taiwan Normal University

Biography

I am a corpus linguist, teaching at the Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan, where I am a full-time faculty member in the Linguistics track.

My journey into linguistics began a long time ago during my Pronunciation Class as a freshman in college. I was fascinated by the systematic organization of sounds and their application to learning human speech sounds. This novel perspective inspired me to pursue linguistic studies further, thanks in large part to my mentor, Cherry Li!

Currently, my work extends beyond traditional linguistics. Most of my research focuses on the methodology of quantitative corpus linguistics. I am particularly interested in the interrelationship between language, interaction, and cognition. A longstanding question that I have been exploring is how repeated or recurrent language use motivates the emergence of systematic linguistic structures. Furthermore, I investigate how this usage-based view of language connects to computational modeling of language processing, language acquisition and learning, and the mental representation of speakers.

I have published corpus-based research in several academic journals, such as Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, Journal of Phonetics, Language Learning, System, Language and Speech and continue to be active in research on computational approaches to language processing.

I am currently a co-editor of Concentric: Studies in Linguistics, and serve on the editorial board of Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory.

Over the past few decades, I have witnessed and adapted to the paradigmatic shift towards quantitative and computational approaches in corpus linguistics. While this transition has been challenging, it has also been immensely rewarding.

And, I am a fan of and , the two artificial languages that have revolutionized the way we process human languages .

Finally, a few things I do if I have extra time: , , , .

Interests

  • Quantitative Corpus Linguistics
  • Computational Linguistics
  • Speech Prosody
  • Language and Cognition
  • Language Learning

Education

  • PhD in Computational Linguistics, 2006-2012

    National Taiwan University & Academia Sinica (TGIP-CLCLP)

  • MA in Linguistics, 2003-2006

    National Taiwan University

  • BA in English, 1999-2003

    National Taiwan Normal University

Experience

 
 
 
 
 

Associate Professor

National Taiwan Normal University

Aug 2021 – Present Taipei, Taiwan
Courses offered: Corpus Linguistics, Computational Linguistics, Introduction to Programming Languages for Linguistic Analysis, Topics on Quantitative Corpus Linguistics
 
 
 
 
 

Assistant Professor

National Taiwan Normal University

Aug 2016 – Jul 2021 Taipei, Taiwan
 
 
 
 
 

Assistant Professor

National Changhua University of Education

Feb 2013 – Jul 2016 Changhua City, Taiwan

Skills

R

80%

Statistics

80%

Java

20%

Python

40%

HTML

40%

CSS

40%

Courses

*

ENC2055

Introduction to Programming Languages for Linguistic Analysis

ENU0341

Digital Scholarship in Humanities: Text Analytics with R (Under Preparation)

ENC2045

Computational Linguistics

ENC2036

Corpus Linguistics

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