Thomas Hun-tak Lee, Chairperson

Founded in 2004, the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages has evolved in the last ten years from a team of around a dozen faculty members to its current strength of more than twenty. The department had its early roots in the Department of English and the Committee on European Languages, but in view of later academic developments, the University saw the need for an independent department that is concerned not only with English or Chinese or particular languages, but with the scientific study of general properties of language, from a cross-linguistic and comparative perspective. Our Linguistics faculty is known for its expertise in comparative linguistics (in the areas of phonetics, phonology, syntax and semantics), first and second language acquisition, bilingual acquisition, sign linguistics, and the cognitive neuroscience of language. While much of our research is concerned with local languages and the languages of China, the theoretical focus has always been on the discovery of properties and principles that shed light on language and mind. Our Modern Languages faculty members have distinguished themselves in the teaching of French, German, Korean and Spanish, widening at the same time their course offerings to include other languages such as Arabic, Hong Kong Sign Language, Italian, Russian and Thai. The enrollment figures of our Modern Languages courses more than doubled, rising from 2,060 students in 2004-05 to over 4,700 in 2013-14.

Staff Retreat, 2005

Wuhan Field Trip, 2006

Graduating Class, 2014

The curriculum of the Linguistics major programme reflects the central philosophy of the department. We aim to heighten students' sensitivity to the structure, acquisition and use of language with two built-in features. Students are required to take a course on the grammar of English and another on the grammar of Cantonese or Mandarin; in addition, they are required to take at least 9 units of Modern Languages to increase their awareness of language diversity. To acquire concepts for linguistic analysis, students undergo systematic instruction in various foundational aspects of language, with respect to the sound system, sentence structure and the interfaces between meaning and form. In addition, students can choose from a wide range of electives, on first and second language acquisition, bilingualism, sign linguistics, computational linguistics, neurolinguistics, applied linguistics and sociolinguistics. For the department as a whole, we seek to achieve interdisciplinarity in research and training between Linguistics and Modern Languages, and among the linguists themselves.

Compared to other departments of long standing in the Faculty of Arts (Philosophy or History for example, which have been around on campus for 50 years), ours is a very young department. A decade is but a brief moment on the larger time scale of the development of an academic discipline like Linguistics, especially in the socio-historical context of Hong Kong, a community that has never put much premium on basic research that promises no immediate utility. Our faculty members have, however, made active efforts in their respective specializations and have won some degree of recognition for their individual contributions, and for the department as a collective entity. CUHK Linguistics has ranked consistently in the top 50 in the QS World University Rankings in recent years, and our Modern Languages has ranked favorably in the most recent QS rankings (No. 11). We do not in any way take these ratings as reliable indicators of accomplishments, being aware of the inherent biases of such rankings and their haphazard trends. But they seem to indicate that we have been striving seriously toward our goals.

• International conferences and workshops organized by the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages in recent years
• Research centres and laboratories of the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages
• How students view Linguistics

Website for the 10th anniversary celebration of the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/lin/10th/

International conferences and workshops organized by the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages in recent years

GLOW in Asia VI (27-29.12.2007)		Conference on Sign Linguistics and Deaf Education in Asia 2010 (28-30.01.2010)
Workshop on Bilingualism and Language Acquisition (17.03.2010)		Workshop on Coarticulation in New Varieties of English (16.08.2011)
5th International Conference in Evolutionary Linguistics (CIEL) (17-19.08.2013)		Symposium on the Neurogenetics of Language and Cognition (13-15.03.2014)

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Research Centres and Laboratories of the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages

	The Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies focuses on developing interdisciplinary research and professional training for Deaf and hearing students in the areas of sign linguistics, sign language teaching, language development of deaf children and deaf education.
	The Chinese University of Hong Kong-Utrecht University Joint Centre for Language, Mind and Brain represents an innovative effort to synergize and combine the strengths in three parallel focus areas of research, namely, (i) the biological basis of language learning and development, (ii) cognitive neuroscience and (iii) speech-language therapy on two campuses.
	The Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre is dedicated to the study of childhood bilingualism and multilingualism in diverse environments and communities with a focus on the development of Cantonese, Mandarin and English.
	The Language Acquisition Laboratory aims to promote the theoretical study of language acquisition and empirical research on the acquisition of Chinese languages and dialects.
	The Laboratory for Language, Learning and the Brain is dedicated to perform research that informs its understanding of linguistic behaviors to its biological core in order to improve clinical and pedagogical practices.
	The Language and Cognition Laboratory focuses on investigating how language is represented and processed in the human brain, and how different cultures, reflected in their languages, shape perception differently.

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How Students view Linguistics

「語言學並非精修外語或文學分析，語言學研究的角度其實是和自然科學進行研究的角度很相近的。它們都企圖建立一個理論模型去解釋一些現象（物體運動、基因複製或語言獲得的過程等）。語言學研究會以科學方法去有系統地假設、驗證從而達至理論，從蒐集數據至進行分析的思維模式都和其他科學大同小異，其中對邏輯思維的要求要比藝術觸覺多。譬如我們會透過為期長達數年的觀察，以紀錄嬰兒句法成長的過程，並對其作出解釋。」 - 田凱元 (語言學文學學士/2008)		田凱元(右一)
「朋友常常問我為何讀語言學，好像是很專門的東西。對，那些語言結構，的確是平日不大顯眼的東西，但語言學就像顯微鏡一樣，把語言最仔細的底蘊都呈現在我們眼前，使我們驚嘆不已；這些發現一旦走進腦中，就揮之不去，所以當平日遇上一些句子，我們就可以學以致用，嘗試解釋那些語言現象。這個放大的過程不單趣味十足，而且往往還能發現不同民族，甚至是不同階層間的語言差異，展示出語言運用的無盡可能；所以我們看到的，並不止於理論的實踐，還有一個更廣闊、更深層的世界。縱深橫廣，跟生活密不可分，這就是語言學最引人入勝的地方。」 - 施葦樂 (語言學文學學士/2007)
「這幾年在語言學的汪洋中浸淫過後，我有一點不同的體會。正因我學到的不只是單單某一語言的知識，而是一些普遍的原則和概念，這令我學習外語時輕而易舉得多。正如牛頓發現萬有引力，放在地上可以解釋蘋果為什麼掉下來，放上太空可以了解地球怎樣公轉一樣。我學習意大利語時，很多同學掌握不了當中的一些發音，因為這些發音在中英文都是沒有的，但語言學的底子讓我更輕易地掌握它們。學法文時，有一些時態跟英文是相似但不盡相同的，很容易混淆；但語言學早已給我釐清了這些概念，於是都不成問題了。」 - 蔡偉泉 (語言學文學學士/2007)		蔡偉泉(右二)
Thierfelder David Philip (centre)	"In contrast with universities in the United States, students at CUHK are expected to be proficient in both English and Chinese, and thus professors can integrate data from both these languages into their lectures. In this way, students can receive exposure to large amounts of linguistic research from two starkly contrasting languages. For me, this is a great benefit of studying here as I believe it gives students the opportunity to develop their linguistic understanding of two languages with which they are already deeply familiar with academically." - Thierfelder David Philip (BA in Linguistics/2011)

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