Xiaoting Li, PhD

Contact

Professor, Faculty of Arts - East Asian Studies Dept

Email: xml@ualberta.ca
Phone: (780) 492-7583
Address: 356 Pembina Hall
8921 - 116 St NW

Edmonton AB

T6G 2H8

Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Arts - Deans Office

Email: xml@ualberta.ca

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

Chinese linguistics multimodal analysis interactional linguistics

About

Dr. Xiaoting Li is Professor of Chinese Linguistics at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Alberta. She received her PhD in linguistics and applied linguistics at Peking University, China, in 2011. She was a DAAD fellow at the University of Potsdam in 2008-2010. Recently, she received the Humboldt Fellowship to conduct her research at the University of Freiburg in Germany in 2019-2021.

Research

Her research interest is language in interaction and multimodal analysis. She uses the methodology of Conversation Analysis, Interactional Linguistics and multimodal analysis in the study of everyday Mandarin talk-in-interaction. Her research explores how multimodal resources such as lexico-syntax, prosody and embodied actions are used by interactants in organizing turns, sequences and courses of actions in Mandarin conversation. The topic of multimodal organization of turns in Mandarin conversation is examined in her book Multimodality, Interaction, and Turn-taking in Mandarin Conversation (John Benjamins, 2014). Her recent work on multimodality in Chinese interaction is published in her co-edited book volume "Multimodality in Chinese Interaction" (Mouton, 2019).

Teaching

She teaches in the areas of Chinese linguistics, and language in Chinese society, and supervises graduate students in the field of Chinese linguistics, interaction and multimodal analysis.

Announcements

Her current research projects include the SSHRC project "Unfinished utterances in Mandarin conversation", and the KIAS team project "Intercultural and interpersonal communication". She is a member of the International Network of Interactional Linguistics, and the Scientific Network of Multimodality and Embodied Interaction.

Courses

EASIA 205 - Language in Chinese Society

Topics may include language and gender, identity, dialects. Lectures in English. Note: Not open to students with credit in CHINA 241. Prerequisite: EASIA 101 and CHINA 102, or consent of Department.

Winter Term 2025

EASIA 305 - Introduction to Chinese Linguistics

Sound system, basic sentence structure, writing system, and language change and variation. Note: Not open to students with credit in CHINA 308. Prerequisites: LING 101 and CHINA 202, or consent of Department.

Fall Term 2024

EASIA 405 - Chinese Linguistics

Discussion of the major linguistic features of the Chinese language. Note: Not open to students with credit in CHINA 408. Prerequisite: CHINA 302 and EASIA 305, or consent of Department.

Winter Term 2025

Browse more courses taught by Xiaoting Li

Scholarly Activities

Research - Interactional Uses of yinwei ‘because’ and its Multimodal Production in Mandarin Conversation

Started: 201603

Keynote talk at the 2nd International Conference on Interactional Linguistics and Chinese Language Studies, Shanghai, China

Research - International Network of International Linguistics

Started: 201903

Member of the Network. First Network meeting at the University of Freiburg

Research - Interpersonal Touch in Mandarin Interaction

Started: 201810

Center for Language, Interaction, and Culture, Colloquium Talk, UCLA

Research - Language and the Body in Person Reference in Mandarin Interaction

Started: 201811

Pre-conference workshop “Referentiality in East Asian Languages”, the 26th Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference, UCLA

Research - Multimodal analysis of Chinese interaction: theoretical foundations

Started: 201806

Invited talk at the Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China

Research - Multimodal Interaction: Theory and Methodology

Started: 201808

International Workshop “Frontiers of Interactional Research on Chinese Language”, Beijing Language and Culture University, China

Research - Suspensions in interaction

Started: 201906

Co-organized the panel with Dr. Shimako Iwasaki (Monash University) at the 16th International Pragmatics Association Conference in Hong Kong.

Research - Talk and the Body in the Construction of Interactional Units in Mandarin Conversation

Started: 201612

Invited talk at the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures, University of Calgary

Research - Units of Language—Units of the Body

Started: 201809

International Workshop “Divergent Units and Fuzzy Boundaries”, University of Potsdam, Germany

View additional publications