Dr Melody Chang

Chinese Program

Lecturer

School of Languages and Cultures

+61 7 336 56399

melody.chang@uq.edu.au

Researcher biography

Dr Chang's research interests lie in the fields of pragmatics, intercultural communication and business negotiation, with a focus on studying face, (im)politeness and humour. She is the author of face and face practices in Chinese talk-in-interactions: an empirical analysis of business interactions in Taiwan (2016, Equinox). She has also published a number of papers in edited volumes and international journals such as Journal of Pragmatics, Intercultural Pragmatics, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language teaching, Journal of Politeness Research, Pragmatics, Multilingua, Lingua, and East Asian Pragmatics.

Her current research includes anaylsis of initial interactions in inter/intra-cultural settings and the role of humor in Australia-Chinese intercultural interactions.

Featured projects	Duration
How far can an Aussie joke travel? Intercultural perspectives on Australian humour.	2018

Publications

Book (1)

Book Chapters (8)

Journal Articles (13)

Conference Papers (2)

Book

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody (2016). Face and face practices in Chinese interaction: a study in interactional pragmatics. London, United Kingdom: Equinox.

Book Chapters

Haugh, Michael and Chang, Wei-Lin Melody (2023). (Dis)agreeability in intercultural first conversations among Australian and Taiwanese university students. Negotiating intercultural relations: insights from linguistics, psychology, and intercultural education. (pp. 15-34) edited by Troy McConachy and Perry Hinton. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Academic. doi: 10.5040/9781350276963.0009

Haugh, Michael and Chang, Wei-Lin Melody (2022). Sociopragmatics and intercultural interaction. The Cambridge handbook of intercultural pragmatics. (pp. 420-444) edited by Istvan Kecskes. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781108884303.017

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody and Haugh, Michael (2022). Chinese conversational humour over time: contemporary practice and tradition in Taiwanese cultures. Humour in Asian cultures: Tradition and Context. (pp. 188-210) edited by Jessica Milner Davis. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003176374-9

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody and Haugh, Michael (2017). Intercultural communicative competence and emotion among second language learners of Chinese. Key issues in Chinese as a second language research. (pp. 267-286) edited by Istvan Kecskes and Chaofen Sun. New York, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315660264-12

Ohashi, Jun and Chang, Wei-Lin Melody (2017). (Im)politeness and relationality. The Palgrave handbook of linguistic (im)politeness. (pp. 257-285) edited by Jonathan Culpeper, Michael Haugh and Daniel Z. Kadar. London, United Kingdom: Springer. doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-37508-7_11

Haugh, Michael and Chang, Wei-Lin Melody (2015). Troubles talk, (dis)affiliation and the participation order in Taiwanese-Chinese online discussion boards. Participation in public and social media interactions. (pp. 99-133) edited by Marta Dynel and Jan Chovanec. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Haugh, Michael and Chang, Wei-Lin Melody (2013). Collaborative creation of spoken language corpora. Pragmatics language learning. (pp. 133-159) edited by Tim Greer, Donna Tatsuki and Carsten Roever. Honolulu, HI, United States: National Foreign Language Resource Center.

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody and Haugh, Michael (2013). 'Face' in Taiwanese business interactions: from emic concepts to emic practices. Chinese discourse and interaction. (pp. 126-150) edited by Yuling Pan and Daniel Z. Kadar. Bristol, United Kingdom: Equinox Publishing.

Journal Articles

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody and Sinkeviciute, Valeria (2022). The role of ‘familiarity’ in Mandarin Chinese speakers’ metapragmatic evaluations of Australian conversational humour. The European Journal of Humour Research, 10 (2), 74-95. doi: 10.7592/EJHR.2022.10.2.651

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody, Haugh, Michael and Su, Hsi-Yao (2021). Taking it too far: the role of ideological discourses in contesting the limits of teasing and offence. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), 31 (3), 382-405. doi: 10.1075/prag.20003.cha

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody and Haugh, Michael (2021). Teasing and claims to non-serious intent in Chinese talk shows. East Asian Pragmatics, 6 (2), 135-159. doi: 10.1558/eap.18158

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody and Haugh, Michael (2020). The metapragmatics of “teasing” in Taiwanese Chinese conversational humour. The European Journal of Humour Research, 8 (4), 7-30. doi: 10.7592/ejhr2020.8.4.chang

Haugh, Michael and Chang, Wei-Lin Melody (2019). Indexical and sequential properties of criticisms in initial interactions: implications for examining (Im) politeness across cultures. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 23 (4), 904-929. doi: 10.22363/2687-0088-2019-23-4-904-929

Haugh, Michael and Melody Chang, Wei-Lin (2019). “The apology seemed (in)sincere”: Variability in perceptions of (im)politeness. Journal of Pragmatics, 142, 207-222. doi: 10.1016/j.pragma.2018.11.022

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody (2018). Emotivity and face: displaying and soliciting emotivity in Chinese mediation interactions. Lingua, 213, 43-62. doi: 10.1016/j.lingua.2018.06.006

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody and Fukushima, Saeko (2017). ‘Your care and concern are my burden!’: Accounting for the emic concepts of ‘attentiveness’ and ‘empathy’ in interpersonal relationships among Taiwanese females. East Asian Pragmatics, 2 (1), 1-23. doi: 10.1558/eap.33081

Haugh, Michael and Chang, Wei-Lin Melody (2015). Understanding im/politeness across cultures: an interactional approach to raising sociopragmatic awareness. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 53 (4), 389-414. doi: 10.1515/iral-2015-0018

Haugh, Michael, Chang, Wei-Lin Melody and Kadar, Daniel Z. (2015). "Doing Deference": Identities and relational practices in Chinese online discussion boards. Pragmatics, 25 (1), 73-98. doi: 10.1075/prag.25.1.04hau

Kadar, Daniel Z., Haugh, Michael and Chang, Wei-Lin Melody (2013). Aggression and perceived national face threats in Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese CMC discussion boards. Multilingua, 32 (3), 343-372. doi: 10.1515/multi-2013-0016

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody and Haugh, Michael (2011). Strategic embarrassment and face threatening in business interactions. Journal of Pragmatics, 43 (12), 2948-2963. doi: 10.1016/j.pragma.2011.05.009

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody and Haugh, Michael (2011). Evaluations of im/politeness of an intercultural apology. Intercultural Pragmatics, 8 (3), 411-442. doi: 10.1515/iprg.2011.019

Conference Papers

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody and Sinkeviciute, Valeria (2022). “Is it supposed to be funny?” L2 speakers’ recognition, understanding and appreciation of Australian conversational humour. Symposium: (Inter-)cultural perspectives on humour in the globalised world, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 20 June 2022.

Chang, Wei-Lin Melody and Sinkeviciute, Valeria (2019). The metapragmatics of ‘familiarity’ in interactional humour. Australian Humour Studies Network conference, Melbourne, Australia, 6-8 February 2019.

Areas of research

Linguistics

Second Language Studies