Publications | Yuyang Liu

2026

Zhou, Zhenghao Herbert & Yuyang Liu. 2026.

More than one agreement planning mechanism: Reflexive number source sensitive to syntactic structures.

Cognitive Science Society (CogSci) 48.

ABS BIB URL

Prior studies on agreement attraction in sentence production have investigated the differences in verb and reflexive agreement planning, as evidenced by a distinction in their error rates. This study investigated two possible accounts: Planning Order, where verbs and reflexives share the same underlying mechanism that is applied at different stages, and Number Source, where verbs and reflexives retrieve features from different sources. To further adjudicate between the two, we extended the empirical ground to reflexives in complement and adjunct positions. Results replicated previous findings on the distinction between verbs and reflexives, while no significant difference was found in attraction effects among reflexive conditions, thereby supporting Number Source. Predicted by neither account, we novelly observed a significant increase in baseline error rate for adjunct but an insignificant increase for complement, suggesting a finer-grained Number Source model sensitive to syntactic structural differences.
@article{zhou_more_2026, title = {More than one agreement planning mechanism: {{Reflexive}} number source sensitive to syntactic structures}, author = {Zhou, Zhenghao Herbert and Liu, Yuyang}, year = {2026}, month = jul, journal = {Cognitive Science Society (CogSci)}, volume = {48}, pages = {1369--1375}, url = {https://escholarship.org/uc/item/011439jt}, }
Liu, Yuyang & Tommy Tsz-Ming Lee. 2026.

Pseudogapping parameters.

Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America (PLSA) 11.

ABS BIB DOI

This paper makes two main contributions. First, it offers novel evidence supporting an extension of the traditional view that Chinese languages lack English-style gapping to include pseudogapping. Second, it investigates the parametric underpinnings of pseudogapping, aiming to account for why Cantonese and Mandarin disallow a movement plus deletion derivation of pseudogapping despite allowing focus movement and VP ellipsis, operations that are thought to be involved in Japanese pseudogapping. We attribute this contrast to a FocP licensing parameter that prohibits ellipsis of VP complements following focus movement in Chinese, a parameter further motivated by right dislocation asymmetries. We conclude that the crosslinguistic distribution of pseudogapping emerges from the interplay among multiple phenomena, including overt QR, VP ellipsis, focus movement, and FocP licensing.
@article{liu_pseudogapping_2026, title = {Pseudogapping parameters}, author = {Liu, Yuyang and Lee, Tommy Tsz-Ming}, year = {2026}, month = jun, journal = {Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America (PLSA)}, volume = {11}, doi = {10.3765/plsa.v11i1.6140}, eid = {6140}, }
Liu, Yuyang & Ka-Fai Yip. 2026.

Again, finiteness, and split aspect in Chinese Languages.

Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 44.

ABS BIB DOI

This paper motivates a hierarchical, size-based view of finiteness in languages without inflectional morphology, such as Chinese. Drawing on an array of crossclausal dependencies of ‘again’-type and aspectual elements in Mandarin and Cantonese, we argue that finiteness distinction is best understood as properties arising from clause size differences rather than a simple featural distinction. Empirically, Mandarin preverbal you ‘again’ and Cantonese postverbal -faan ‘again’ exhibit exceptional scopal behavior, which is not found with other Chinese ‘again’-type elements that are lower than the outer aspect. This behavior is possible only across nonfinite clauses with a size smaller than TP (i.e., vP), resembling restructuring crosslinguistically. Adopting the split aspect approach and a hierarchy of complement clause sizes, we propose that you and -faan move to and agree with an outer AspP above vP, respectively. The locality constraint stems from intervention by the outer AspP in the complement clause, which is present in larger nonfinite clauses such as TPs in addition to fullfledged finite CPs. Furthermore, we argue that the minimal size of nonfinite clauses is vP, which contains an inner AspP and blocks restructuring-like patterns with inner aspectual elements. Our findings uncover a fine-grained cartography of ‘again’-type elements and aspectual elements in Chinese languages on the one hand and support a gradient distinction in finiteness marked by complement size over an all-or-nothing dichotomy on the other.
@article{liu_again_2026, title = {Again, finiteness, and split aspect in {{Chinese}} Languages}, author = {Liu, Yuyang and Yip, Ka-Fai}, year = {2026}, month = jun, journal = {Natural Language \& Linguistic Theory}, volume = {44}, number = {2}, doi = {10.1007/s11049-026-09708-5}, eid = {25}, }
Liu, Yuyang. 2026.

Objects and nothingness: Applicative-licensed nominal ellipsis.

Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America (PLSA) 11.

ABS BIB DOI

Existing accounts of Mandarin elided objects, such as true empty category (TEC), provide broad data coverage but face empirical and theoretical challenges. Observations show that some of the generalizations behind TEC may be refined, and that TEC overgenerates with objects of prepositions and object control verbs. This work proposes an applicative-licensed nominal ellipsis (ALNE) analysis, correlating elided objects with applicative constructions. Addressing TEC’s overgeneration and nonlocal economy, ALNE offers a robust theoretical alternative, introducing a previously unrecognized ellipsis type.
@article{liu_objects_2026, title = {Objects and nothingness: {{Applicative-licensed}} nominal ellipsis}, author = {Liu, Yuyang}, year = {2026}, month = may, journal = {Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America (PLSA)}, volume = {11}, doi = {10.3765/plsa.v11i1.6077}, eid = {6077}, }
Liu, Yuyang & Yitong Luo. 2026.

Dissecting the illocutionary force phrase: New evidence from SFP embeddability.

Proceedings of GLOW (Generative Linguistics in the Old World) 47.

ABS BIB DOI

Based on Mandarin question markers’ embeddability profiles in nonquotational subordinating contexts, this paper argues in favor of Dayal’s (2025) three-way split in projections that contribute to the illocutionary force, attributing the non-co-occurrence of question markers to their semantics. Specifically, we propose that (i) LowIForceP houses the most embeddable meiyou, Op_ᴡʜ, and A-not-A; (ii) PerspP houses question markers restrictedly embeddable like bu and ma; and (iii) HighIForceP houses the unembeddable ba. Looking deeper into the embeddability patterns of bu and ma, we argue that our PerspP should be interpreted à la Dayal 2025 in the sense that it introduces a not-at-issue requirement for the embedded question to be potentially active for the matrix subject. We explicate that the embedding of bu and ma is restricted by two constraints: (i) the embedded clause size must satisfy the syntactic selectional requirement of the embedding context; and (ii) the overall interpretation must be compatible with a not-at-issue requirement lexically introduced. Our proposal calls for a theory of selection that manifests a conspiracy of syntax and semantics.
@article{liu_dissecting_2026, title = {Dissecting the illocutionary force phrase: {{New}} evidence from {{SFP}} embeddability}, author = {Liu, Yuyang and Luo, Yitong}, year = {2026}, month = may, journal = {Proceedings of GLOW (Generative Linguistics in the Old World)}, volume = {47}, doi = {10.11576/GLOW-1266}, eid = {1266}, }

2025

Liu, Yuyang. 2025.

Mandarin Chinese ma: Q morpheme, SA intensifier, or PQP?

North East Linguistic Society (NELS) 55.

@article{liu_mandarin_2025,
  title = {{{Mandarin Chinese}} {\emph{ma}}: {{Q}} morpheme, {{SA}} intensifier, or {{PQP}}?},
  author = {Liu, Yuyang},
  year = {2025},
  month = oct,
  journal = {North East Linguistic Society (NELS)},
  volume = {55},
  number = {2},
  pages = {89--98},
}

2024

Liu, Yuyang. 2024.

‘Again’ skipping in Mandarin Chinese: A syntactic approach.

West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL) 40.

ABS BIB URL

Like English again, Mandarin you ‘again’ has repetitive (“the event has happened before”) and restitutive (“the resulting state has held before”) readings. This paper notes a newly observed “scope skipping” effect of you, dubbed ‘again’ skipping, as well as a restriction on the availability of the readings of you. It offers an explanation in terms of interpretive options sensitive to reconstruction and, paying particular attention to Romance languages, discusses the crosslinguistic implications of ’again’ skipping.
@article{liu_again_2024, title = {`{{Again}}' skipping in {{Mandarin Chinese}}: {{A}} syntactic approach}, author = {Liu, Yuyang}, year = {2024}, month = nov, journal = {West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL)}, volume = {40}, pages = {213--222}, url = {https://www.lingref.com/cpp/wccfl/40/abstract3713.html}, }
Luo, Yunfei, Yuyang Liu, Rukai Cai & Tauhidur Rahman. 2024.

Start simple: Progressive difficulty multitask learning.

In Proceedings of the 2024 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL): Human Language Technologies.

ABS BIB DOI

The opaque nature of neural networks, often described as black boxes, poses significant challenges in understanding their learning mechanisms, which limit our ability to fully optimize and trust these models. Inspired by how humans learn, this paper proposes a novel neural network training strategy that employs multitask learning with progressive difficulty subtasks, which we believe can potentially shed light on the internal learning mechanisms of neural networks. We implemented this strategy across a range of NLP tasks, data sets, and neural network architectures and observed notable improvements in model performance. This suggests that neural networks may be able to extract common features and internalize shared representations across similar subtasks that differ in their difficulty. Analyzing this strategy could lead us to more interpretable and robust neural networks, enhancing both their performance and our understanding of their nature.
@inproceedings{luo_start_2024, title = {Start simple: {{Progressive}} difficulty multitask learning}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2024 {{Conference}} of the {{North American Chapter}} of the {{Association}} for {{Computational Linguistics}} ({{NAACL}}): {{Human}} Language Technologies}, author = {Luo, Yunfei and Liu, Yuyang and Cai, Rukai and Rahman, Tauhidur}, editor = {Cao, Yang and Papadimitriou, Isabel and Ovalle, Anaelia and Zampieri, Marcos and Ferraro, Francis and Swayamdipta, Swabha}, year = {2024}, month = jun, volume = {4}, pages = {48--55}, publisher = {Association for Computational Linguistics}, address = {Stroudsburg, PA}, doi = {10.18653/v1/2024.naacl-srw.7}, }

2023

Kramer, Benjamin, Michael Stern, Yichen Wang, Yuyang Liu & Jason Shaw. 2023.

Synchrony and stability of articulatory landmarks in English and Mandarin CV sequences.

International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS) 20.

ABS BIB URL

Theories of articulatory timing differ in whether the onsets or endpoints of movements are coordinated. We assessed these alternatives in word-initial CV sequences in English, a language without lexical tone, and Mandarin, a language with lexical tone, as measured using electromagnetic articulography. We found that, on average, the vowel target and consonant offset were achieved near-synchronously in both English and Mandarin, while the onsets of the consonant and vowel movements showed a temporal lag, a result consistent with endpoint-based coordination. The timing of the near-synchronous landmarks, however, was also more variable than the timing of onsets, suggesting a need for closer examination of synchrony- vs. stability-based metrics of temporal coordination.
@article{kramer_synchrony_2023, title = {Synchrony and stability of articulatory landmarks in {{English}} and {{Mandarin CV}} sequences}, author = {Kramer, Benjamin and Stern, Michael and Wang, Yichen and Liu, Yuyang and Shaw, Jason}, year = {2023}, month = aug, journal = {International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS)}, volume = {20}, number = {3}, pages = {1022--1026}, url = {https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS2023/full_papers/611.pdf}, }
Liu, Yuyang, Yichen Wang, Michael Stern, Benjamin Kramer & Jason Shaw. 2023.

Temporal scope of articulatory slowdown under informational focus: Data from English and Mandarin.

International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS) 20.

ABS BIB URL

Syllables produced under informational focus are longer than nonfocused syllables. Articulatorily, it is unclear whether this lengthening is the result of longer gestures or of less overlap between them and whether the articulatory basis of this effect varies across languages. We investigated these temporal aspects of focus production in English and Mandarin CV sequences using electromagnetic articulography, measuring four theoretically relevant intervals in nonfocused and focused conditions. Our results indicated that both English and Mandarin showed a temporal slowdown under focus, although the scope and magnitude of this slowdown varied across languages. We propose a generalization of the prosodic gesture model to account for the results.
@article{liu_temporal_2023, title = {Temporal scope of articulatory slowdown under informational focus: {{Data}} from {{English}} and {{Mandarin}}}, author = {Liu, Yuyang and Wang, Yichen and Stern, Michael and Kramer, Benjamin and Shaw, Jason}, year = {2023}, month = aug, journal = {International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS)}, volume = {20}, number = {4}, pages = {1691--1695}, url = {https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS2023/full_papers/1089.pdf}, }
Liu, Yuyang & Ka-Fai Yip. 2023.

High vs. low ‘again’: Mandarin you vs. zai and Cantonese -faan vs. -gwo.

Buckeye East Asian Linguistics (BEAL) 7.

ABS BIB URL

This paper discusses the exceptional scopal behavior of Mandarin preverbal you ‘again’ and Cantonese postverbal -faan ‘again’ in comparison with other ‘again’-type elements in Mandarin and Cantonese, including zai and -gwo. It reveals that this exceptional scopal behavior is determined by the position of ‘again’ and the size of the embedded clause. The paper suggests that Mandarin and Cantonese ‘again’ has two positions: one associated with outer aspect above vP and one associated with inner aspect below vP. It also proposes that nonfinite clauses can be as small as vP and lack an outer aspect. It suggests that the exceptional scopal behavior is a result of the syntactic association with outer aspect across vP, which is only possible for high ‘again’.
@article{liu_high_2023, title = {High vs. low `again': {{Mandarin}} {\emph{you}} vs. {\emph{zai}} and {{Cantonese}} {\emph{-faan}} vs. {\emph{-gwo}}}, author = {Liu, Yuyang and Yip, Ka-Fai}, year = {2023}, month = aug, journal = {Buckeye East Asian Linguistics (BEAL)}, volume = {7}, pages = {94--104}, url = {https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/103526}, }
Liu, Yuyang. 2023.

‘Again’ separation in Italian.

Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America (PLSA) 8.

ABS BIB DOI

In Italian, ri- ‘again’ can be separated from the constituent it is semantically attached to and challenges the structural account for the ambiguity of ‘again’-type elements. To address this issue, this paper proposes a solution through aspectual agreement and suggests a movement and reconstruction analysis for the separation effect of ri-. It also provides supporting evidence for this analysis through Coordinate Structure Constraint and Relativized Minimality.
@article{liu_again_2023, title = {`{{Again}}' separation in {{Italian}}}, author = {Liu, Yuyang}, year = {2023}, month = apr, journal = {Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America (PLSA)}, volume = {8}, doi = {10.3765/plsa.v8i1.5509}, eid = {5509}, }

2021

Liu, Yuyang. 2021.

‘Again’ skipping in Mandarin Chinese.

University of Massachusetts BA thesis.

BIB

@phdthesis{liu_again_2021,
  type = {{{BA}} thesis},
  title = {`{{Again}}' skipping in {{Mandarin Chinese}}},
  author = {Liu, Yuyang},
  year = {2021},
  month = may,
  address = {Amherst, MA},
  school = {University of Massachusetts},
}