Chit-Fung (Lawrence) Lam

I am an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. For the latest updates, including my recent publications and manuscripts, please refer to my personal website: https://sites.google.com/view/c-f-lam

Research Interests

- Syntax, Syntax-Semantics-Discourse Interfaces, Grammatical Theories

- Grammar Engineering (via Xerox Linguistic Environment)

- Acceptability-Judgment Experiments

- Corpus Linguistics (and Bilingualism)

- Linguistics of Sinitic Languages

- Linguistic Typology

I completed a PhD in Linguistics in 2023, specialising in theoretical linguistics (control and complementation). The project was fully funded by SALC and jointly supervised by Prof Kersti Börjars and Prof Eva Schultze-Berndt. The project brought in novel data from Mandarin Chinese, acknowledging the significant cross-linguistic differences between Chinese and Indo-European languages in the relevant grammatical domains. My approach was empirically driven, involving meticulous analysis of data drawn from large-scale language corpora as well as acceptability-judgment experiments (followed by statistical analyses using mixed-effects models in R). I modelled the empirical data in the theoretical framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG), which adopts a constraint-based parallel architecture with mathematically well-grounded characterisation of various types of linguistic information (e.g., syntax, semantics, information structure). LFG-based grammars are computationally implementable via the Xerox Linguistic Environment. My analyses often involve comparison with other grammatical frameworks, in particular, Minimalist ones, to facilitate cross-theoretical understanding.

Since 2020, I have been disseminating my research findings at various conferences with associated published work: 

• In July 2020, I presented at the 25^th International Lexical-Functional Grammar Conference on the topic of “Functional and Anaphoric Control in Mandarin Chinese”.
• In July 2021, I delivered a talk on the topic of anaphora and logophoricity at the 26^th International Lexical-Functional Grammar Conference.
• In Oct 2021, I gave a talk entitled "A Data-driven Approach to Generalised Control Relations in a Discourse Pro-drop Language: Insights from a Parallel-correspondence System of Grammar" at the 30^th South of England LFG Meeting at the University of Oxford.
• In Feb 2022, I gave another talk at the 31^st South of England LFG Meeting at the University of Oxford on "Re-thinking Two 'Restructuring' Phenomena in Parallel Constraint-based Model". 
• In March 2022, I was invited to give a colloquium talk at the University of Debrecen on the topic of reflexive resolution at the syntax-semantics-discourse interface.
• In April 2022, I delivered a talk at the Manchester Forum in Linguistics (mFiL)  on restructuring phenomena from an LFG perspective.
• In July 2022, I gave a talk at the 27^th International Lexical-Functional Grammar Conference analysing the relationships between control complements and two restructuring phenomena, namely, Aspect under Control and Inner Topicalisation. The theoretical analysis was computationally implemented by XLE for Grammar Engineering. The codes are accessible here.
• In Sept 2022, I presented at the 34^th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-34). The talk was entitled "Inner Topicalisation and Focus Fronting in Parallel Constraint-Based Model: Theoretical Analysis and Computational Grammar-Engineering Implementation".
• In Oct 2022, I gave a presentation entitled "Chinese Control Relations in Glue Semantics/Partial Compositional Discourse Representational Theory (PCDRT) terms" at the 33^rd South of England LFG Meeting at the University of Oxford.
• In July 2023, I presented at the 28^th International Lexical-Functional Grammar Conference on "Complement Control at Syntax-Semantics-Discourse Interfaces: An investigation of Mandarin Chinese".

Besides theoretical linguistics, I have also conducted research on bilingualism and corpus linguistics. In 2020, I published the article “Inter-sentential Code-switching and Language Dominance in Cantonese–English Bilingual Children” (co-authored with Prof Stephen Matthews) in the Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech. We applied corpus methods to examine relationships between language dominance and the under-investigated topic of inter-sentential code-switching in Hong Kong Cantonese–English bilingual children. Our findings suggested that intra-sentential and inter-sentential code-switching each have a different status in bilingual children’s developing grammar. We also suggested that, in societies where intra-sentential code-switching is a social norm, inter-sentential code-switching could serve as signs of early bilinguals’ dominance status. (Published version: available here) (Submitted version: available here)

Teaching & Supervision: Qualifications and Experience

I am a Fellow of Advance HE (UK) (awarded in March 2022).

Having received four years of teacher training at The University of Hong Kong, I am a qualified teacher registered with the Hong Kong Education Bureau.

During the four years of teacher training (2011-2015), I taught English to students in Hong Kong at different local schools. Upon graduation, I continued teaching in Hong Kong for several years before embarking on PhD studies. Some of the classes I taught were at the pre-university level, preparing the students for English proficiency tests as part of the university entrance exam in Hong Kong.

In 2021, I taught the weekly seminars of the Linguistic Typology course for the 2^nd and 3^rd years of undergraduate students at the University of Manchester.

Currently, I serve as a Supervisor and Examiner in the MA in Linguistics programme at the University of Hong Kong for research projects related to syntax, semantics, and bilingualism.