Hello! I’m a PhD candidate in the Linguistics Program of Michigan State University (MSU). My research focuses on first language acquisition of syntax and semantics. I use experimental and computational approaches to study how children acquire their first language. My advisor is Cristina Schmitt. Alan Munn, Alan Hezao Ke, and Brian Buccola are also on my committee.

I’m part of the MSU Language Acquisition Lab, Semantics-Pragmatics Lab, and Minimalism, Learning and Computational Psycholinguistics Lab.

You can find a current copy of my CV here.

News!

Fresh SALT proceedings paper: Xu, Jingying, & Cristina Schmitt. (to appear). Pragmatic accommodation in judging event culmination. Proceedings of the 34th Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT 34).

Presentations

2024

• Xu, Jingying, & Cristina Schmitt. (2024). Children do not have different verb representations from adults: Non-culminating incremental theme predicates in Mandarin-speaking children. Poster presented at the 16th Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition (GALA 16). The NOVA University of Lisbon, Lisbon.
• Xu, Jingying, & Cristina Schmitt. (2024). Demonstratives but not verbs cause non-culmination in Mandarin incremental-theme predicates: Evidence from children and adults. Poster presented at the 34th Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT 34), University of Rochester, Rochester.
• Xu, Jingying, & Cristina Schmitt. (2024). Non-culmination in telic incremental theme predicates: An experimental study of Mandarin children and adults. Poster presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS 60), University of Chicago, Chicago.
• Xu, Jingying, & Cristina Schmitt. (2024). Demonstratives but not verbs cause non-culmination in Mandarin incremental-theme predicates: Evidence from children and adults. Poster presented at the 42nd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 42), Berkeley.
• Xu, Jingying, & Cristina Schmitt. (2024). How can Mandarin children and adults eat three cookies without ever finishing them? Talk presented at the 48th annual Penn Linguistics Conference (PLC 48), Philadelphia.

2023

• Xu, Jingying (2023). How can you eat three cookies without ever finishing them? Talk presented at Careers, Alumni and Linguistics at Michigan State (CALMS) 2023, East Lansing.
• Ke, Alan Hezao, Jingying Xu, & Lijun Ding. (2023). The Clustering Approach: An Input-Driven Approach to Parameter Setting. Poster presented at the 48th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 48), Boston.
• Xu, Jingying, & Cristina Schmitt. (2023). Tracing the Trajectory of the Telicity Calculus in Mandarin-Speaking Children. Poster presented at CreteLing 2023 Conference, Rethymnon, Crete.

Before 2023

• Xu, Jingying. (2022). Telicity in Mandarin Preschoolers. Talk presented at the Graduate Linguistics Expo at Michigan State (GLEAMS) 2022, East Lansing.
• Huang, Aijun, Qian Wang, Jingying Xu, Hui Chang, Li Zeng & Nakayama Mineharu. (2021). The Acquisition of Chinese Negative Wh-Pronoun Constructions by Korean Speakers. Talk presented at the 9th International Conference on Formal Linguistics (ICFL 9), Shanghai.
• Xu, Jingying. (2020). Complement Control in Early Child Mandarin: Evidence from a Preferential Looking Experiment. Talk presented at the Graduate Linguistics Expo at Michigan State (GLEAMS) 2020, East Lansing.
• Xu, Jingying, Xiaolu Yang, & Rushen Shi. (2020). Complement Control in Early Child Mandarin: Evidence from a Preferential Looking Experiment. Poster presented at the 45th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 45), Boston.
• Xu, Jingying, & Aijun Huang. (2016). Adjectival Modification and Countability in Mandarin Chinese: A View from First Language Acquisition. Talk presented at the 5th Syntax and Semantics in China (SSiC 2016), Shanghai.
• Xu, Jingying, & Aijun Huang. (2015). Development of Pragmatic Knowledge in L2 Learners of Mandarin Chinese. Talk presented at the 4th Syntax and Semantics in China (SSiC 2015), Xi’an.

Publications

• Xu, Jingying, & Cristina Schmitt. (to appear). Pragmatic accommodation in judging event culmination. Proceedings of the 34th Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT 34).
• Xu, Jingying, & Cristina Schmitt. (to appear). Grammatical versus pragmatic accounts for event non-culmination in Mandarin: An experimental study. Proceedings of the 60th Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS 60).
• Xu, Jingying, & Cristina Schmitt. (to appear). Demonstratives but not verbs cause non-culmination in Mandarin incremental-theme predicates: Evidence from children and adults. Proceedings of the 42nd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 42).
• Huang, Aijun, Qian Wang, Jingying Xu, Hui Chang, Li Zeng & Nakayama Mineharu. (under review). Navigating Mandarin Subtleties: Korean Speakers’ Acquisition of Mandarin’s Negative wh-pronoun Construction
• Ke, Alan Hezao, Jingying Xu, & Lijun Ding. (under review). Modeling the learning of parametric variation: Implementing an input-driven hierarchical approach.
• Ke, Alan Hezao, Jingying Xu, & Lijun Ding (2024). The Clustering Approach: An Input-Driven Approach to Parameter Setting. Proceedings of the 48th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 48).
• Huang, Aijun, & Jingying Xu. (2021). Hanyu xingrongci xiushi he hanyu keshuxing wenti tanjiu: Yixiang ertong yuyan xide yanjiu (Adjectival modification and countability in Mandarin Chinese: An L1 acquisition study) (in Chinese). Linguistic Research.
• Xu, Jingying, Xiaolu Yang, & Rushen Shi. (2021). Complement control in early child grammar: A study of Mandarin-speaking two-year-olds’ comprehension. In Daniell Dionne & Lee-Ann Vidal Covas (Eds.), Proceedings of the 45th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 45). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.