Natural language understanding
- Cong, Y. (2024). Manner implicatures in large language models. Nature Scientific Reports. [PDF].
- Cong, Y. and Rayz, R. (2025). Language models demonstrate the good-enough processing seen in humans. In Proceedings of CogSci. [PDF]. [Poster]
- Britton, J.R.; Cong, Y.; Hsu, Y-Y.; Chersoni, E.; and Blache, P. (2024). On the Influence of Discourse Connectives on the Predictions of Humans and Language Models. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. [PDF].
- Pranav, A.; Cong, Y.; Chersoni, E.; Hsu, Y-Y.; and Lenci, A. (2024). Comparing Static and Contextual Distributional Semantic Models on Intrinsic Tasks: An Evaluation on Mandarin Chinese Datasets. Proceedings of LREC-COLING. [PDF].
- Cong, Y.; Chersoni, E.; Hsu, Y-Y.; and Blache, P. (2023). Investigating the Effect of Discourse Connectives on Transformer Surprisal: Language Models Understand Connectives, Even So They Are Surprised. Proceedings of BlackboxNLP. [PDF].
- Cong, Y.; Chersoni, E.; Hsu, Y-Y.; and Lenci, A. (2023). Are Language Models Sensitive to Semantic Attraction? A Study on Surprisal. Proceedings of *SEM. [PDF].
- Cong, Y. (2022). Psycholinguistic Diagnosis of Language Models' Commonsense Reasoning. Proceedings of CSRR. [PDF]. [VIDEO].
- Cong, Y. (2022). Pre-trained Language Models’ Interpretation of Evaluativity Implicature: Evidence from Gradable Adjectives Usage in Context. Proceedings of UnImplicit. [PDF].
- Pandia, L.; Cong, Y. and Ettinger, A. (2021). Pragmatic competence of pre-trained language models through the lens of discourse connectives. Proceedings of CoNLL. [PDF].
Computational approach to language function and disfunction
- Cong, Y. (2025). Demystifying large language models in second language development research. Computer Speech & Language. [PDF].
- Cong, Y. (2024). Second language learning of degree expressions: A computational approach. Cambridge Natural Language Processing. [PDF].
- Cong, Y. (2024). AI Language Models: An Opportunity to Enhance Language Learning. Informatics. [PDF].
- Cong, Y. and Lee, J. (2025). Tracking priming-induced language recovery in aphasia with pre-trained language models. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. [PDF].
- Cong, Y.; LaCroix, A.N.; Lee, J. (2024). Clinical efficacy of pre-trained large language models through the lens of aphasia. Nature Scientific Reports. [PDF].
- Cong, Y.; Lee, J.; LaCroix, A.N. (2024). Leveraging pre-trained large language models for aphasia detection in English and Chinese speakers. Proceedings of Clinical NLP. [PDF]. [VIDEO].
- Tang, S.X.; Cong, Y.; Mercep, G..; Bhatti, M.; Serpe, G.; Gromova, V.; Berretta, S.; John, M.; Liberman, M.Y.; Sinvani, L. (2023). Characterizing and Detecting Delirium with Clinical and Computational measures of Speech and Language Disturbance. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience. [PDF].
- Tang, S.X.; Hänsel, K.; Cong, Y.; Nikzad, AH.; Mehta, A.; Cho, S.; Berretta, S.; Behbehani, L.; Pradhan, S.; John, M. and Liberman, MY. (2022). Latent Factors of Language Disturbance and Relationships to Quantitative Speech Features. Schizophrenia Bulletin. [PDF].
- Tang, S.X.; Cong, Y.; Nikzad, AH.; Mehta, A.; Cho, S.; Hänsel, K.; Berretta, S.; Dhar, A.; Kane, JM. and Malhotra, A. (2022). Clinical and Computational Speech Measures are Associated with Social Cognition in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders. Schizophrenia research. [PDF].
- Nikzad, AH.; Cong, Y.; Berretta, S.; Hänsel, K.; Cho, S.; Pradhan, S.; Behbehani, L.; DeSouza, D.; Liberman, MY. and Tang, S.X. (2022). Who Does What to Whom? Graph Representations of Action-Predication in Speech Relate to Psychopathological Dimensions of Psychosis. Schizophrenia. [PDF].
Description and experiments in linguistic meaning
- Cong, Y. (2022). Judge-Dependence in Quality Nouns: A Semantic Analysis of The Mandarin Chinese you NP Structure. Asian Languages and Linguistics. [PDF].
- Cong, Y. (2021). Competition in Natural Language Meaning: The Case of Adjective Constructions in Mandarin Chinese and Beyond. Doctoral dissertation, Michigan State University. [PDF] [Artificial language learning experiment - speaker perspective VIDEO] [listener perspective VIDEO] [Design document].
- Cong, Y. and Buccola, B. (2021). Alternatives in non-scalar implicature: The case of Mandarin adjective constructions. Presentation at PLC. [Poster] [Abstract] [Truth-Value Judgment survey experiment script].
- Cong, Y. and Ngonyani, D. (2022). A syntactic analysis of the cooccurrence of stative and passive in Kiswahili. Proceedings of ACAL. [PDF].
- Smith, K.; Ma, Y.; Cong, Y. and Beretta, A. (2019). Semantic attraction in sentence processing. Presentation at CUNY. [Abstract].
- Cong, Y. (2018). The Non-canonical argument realization of Chinese alternations. Proceedings of NACCL. [PDF].
- Parrish, A.; Kelley, P.; Smith, K.; Cong, Y. and Beretta, A. (2017). Prosodic lengthening and boundary prediction in nominal compounds: An ERP study. Presentation at SNL. [Poster].
- Cong, Y.; Huang, C.-R.; and Wee, L.-H. (2015). The invertible construction in Chinese. Proceedings of PACLIC. [PDF].