Lisa Cheng

Lisa Cheng compares the syntax of Chinese languages with African and European languages. She became renowned for her analyses of interrogative phrases containing ‘wh-words’ (e.g. who, what and where). In English, the wh-word always appears at the start of the sentence, in Mandarin never, and in French occasionally. And yet the question is the same in all three languages. By comparing different languages, Cheng is seeking to understand the essence of human language grammar. She is also the coordinator of a major European study exploring various facets of multilingualism.