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European Research Council. ERC Starting Grant Winner. Dr. Yiya Chen Leiden University Center for Linguistics Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (The Netherlands). European Research Council. Background/Experience. From China ... BA from Beijing Foreign Studies University
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European Research Council ERC Starting Grant Winner Dr. Yiya Chen Leiden University Center for Linguistics Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (The Netherlands)
European Research Council Background/Experience • From China ... • BA from Beijing Foreign Studies University • ... to the United States • PhD in Linguistics, State University of New York, Stony Brook • Visiting Assistant Professor/Instructor, University of Colorado at Boulder, Cornell University, and New York University • ... to Europe • Postdoc at the University of Edinburgh (UK) and Radboud University Nijmegen (the Netherlands) • Associate Professor, Leiden University Center for Linguistics • Senior researcher, Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition
European Research Council Past Important Research Awards • 2008-2013 European Research Council (ERC-Starting Grant) • 2007-2012 Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research • Innovational research grant scheme VIDI grant • 2010 Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) • China-Exchange Fellowship Research Highlights • Publication of scientific papers in first-class journals • Regular reviewer for first-class journals of the field and editorial board member of Journal of Phonetics • Co-leader of an international network on prosodic research (funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and other European countries: UK, Portugal, Spain, Germany, and Sweden)
European Research Council My ERC Experience • Suitability • ERC offers an excellent opportunity to establish/consolidate an independent research team • Principal Investigator, 3 Post-docs, 5 PhD students, as well as student/research assistants (together with other funding sources) • Support on pioneering high-impact ideas • Interdisciplinary research team with linguists and psychologists • Research program duration – 5 years • Cohesive research program with more broad and in-depth focus
European Research Council My ERC Experience • Procedure • Proposal submission • User-friendly web interface • Interview by a panel of experts • Good opportunity to communicate research ideas in person • Selection • Open: No national boundary; no scientific discipline boundary • Competitive but fair: Evaluated upon quality of the researcher and the proposal • Benefits • Increased visibility of the research team • More secured academic position • An expanded network with collaborators from America, Europe, and China (e.g., Chinese Academy of Sciences; Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Beijing University; Fudan University)
European Research Council My ERC Research Project: Representation and Processing of Pitch Variation in Tonal Languages (RPPV) - Tonal language: pitch variation signals word meanings e.g. Beijing Mandarin ma [High] ‘mother’ ma [Rising] ‘hemp’ ma [Low] ‘horse’ ma [Falling] ‘to scold’ - Pitch variation in connected speech Beijing Mandarin: Low tone change ([Low] + [Low])tonal domain → ([Rising][Low]) ni hao nihao ‘you’ good’ ‘hello’ Dialects vary significantly in pitch variation patterns.
European Research Council Research Questions • What is the range of pitch variation patterns across Chinese dialects? [Pitch Variation Patterns] • How are words with pitch variation stored in the human brain? [Pitch Variation Representation] • How are they accessed and planned in connected speech? [Pitch Variation Processing]
European Research Council Results and Applications • Areal and cross-language typology of pitch variation • New insights into how pitch variation in tonal languages is stored in the brain and planned in speech production • Better understanding of human cognition in terms of both the structure of language and the way language is comprehended and produced in speech communication • Potential applications: • Improved devices for special needs of hearing or speaking assistance • Efficient systems of human-machine interaction
European Research Council Beyond ERC • Three successfully defended PhDs • Seven PhD projects in-progress, funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council and the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO) • A joint research project (with colleagues from the Psychology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Prof. Yufang Yang and Dr. Xiaoqing Li) • Funded by the China Exchange Programme (CEP) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW),which aims to foster scientific research cooperation between The Netherlands and China