About Me

I am a postdoctoral fellow in the language processing lab at the University of Chicago, working with Ming Xiang. I received my PhD in Linguistics at UConn, where I was fortunately advised by Magdalena Kaufmann.

My research primarily focuses on semantics and pragmatics, including semantic/pragmatic theories and their implications for language processing. I employ a combination of theoretical and experimental tools to investigate how different linguistic expressions organize and constrain discourse contexts, as well as how various semantic/pragmatic notions influence language processing. Topics that I have worked on include discourse structures, speech acts and clause types, discourse particles, conditionals, temporality and modality.

My work is also informed by a cross-linguistic perspective. I work on East Asian languages. In addition to my native language Mandarin, I have collaborated with other researchers on topics in focus prosody, additive and concessive particles, and speech verbs in Japanese, Shanghainese and Cantonese.

About my name: my given name Xuetong 雪桐 can be transcribed as [ɕye˨˩˦ tʰʊŋ˧˥], my surname Yuan 袁 as [yɛn˧˥].