Margaret Lei

Margaret Lei is a Lecturer at the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She holds a PhD in Linguistics and actively contributes to research in language acquisition, syntax, and the intersection of language and numerical cognition. Prior to her current position, she served as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lab Manager at CUHK's Language Acquisition Laboratory and as a part-time lecturer at HKUST.

• BEng (Information Engineering) - CUHK
• PgDip (Psychology) - CUHK
• MA (Linguistics) - CUHK
• MPhil (Linguistics) - CUHK
• PhD (Linguistics) - CUHK

Research Interests:
Margaret specializes in first and second language acquisition, with particular focus on semantics and syntax in Chinese dialects. Her work explores:
• Quantifier acquisition in Cantonese and Mandarin
• Cardinal/ordinal number development in L1 Cantonese
• Language's role in numerical cognition
• Syntactic change in Hong Kong Cantonese
• Early grammar in Shanghainese-speaking children
• Quantifier scope and aspect interaction

Scientific Contributions: Her publications demonstrate expertise in quantification theory, aspect interpretation, and tonal language acquisition. She has received special recognition through the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong's 2017 Outstanding PhD Thesis Award.

• 2017: Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Outstanding PhD Thesis Award
• 2022: CUHK Faculty of Arts Outstanding Teaching Award

Teaching Portfolio:
At CUHK, she teaches both postgraduate and undergraduate courses including:
• Foundations in Language Acquisition (LING5103A/B/C)
• Linguistic Argumentation (LING2007/2008)
• Language Acquisition for Speech-Language-Pathology (SLPA5403)
Her work extends to interdisciplinary collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine's Speech Therapy Division.