Adrian Tien
Associate Professor
Chinese Studies
Trinity College Dublin
Ireland
Biography
Prof. Adrian Tien, Sam Lam Associate Professor in Chinese Studies (Linguistics) Prof. Tien is based in the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences. As a linguist focusing on aspects of Chinese linguistics, his teaching and research specialisations include semantics and cognitive linguistics, language and culture, cross-cultural communication, language acquisition, studies on Chinese-English or English-Chinese translation and aspects of Chinese sociolinguistics. He has appeared widely in international conferences, public lectures and seminar speaking on his research. As he is also a musicologist, a sought-after musician (pianist and carillonneur) and a prize-winner of several international music competitions, Prof. Tien has been investigating the various relationships between language and music, especially at the level of meaning and cognition. Along with numerous journal articles and book chapters he has written, Prof. Tien is the author of two books: The Semantics of Chinese Music: Analysing selected Chinese musical concepts (John Benjamins 2015) and Lexical Semantics of Children's Mandarin Chinese during the First Four Years (Lincom 2011). Prof. Tien has been bestowed the title QTA ("Queen's Trust Achiever") on Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee as a young Australian achiever.
Research Interest
Research interests: Prof. Tien is a linguist who specialises in cognitive linguistics and semantics. Much of his research work adopts a cognitive and semantic framework and has encompasses aspects of Chinese linguistics, including work on Chinese language and culture (especially the identification and analyses of cultural "keywords" in Chinese), cross-cultural communication involving Chinese, language acquisition, studies on Chinese-English or English-Chinese translation, and Chinese sociolinguistics. As Prof. Tien is also a musician and musicologist, he has been investigating the various relationships between language and music, especially at the level of meaning and cognition. Prof. Tien is the author of two books: The Semantics of Chinese Music: Analysing selected Chinese musical concepts (John Benjamins 2015) and Lexical Semantics of Children's Mandarin Chinese during the First Four Years (Lincom 2011).
Publications
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The paradoxical world of turtle hair, and Taiwan guest: subcultural keywords in contemporary Taiwanese society. in, editor(s)Nadezhda Zabelina , Proceedings of the Conference on Written communication: Intercultural Aspect, Kursk: Russia, School of Translation Regional Open Social Institute, 2007, pp16 - 38, [Tien, Adrian]
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Discourse particles in adult Mandarin, and their counterparts in child Mandarin in, editor(s)Eliseo Diez Itza , Studies on Language Development and Education, Oviedo, Spain, University of Oviedo, 2008, pp45 - 55, [Tien, Adrian]
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Chinese-based lexicon in Singapore English, and Singapore-Chinese culture. in, Maria Grozeva and Boris Naimushin , Globalisation - Intercultural Communication - Language, Peter Lang, 2009, pp473 - 482, [Tien, Adrian]
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Tien A, Semantic prime HAPPEN in Mandarin Chinese: In search of a viable exponent, Pragmatics and Cognition, 17, (2), 2009, p356 - 382
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Singaporean culture as reflected by the shared Chinese-based lexicon of Singapore English and Singapore Chinese in, Humanistic Inheritance of Great Educators in Culture and Education, BSPU Publishing House., 2009, pp71 - 74, [Tien, Adrian]
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The Semantics of Human Interaction in Chinese E-Communication in, editor(s)In Rotimi Taiwo , Handbook of Research on Discourse Behaviour and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction. Volume I, New York, Information Science Reference, 2010, pp437 - 467, [Tien, Adrian.]
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Adrian Tien, Lexical Semantics of Childrens Mandarin Chinese during the FIrst Four Years, Munich, Germany, Lincom, 2011
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Chinese intercultural communication in the global setting, as reflected through contemporary key words in the Chinese multimedia. in, editor(s)Birgit Breninger and Thomas Kaltenbacher , Creating Cultural Synergies: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Interculturality and Interreligiosity, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012, pp169 - 184, [Tien, Adrian.]
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Chinese Hokkien and its lexicon in Singapore: evidence for an indigenised Singapore culture. in, editor(s)Rudolf Muhr , Non-dominant Varieties of pluricentric Languages. Getting the Picture. , Peter Lang, 2012, pp453 - 472, [Tien Adrian]
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Bootstrapping and the acquisition of Mandarin Chinese: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) perspective in, editor(s)Dagmar Bittner and Nadja Ruhlig , Lexical bootstrapping: The role of lexis and semantics in child language development., Germany, De Gruyter, 2013, pp39 - 72, [Tien, Adrian]
