Dr Zhengdao Ye

Zhengdao Ye moved to Australia after receiving her BA in Chinese Linguistics and Literature from the East China Normal University. She completed a Grad.Dip in Applied Linguistics from the ANU in 1998, followed by an MA in Linguistics (2000) and a PhD in Linguistics (2007). During her postgraduate studies, she also taught linguistic courses at the University of New England and Monash University. 

She joined the ANU as a full-time lecturer in the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics in 2014. 

Some of the highlights in her academic experiences include invited linguistic consultant at the Instituto Universitario Orientale (IUO) in Italy, invited lecturer on Lexicography and Cultural Semantics at the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) and National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) , invited speaker as ‘Distinct New Voice’ on Intercultural Communication at IATEFL conference in Aberdeen, invited panellist on words and feelings at International Congress of Psychology in Berlin, invited keynote speaker at the Naming the Humans conference (Strasbourg University), and invited keynote speaker at the Sinologists in Bydgoszcz conference (Universytet Kazimierza Wielkiego). She was the keynote speaker on Cross-Cultural Communication for the Pre-Departure Training for the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development, and delivered a training session on culture and communication at the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).

She is the editor The Semantics of Nouns (Oxford University Press, 2017), co-editor of 'Happiness' and 'Pain' across Languages and Cultures (John Benjamins, 2016), Meaning, Life and Culture: In Conversation with Anna Wierabicka (ANU Press, 2020), The Cultural Pragmatics of Danger: Cross-linguistic Perspective (John Benjamins, in press/2024), and the general editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Chinese Language Studies (Palgrave McMillan, 2022).  

She has presented seminars at Aarhus University, Copenhagan Business School, l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), and Nanyang Technological University. 

In 2021, she was a recipient of the VC's Award for Excellence in Supervision.  

For an updated publication list see https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hL3b7F8AAAAJ&hl=en

[Zhengdao Ye's bio as an ANU alumna] https://slll.cass.anu.edu.au/people/zhengdao-ye

BA (ECNU), Grad.Dip, MA, PhD (ANU)

general linguistic issues pertaining to meaning, culture and human cognition and their implications for global communication; semantics; pragmatics; semantics-syntax interface; intercultural communication;  translatability; the language of emotion; emotion and bilingualism; psychological anthropology; Chinese linguistics; diversity of Sinitic languages; life writing.

Zhengdao Ye is a key member of the international research network of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage Theory.  Together with Anna Wierzbicka (ANU), the founder of the theory, and Cliff Goddard (Griffith University), she co-organises the annual NSM Workshop. She coordinates the NSMLab@anu international research node. 

Teaching interests: LING2008 & LING6008 Semantics | LING2015 & LING6015 Language, Culture, Translation | LING2017 & LING6017 Chinese Linguistics | LING2021 & LING6021 Cross-Cultural Communication | LING3035/6015 Semantic Typology  

Supervision: Zhengdao Ye has supervised 6 PhD theses (4 as primary supervisors & chair of panel, and 2 as associate supervisor), 5 Honours theses and 16 Master's theses.  Currently, she is the primary supervisor of 5 PhD projects and 2 Honours theses. Some of her recently supervised Honours and Master's theses include: Wenzhounese ideophones: Phonosemantic mapping, marking and semantic domains; NSM Analysis of the Conceptualization of Pain-related Words in Bahasa Indonesia.