Mengyang Qiu

Mengyang Qiu works on pragmatics, the study of the use of natural language in communication. Her research explores the perceptual aspects of the experience of metaphor, and how they interact with conceptual representations and the linguistic properties of utterances (what we say by using certain expressions). In particular, she is interested in the relations between poetic metaphor processing and 'mental imagery', usually understood as perceptual representations resembling the experience of perceiving without direct sensory stimuli. Her Ph.D. research explores ways to develop relevance theory with inspirations from cognitive science, psychology, language philosophy, and Classical Chinese philosophy.