I work on semantics, pragmatics and syntax/semantics interface. My recent research focuses on definiteness (two types of definites and bridging in Mandarin Chinese); negation (expletive negation in Mandarin Chinese; processing of meta-linguistic negation); modality (as research assistant to Paloma Jeretič: the historical development of light verb modality in Classical Chinese). I have also worked on attitude predicates and wh-words.

Upcoming Conference Presentations

September 2025, Poster Presentation: Interpreting Negation under Yiqian 'before' in Mandarin Chinese at Sinn und Bedeutung 30, Goethe University Frankfurt.

September 2025, Poster Presentation: Processing Meta-linguistic Negation: Evidence from Negated Tautologies at 11th Experimental Pragmatics Conference (XPrag 2025), Cambridge University.

Talks & Presentations

Bian, Mingyang. 2024. A Commitment-based Analysis of ‘Believe’ as an Implicature Trigger.  Poster presentation at the 10th Mid-Atlantic Colloquium of Studies in Meaning (MACSIM), University of Maryland.

Bian, Mingyang. 2023. —.  Oral Presentation at Integrated Language Science and Technology (ILST), University of Pennsylvania.

Bian, Mingyang. 2022. —.  Oral presentation at Edinburgh Meaning Sciences Group (EMSG), the University of Edinburgh.

Bian, Mingyang. 2022. A Free Relative Analysis of a Correlative-like Structure in Mandarin Chinese.  Poster presentation at Linguistics and English Language Postgraduate Conference (LELPGC) 2022, the University of Edinburgh.

Theses & Dissertations

Bian, Mingyang. 2022. A Commitment-based Analysis of ‘Believe’ as an Implicature Trigger. Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom: the University of Edinburgh MSc Dissertation.

Bian, Mingyang. 2021. A Comparative Study of Contemporary Iranian Persian and Afghan Dari [in Chinese]. Shanghai, China: Shanghai International Studies University BA Thesis.

Email: mybian@sas.upenn.edu

ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2566-3954