Today's number is 8.1 (An alternative look at the number 8.)
I belong to the Computational Linguistics group, Department of Computer Science, here at the u(t). My thesis advisor is Prof. Suzanne Stevenson. I have recently defended my PhD. You can find my thesis here.
My primary research interest includes, but not restricted to, language acquisition. I was, at one time, very interested in the transferability of verb properties from the one language to the other. This idea stems from various (psycho)linguistic observations that one's native tongue is useful in acquiring a new language.2 I have compiled a list, though not exhaustive, of Chinese verb features that may be useful (or hindering) the acquisition of coarse-grained semantic verb classes in English. You can read more about my work in my cv page.
Besides multilinguality, I used to spend most of my time completely obsessed with ways of measuring semantic distance and the non-dual nature of semantics. More recently, I have gradually become more interested in language acquisition again. Echoing the Vygotskian notion that the development of cogntive awareness is closely tied with language, I am interested in modelling children language learning as an integrated developmental process along with physical as well as cognitive development.
I am also endlessly fascinated with the eureka moment -- humans have endless capacity in making implausible connections that are also incredibly useful. I haven't got a bl**dy clue how I would incorporate this into my research but here's a cool article about it.
I graduated from u(w) with a Double Honours Co-op in Combinatorics and Optimization and Computer Science. I worked briefly before coming to u(t). Currently, I am a post-doctoral fellow at Bloorview Research Institute.
Click here for my cv.
1 This is not my favorite translation. For the
curious, check out Bradford Hatcher's excellent
translation/commentary.
2 Note that the learning process is bi-directional. One's
native language is influenced by the second language as well. The
language interaction in learning can be seen in many Third Language
Acquisition studies.
Generally, non-duality rules my life. I love how (the enjoyment of) everything can be informed by everything else, as long as the whole process doesn't get reduced to a post-modernist nightmare. That said, I enjoyed Jeffrey Eugenides' maximalist Middlesex and Wes Anderson's almost-emotionally-vacant-but-not-quite films.
Previously, I was completely obsessed with a certain Transylvanian accordion. Lately, I've been so tired that I don't even have the energy to be obsessive in any way. This is clearly a disturbing thing. If you have obsession-worthy suggestions, I would love to hear from you.
My family name is 曾. (You can read Chinese? Check this out.3) Tsang is a British romanization. It is not pronounced "seng1". Oh dear. There's nothing fishy about me. For the correct pronunciation, see here (click on the loudspeaker icon under the "zang1" entry).
3 Disclaimer: I have no idea if the content of the site is reliable at all.
Snail mail: Why?
Flame mail: firstname_initial yc lastname_initial sang 圓圈(at) cs 點(dot) toronto 點(dot) educational