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I was born and raised in Hong Kong where I received part of my education. I also spent a big part of my teenage life in England going to school in different places (e.g. Stamford, Reading, London).
I was a rather restless child, who was engaged in a wide array of activities. I was featured in an album of Christian songs when I was 10 (a.k.a. "recorded artist"?). I also had quite a few radio appearances telling stories and discussing learning Mandarin. These gradually developed into a strong interest in languages, and subsequently in 2000, led me to the Runner-up Award of the Student Linguist of the Year from South China Morning Post, an English newspaper in Hong Kong. All these have culminated in my decision to pursue a career in linguistics.
Before starting my research degree, I had spent 5 years working full-time (reads:selling glue) in Hong Kong. At my job, I have gained invaluable experience working with all kinds of people and travelling around Asia. I also found time after work to do an MSc in Industrial Logistics Systems, which has opened my mind to new ideas.
I spend most of my time thinking about linguistics and working on my research projects. When I manage not to, I enjoy hiking, travelling, and Vipassana.
I speak fluent Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Japanese.
I am an experimental phonetician whose research goal is to explain acoustic phenomena without resorting to abstract notions as far as possible. This means that in my analysis I often prioritize articulatory / physical accounts. My doctoral project was my first attempt at this approach, touching on issues such as pitch accent, focus, syllable, sentence type. I use acoustic analysis, articulatory analysis, and analysis-by-synthesis in my experiments. Some of my work is couched within the Parallel Encoding and Target Approximation model by Yi Xu (UCL).
My most recent work addresses issues related to second language acquisition. Currently we are looking at Cantonese-speaking learners of Japanese in terms of the durational dimension through a series of production, perception, and naming tasks.
My other research interests cover areas such as vocal attractiveness and the relationship between phonetics and phonology. Please email me for any of my papers that you cannot get hold of.
Experimental tools: PENTAtrainer2, ultrasound imaging, VocalTractLab, etc.
Please see publications below for details of my completed experiments.
[15] Ge, H., Lee, A., Yuen, H. K., Liu, F., & Yip, V. (2024). Bilingual exposure might enhance L1 development in Cantonese-English bilingual autistic children: Evidence from the production of focus. Autism, 28(7), 1795–1808.
[14] Tong, M. S., & Lee, A. (2024). An acceptability study of triadic constructions in Hong Kong Cantonese. Lingua, 307, 103749.
[13] Lan, Y., Xie, T., & Lee, A. (2023). Portraying accent stereotyping by second language speakers. PLOS ONE, 18(6), e0287172.
[12] Lee, A., Li, X., & Mok, P. K. P. (2023). False geminates as an effective transitional strategy for Cantonese learners of Japanese. Second Language Research, 39(4), 1219-1234.
[11] Zhang, Y., Chen, X., Chen, S., Meng, Y., & Lee, A. (2023). Visual-auditory perception of prosodic focus in Japanese by native and non-native speakers. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 17, 1237395.
[10] Lee, A., Chiu, F., & Xu, Y. (2022). Focus perception in Japanese: Effects of lexical accent and focus location. PLOS ONE, 17(9), e274176.
[9] Lee, A. & Ng, E. (2022). Hong Kong women project a larger body when speaking to attractive men. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 786507.
[8] Lee, A., Prom-on, S., & Xu, Y. (2021). Pre-low raising in Cantonese and Thai: Effects of speech rate and vowel quantity. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 149(1), 179-190. (Authors' copy)
[7] Lee, A. & Mok, P. K. P. (2018). Acquisition of Japanese quantity contrasts by L1 Cantonese speakers. Second Language Research, 34(4), 419-448.
[6] Mok, P. K. P. & Lee, A. (2018). The acquisition of lexical tones by Cantonese-English bilingual children. Journal of Child Language, 45(6), 1357-1376.
[5] Mok, P. K. P., Lee, A., Li, J., & Xu, B. (2018). Orthographic effects on the perception and production of L2 Mandarin tones. Speech Communication, 101, 1-10.
[4] Archangeli, D. B., Yip, J. C.-K., Qin, L., & Lee, A. (2017). Phonological and phonetic properties of nasal substitution in Sasak and Javanese. Laboratory Phonology, 8(1), 21.
[3] Lee, A., Prom-on, S. & Xu, Y. (2017). Pre-low raising in Japanese pitch accent. Phonetica, 74(4), 231-246.
[2] Xu, Y., Lee, A., Prom-on, S., & Liu, F. (2015). Explaining the PENTA model: A reply to Arvaniti & Ladd (2009). Phonology, 32(3), 505–535.
[1] Xu, Y., Lee, A., Wu, W.-L., Liu, X., & Birkholz, P. (2013). Human vocal attractiveness as signaled by body size projection. PLOS ONE, 8(4), e62397.
[2] Xu, Y., & Lee, A. (2022). Tonal processes defined as contextual tonal variation. In C.-R. Huang, Y.-H. Lin, & I.-H. Chen (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Linguistics (pp. 275-290). Cambridge University Press.
[1] Lee, A., & Mok, P. K. P. (2021). Lexical tone. In R.-A. Knight & J. Setter (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Phonetics (pp. 185-208). Cambridge University Press.
[24] Lee, A., Shinohara, Y., Chiu, F., & Mut, T. C. (2024). Production of non-native quantity contrasts by native speakers of Cantonese, English, French, and Japanese. In Y. Chen, A. Chen, & A. Arvaniti (Eds.), Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Speech Prosody (SP2024) (pp. 141–145). ISCA.
[23] Chiu, F., Bartoseviciute, L., Lee, A., & Yao, Y. (2023). Perceiving speech produced with face masks in competing talker environments. In R. Skarnitzl & J. Volín (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2023) (pp. 297–301). Guarant International.
[22] Lan, Y., Xie, T., Sun, J., Zhu, Y., & Lee, A. (2023). Second language accent perception and language attitude by Mandarin and Cantonese speakers in Mainland China. In Proceedings of the 26th Oriental COCOSDA (pp. 151-155). IEEE.
[21] Lee, A., Shinohara, Y., Chiu, F., & Mut, T. C. (2023). Perception of vowel and consonant quantity contrasts by Cantonese, English, French, and Japanese speakers. In Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2023) (pp. 2477-2481). Prague.
[20] Lee, A., Simard, C., Tamata, A., Sun, J., & Mut, T. C. (2023). Focus prosody in Fijian: A pilot study. In R. Skarnitzl & J. Volín (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2023) (pp. 3311–3315). Guarant International.
[19] Lee, A., Simard, C., Tamata, A., Xu, Y., Prom-on, S., & Sun, J. (2023). Modelling Fijian focus prosody using PENTAtrainer: A pilot study. In Y. Lu & Y. Chen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Tone and Intonation (TAI 2023) (pp. 9–10). COLIPS.
[18] Mut, T. C., Simard, C., Tamata, A., & Lee, A. (2023). Focus prosody in Fijian: In-situ focus marking. In R. Skarnitzl & J. Volín (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2023) (pp. 1678–1680). Guarant International.
[17] Lee, A., Shinohara, Y., & Mut, T. C. (2022). Non-native length contrast perception by Japanese and Cantonese speakers. In Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, 45, 060003. (Related abstract)
[16] Fei, W., Weng, M., & Lee, A. (2020). Phonetic realisation of narrow focus in Wu-Mandarin bilinguals. In N. Minematsu, M. Kondo, T. Arai, & R. Hayashi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody (SP2020) (pp. 250–254). ISCA.
[15] Lee, A. & Xu, Y. (2020). Focus prosody in Japanese-English early bilinguals: A pilot study. In N. Minematsu, M. Kondo, T. Arai, & R. Hayashi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody (SP2020) (pp. 843–847). ISCA.
[14] Lee, A. & Ng, E. (2019). Vocal attractiveness in Cantonese: A production study. In S. Calhoun, P. R. Escudero Neyra, M. Tabain, & P. Warren (Eds.), Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2019) (pp. 53–56). ASSTA.
[13] Tian, M. Lee, A. (2019). Burmese quotation intonation. In S. Calhoun, P. R. Escudero Neyra, M. Tabain, & P. Warren (Eds.), Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2019) (pp. 2435–2439). ASSTA.
[12] Lee, A. & Xu, Y. (2018). Conditional realisation of post-focus compression in Japanese. In K. Klessa, J. Bachan, A. Wagner, M. Karpiński, & D. Śledziński (Eds.), Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody (SP2018) (pp. 216–219). ISCA.
[11] Xu, A. & Lee, A. (2018). Perception of vocal attractiveness by native Mandarin listeners. In K. Klessa, J. Bachan, A. Wagner, M. Karpiński, & D. Śledziński (Eds.), Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody (SP2018) (pp. 344–348). ISCA.
[10] Lee, A., Chiu, F., & Xu, Y. (2017). Focus perception in Japanese: Effects of focus location and accent condition. In Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, 29, 60007. (Related abstract)
[9] Xu, A., Leung, S.-S., & Lee, A. (2017). Universal vs. language-specific aspects in human vocal attractiveness: An investigation towards Japanese native listeners’ perceptual pattern. In Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, 29, 60001. (Related abstract)
[8] Lee, A. & Mok, P. K. P. (2016). Durational correlates of Japanese phonemic quantity contrasts by Cantonese-speaking L2 learners. In J. Barnes, A. Brugos, S. R. Shattuck-Hufnagel, & N. Veilleux (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Speech Prosody (SP2016) (pp. 597–601). ISCA.
[7] Lee, A. & Xu, Y. (2016). Effect of speech rate on pre-low raising in Cantonese. In C. T. DiCanio, J. Malins, J. Good, K. Michelson, J. J. Jaeger, & H. Keily (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Tonal Aspects of Languages (TAL 2016) (pp. 75–79). ISCA.
[6] Chiu, F., Fromont, L., Lee, A., & Xu, Y. (2015). Long-distance anticipatory vowel-to-vowel assimilatory effects in French and Japanese. In The Scottish Consortium for ICPhS 2015 (Ed.), Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2015) (pp. 1008). University of Glasgow.
[5] Lee, A. & Xu, Y. (2015). Modelling Japanese intonation using PENTAtrainer2. In The Scottish Consortium for ICPhS 2015 (Ed.), Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2015) (pp. 86). University of Glasgow.
[4] Lee, A., Xu, Y., & Prom-on, S. (2014). Modeling Japanese F0 contours using the PENTAtrainers and AMtrainer. In C. H. M. Gussenhoven, Y. Chen, & D. Dediu (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Tonal Aspects of Languages (TAL 2014) (pp. 164–167). ISCA.
[3] Simard, C., Wegener, C. U., Lee, A., Chiu, F., & Youngberg, C. (2014). Savosavo word stress: A quantitative analysis. In W. N. Campbell, D. Gibbon, & D. J. Hirst (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Speech Prosody (SP2014) (pp. 512–514). ISCA.
[2] Lee, A., Xu, Y., & Prom-on, S. (2013). Mora-based pre-low raising in Japanese pitch accent. In F. Bimbot, C. Cerisara, C. Fougeron, G. Gravier, L. Lamel, F. Pellegrino, & P. Perrier (Eds.), Proceedings of Interspeech 2013 (pp. 3532–3536). ISCA.
[1] Lee, A. & Xu, Y. (2012). Revisiting focus prosody in Japanese. In Q. Ma, H. Ding, & D. J. Hirst (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Speech Prosody (SP2012) (pp. 274–277). Tongji University Press.
[8] General Research Fund, Research Grants Council. (HK $1,011,890) PI. (Title: ‘Tonal effects on articulation: Acoustic analysis, ultrasound data, and articulatory synthesis ’). #18601423
[7] General Research Fund, Research Grants Council. (HK $656,962) PI. (Title: ‘Comparative prosody modelling across languages’). #18600621
[6] Early Career Scheme Grant, Research Grants Council. (HK $456,000) PI. (Title: ‘L2 phonemic quantity contrasts: Production and perception by Cantonese, French, English and Japanese speakers’). #28605120
[5] Departmental Teaching Development Grant, Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies, EdUHK. (HK $100,000) PI.
[4] Internal Research Grant, The Education University of Hong Kong. (HK $99,760) PI. (Title: ‘Production and perception of L2 phonemic quantity contrasts across languages’). RG89/2018-19R
[3] Faculty Knowledge Transfer Fund, The Education University of Hong Kong. (HK $200,000) co-PI. (Title: ‘Acoustic phonetic analysis for assessing childhood speech sound disorders’).
[2] Start-up Research Grant, The Education University of Hong Kong. (HK $28,875) PI. (Title: ‘Comparative modelling of speech prosody: AM Theory vs. PENTA Model’). RG79/2018-19R
[1] Japan Foundation Endowment Committee Research Grant, Japan Foundation Endowment Committee. PI. (Title: ‘Why do some Japanese-English bilinguals sound foreign?’). S27 1013
The Education University of Hong Kong
- CUS4020 Digital Humanities
- ENG1326 Introduction to English Phonetics and Phonology
- ENG2246 Introduction to Sociolinguistics
- ENG2336 Intercultural Communication
- ENG3400 Advanced Phonology
- ENG4427/4428/4901/LIN4038/4039 Honours Project
- FEX2163/3124/4144/4153/5149/5157 (Teaching practicum supervision)
University of Tokyo
- Languages of the World
- English IIS (communication strategies)
- English IIW (academic writing based on a supervised individual experiment)
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- LING6904 Topics in Phonetics (guest lectures on speech prosody)
- Workshop on Electroglottography in Phonetics Research (non-creding bearing)
- Workshop on Multilevel Modelling (non-creding bearing)
- Workshop on Prosody Modelling and Synthesis (non-creding bearing)
University of Hong Kong
- LING2004 Phonetics: Describing sounds
- LING2009 Languages of the world
- LING2012 Experimental Phonetics
- LING3002 Extended Essay (individual supervision)
- LING7006 Readings in Linguistics (individual supervision)
University College London (as Teaching Assistant)
- PLIN1101 Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology A
- PLIN1102 Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology B
- PLIN2108 Intermediate Phonetics and Phonology A
- HCSCGS14 Phonetics and Phonology
- SPSC2003 Acoustics of Speech and Hearing
PhD (as primary supervisor)
- Yuyan Niu (ongoing), EdUHK
PhD (as associate supervisor)
- Jingxuan Tian (ongoing), EdUHK
PhD (as committee member)
- Kei Furukawa (ongoing), UTokyo
EdD (as committee member)
- Liu Shi (2022), EdUHK
MA
- Anqi Xu (2016), HKU (‘Universal vs. language-specific aspects in the perception of human vocal attractiveness: A Japanese-Mandarin cross-linguistic investigation’)
2021-22
- Faculty Teaching Award (HK $25,000), EdUHK.
2020-21
- FE Supervision Appreciation Scheme - Award for Excellent FE Supervision, EdUHK.
To reach me, you can:
- Email me at albertlee AT eduhk DOT hk
- Follow me on LinkedIn or ResearchGate.
- My ResearcherID is F-6710-2012.
- My ORCiD is 0000-0002-3224-5788.
- My Google Scholar Citation page is here.
- My Scopus ID is 55658303800.
I am a tenured Associate Professor (starting 2025) at the Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong. While my research focuses on speech prosody, I am also interested in L2 acquisition, vocal attractiveness, and the relationship between phonetics and phonology. I am an Editorial Board member of Social Sciences & Humanities Open (Elsevier), and the Programme Leader of BA (Hons) English Studies and Digital Communication, EdUHK.
I am interested in supervising PhD students in topics related to speech prosody, L2 phonological acquisition, and vocal attractiveness.
News: Our new paper 'An acceptability study of triadic constructions in Hong Kong Cantonese' (with Man Shan Tong, HKU) has just been accepted for publication by Lingua!
