Publications
* Equal contribution
Books
Gómez-Alzate, E., Li, Y., & Cuza, A. (in progress). Language in Context: Ideologies, Policies, and Community-based Research. Routledge.
Proceedings & Journal Articles
2026
Li, Y., Cong, Y., & Francis, E. Mechanistic Interpretability of Animacy Effects on Structure Choice in GPT-2. CoNLL 2026, San Diego, California, United States, July 3-4, 2026.
Fang, S.*, Li, Y.*, & Cong, Y. (2026). Semantic Capacity in Language Learners and LLMs: A Case Study of Quantifier Scope. In The Fifteenth Biennial Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC 2026), Spain.
2025
Fang, S., Li, Y., & Cong, Y. (2025). Understanding Quantifier Scope with Large Language Models: How Many Children Climbed Trees? In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2025).
Li, Y., Cong, Y., & Francis, E. (2025). Beyond Binary Animacy: A Multi-Method Investigation of LMs’ Sensitivity in English Object Relative Clauses. In Proceedings of the 14th Workshop on Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics (CMCL, NAACL 2025).
2023
Li, Y., Gao, Y., & Lu, X. (2023). Effects of Word Limit on Sentence Length and Clause Length in Academic Journal Article Abstracts: A Synergetic Linguistic Perspective. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 30(3–4), 322–342.
Under Review
Li, Y. & Francis, E. Rethinking Animacy in Relative Clauses: Accessibility and Competition Across Agent–Patient Configurations. Under review at Cognitive Linguistics.
Fang, S.*, Li, Y.*, & Cong, Y. Processing of Quantifier Scope: Experimental and Modeling Evidence from English and Chinese. Under review at Languages.
Fang, S.*, Li, Y.*, & Cong, Y. Language Models Approximate Human Sensitivity to the Syntax–Pragmatics Tension but Show Cross-Linguistic and Model Variation. Under review at Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.
In Preparation
Li, Y., Khodadadi, G., Sheu, V., and Fang, S. Priming and Lexical Boost Effects in the Comprehension of English Object Relative Clauses. Manuscript in preparation.
Fang, S., Li, Y., Lu, J., & Cong, Y. Semantic Representation Generalization in BabyLMs.
Francis, E., Li, Y., Khodadadi, G., Mack, M., Ok, S., Bahmanian, N., Fang, S., Michaelis, L. A., Sheu, V., & Weirick, J. Effects of Verb Type and Prior Context on the Production of Relative Clause Extraposition in English.
Last updated: April 2026