My broader research interests cover cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, applied linguistics, neurolinguistics and cognitive science. My more specific interests within linguistics include motion event typology, language and thought, universal versus language-specific influences in L1 and L2 acquisition, and semantics-syntax interface in motion discourses.
Over my career, I did extensive research in the field of linguistics and cognitive science with particular reference to the relationship between language and thought as reflected in the specific domain of spatial expressions and conceptualisation. I was the Principal Investigator (PI) of the British Academy funded interdisciplinary project ‘Cognitive and linguistic representation of space’, and I am currently leading the project ‘The effect of language typology in (non)–linguistic representation of caused motion events’ at Shenzhen University.
I am the author with a number of international journals of high visibility and influence (SSCI / A & HCI / ERIH INT1) such as Lingua, Linguistics and Language and Cognition. I also contribute several chapters to important volumes such as Space in Language (2010) and Space and Time in Language and Literature (2008).
I was the recipient of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship for my academic excellence from the Gates Cambridge Trust. I was also an early career research fellow of the British Academy, UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences.
