Kofi Yakpo

Professor
Chairperson

My research revolves around multilingualism, and language contact and change. How, when and why do people use several languages at the same time? How does this change the grammar and lexicon of the languages they use? How do societies handle their multilingual heritage socially and politically? I am currently working on language contact & the emergence of new languages in highly multilingual regions of Africa, the Americas, and the Indian Ocean with a focus on English-lexifier creoles and Asian diaspora languages.

Email: kofi@hku.hk
Tel: 3917 7117
Office: Room 9.15, RRST, Centennial Campus
Walk-in office hours: Thursdays, 1400-1530

Youngah Do

Associate Professor
MA Chair, Chief Examiner

UG Chief Examiner

Professor Youngah Do investigates linguistic sound patterns: phonology and its interface with phonetics and morphology. She is particularly interested in the experimental and computational exploration of phonological acquisition.

Email: youngah@hku.hk
Tel: 3917 8603
Office: Room 9.18, RRST, Centennial Campus

Christophe Coupé

Assistant Professor

Professor Christophe Coupé received a PhD degree in cognitive science in 2003 from the University of Lyon 2. He then worked as a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), until joining HKU. His research interests in linguistics cover language evolution and language diversity, especially at the phonetic level, and the application of computational and statistical methods to linguistic data. Besides, Dr. Coupé has also conducted research in psycholinguistics, psycho-phenomenology and social psychology.

Email: ccoupe@hku.hk
Office: Room 9.14, RRST, Centennial Campus

Jonathan_Havenhill

Jonathan Havenhill

Assistant Professor
Undergraduate Coordinator

Professor Jonathan Havenhill conducts research in phonetics, phonology, language variation and change, and sociophonetics. His research involves the use of ultrasound tongue imaging and other experimental methods to investigate the articulatory configurations that underlie linguistic sound systems.

Email: jhavenhill@hku.hk
Tel: 3917 8285
Office: Room 9.23, RRST, Centennial Campus

Joe Perry

Assistant Professor
Postgraduate coordinator

Professor Joe Perry works on language description, in particular of the Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in Nepal. His theoretical interests lie in syntax and phonology, and especially in the interaction between the two.

Email: jjp45@hku.hk
Tel: 3917 2753
Office: Room 9.20, RRST, Centennial Campus

Yoonsang Song

Assistant Professor
Seminar and out-reach coordinator

Professor Yoonsang Song investigates the language processing of various language populations, with a particular emphasis on second language learners and bilinguals. His research specifically focuses on syntactic and morphological processing, although it also encompasses other types of processing such as phonological and prosodic processing. His research utilizes electroencephalography (EEG) and machine learning techniques.

Email: yoonsang@hku.hk
Personal website: https://www.bsll.hku.hk/
Tel: 3917 8114
Office: Room 9.21, RRST, Centennial Campus


Olivia_Lam

Olivia Lam

Lecturer
MA Coordinator

Dr Olivia Lam’s research interests lie mainly in syntax and morphology. Her current interests include the syntax of double object constructions, especially the syntax of the give-construction; and, the cross-linguistic morphological and syntactic properties of objects. She is particularly interested in the morphosyntax of Chinese and African languages. She teaches syntactic theory and morphological theory at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and offers a Common Core course on human language.

Email: osclam@hku.hk
Tel: 3917 2758
Office: Room 9.17, RRST, Centennial Campus