YU Shaoyun
Research Assistant Professor
PhD (Nagoya University); BEng (Nanjing University of Science and Technology)
- 3943-
- shaoyun.yu[at]cuhk.edu.hk
Dr. Shaoyun Yu is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages. His current research centers on model-brain alignment, which bridges computational models and language neuroscience to better understand the mechanisms underlying language processing and learning. Before joining CUHK, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Brain, Language, and Computation Lab at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his PhD and MLitt from Nagoya University and holds a BEng from Nanjing University of Science and Technology.
Shaoyun is interested in various building blocks of human language, ranging from fundamental syntactic structures and embodied cognition to higher-level discourse comprehension. He approaches these topics through an interdisciplinary lens, combining computational modeling, neuroimaging, and behavioral experiments. In particular, he investigates how neural network-based language models acquire and represent these aspects of language, and how their internal mechanisms can inform—and be informed by—the cognitive and neural processes involved in human language use.
Research Interest
- Computational language models and model-brain alignment
- Cognitive neuroscience of language
- Embodied cognition and multisensory integration
- Sentence processing in typologically diverse languages
Journal Publications
- Yu, S., Gu, C., Huang, K., & Li, P. (2024). Predicting the next sentence (not word) in large language models: What model-brain alignment tells us about discourse comprehension. Science Advances, 10(21). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adn7744
- Tamaoka, K., Yu, S., Zhang, J., Otsuka, Y., Lim, H., Koizumi, M., & Verdonschot, R. G. (2024). Syntactic structures in motion: Investigating word order variations in verb-final (Korean) and verb-initial (Tongan) languages. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1360191. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1360191
- Tamaoka, K., Yu, S., Zhang, J., Miwa, K., & Koizumi, M. (2024). Constructing a web-accessible lexical database for core Tongan vocabulary. Folia Linguistica. https://doi.org/10.1515/flin-2024-2053
- Kajiura, M., Jeong, H., Kawata, N., Yu, S., Kinoshita, T., Kawashima, R., & Sugiura, M. (2021). Brain activity predicts future learning success in intensive second language listening training. Brain and Language, 212.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104839 - Yu, S., & Tamaoka, K. (2020). Trade-off effect in the processing of Korean case-drop sentences: An eye tracking investigation. Human Behaviour and Brain, 1(2), 49-57. https://doi.org/10.37716/HBAB.2020010203
- Kwon, N., & Yu, S. (2018). Experimental evidence for the productivity of total reduplication in Japanese ideophones and ordinary vocabulary. Language Sciences, 66, 166–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.09.005
- Yu, S., & Tamaoka, K. (2018). Age-related differences in the acceptability of non-canonical word orders in Mandarin Chinese. Lingua Sinica, 4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40655-018-0035-x
- Hayakawa, K., Yu, S., Chu, X., & Tamaoka, K. (2017). Objective indexes of phonological similarity between Japanese and Chinese two-kanji compound words: A comparative study on objective and subjective indexes [in Japanese]. Center for Japanese Language Education Kwansei Gakuin University, 6, 21– http://hdl.handle.net/10236/00025910
- Yu, S., & Tamaoka, K. (2019). Construction of a database and search engine on the phonological similarity of two-kanji compound words in Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese [in Japanese]. Studia Linguistica, 33, 75-94. Nagoya University. https://doi.org/10.18999/stul.33.75
- Hoang, T.L.P., Tamaoka, K., & Yu, S. (2019). Developing objective indexes of phonological similarities for two-kanji compound words used in both the Japanese and Vietnamese languages [in Japanese]. Studia Linguistica, 33, 133-146. Nagoya University. https://org/10.18999/stul.33.133
- Yu, S., & Tamaoka, K. (2015). A web-accessible search engine for grammatical category of orthographically-similar two-kanji compound words between Japanese, Korean and Chinese [in Japanese]. Studia Linguistica, 29, 43-61. Nagoya University. https://doi.org/18999/stul.29.43
Research Interest
- Yu, S., Gao, Z., Zhao, J., Yu, S. F., & Li, P., (in press). Immersive virtual reality for second language learning. In P. Li (Eds.), Interdisciplinary Studies in Language Sciences: Y.R. Chao’s Legacy. PolyU Press.
- Gao, Z., Yu, S., Zhao, J., & Li, P. (in press). Virtual reality (VR) for language learning: Methods and approaches. In A. Witt, A. Lenz, & P. Kamocki (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Digital Linguistics. Routledge.
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