Ning Yu, Ph.D.

Professor of Chinese and Linguistics

University of Oklahoma

Ning Yu received his MA from Central China Normal University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. He is a Professor of Chinese and Linguistics with a joint appointment in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics and the School of International and Area Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oklahoma. He teaches Chinese language, Chinese literature and culture, and linguistics. His current research focuses on the relationship between language, cognition, and culture, from the theoretic perspective of Cognitive Linguistics. He is interested in the embodied cognition and how it is manifested in language. His work is part of the effort to reveal, via systematic study of language, how bodily experiences contribute to human meaning, understanding, and reasoning in cultural contexts.

Ning Yu and Farzad Sharifian (Monash University, Australia) are the editors of the scholarly book series "Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts" with an editorial board (John Benjamins, Amsterdam and Philadelphia). Ning Yu also serves as the review editor of International Journal of Cognitive Linguistics (Nova Science Publishers, New York).

Education:

Ph.D. University of Arizona, 1996
M.A. Central China Normal University, 1987

Positions:

Professor, University of Oklahoma, 2009–Present
Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma, 2003–2009
Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma, 1997–2003

Selected Publications:

Books

Embodiment via Body Parts: Studies from Various Languages and Cultures (Human Cognitive Processing series, 31), co-edited by Zouhair Maalej and Ning Yu. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 2011.

From Body to Meaning in Culture: Papers on Cognitive Semantic Studies of Chinese. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 2009.

The Chinese HEART in a Cognitive Perspective: Culture, Body, and Language. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter (Applications of Cognitive Linguistics series, 12). 2009.

Culture, Body, and Language: Conceptualizations of Internal Body Organs across Cultures and Languages, co-edited by Farzad Sharifian, René Dirven, Ning Yu, and Susanne Niemeier. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter (Applications of Cognitive Linguistics series, 7). 2008.

The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor: A Perspective from Chinese. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins (Human Cognitive Processing series, 1). 1998.

On-line Resources

Bibliography of Metaphor and Metonymy. Co-edited by Sabine De Knop, René Dirven, Ning Yu, and Birgit Smieja. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co. 2005.

Bibliography of Cognitive Linguistics. Co-edited by Hans-Georg Wolf, René Dirven, Rong Chen, Ning Yu and Birgit Smieja. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 2006.

Journal Articles

A decompositional approach to metaphorical compound analysis: The case of a TV commercial. Metaphor and Symbol 26: 243–259. 2011.

Beijing Olympics and Beijing opera: A multimodal metaphor in a CCTV Olympics commercial. Cognitive Linguistics 22: 595–628. 2011.

When conceptual metaphors govern linguistic expressions: A textual analysis. Intercultural Communication Studies 18: 221–236. 2009.

Multimodal manifestation of conceptual metaphors in multimedia communication. Intercultural Communication Studies 17: 79–89. 2008.

Cultural identity and globalization: Multimodal metaphors in a Chinese educational advertisement. China Media Research 3(2), 25–32. 2007.

Heart and cognition in ancient Chinese philosophy. Journal of Cognition and Culture 7(1/2), 27–47. 2007. (Read PDF file)

The eyes for sight and mind. Journal of Pragmatics 36(4), 663–686. 2004. (Read PDF file)

Chinese metaphors of thinking. Cognitive Linguistics 14(2/3), 141–165. 2003. (Read PDF file)

Synesthetic metaphor: A cognitive perspective. Journal of Literary Semantics 32(1), 19–34. 2003. (Read PDF file)

Metaphor, body, and culture: The Chinese understanding of gallbladder and courage. Metaphor and Symbol 18(1), 13–31. 2003. (Read PDF file)

Body and emotion: Body parts in Chinese expression of emotion. In Nick Enfield and Anna Wierzbicka (eds.), special issue “The Body in Description of Emotion: Cross-Linguistic Studies,” Pragmatics and Cognition 10(1/2), 341–367. 2002. (Read PDF file)

What does our face mean to us? Pragmatics and Cognition 9(1), 1–36. 2001. (Read PDF file)

Figurative uses of finger and palm in Chinese and English. Metaphor and Symbol 15(3), 159–175. 2000. (Read PDF file)

Metaphorical expressions of anger and happiness in English and Chinese. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 10(2), 59–92. 1995. (Read PDF file)

Ways of borrowing in Chinese. The SECOL Review 19(1), 25–47. 1995.

A possible semantic law in synesthetic transfer: Evidence from Chinese. The SECOL Review 16(1), 20–40. 1992.

Book Chapters

Ideography and borrowing in Chinese (a slightly revised version of a 1995 journal article). In Ken Goodman, Shaomei Wang, Mieko Shimizu Iventosch, and Yetta Goodman (eds.), Reading in Asian Languages: Making Sense of Written Texts in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, 68–85. New York and London: Routledge. 2012.

Embodiment via body parts: Introduction (co-authored by Zouheir Maalej and Ning Yu). In Zouheir Maalej and Ning Yu (eds.), Embodiment via Body Parts: Studies from Various Languages (Human Cognitive Processing series, 31), 1–19. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 2011.

Speech organs and linguistic activity / function in Chinese (a revised and expanded version of a 2009 book chapter). In Zouheir Maalej and Ning Yu (eds.), Embodiment via Body Parts: Studies from Various Languages (Human Cognitive Processing series, 31), 117–148.  Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 2011.

Nonverbal and multimodal manifestations of metaphors and metonymies: A case study. In Charles Forceville and Eduardo Urios-Aparisi (eds.), Multimodal Metaphor, 119–143. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 2009.

Speech organs and linguistic activity and function. In Ning Yu, From Body to Meaning in Culture: Papers on Cognitive Semantic Studies of Chinese, 213–240. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 2009.

Metaphor from body and culture. In Raymond W. Gibbs (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought, 247–261. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008.

The Chinese HEART as the central faculty of cognition. In Farzad Sharifian, René Dirven, Ning Yu, and Susanne Niemeier (eds.), Culture, Body, and Language: Conceptualization of Heart and Other Internal Body Organs across Cultures and Languages, 131–168. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 2008.

Farzad Sharifian, René Dirven, Ning Yu, and Susanne Niemeier, Culture and language: Looking for the mind inside the body. In Farzad Sharifian, René Dirven, Ning Yu, and Susanne Niemeier (eds.), Culture, Body, and Language: Conceptualization of Heart and Other Internal Body Organs across Cultures and Languages, 3–24. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 2008.

The relationship between metaphor, body, and culture. In Roslyn Frank, René Dirven, Tom Ziemke, and Enrique Bernárdez (eds.), Body, Language, and Mind (Vol. 2): Sociocultural Situatedness, 387–407. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter (Cognitive Linguistics Research series, 35.2). 2008.

The Chinese conceptualization of the heart and its cultural context: Implications for second language learning. In Farzad Sharifian and Gary B. Palmer (eds.), Applied Cultural Linguistics: Implications for Second Language Learning and Intercultural Communication, 65–85. Amsterdam: John Benjamins (Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research series, 7). 2007.

The bodily dimension of meaning in Chinese: What do we do and mean with “hands”? In Eugene H. Casad and Gary B. Palmer (eds.), Cognitive Linguistics and Non-Indo-European Languages, 337–362. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter (Cognitive Linguistics Research series, 18). 2003. (Read PDF file)

Spatial conceptualization of time in Chinese. In Masako K. Hiraga, Chris Sinha, and Sherman Wilcox (eds.), Cultural, Psychological and Typological Issues in Cognitive Linguistics, 69–84. Amsterdam: John Benjamins (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory series, 152). 1999.

Conference Proceedings and Working Papers

Embodied cognition: From sight to mind. Proceedings of the Fourteenth North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics, 374–391. LA: University of Southern California. 2003.

Body-part terminology and embodied cognition. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Chinese Linguistics and the Tenth North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (Vol. 2), 521–538. LA: University of Southern California. 1999.

With Rudolph C. Troike. Parataxis and “double subjects” in Chinese. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Chinese Linguistics and the Seventh North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (Vol. 1), 399–416. LA: University of Southern California. 1996.

Towards a definition of unaccusative verbs in Chinese. Proceedings of the Sixth North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (Vol. 1), 339–353. LA: University of Southern California. 1995.

Chinese as a paratactic language. L2 Talk: The SLAT Working Papers (University of Arizona) 1, 1–15. 1993.