Heng CHEN（Associate Professor, Postgraduate Tutor）
Research interests:
Quantitative linguistics and digital humanities, corpus linguistics and second language development, language evolution, complex adaptive systems and language complex networks, dependency grammar.
Contact information:
Email: chenheng@gdufs.edu.cn
Mailing address: Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, No. 2 North Baiyun Avenue, Guangzhou (510420), China.
Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Heng_Chen18
https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/929509
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=7t8b3MAAAAAJ
https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0003-3678-9827
Education:
2013.09-2016.06: Ph.D. in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Center for the Study of Language and Cognition, Zhejiang University, China.
2010.09-2013.06: Master's degree in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, School of Literature, Huazhong Normal University.
Work experience:
2016.07-2019.12: Lecturer at Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.
2020.01-Present: Associate Professor at Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.
2021.01-2024.12: Yunshan Young Scholar.
Academic publications:
1. Heng Chen & Yaqin Wang*. How does language evolve as a multi-level system? A quantitative exploration of written Chinese. Language Sciences, 2023, 98(4), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2023.101554 (SSCI, A&HCI)
2. Yaqin Wang & Heng Chen*. The Menzerath-Altmann Law on the Clause Level in English Texts. Linguistics Vanguard，2022, 8(1), 331-346. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2022-0048 (SSCI, A&HCI)
3. Heng Chen* & Haitao Liu. Approaching Language levels and registers in written Chinese with the Menzerath-Altmann Law. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 2022, 37(4), 934-948. (SSCI, A&HCI)
4. 陈衡.《汉语小说作品中字词使用频率演变研究》.载《词汇与句法计量研究》，浙江大学出版社，2022, pp. 10-19.
5. Heng Chen. A Quantitative and Network Approach to Alignment Effects in L2 Continuation Tasks. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2021(3): 399-416. （ESCI）
6. Heng Chen, Haitao Liu, & Gabriel Altmann. Evolution of Chinese word length motifs. In Emmerich Kelih & Reinhard Köhler (Eds.). Words and numbers. In memory of Peter Grzybek (1957-2019)，RAM-Verlag，p27-43, 2020.
7. 杨帅可、陈衡*、汪磊等.B站弹幕语言特征的个案分析.《中国网络语言发展研究报告》（蓝皮书），人民出版社，2020.
8. Heng Chen and Haitao Liu. A quantitative probe into the hierarchical structure of written Chinese. In Xinying Chen & Ramon Ferrer-i-Cancho (Eds.). Proceedings of the First Workshop on Quantitative Syntax (Quasy, SyntaxFest 2019). The Association for Computational Linguistics, p25-32. https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/W19-7904/
9. Heng Chen & Hai Xu*. Quantitative Linguistics Approach to Interlanguage Development: A Study Based on the Guangwai-Lancaster Chinese Learner Corpus. Lingua, 2019. (SSCI, A&HCI) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2019.102736
10. Heng Chen, Haitao Liu*. Quantifying evolution of short and long-range correlations in Chinese narrative texts across 2000 years. Complexity. 2018, Article ID 9362468. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/9362468（SCI）
11. Heng Chen, Xinying Chen, Haitao Liu*. How does language change as a lexical network? An investigation based on written Chinese word co-occurrence networks. PLoS ONE，13(2): e0192545，2018， https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192545（SCI、SSCI）
12. 陈衡.《汉语词长的计量研究》，载刘海涛主编《计量语言学研究进展》，浙江大学出版社，2018。
13. Heng Chen. Review of Quantitative Approaches to the Russian Language. Glottometrics, 2018, 41(2): 91-95. (ESCI)
14. Heng Chen. Chinese word length motifs and its evolution. In Haitao Liu & Junying Liang (Eds.). Motifs in Language and Text. Quantitative Linguistics [QL series] 71, Berlin/Boston: DE GRUYTER MOUTON. 2017.
15. 陈衡、王华 著，载刘海涛 主编.《计量语言学导论》，第二章“计量语言学的定律和理论”2.2和2.3节，第三章“计量语言学的研究方法”3.1节，pp. 41-121，共80页，北京：商务印书馆，2017。
16. Heng Chen & Haitao Liu*. How to Measure Word Length in Spoken and Written Chinese? Journal of Quantitative Linguistics. 2016(1)：5-29. (SSCI、AHCI).
17. Heng Chen, Junying Liang & Haitao Liu*. How does word length evolve in written Chinese? PLoS ONE. 2015, 10(9): e0138567. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0138567 (SCI, SSCI, A&HCI)
18. 陈衡，语言演化中的“省力原则”，《浙江大学报》，2015年11月13日第576期03版。
19. 陈衡，《名词“真心”虚化为副词考察》，《世界华文教学》，2015年，创刊号。
20. Heng Chen, Haitao Liu. A diachronic study of Chinese word length distribution. Glottometrics. 2014, 29: 81-94.（ESCI）
21. Heng Chen. Review of Exploratory Statistics for the Study of Literary Translation. Glottotheory, 2014(1).
22. 陈衡，《同义程度副词“尤其”与“尤为”辨析》，《汉语学习》，2014（1）。（CSSCI）
23. 陈衡，《“真心”变了！》[N].《语言文字报》，2012年07月01日第2版。
Research projects led/participated in:
1. Principal investigator, Subproject of the Major Project of Humanities and Social Sciences Key Research Base of the Ministry of Education, "Research on Data-Driven Foreign Language Proficiency Development" (22JJD740018), focusing on "Research on the Development of Lexical Networks for Foreign Language Learners Based on Deep Learning," funding of 300,000 CNY, ongoing project, 2023-2025.
2. Principal investigator, Youth Fund of the Ministry of Education for General Projects of Humanities and Social Sciences Research, "Quantitative Research on Complex Dynamic Systems of Chinese Second Language Based on Corpora" (20YJC740005), funding of 80,000 CNY, ongoing project, 2020-2023.
3. Principal investigator, Youth Project of the Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project of Guangdong Province, "Quantitative Linguistics Study on Vocabulary Network Development of Chinese as a Second Language Learners" (GD19YYY04), funding of 50,000 CNY, ongoing project, 2019-2022.
4. Principal investigator, Special Project of the Research Center for Foreign Language and Applied Linguistics, Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, "Quantitative Research on Vocabulary Development of Chinese as a Second Language Based on Large-scale Corpora" (JDXM1902), funding of 50,000 CNY, 2019-2021.
5. Principal investigator, Youth Innovation Talent Project (Humanities and Social Sciences) of the "Innovation and Strengthening School Project" by the Department of Education of Guangdong Province (Project No.: 2017WQNCX046), "Quantitative Research on Language Complexity Based on Chinese as a Second Language Corpora" (30,000 CNY), 2017-2019 (completed project).
6. Participated in the General Project of National Social Science Fund, "Research on Second Language Construction Dynamic Development and Probabilistic Learning Mechanism" (20BYY084), by the National Office for Philosophy and Social Science Research, 2020-2023.
7. Participated in the ongoing project "Research on Complex Networks of Modern Chinese Character Formation System (18YYC016)" by the Beijing Municipal Office of Philosophy and Social Science, 2018.08.01-present.
8. Participated in the Major Project of the National Social Science Fund, "Cognitive Processes and Efficient Teaching Models of Chinese as a Second Language Learning," led by Guangdong University of Foreign Studies/Professor Wang Chuming (2012-2018) (12&ZD224), completed project.
9. Participated in the Major Project of the National Social Science Fund, "Research on Modern Chinese Quantitative Linguistics," led by Zhejiang University/Professor Liu Haitao (2011-2016) (11&ZD188), completed project.
10. Participated in the General Project of the National Social Science Fund, "Quantitative Linguistics Research on Textual Features of English and Chinese" (15BYY098), 2015-2019.
Conference presentations and invited talks:
1. Conference presentation: "A Preliminary Exploration of Language Network Paths in Second Language Complex Dynamic Systems," Xiamen, Huaqiao University. Youth Scholars Forum on Data-Driven Language Education and Cultural Communication Research, and the 5th Conference on Quantitative Linguistics, December 17, 2022.
2. Conference presentation: "The Evolution of Human Language Hierarchical Systems: An Examination Based on Two Thousand Years of Written Chinese Texts," Yinchuan, Northern Minzu University. Youth Scholars Forum on Language and Literature Research from the Perspective of Digital Humanities, and the 4th Conference on Quantitative Linguistics, July 19-21, 2021.
3. Lecture: "Language Complex Networks: From Theory to Practice," Beijing Language and Culture University, June 2, 2020.
4. Conference presentation: "Quantitative Investigation on the Evolution of Long/Short Range Dependency in Chinese Narrative Texts," Chengdu, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. 5th International Conference on Chinese Psycholinguistics, October 25-27, 2019.
5. Conference presentation: "A Quantitative Probe into the Hierarchical Structure of Written Chinese," SyntaxFest2019, Paris, August 26-30, 2019.
6. Lecture: "Theory and Practice of Language Complex Networks," Beijing Language and Culture University, May 31, 2018.
7. Conference presentation: "Workshop on Language Research in the Big Data Era," Hangzhou, Zhejiang University, April 14, 2018. Speech topic: "Quantitative Analysis of Hierarchical Units in Written Chinese."
8. Invited talk: "Internationalization and Scientification of Language Research," Wuhan, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, March 17, 2018. Speech topic: "How Can Humanities Students Conduct Data-Intensive Language Research?"
9. Conference presentation: "International Symposium on Chinese Word Class Issues," Wuhan, Huazhong Normal University, October 11-12, 2014. Speech topic: "The Nominalization of 'Zhenxin' as an Adverb: An Investigation Based on Different Communication Media."
10. QUALICO2014 (International Quantitative Linguistics Conference at Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic), May 29 - June 1, 2014. Speech topic: "Word Length Distribution in Chinese Prose and Dialogue Texts."
Courses:
Undergraduate:
- "Modern Chinese" (YW20241, YW20242)
Master's:
- "Application of Corpus Linguistics" (07363615)
Honors and Awards:
2019:
- Evaluation as "Excellent" for Yunshan Scholar completion assessment.
- Evaluation as "Excellent" by Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in 2019.
- Second-class prize for "Outstanding Research Performance" at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in 2019.
2018:
- Second-class prize for "Outstanding Research Performance" at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in 2018.
2016:
- Excellent Graduate of Zhejiang Province and Zhejiang University.
- Paper titled "How does word length evolve in written Chinese?" received the 3rd Zhejiang University Student Humanities and Social Sciences Award.
2015:
- National Scholarship (Ph.D. level).
- Third-class prize for the "Hu Baixi Linguistics Award" for the paper titled "Analysis of Synonymous Adverbs 'Youqi' and 'Youwei'."
