Joe Lau
MA graduate 2014; PhD student 2014
In the current 21st century of “network culture”, the traditional departmentalised definitions of knowledge have been superseded by interdisciplinarity, i.e. different disciplines of knowledge intertwined with each other to form the basis of knowledge. As an individual who has been eager to discover more about the mechanisms which underlie the order of the world, I have been intrigued by approaches that the study of linguistics, as well as the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages in CUHK can offer.
Linguistics is the study of the mechanisms that underlie language, a biological endowment to all human beings. Language is perhaps the most complicated “skill" that human beings can acquire, and the study of its architecture is fascinating. Although traditionally classified as an arts study due to its historical origins from philology, philosophy and literature, linguistics intertwines with the disciplines of psychology, speech and hearing sciences, computational science and neuroscience. Scholars from these various disciplines often draw insight from what linguistics has to offer. Hence, people from different backgrounds and disciplines often innovate new perspectives in linguistics through interdisciplinary cooperation.
As a student from the “arts” stream from secondary school to my undergraduate studies, I have always been intrigued by the intricate structure of language. I have often wondered what language really is and how language is connected to other aspects of nature. After joining the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages in CUHK as an MA student, I discovered many perspectives that offered different potential paths towards the answer through training, cultures, facilities and opportunities offered in the department. The department is led by top-tier scholars from different backgrounds specialising in different areas of linguistic and language-related studies, such as theoretical linguistics, bilingualism, sign linguistics, language acquisition, neuroscience of language and speech science. Their teaching and research have not only enlightened me about the basic theoretical foundations of language, but also exposed me to the latest issues in linguistic research as well as the varied scientific research techniques from other disciplines, such as cognitive neuroscience, psychology and speech and hearing sciences.
The department houses different laboratories as well as state-of-the-art facilities which approach linguistic research from different perspectives. As a young department, it offers many opportunities to those from different backgrounds who dedicate themselves to the study of linguistics. Besides my in-classroom learning, during my time as an MA student, I have also joined the Laboratory for Language, Learning and the Brain directed by Professor Patrick Wong. Not only have I been exposed to top-tier research in the field as well as the vigorous research culture, but I have also learned the latest scientific techniques used for linguistic and language-related research. This combination of teaching and research offered by the department has equipped and nurtured me as a young language scientist who is eager to find out my answers and validate my hypotheses through theory and experiments.
I encourage students with different backgrounds and from different disciplines to consider taking a look at what perspectives linguistics has to offer, not just about knowledge, but also about the world and life.