Wei-Heng Chen


Wei-Heng Chen is a Chinese linguist who is a professor of English and linguistics at Beijing Language and Culture University. Chen was the education consul of China at the Chinese Consulate-General, Los Angeles.

Work

Chen is noted for his work in linguistics, particularly on the phonological consequences of grammaticalization and lexicalization. His doctoral dissertation at Peking University in 2004 was entitled, Northern Yu Dialects and Chinese Morphonology, and in 2011 he wrote Correlation between Syllable and Meaning and Between Phonology and Lexicalization, Grammaticalization and Subjectification: Towards a Theory on Morphophonology From Northern Yu Chinese Dialects.
Chen's work emphasizes the typological differences between monosyllabic languages and non-monosyllabic languages and meaning units, a difference initiated by German linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (who put the Sino-Tibetan languages in sharp contrast to other languages in linguistic relativity.

Works