Dr. MINETT, James W, EE CityU HK

James W. MINETT
B.Sc. Leeds, M.Sc. Claremont, Ph.D. CityU HK, MIEEE

Research Fellow

Room: MMW4463 Tel: (852) 2788-9589 Fax: (852) 2788-7791 Email: minett@ee.cityu.edu.hk

Dr. Minett completed the B.Sc. degree in Mathematics at the University of Leeds, UK in 1991 and the M.Sc. degree, also in Mathematics, at the Claremont Graduate School the following year. In 1994, he moved to the Electronic Engineering Department of the City University of Hong Kong to conduct research on various applications of fuzzy logic to signal detection and communication theory, first as a Research Assistant and later as a student, completing the Ph.D. degree in 2000. During this time, he developed an interest in computational modeling of language. This led to an increasing collaboration with the Language Engineering Laboratory, also at City University, where he has been a research fellow since February 2002.

Dr. Minett is working on various aspects of both historical and evolutionary linguistics. In historical linguistics, his main aim has been to develop algorithms that can be used to detect language contact and borrowing, and has proposed both cladistic and lexicostatistical methods for this purpose. In evolutionary linguistics, he has been investigating linguistic diffusion processes and their impact, his current focus being on the snowball effect and modeling the dynamics of language endangerment and maintenance, taking particular account of the effects of both bilingualism and social structure. Along with other members of the Language Engineering Laboratory, he is also working on developing models for the emergence of language, with the aim of describing how the lexicon and syntax, as well as social structure, might plausibly have co-evolved.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Computational Methods in Historical Linguistics; Evolutionary Linguistics; Multi-agent Systems; Network Theory

PUBLICATIONS

1. James W. Minett and William S.-Y. Wang. 2004 “An analysis of the lexical skewing method for detecting language contact”. Unpublished.

2. Tao Gong, Jinyun Ke, James W. Minett, John H. Holland and William S-Y. Wang. 2004. “A Computational Model of the Coevolution of Lexicon and Syntax”. Under review.

3. James W. Minett and William S-Y. Wang. 2004. “Modeling endangered languages: the effects of bilingualism and social structure”. Under review.

4. James W. Minett and William S.-Y. Wang, eds. 2004. Language Acquisition, Change and Emergence: essays in evolutionary linguistics. City University of Hong Kong Press : Hong Kong. In press.

5. James W. Minett. 2004. “On the use of lexical skewing as an indicator of language contact”. In James W. Minett and William S-Y. Wang, eds. Language Acquisition, Change and Emergence: essays in evolutionary linguistics. City University of Hong Kong Press : Hong Kong. In press.

6. William S-Y. Wang, Jinyun Ke and James W. Minett. 2004. “Computational studies of language evolution”. In Chu-ren Huang & Winfried Lenders, eds. Computational Linguistics and Beyond: Perspectives at the beginning of the 21st Century, Frontiers in Linguistics 1. Language and Linguistics : Nankang. In press.

7. Tao Gong, Jinyun Ke, James W. Minett and William S-Y. Wang. 2004. “A computational framework to simulate the co-evolution of language and social structure”. Paper accepted for presentation at the Ninth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (ALIFE9), Boston, MA, U.S.A., September 2004.

8. James W. Minett and William S.-Y. Wang. 2004. “On detecting borrowing: distance-based and character-based approaches”. Diachronica 20.2:289–330.

9. James W, Minett. 2003. “Language death: modeling bilingualism and social structure”. Workshop on Exploratory Models of Language Acquisition, Santa Fe Institute, NM, U.S.A., October 2003.

10. William S.-Y. Wang, Jinyun Ke and James W. Minett. 2002. “Computational studies of language evolution”. Co-author of invited paper at the Nineteenth International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING-2002), Taipei, Taiwan, August/September 2002.

11. Jinyun Ke, James W. Minett, Ching-pong Au and William S.-Y. Wang. 2002. “Self-organization and selection in the emergence of vocabulary”. Complexity 7.3:41–54.

12. James W. Minett and Wang Feng. 2002. “Vertical or Horizontal? ― Distinguishing Modes of Transmission”. Third Workshop on Acquisition, Change and Evolution of Language (ACE-III). City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. May 2002.

13. James W. Minett and William S.-Y. Wang. 2002. “Detecting borrowing among languages: a glottochronological approach”. Fourth International Conference on the Evolution of Language. Harvard University, USA. March 2002.

14. S. W. Leung, J. W. Minett, Y. M. Siu and M. K. Lee. 2002. “A fuzzy approach to signal integration”. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace & Electronic Systems 38.1:346–351.

15. James W. Minett. 2001. “On the detection of borrowing among languages”. Second Workshop on Language Acquisition, Change and Emergence (ACE-II). City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. November 2001.

16. S. W. Leung and J. W. Minett. 2000. “The use of fuzzy spaces in radar signal detection”. Fuzzy Sets & Systems 114:175–184.

17. S. W. Leung, J. W. Minett and C. F. Chung, “An analysis of the shadow feature technique in radar detection”. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace & Electronic Systems 35.3:1104–1106.

Last updated: March 17, 2004.