Jia Ren

PhD Candidate
Linguistics, UMass Amherst

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About

I’m a sixth-year PhD student in Linguistics, working on semantics and pragmatics. I focus on plurality, and I am also exploring what AI can contribute to linguistic research.

Education

• PhD, Linguistics 2020-now. University of Massachusetts Amherst.

• MS, Statistics 2024-now. University of Massachusetts Amherst.

• MA, Linguistics 2018-2019. University College London.

• BA, Translation and Interpretation 2014-2018. City University of Hong Kong.

• A happy kid before 2014 (and still now). Dongbei & Tianjin.

Research

• Plural interpretive biases: A comparison between human language processing and language models (2025). [draft][slides]
  • To be presented at: Bridges and Gaps between Formal and Computational Linguistics (an IWCS 2025 workshop)
• Interpreting plural predication in visual contexts: Cover-based resolution of NP structures (2025). [poster]
  • With: Hening Wang, Michael Franke
  • To be presented at: Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing, 2025
  • To be presented at: 11th Experimental Pragmatics Conference, 2025
• An experimental investigation of the homogeneity of conjunctions (2025). Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung, 2024. [draft][handout]
  • Presented at: Sinn und Bedeutung, 2024
  • Presented at: Form and Meaning of Coordination Workshop, 2024
• The modification puzzle of Mandarin numeral phrases (2025). Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung, 2024. [draft]
  • With: Qiuhao Charles Yan, Satoru Ozaki
  • Presented at: Sinn und Bedeutung, 2024
  • Presented at: London Semantics Day, 2024
• Kazakh comitative and conjunction constructions (2024). Proceedings of the Workshop on Turkic and Languages in Contact with Turkic 9. [paper]
  • Presented at: the Workshop on Turkic and Languages in Contact with Turkic 9, 2024
• Weak reciprocity without the cumulative operator (2023). Proceedings of ESSLLI Student Workshop 2023. [paper][a longer draft]
  • Presented at: ESSLLI Student Workshop, 2023
  • Presented at: Gaps and imprecision in natural language semantics-Homogeneity effects and beyond (HNM2), 2023

Work Experience

• Teaching assistant 2021-now. University of Massachusetts Amherst.

• Research assistant 2025 Summer. Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications.

• Teaching assistant 2019-2020. The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

CV

Sep,2025

Contact

Email: jiaren@umass.edu

GitHub: ziaren

A Random Photo