FASS Staff Profile
DR LESLIE LEE
SENIOR LECTURER
DEPARTMENT of ENGLISH, LINGUISTICS & THEATRE STUDIES
- Appointment:
- SENIOR LECTURER
- Office:
- AS5/05-29
- Email:
- leslie@nus.edu.sg
- Tel:
- +65 6516 3931
- Fax:
- Homepage:
- http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/ellleel/
Brief Introduction
I am a senior lecturer in the Department of English, Linguistics and Theatre Studies (previously known as the Department of English Language and Literature). I completed my Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of California, San Diego, and lectured there briefly before joining NUS as a lecturer. I teach several foundational courses in linguistics, as well as more advanced seminars on morphology and syntax.
Fun fact #1: I did my undergraduate studies here at FASS. In fact, I entered NUS wanting to major in Economics, and would have done so in an alternate universe (I also applied to SMU - that's how certain I was about going in that direction). But I changed my mind (and the course of my life!) after taking EL1101E (even though I actually got a better grade in EC1101E - yes, grades are not everything!).
Fun fact #2: I like cats and plants.
Teaching Areas
AY2023/2024
Semester 1
EL1101E: The Nature of Language
El2102: Sounds Patterns in Language
Semester 2
EL2101: Structure of Sentences and Meanings
AY2022/2023
Semester 1
EL1101E: The Nature of Language
EL2102: Sound Patterns in Language
Semester 2
EL2101: Structure of Sentences and Meanings
EL3205: Morphology
Previously taught at NUS
EL3551: Undergraduate Research Opportunity - Colloquial Singapore English in Social Media and Other Forms of Messaging (Spring 2017, PI: Associate Professor Mie Hiramoto)
EL4201: Advanced Syntax
EL4880D: Experimental Syntax
EL5101: Grammatical Analysis
Courses previously taught at UCSD
Multilingualism
Experimental Projects in Human Development Research
Graduate Supervision
I am happy to consider proposals in the following areas:
- (*word-based*) morphology, (*non-derivational*) syntax, or lexical semantics, especially of understudied languages
- experimental/quantitative approaches to the study of language issues
Research Interests
Pattern/construction-theoretic and usage-based approaches to linguistics
Interfaces between (*word-based*) morphology, (*non-derivational*) syntax, and (lexical) semantics
Dialectal variation
Quantitative approaches to the study of language
Awards
Annual Teaching Excellence Award Honour Roll, NUS (2021-2025)
Annual Teaching Excellence Award, NUS (2018, 2019, 2020)
Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, FASS (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
Summer Graduate Teaching Fellow Award, University of California, San Diego, 2012
Young Scholar POLA Award for Interdisciplinary Research, International Association of Chinese Linguistics, 2010
Award for TA Excellence, University of California, San Diego, 2010
Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award, NUS, 2007
Selected works
"Replacing traditional sections with Teams-based groupwork: Remote learning and beyond." 2021. Proceedings of the Linguistics Society of America 6(2).
"Rethinking discussion sections with peer instruction: A case study." 2017. Asian Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 7(2): 11-29.
"Word-based morphology-syntax interdependencies: Thai passives." 2017. Journal of Linguistics 53(2): 359-406. (with Farrell Ackerman)
"Event structure and grammatical patterns: resultative constructions." 2013. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, San Diego. (Directed by Farrell Ackerman)
"The tonal system of Singapore Mandarin," in L.E. Clemens and C-M. L. Liu (eds.). 2012. Proceedings of the 22nd North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-22) and the 18th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL-18), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
"Fixed autosegmentism in Thai emphatic reduplication." 2011. Journal of Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 4(1): 41-63.
"The tonal system of Singapore Mandarin." 2009. M.A. thesis, University of California, San Diego. (Directed by Amalia Arvaniti)
"Passives in Thai: the case of thuuk." 2006. Honours thesis, National University of Singapore. (Directed by Tara Mohanan)
Last Modified: 2023-07-04 Total Visits: 6063