Academic Profile : Faculty
Prof Dennis Zhiming Tay
Professor, School of Humanities
Head, Linguistics and Multilingual Studies, School of Humanities (SoH)
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I am trained in linguistics and computational mathematics, and held previous academic positions in Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Singapore. I am co-Editor-in-Chief of 'Metaphor and the Social World', Associate Editor of 'Metaphor and Symbol', and an Academic Editor of 'PLOS ONE'. I am also co-Series Editor of Bloomsbury Studies in Language and Healthcare.
My research covers several converging areas: applied cognitive linguistics, metaphor theory, mental healthcare discourse, and data analytics/machine learning in applied linguistic and social contexts.
One example of their convergence is language use in psychological counselling, an important type of mental healthcare communication. This language is often full of metaphors, which according to cognitive linguistics can provide insights into how people conceptualize their psychological issues. Furthermore, there is fascinating variability across speakers, cultures, time, and so on, which needs to be understood with both quantitative modelling and qualitative analysis. I am keen to collaborate and supervise projects in any of these areas.
My research covers several converging areas: applied cognitive linguistics, metaphor theory, mental healthcare discourse, and data analytics/machine learning in applied linguistic and social contexts.
One example of their convergence is language use in psychological counselling, an important type of mental healthcare communication. This language is often full of metaphors, which according to cognitive linguistics can provide insights into how people conceptualize their psychological issues. Furthermore, there is fascinating variability across speakers, cultures, time, and so on, which needs to be understood with both quantitative modelling and qualitative analysis. I am keen to collaborate and supervise projects in any of these areas.
applied cognitive linguistics, metaphor theory, mental healthcare discourse, applications and pedagogy of data analytics/machine learning
- Performance-interpretability tradeoff in discourse research
Awards
2023. Faculty Award for Outstanding Performance in Research and Scholarly Activities. Faculty of Humanities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
2017. Faculty Award for Outstanding Performance in Teaching. Faculty of Humanities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
2016. Faculty Award for Outstanding Performance in Research and Scholarly Activities. Faculty of Humanities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
2015. Outstanding Finalist, Hong Kong Academy of Humanities First Book Prize
2012. Early Career Research Paper Prize, International Association of Researching and Applying Metaphor (RaAM)
2011. Outstanding PhD Thesis Award, University of Otago, New Zealand
2017. Faculty Award for Outstanding Performance in Teaching. Faculty of Humanities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
2016. Faculty Award for Outstanding Performance in Research and Scholarly Activities. Faculty of Humanities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
2015. Outstanding Finalist, Hong Kong Academy of Humanities First Book Prize
2012. Early Career Research Paper Prize, International Association of Researching and Applying Metaphor (RaAM)
2011. Outstanding PhD Thesis Award, University of Otago, New Zealand
Courses Taught
I have taught a variety of courses related to data analytics, programming (Python), quantitative literacy, research methods, cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis, and so on
Supervision of PhD Students
I have supervised 7, and co-supervised 5 PhD students