Ulrike Middendorf

E-Mail:  ulrike.middendorf [at] zo.uni-heidelberg.de

Research Interests

–   Traditional Chinese phonology (Old Chinese, Middle Chinese), etymology, palaeography, epigraphy; morphology, syntax, semantics and their interaction; Early Chinese and Early to Late Medieval Chinese dialectology, lexicology and lexicography

–   History of Chinese philology, textual philology and criticism, cognitive linguistics, esp. conceptual metaphor and metonymy theories, intertextuality, language acquisition, literacy, translation

–   Semiotics of Chinese language, arts, culture, history, science, esp. medicine, and techno-logy

–   Early Chinese and Early to Late Medieval Chinese thought (conceptual and cultural history, philosophy of language, rhetoric and logical argumentation), history and institutions, law, science, esp. medicine, and technology

Projects

The Language of Emotion and Cognition in Early Chinese and Early to Late Medieval Chinese Written Sources and Visual Arts

–   Theories and approaches to emotion in general (basic emotion theories, constructivist emotion theories, appraisal theories, etc.; history of mentalities, intellectual and conceptual history, history of emotion); problems of theories, models, taxonomies, and concepts of emotion

–   Chinese conceptualizations of emotion, components of the emotion process (stimulus event, physiology, cognition, expression, emotion labelling), emotion concepts, categorization and classification of emotions, semantics of emotion terms, lexicon of emotion terms and figurative language

–   Emotion and non-verbal behaviour as part of the emotion process (vocal expression; facial expression and eye behaviour, body movement, posture, gesture and space; haptic communication, odor, etc.)

–   Emotion in Chinese poetry and literature, music and visual arts, accounts of statecraft and law, ritual and ceremonial, religion, divination, military science, including warfare, medicine

–   Emotion terms and technical terminology (statecraft and institutions, divination, law, medicine)

–   Specific Emotions: primary (basic, fundamental, discrete) emotions, secondary (self-conscious, moral) emotions

–   Social-cultural and personality perspectives of emotion: meta-emotion and emotion regulation; aesthetic emotions

Form and Content: Pre-modern Chinese text production and genre theory, literary theory and criticism